Oil's energy contribution has declined by about 12% since 1999. The world's economies have also declined by about 12%. (Using conventional metrics, which are time delayed determinations, this will only be seen in hind sight). The massive destruction of asset values now occurring testifies to it happening.
Peak is well behind us, world economies have peaked and will continue to decline.
Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 7:17 pm Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
lotrfan55345 wrote:
RG73 wrote:
lotrfan55345 wrote:
You should all watch the movie "Mean Girls" to see what teenage American life is like.
A Lindsay Lohan movie will never be an accurate portrayal of American teenage life. Come on now. How can a movie where every teen has tons of money, has everything that comes out of their mouth written by a screenwriter, has perfect skin and great clothes, etc., etc. even begin to be an accurate portrayal of teen life?
Have you ever seen the movie...?
But anyway, I should rephrase, typical attitude of teenagers.
Allow me to rephrase your erroneous assumption: typical attitude of Beverly Hills-type teenagers. Hollywood love to promote Beverly Hills-oriented, lifestyle-centric movies. None of real American high school teens are exactly like those portrayed in Hollywood teen movies. Adult screen-writers often have lurid fantasies of what-might-have-been if they were teens in high school or perpetuating sadistic fantasies against certain types of teens who did them wrong.
Joined: Jan 11, 2005 Posts: 580 Location: southern Wisconsin
Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 7:37 pm Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
I'm an early boomer. IMHO these are the last of the good times. Enjoy them while they last. I've done very well the last year investing in gold and natural resource stocks.
I've spent much of the last two weeks converting my neighbor's tree into next years home heating. What are you doing to come to adjust to what is coming post-peak???
If you want to survive the coming bad times, you have to make adjustments. I pity those that don't.
Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 7:51 pm Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
Shiraz wrote:
In the interview, the author speculated a reason as to why US kids are so unhappy. She suggested that a key problem may be what might be called "decontextualized positive reinforcement". By this, I mean the practice of, for example, always telling children that what they have done is excellent, regardless of the actual quality of the work. More broadly speaking it can be understood as the goal, in parenting, of increasing a childs self-esteem constantly, never seeking to introduce reality as a check, but instead always reinforcing the fantaical view that your child is the best, is special, even the most special.
The real questions we should be asking are how did that come about to be in the first place? What are the roots that suggested positive reinforcements for the kids born between 1970 to 1990? Who'd brought up this whole concept in the first place? Educators? Sociologists? Child Psychologists? Pediatricians? 1960s free-thinking, free love philosophy? Communists?
One time I was researching a subject about children being "indoctrinated" by questionable educational methods of the 1960s and came across this very intriguing, shocking essay:
The Intelligent Student's Guide to the New World Order
This is pretty telling of how children should be taught from the young age of all generations:
Few of the explainers have revealed the possibility that you are not being properly taught because the NWO world management system does not want you to know too much. In his book, A Sociological Philosophy of Education, published in 1928 by the MacMillan Company, Ross L. Finney, Assistant Professor of Educational Sociology at the University of Minnesota, wrote the following about what should and should not be offered to students:
"...a larger place in the curriculum ought to be given to the new humanities and the fine arts, especially the former; and that correspondingly less time and energy ought to be allotted to mathematics, formal English, and the foreign languages..." [6]
"What we obviously need is a science of society. Since the time of [Auguste] Comte this has been the aspiration of modern scholarship. Instead of blundering and bungling along from one crisis to the next, science might render society really telic, and reduce social phenomena to CONTROL as it has done in the natural world...." (Emphasis mine) [7]
"If leadership by the intelligent is ever to be achieved, followership by the dull and ignorant must somehow be assured. Followership, quite as much as leadership, is, therefore, the crucial problem of the present crisis..." [8]
"The safety of democracy is not to be sought, therefore, in the intellectual independence of the duller masses, but in their Intellectual dependence. Not in what they think, but in what they think they think..." [9]
"The problem of democracy is which specialized sub-group is to function as cerebral cortex. That will depend upon who succeeds in drilling epigrams into the memories of the duller masses. If scientists and educators fail to do it, then selfish deceivers and exploiters will. But think for themselves the duller masses never can." [10]
Suggesting the point of reinforcing positivity and happiness toward children might the keys to control their educational upbringing and expecting the favorable outcomes, adding that with the control and consolidation of life's necessities and pleasures in order them more pliable and manageable to the "powers-that-be".
Joined: Oct 23, 2005 Posts: 1851 Location: East of Eden
Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
TWilliam wrote:
So? You're the parent rogerhb; turn the damned brain drain off.
I absolutely agree. That's what my Mom did when we were kids, got rid of the TV (she was decades ahead of her time, with organic diet, yoga etc., though I didn't appreciate it at the time). Oh, we whined and bitched up a storm about it; but after a little while we didn't miss the TV any more. We used our imagination and found stuff to do. Imagine that. _________________ "If a path to the better there be, it begins with a full look at the worst." — Thomas Hardy
Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:27 pm Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
Quote:
Quite contrary my friend. I'm an author/frellance journalist. Believe me that kind of lifestyle helps a lot to be very productive in my line of work.
Very Happy
Hunter S. Thompson had something to say about why younger Americans might be so miserable.
"We are living in dangerously weird times now. Smart people just shrug and admit they're dazed and confused. The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the operative ethic."
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:21 am Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
Vexed wrote:
Quote:
Quite contrary my friend. I'm an author/frellance journalist. Believe me that kind of lifestyle helps a lot to be very productive in my line of work.
Very Happy
Hunter S. Thompson had something to say about why younger Americans might be so miserable.
"We are living in dangerously weird times now. Smart people just shrug and admit they're dazed and confused. The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the operative ethic."
Written in the year 2000.
Wow here is someone who knows Hunter Stockton Thompson. Have you ever read him? I love his work. He once said:
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, sex, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 1:36 am Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
Zardoz wrote:
PolestaR wrote:
Baby boomers and to an extent, their first generation offspring, have this weird perception of the world as people in this thread have pointed out. They still think things work like they used to in their day.
What in the world are you talking about? Where did that bizarre statement come from?
Take it from a boomer: I and my peers do NOT think things work like they used to. We think everything is pretty much upside-down and backwards, everything is going to hell in a wheelbarrow, and while we had it made like no other demographic group ever has in the history of the human race, everybody who follows us is going to get screwed worse and worse with each succeeding generation.
Please explain where you got your crazy idea.
It's called generalizing. Don't get all upset because it doesn't fit your draw between the lines, cut out version, vision of yourself? The fact is your generation had it the best, and why? Because you were lucky enough to be born in a period where you can live like a 19th century king or queen on an average wage? _________________ Bringing sexy back..... to doom
Joined: Dec 03, 2005 Posts: 657 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:47 am Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
Polestar, they are bastards and helped screw up the planet. Not only did they use up resources like no tomorrow, they refused to heed the advice of scientists who said we were headed for trouble. And now guys like retiredguy gloat about how they had it good and can live like fat Fark off their stock market money. Screw him because he screwed us pure and simple. Bitter? Damn right I am. These greedy bastards used up this beautiful world, squandered it, raped it, and are leaving their children with a legacy of crap they could easily prevented. 50% of the earth's animal species are due to go extinct by 2025 goddamit and these guys feel great about their farking portfolios! Fark all the retired guys, many of you are the nicest people but you're not the greatest damn generation - you failed and I hope you feel great you did your part to screw your kids and their kids and their kids. I loved my grandpa but he had the same farking attitute and it's what got us into this mess. _________________ "Ninety percent of everything is crap."
-Theodore Sturgeon
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:57 am Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
crapattack wrote:
Polestar, they are bastards and helped screw up the planet. Not only did they use up resources like no tomorrow, they refused to heed the advice of scientists who said we were headed for trouble. And now guys like retiredguy gloat about how they had it good and can live like fat Fark off their stock market money. Screw him because he screwed us pure and simple. Bitter? Damn right I am. These greedy bastards used up this beautiful world, squandered it, raped it, and are leaving their children with a legacy of crap they could easily prevented. 50% of the earth's animal species are due to go extinct by 2025 goddamit and these guys feel great about their farking portfolios! Fark all the retired guys, many of you are the nicest people but you're not the greatest damn generation - you failed and I hope you feel great you did your part to screw your kids and their kids and their kids. I loved my grandpa but he had the same farking attitute and it's what got us into this mess.
Exactly..i stopped getting ready for the future of Doom because when it comes down i'm going to take what I need from Fat cat Boomers and their Crippled asses will not be able to stop me. Boomers Beware!! Your Day of attonement is forthcoming.
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:38 am Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
crapattack wrote:
Polestar, they are bastards and helped screw up the planet. Not only did they use up resources like no tomorrow, they refused to heed the advice of scientists who said we were headed for trouble. And now guys like retiredguy gloat about how they had it good and can live like fat Fark off their stock market money. Screw him because he screwed us pure and simple. Bitter? Damn right I am. These greedy bastards used up this beautiful world, squandered it, raped it, and are leaving their children with a legacy of crap they could easily prevented. 50% of the earth's animal species are due to go extinct by 2025 goddamit and these guys feel great about their farking portfolios!
Good post and I 100% agree. There should not be such a massive difference in economic power between someone born 20 years ago and someone born 40 years ago (relatively), but there is. Unless of course you have rich parents who can then bankroll your debt.
Now everything of real value is too expensive leading us 20-30 year olds the only option to buy gadgets, get drunk and have sex to keep our minds off the option of suicide. I for one am looking forward to the day when everyone who doesn't even have a real place to call home take the step up the path of these rich boomers. _________________ Bringing sexy back..... to doom
Joined: Nov 30, 2005 Posts: 42 Location: Amsterdam, Holland
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 7:56 am Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
crapattack is right.
it is so easy to talk the younger generations down. but we have to deal with the world the boomers and the ones whom preceded them, left to us.
or more correctly: what is left for us.
here in Holland he older generations protested a few months ago for the right to retire at 55 (!). that when it is already known, to the ones who want to, that there wont be any central organised cheap pensions for the coming generations. they will have to arrange it themselves, just like in America.
and that while the young still have to pay for the present system.
off course, it is ones own personal obligation to know what is coming. but lets face it: most cannot. (the people visiting this site are not average imho.)
the babyboomers will have a lot to explain to bewildered ge. X or whatever you wat to call us, that for them there is no EASY goodlife, while having lived like kings and queens, or so they think.
if TSHTF we will see the love between generations tested. too many people have let their kids have expectations that are just...unrealistic, while they had the good life.
Joined: Jan 11, 2005 Posts: 580 Location: southern Wisconsin
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 8:09 am Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
Hey Polestar, I think you missed my point. What I was trying to say is that there are opportunities to be had in good times and bad times. Sitting on your ass and bitching about how my generation has screwed you isn't very productive.
By the way, I'm not a rich Fark. Just a worker bee who spent 26 years doing systems work at a University. Yes, I get a small pension and I supplement that with money I put it a 403b starting in 1980.
I wasn't formally trained in systems work. Got a degree in anthropology, starved for a time after graduating then worked crap jobs at IT companies, learning programming on my own. Found out I was pretty good at it, and got promoted steadily.
It may surprise you to learn that I am a doomer. I won't be in the first die-off wave, but aging won't be pretty in a post-peak world. I'm pretty certain that the world of the future, and you younger folks, aren't gonna tolerate pouring billions of dollars into keeping us oldsters alive. My plan is to take the suicide express.
You can blame my generation for the current problems, but I can also blame my parent's generation. There attitude was that, after the Great Depression and WWII, everything would continue to get better. And it has. Until now. A number of us tried to get the country to change directions in the 70s, but the Reaganites shouted us down.
At any rate, the situation is what it is. Deal with it.
Joined: Dec 02, 2005 Posts: 6786 Location: Oil-addicted Southern Californucopia
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 8:57 am Post subject: Re: Why are younger Americans so miserable?
PolestaR wrote:
...The fact is your generation had it the best, and why? Because you were lucky enough to be born in a period where you can live like a 19th century king or queen on an average wage?
Yes.
And it really was just a matter of luck. We earned none of it. It fell on our heads.
I, in particular, was one of the luckiest of the lucky: A white male American boomer with a good education (provided at virtually no cost to me by the State of California). I've lived my entire life on cruise control, and everything has come to me in spite of my lack of effort.
Think about this: You know how Tom Brokaw named the Great Depression and World War II veterans "The Greatest Generation", right? Well, those people were our parents!. Take my word for it: Brokaw is absolutely right. They really were great. They were tough, stoic, no-nonsense hard workers who really did save the world from a monstrous threat, then, for good measure, built the economic foundation for us boomers to thrive on.
I won't go into any more details, because it would break your heart. Let me just assure you that we knew how good we had it when we were very young, we had a nagging feeling that it might be too good to last and that succeeding generations might not have it quite like we did, but we had no idea how fast things would go south for those who would come after us.
None of us imagined this. None of us thought that our children, and especially our grandchildren, would be faced with the daunting issues young people of today will be grappling with in the near future. Who knew? A few tried to warn us (Jimmy Carter, for one) but we didn't take them seriously, and enough of us got sucked in by Reagan's cornucopian "Morning In America" bullshit to turn the country away from environmentalism and send us down the road to runaway consumerism instead.
But don't think all of us dumb boomers are not aware of what we've done, and what we've left behind. I can't think of anybody my age who does not think as I do. We all talk about it. We all fear for our kids and grandkids. Nobody can deny the profound difference in what a 20-year-old of today faces compared to what the world looked like to us at that age.
All we can do is apologize. With the apology and five bucks you can buy a fancy coffee drink at Starbucks. That's about all it's worth.
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