Peak oil: Do you want it to occur?

ugh · Coal Joined: May 03, 2008 Posts: 5

Bring it on.

No junkie ever got better with another "fix"

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1503

An old fellow was in my shop the other day, and talk turned to high prices and hard times. He said we haven't seen hard times yet. He's 91, and lived through the 1930's depression. His comment was that people will do ANYTHING if they are hurting bad enough.

I'm convinced that those who want to see society go down the way we are headed, probably haven't seen such things before. I agree that how we have been living and abusing our welcome on the planet is wrong. I don't want that to continue. Nor do I welcome what I believe is in store for us. It's not going to be about riding your bike to the store and feeling smug. It's going to be about finding a store that is still open, that has something you need, being able to pay for it, and surviving the trip home, if you have a home.

I voted no, I don't want peak oil to happen, because as it is, we are headed directly to the Middle Ages.
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shootst81 · Coal Joined: May 08, 2008 Posts: 2

i don't want it to happen, but if it does it does.

Besides our ancestor's got along just fine with horse and buggy+steam engine train..we will adjust

horse and buggy could be temporary, till science catchs up

skyemoor

It's not a matter of wanting it to occur, because it will. What I do want to occur is awareness and action within the populace to mitigate by shifting consumption patterns through changes in land use management, transportation choices, food choices, etc.
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dbruning

I'd be voting against it as well.

I feel we cannot continue as we have, and that a huge correction in lifestyle is coming. But to actively cheer for the death and hunger and suffering that is coming? I'll pass thanks.
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joeltrout

Part of me wants it to occur to prove everybody wrong that mocks peakoil. Then part of me does not want it to occur because I like the life I live and all the perks that we have now.

joeltrout
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usncom · Tar Sands Joined: May 04, 2008 Posts: 38

Have any of you truly considered the ramifications of a society reverting back to the horse and buggy on our freedoms? Civil rights for minorities and women were largely made possible by and during the indusrial age.

Societal collapse from peak oil might do away with a lot of modern day conveniences but it WILL NOT change the human heart. We will go on wanting material things. We will continue to exploit others to get those material things.

The exploitation in the industrial age was somewhat mutually beneficial. The exploitation after industrial collapse will be a return to some archaic fuedal system or worse a return to barbaric forms of slavery.

No I don't want this to occour. HELL no.

Ludi

Usncom, I'm sure you're aware that slavery is already widespread in the world. Are you saying you expect it to be widespread and accepted in the (present day ) First World?

What about yourself and the people you know makes you think you and they will find slavery acceptable?

I'm just curious about your views.
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usncom · Tar Sands Joined: May 04, 2008 Posts: 38

I am talking primarily of the first world since it is the first world that is so heavily dependent on oil and it is the first world that has made the most strident and revolutionary gains towards securing and protecting fundamental civil rights.

Ludi

Recall those societies used slave labor because they were used to using it. After Emancipation, there was no longer a "need" for slavery. Yet agriculture in the South continued, without slaves.

Slaves were owned by the very wealthy, and used to maintain the very wealthy in the style to which they were accustomed. Slaves were not used by the average farmer, even in the South.
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Ludi

Just to add, though I do not see slavery as an economic necessity, neither do I expect post-peak-oil to be easy. The world needn't be "harsh, repressive, and Darwinian." It's more likely to be so the more people see such a future as acceptable and inevitable.

Just sayin'. But I'm well-known here as a hopelessly naive dreamer and optimist. Smile

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usncom · Tar Sands Joined: May 04, 2008 Posts: 38

s0cks

usncom · Tar Sands Joined: May 04, 2008 Posts: 38