psychological impacts of discouragement after peak oil

wisconsin_cur · Moderator Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2973

Most arguments for a slow decline or some form of adaptation to declining energy reserves seem to assume that things go right. By that I mean that people transitioning to a low energy lifestyle will not make stupid mistakes (because they are learning) or be beset by bad luck (fires) or the mistakes of others (a buggy garden that exports potato bugs to your own) etc...

The fact is we do live in a world where things break, bugs invade, rain waits, fire burns and humans not accustomed to doing things for themselves make mistakes.

I know the impacts of these circumstances when times are fat. One is discouraged, mumbles under their breath, mopes around the house for a day and then eats a frozen pizza, drinks some micro brews and replaces what was lost at the grocery, seed or building supply store.

What will be the psychological impacts of these setbacks when the cost is much higher? When failure or just bad luck means the kids go to bed hungry (again)?

Peak Oil is a human problem as much as a geological one. When discouragement gives way to desperation and depression?

I don't think the masses will choose the life of a zombie hoard. Perhaps the young and unattached will choose this method of (short-term) survival.

But if you have failed your children, lost everything that you worked for and dreamed of? I would expect an increase in male suicide and suicidal violence. Whether someone decides to take others out with them will depend upon the underlying personality.

Thoughts?
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Nature is complete because it does not serve itself.

The sage places himself after and finds himself before,
Ignores his desire and finds himself content.

He is complete because he does not serve himself. -Lao Tze

Shannymara · Master Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5433 Location: Oklahoma

Ferretlover

For those who woke up in time, the aftermath, IMHO, will be bittersweet: Sadness at what we had, what we wasted, what we've lost (not just tangible items).
Sweet because we've been slowly preparing ourselves here , mentally and physically, for the only possible outcome, and those we love will benefit from our "enlightenment."
As things get worse, I do think there will be an increase in family members taking the whole family with them, but that will be part of the die-off.
Of course, I could be wrong-but, I don't think so.
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"RRrrruuuunnnn!!!" ~Apocalypto

RedStateGreen

There were quite a few suicides at the start of the Depression. Many more men left their families to "look for work" and never returned. We'll see a lot more divorces.
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Conservation is conservative

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment."

Iaato

Psychologically we are used to a no-risk environment. Technology has sanitized everything to the point that there is very little risk, and if there is, there's insurance. As we start to fall back on heating with fire, transportation on foot and more tenuous types of vehicles, exposure to the elements, higher lethal and non-lethal crime rates, log-splitting and chain-saw accidents (the list goes on and on), there will have to be a substantial mental adjustment. And injury rates, permanent disability, and death will go way up. That's all part of die-off.
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"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." --Sinclair Lewis

Tyler_JC

That big dip in the late 1980s/early 1990s was the fall of the USSR.

The subsequent dip in 1998 was fallout from the currency crisis.
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"www.peakoil.com is the Myspace of the Apocalypse."

JPL

alokin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 24, 2007 Posts: 793

I'm not so sure. I think people are doing lots of nonsense in a world were they are completely satisfied, no hunger, no cold no heat..
Often nations perform much better if they have to stand together.

I read of some of the murders in school in the US an Europa recently tends to the same thing. In Australia things are lots better and people are more aware of each other.

JPL

Ludi

I think it is very likely people will become despairing when times get tough. India has had a terrible problem of suicides when farmers have not been able to provide for their families.

It is hard for some of us to hold off despair even thinking about the tough times ahead. I personally dread it.
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americandream

I've been a marxist for most of my adult life...one reads Marx and realises that a system based on endless selling of finite resources has no future....it depresses you for you know that it's participants know no better. Thats the sad bit....knowing that we reside in a system that has its own dynamic and terminus and theres little one can do.
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Bugger me, I hear oil's runnin out mate!

BigTex

We all like to think of ourselves as cool. The fact is, though, humans are very high strung. Not as bad as horses or hummingbirds, but still we're high strung. Part of what is nice about spending time in nature by yourself is you can get away from all the frantic energy of being around other people and all the wild people energy.

It's not surprising to me that the most enlightened humans are generally considered to be those who can enter into states of deep relaxation and calm whenever they want to.

You tell a human that doom is on the horizon and a lot of them just freak out. They're more like the hare than the tortoise.
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Smile

seldom_seen · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 1980

The problem that I find unsettling is when millions of people lose access to their prescriptions for SSRI medications. The serotonin crash associated with rapid withdrawal from these medications will lead to rampant suicide and most likely an explosion of murder as well.

threadbear · Expert Joined: Jan 22, 2005 Posts: 7505

I like to think of myself as being pretty tough and resilient, but I wasn't even able to watch March Of the Penguins without leaving the room during the sad parts. Shocked

Nano

To me it seems you need to get to grips with the phenomenon of 'horror' in the broadest meaning of the word.

For example: the most basic buddhist meditation techniques include meditation on one's own rotting corpse in order to obtain basic wisdom and peace of mind.

By getting your head around pain, death, decay and the general temporal nature of existence you can become a real human being. Unfortunately modern (secular) humanity is encouraged not to think about these crucial aspect of life at all, let alone to begin to understand the meaning of ancient concepts such as sacrifice, humility and nobility. Instead of such fundamental wisdom we have come to rely on a seamingly limitless ocean of fossil fuel derived wealth, cheap and potent escapist entertainment and the massconsumption of high-tech anti-depressive/anti-psychotic designer drugs.