Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
Joined: Jun 08, 2005 Posts: 329 Location: Cascadia
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:05 pm Post subject: I don't get it.
I thought everyone knew this was going to be an issue from way back in the 70's. I was born in '68 and I seriously questioned whether or not I'd even have the opportunity to drive a car!
From a young age, I either thought:
a) We were going to suffer through a nuclear war any day.
b) Die from overpopulation and pollution.
c) Run out of oil and suffer an economic melt down.
This was all from about the age of 5 on. Why is this such an epiphany to everyone? Granted, I was an odd kid. (At the age of 7 I was making gas masks and stashing food.)
Any intelligent person can look at the Earth and know we're in trouble. We've got finite resources, a closed system and an economy built on constant growth (and population to match it). It's a house of cards.
Joined: May 02, 2005 Posts: 3542 Location: On the ball
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:15 pm Post subject:
I understand. When I was a kid and saw population chart for the first time I said to myself, "It's approaching a limit! It's gonna crash!" _________________ "It's still all about energy!"
Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 296 Location: Rual ID, USA, World
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:46 pm Post subject:
RonMN wrote:
I don't think it's that people "can't" see it...i think they "don't want to" see it.
and my best guess as to why (IMHO) is that TV told them to.
I'll talk to people about the L.A. (rodney king) riots and they tell me it's IMPOSSIBLE for that to happen again...i say "why?"
and they look at me as if i'm a fool
Is there a verdict in the Michael Jackson case yet? It most certainly can happen again -- and likely will at some point.
The same thing was said about the Watts riots of 1968 (? check year). _________________ I know exactly where we are;
. . . .
don't know where we're going, but no use in being late.
(Mathew Quigley [Tom Selleck])
Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 296 Location: Rual ID, USA, World
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:46 pm Post subject:
RonMN wrote:
I don't think it's that people "can't" see it...i think they "don't want to" see it.
and my best guess as to why (IMHO) is that TV told them to.
I'll talk to people about the L.A. (rodney king) riots and they tell me it's IMPOSSIBLE for that to happen again...i say "why?"
and they look at me as if i'm a fool
Is there a verdict in the Michael Jackson case yet? It most certainly can happen again -- and likely will at some point.
The same thing was said about the Watts riots of 1968 (? check year). _________________ I know exactly where we are;
. . . .
don't know where we're going, but no use in being late.
(Mathew Quigley [Tom Selleck])
Joined: Jun 06, 2005 Posts: 16 Location: Louisville, Kentucky USA
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 1:19 pm Post subject:
Pablo2079, you are so right on in your observations. If there's one thing that I've realized in my Peak Oil awareness is that one of humanity's biggest flaws is our absolute short-sightedness.
I was born in 1980, so by the time I came up the Cold War paranoia was beginning to dissipate. However, I remember in my mid-teens (the Clinton/cheap gas/dot-com boom years) feeling this vague dread about the world, like that it was just too big and complicated and could just fall apart under its own weight so easily. And now a decade later, here is Peak Oil breathing down our necks and it feels like my fears are being confirmed. But I digress...
Back to the short-sightedness, I find it incredibly tragic how we did know all of this stuff back in the '70s and before, it was especially evident during the gas crises of '73 and '79. Just think where we'd be today if real action was taken during that time to confront to problem of limited fossil fuel resources. I was recently thumbing through some old National Geographics and found this special energy issue from '81 and all of these experts had hope such hope for the future, like we'd be energy independent by the mid '90s, etc. Remember when fuel economy was actually used as a selling point for cars and trucks? Oh well, so much for that.
My job involves watching hell of a lot TV news for this video newsclipping service, it's just an in-between thing until I go to grad school next year. Sometimes it really wears my sanity down. If you want to see how distracted the American public is, just turn on the TV. Michael Jackson, American Idol, Terri Schiavo, etc., etc. those are the big stories. The mainstream media's coverage of energy issues and gas prices is a joke. Same thing always: interviews of people filling up their SUVs and bitching about how gas is so expensive, where to drive to to find the cheapest gas in town. Never any mention of conservation or long term planning. People are more clueless than ever, they can't see beyond the next fill-up.
"Oh what, gas is slightly cheaper this week than last, see there's no problem!"
I try not to get bogged down by pessimism but it is so hard feel any other way given the fact that we as a society are so complacent and unprepared. To paraphrase is Jim Kunstler, we truly are sleepwalking into the future and we're in for a real shitstorm. _________________ "Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows"
-Leonard Cohen
... Back to the short-sightedness, I find it incredibly tragic how we did know all of this stuff back in the '70s and before, it was especially evident during the gas crises of '73 and '79. Just think where we'd be today if real action was taken during that time to confront to problem of limited fossil fuel resources. ...
Yeah well, everyone wanted to go to the White City in the Sky and elected Ronald Ray-Gun, who immediately concentrated on undoing everything Carter had started to put in place.
Joined: Jun 06, 2005 Posts: 16 Location: Louisville, Kentucky USA
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:01 pm Post subject:
Yeah, didn't Jimmy Carter have solar panels installed on the roof of the White House which Reagan had promptly removed? Ah, Morning in America... _________________ "Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows"
-Leonard Cohen
The oft-repeated story of Reagan removing Carter's solar panels is one of the best pieces of evidence to me that we human's are a scummy speices. The act itself was not so bad, there was just no reason for it. Sort of an "FU" to reality and those who tried to solve problems rather than ignore them.
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:14 pm Post subject: Re: I don't get it.
Pablo2079 wrote:
a) We were going to suffer through a nuclear war any day.
Patience, W is working on starting one.
Quote:
b) Die from overpopulation and pollution.
Food production dropping since 2000, world per capita calories dropping more sharply, just as predicted in 1972
Quote:
c) Run out of oil and suffer an economic melt down.
The only question is which will happen first. Alan Greenspan might be able to create the economic meltdown first. _________________ "The world is changed... I feel it in the water... I feel it in the earth... I smell it in the air... Much that once was, is lost..." - Galadriel
Also a good description of organized religion, which has been running the show in the USA since 1980. Clinton's policies (repeal national speed limit, withdraw from the international fusion consortium, 'Defense of Marriage') were also consistent with The Holy Church Of Damn All Science And the Damned Homos That Do It. _________________ "The world is changed... I feel it in the water... I feel it in the earth... I smell it in the air... Much that once was, is lost..." - Galadriel
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