What the hell is wrong with me!?

PeakingAroundtheCorner · Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:42 am Post subject: What the hell is wrong with me!?

When oil is teasing $100pb my heart starts to race and I'm glued to the graphs until 2am on a work night. As the dollar crashes, my spirits soar. I smile when the DOW tanks.

And when all of that goes in the other direction, like oil has today, I just want to die - well, maybe not die, but pretty close.

So, again I ask: What the hell is wrong with me!?

SpringCreekFarm · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 888

Simple. You don't want to be wrong about peak oil, overshoot, or the death of the American Empire. When you feel you are right, you rejoice, when there are signs you may be wrong, you feel disappointment.

I'm kind of the same way, just not to that extreme.

Shannymara · Master Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5431 Location: Oklahoma

Nothing's wrong with you. You're aware, at least on some intuitive level, that the current system is analogous to a cancer that's killing the earth. You're relieved, hopeful, and excited on days when it seems it might be going into remission.
_________________
"Every junkie's like a setting sun..." - Neil Young

Nano

kpeavey · Expert Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 1244

I'm on a page that is not disimilar to your experiences. I chalk it up to my general discontent with the current system/government/civilization. There is a better way of living together on this world, but the old world may need to come down first.
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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984

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Accept the Facts.

gnm

Don't worry, I know the markets going back up and oil has stabilized and even (gasp) gone down a bit. Just go to a quiet place and repeat the chant (doom, doom, doom) And when you come back out everything will be worse again.

Cool

ps I think KPeavey got it right there - general dissatisfaction and disillusionment.

-G
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All right, you primitive screw-heads, listen up!

KingM

Because you're a religious fanatic. You're convinced that God is going to destroy the world for its wickedness and you're like Jonah, sitting outside Ninevah, bitching at God for not keeping his promise. People like you have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years and have usually been disappointed, although there have been some short term and localized events that to the man on the ground are almost identical to the end of the world.

You use different terms than most religious fanatics, but the end result is the same. You think civilization is going to come to an end, you think it deserves to be destroyed and you are watching and waiting for the signs of the times.

But there's a nervous feeling that you might be wrong. It's like watching a sports game where you think your team is going to win. But you're not quite sure. So you watch the game on the edge of your seat.

aflurry · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 28, 2005 Posts: 825

all that stuff everyone else said, plus for me i think it's a bit of vertigo. like when you are standing on the edge of a building and just want to jump. anyone?? crickets??

i think we're all on edge waiting for the hammer to drop and there's a big feeling of "goddammit, just hit me already." I think this is true no matter what our feelings of the overall value of modern civilization happen to be, which for me is decidedly mixed. i sure do like eating avocados flown in from belize, but don't like alot of the superficial consumerism, for instance. wait, i'm consuming the avocados.... but they are so good.

also, buried inside end of the world scenarios are fantasies that when the world turns inside out, we ourselves will transform as well. we see ourselves becoming more heroic, or more real or better or something.

bottom line is i think there are all kinds of complicated psychological mechanisms that get triggered by this kind of anticipation, and which are all tied into the basic fight/flight reactions. but all of which are more personal than and automatic, and aren't necessarily reflections of our evil, nihilistic, or antisocial nature. no need to feel guilty about it. anyone who judges you harshly for those feelings is surely afraid of the feelings they are having themselves.

dinopello

Could be some adrenalin caused by a 'let's get it over with' attitude. You (we) all know it's coming, so the quicker it becomes obvious to all, the quicker we can get to it.

KingM

With all due respect, you think you know what's coming, but nobody knows the future. The world is full of people who have some privileged bit of knowledge available only to a select few.

There are some damned smart people who have a totally different future in mind. I'm not saying they're necessarily wrong, but I take the stuff I see on this web site with a huge grain of salt.

The fact that y'all are predicting the end of the world makes me even more suspicious, on general principal if nothing else.

aflurry · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 28, 2005 Posts: 825

syrac818 · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 01, 2005 Posts: 113

Well it's about farking time.

Not as if it wasn't blaringly obvious, but now it's out in the open - this place is primarily made up of slightly to totally chemically unbalanced people with an apocalyptic focus. And that's ok. I suppose it helps to balance out the thousands of morons who are clapping their hands at the latest "Get Rich Quick with Real Estate" seminars or "Turn Debt into Wealth" expo.

But just to let it be known - Robert Kiyosaki has now jumped on the peak oil bandwaggon, and his article is on the homepage right now. That is awful. The man is quite possibly the most notorious charlatan of the past 20 years, and has made a fortune off preying on really stupid people with his phoney, contrived bullshit "advice" and "systems". There isn't an ounce of integrity in what he says.

So as this gains a little more mainstream attention, I would be great if the true doomers on here could somehow separate themselves from the hordes of farking idiots soon to decend upon this place.

aflurry · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 28, 2005 Posts: 825

dinopello

BleakToil

I've felt like you have as long as I can remember - in fact I wrote an essay in grade 9 english citing the instability in the oil markets and the global financial system as why modern wester civilization would end. This was before I was peak oil aware - about 12 years ago - so for me when I discoved the community here 3 years ago I felt an immediate connection to the issue. I was looking for information or articles about GW Bush and the American Govt's oil war (and wanted somebody to call it what it was - an oil war!) when I found out about peak oil. When I found it I was mentally pre-disposed to the point-of view that is predominantly presented here because the point of view answered the questions I had about many of the events that were going on in the world.

The peak oil issue has answered a lot of questions for me as well as prompted many more questions. I have a very curious nature and I am trying to answer as many of those questions as I can.

I want to see it come down. Now, I don't want to die, I want my loved ones to be OK, I want to heat my home in the winter and I want to travel on my vacations, I want to enjoy the TV I bought in February and get a new laptop in a few years, I want to buy a house and keep my car and retire to my cottage in the summer and somewhere warm in the winter. I want to see the human race colonize fuc*ing space!

I also want to get of the god dambd debt treadmill, I want to stop flogging myself to go to a job for a corporation for 40 hours a week, I don't want my life to be about work unless it's for myself, I don't want wars with other people, I want to stop trying to keep up with the Jones', I want to spend more time with my family, and have a less consumptive existence. I want a simpler life.

You can see how the two above lists are at odds with one another. The problem is that neither are possible without stable government, abundant energy and progressive social change. Two out of three are possible, but the absence of one precludes the other two - bring it all down - lets get this crap over with.