Is there any reason to hope in these futureless times...

mark

The future is what we make it.

What I find distressing is that so many, especially people who know what’s coming, cling to our dead old fossil of a civilization. It’s time we embrace the new because it’s coming no matter our illusionary wish for the status quo. Things always get better, eventually, but what is old must always die so the new may arrive.

I am a confirmed doomer, in fact I believe our only hope is the death of the old. It is no longer worth caring about for reasons too numerous for this short message. Those of us alive today have a great opportunity; we have the chance to shape a new way of life where ALL people enjoy the opportunity for a better life.

We are on the very brink of a grand, new age. We will forever remember our contribution to the future. Time to get on with the new and let the old do as it will.
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Who is John Galt?

Lore

I stepped on an ant today.
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The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
... Theodore Roosevelt

SeasonOfPain

BigTex

Returning to the topic of whether there is a reason to hope, it is worth noting that hope is an emotion, a feeling based upon the perception of what the future may hold, and the desire for the future to hold something worth hanging around for. (Notice that hope only exists in your head space.)

Much PO thinking and projection is colored by a heavy dose of fear, which has the tendency to make the future seem hopeless and this future hopelessness seeps back into the present and makes you hopeless in the present as well. We should be enjoying the present regardless of what we know (or think we know) about the future, since life today is probably a lot easier than it's going to be in the future.

How dumb will you feel if you are sitting around the campfire in the PO refugee camp of the future and everyone is talking about how happy they were in the good old days and you say "not me, I was hopeless from the start. I never enjoyed any of the good stuff that was all around me because I knew it couldn't last."

(I understand that some of the PO survivalist set will avoid the PO refugee camp because they were so well prepared, and I am not talking to them.)

When you were a child you learned that you and everyone you loved would die one day, and you got over it. PO is learning the same thing about civilization as we know it. Just absorb the reality of it, make the necessary adjustments, and move on.

That's what the cyclops did, right?

franky · Coal Joined: Oct 25, 2007 Posts: 1

Does anyone out there realise how much Population growth contributes to all the troubles occuring? Or am I the only one realising it?

DamienJasper

I think Kristen has an excellent question. It's one I've struggled with for quite a while. Talking to a counselor, I realized how selfish I was to hope that world would just hold itself together long enough to let me live my life. But as it stands, my hangup has never been "I'm going to die". No kidding. It's living in an endless wasteland of fear, despair, starvation, misery and panic. Which frankly, everyone seems to believe in until threads like these come along. Kinda makes me wish I'd majored in psychology so I could deduce the thought process.

MonteQuest

jedinvest

BitTex wrote:

jedinvest

Nicholai

I hope things will hold out in time for me to finish my Earth Shelter.
Whenever I get depressed, I find this video makes everything better.

Please leave your maturity at the door.
Pure Joy

dohboi · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Dec 05, 2005 Posts: 1277

WARNING--If you can only read hopeful messages to stay sane, do not read further.

As montequest has pointed out, the latest stats on global climate trends and polar ice melt suggest strongly that things are unraveling much, much faster than even the worst of worst case scenarios had predicted. As far as I can tell we are already well into an aboslute catastrophe, not just of the recent, unfortunate development known as civilization, or of that cataclismic failure of a species, homo "sapiens."

No. We are facing the posibility, I would say probability of the total collapse of complex life forms, perhaps outstripping even the "Great Dying" of the Permian-Triassic extinction. With the near total colapse of the polar icecap this summer we are witness to the beginning of a runaway chain of global warming feed backs that seem very likely to drive the planet to near Venus-like conditions.

And every day each one of us takes on further responsibility for this absolute catastrophe by engaging in activities that require the burning of fossil fuels.

Where does that leave hope? More and more I see hope as a stupid, useless and indulgent emotion. We need to stop childishly yearning for some reason for "hope." Yearning for "hope" while neglecting to minimize your contribution to the problem is, frankly, disgusting. It is like punching a dying child in the face while expressing the hope that she will survive.

If one has some absolute need for something they call "hope" to make it through the day, to work toward reducing their negative impact, and to work toward a less abusive culture, who am I to take it away from you. But I can no longer see any rational basis for hope. We are in a post hope (post peak hope?) world. If realization of this fact prompts mass suicides, well, that's one way to get down the other side of the overshoot slope. I do fear that such a die off would leave only the I-don't-give-a-damn's who are the least worthy of life.

Sorry about the long rant.

Cheers,

Doh! boy

"There is hope, but not for us." Franz Kafka (the hopeless optimist)

Lighthouse · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 1458

Lighthouse · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 1458