Joined: Mar 07, 2007 Posts: 288 Location: Houston, TX
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 1:35 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
I agree with OP %100. I have friends recently purchased large mansions 30 miles away from downtown Houston. 2 cars in the garage on being an SUV.
All purchased with credit. I have another friend yuppie calling me other day how to buy a $55K BMW with a credit card. All these people have two things in common. They all are PO unaware and they are all buried to neck with debt already in their young ages.
Used to work for a large utility company in downtown Houston. My manager bought a 8 cyl Toyota Seq driving to woodlands everyday. (30 miles one way) Can you believe this? She also had a mansion being built in Conroe (35 miles away)
I will feel sorry for all these people when TSHTF.
Joined: Aug 11, 2005 Posts: 663 Location: Eastern NC
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 1:52 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
You have to think positive! I see unemployed masses, sharecropping on a nice plantation. For a role model go to Jefferson's place in Virginia, Monticello or maybe Washington's. I disagree with you Mos on this one, knowledge is power.
Joined: Dec 02, 2005 Posts: 6284 Location: Oil-addicted Southern Californucopia
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:10 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
I don't see them dead, either. I see them destitute, close to homeless, and barely surviving, all the while trying to get through each day in a fog of depression and utter bewilderment.
I also harbor no illusions that I won't end up as one of them. It can, and probably will, happen to virtually all of us, eventually. Very few will escape the ill effects of the changes that are looming just over the horizon.
(BTW, this is an all-time classic:
Quote:
...how to buy a $55K BMW with a credit card...
Of course, the most amazing thing about it is that it can actually be done.) _________________ "Thank you for attending the oil age. We're going to scrape what we can out of these tar pits in Alberta and then shut down the machines and turn out the lights. Goodnight." - seldom_seen
Joined: Apr 12, 2007 Posts: 1162 Location: Central NC
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:16 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
I understand what you are feeling VMarchart and have felt the same many times. It seems as if it is one of the stages of dealing with the magnitude of the problem.
After thinking on it for months my current thought about that feeling is it may be an emotional expression of disengaging from the reality many of us were raised in and thought was normal and would go on forever.
After I had gotten through that period I was much more accepting of what was happening and didn't fight it so hard or so often. I still have a relapse every so often but the feeling isn't as strong and it doesn't last very long, just minutes. _________________ "The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences…"
Sir Winston Churchill
Joined: May 18, 2006 Posts: 3962 Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:23 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
Today I looked at the Yamaha Vino 125cc scooter. I'm to cheap to cough up the $3,000 right now. 80 mpg sure sounds good anyhoo. Should I or shouldn't I? This is a big ticket item for me in these times. Think I'll wait and but more food stuff.
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
VMarcHart wrote:
I see dead people. 20-something year old couples, with 1-2 small children, 1-2 toddlers, driving SUVs or Mini Vans, buying toys, eating pizza at Sbarro's,
I think those people aren't the walking dead, but the future generation of Les Miserables. The people you describe will probably lose everything they have along with any potential to gain anything more, but they at least have youth and time to adapt and carry on.
Their parents on the other hand, that's another story. Not only will the baby boomers lose everything they've "worked" for they don't have the mindset to change or the time to adapt. Just ask a baby boomer you know what they think "Sustainable living is" and they'll talk about recycling and planting a tree.
oh well, ignorance may be bliss, but everyone is about to become painfully wise pretty soon. The After Boomers will become wise to their future horrors, the Baby Boomers will be become wise to their imminent demise.
as for us Gen-X'ers well we never really mattered in the past so we won't matter much in the future.
"You are not a flower waiting to bloom. You are the same dead decaying matter as the rest of us"
Joined: Mar 18, 2006 Posts: 1149 Location: Last outpost of Civilisation
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 3:08 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
People are amazing sometimes. Right up to the moment when the ship crashes into 'Terra Nova' the passengers will still be arguing about who had the last coffee out of the vending machine.
Growl...
JP _________________ The three most beautiful things in the world -
a full-rigged ship, a woman with child and a full moon.
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 3:25 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
VMarcHart wrote:
KingM wrote:
They are real people with real lives and some of them are smarter and more resourceful than you are.
Alas, there's no need for you to tell me I'm not too smart. I'm reminded of that daily.
I see lots of smart people that are clueless and stupid.
Take a look at the current financial system, loaded full of PHD's and university graduates.
Lets not forget much of the top leadership of the NAZI part also had incredibly high IQ's
What Im saying is that smart can just as easily lead to disaster as stupid. For example in years gone past the smart thing to do may have been McMansion and SUV who knows what tomorrow brings. _________________ "Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box."
-Italian Proverb
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:26 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
KingM wrote:
I can guarantee that many of the people you see as "dead man walking" are a lot more complex than your off the cuff characterization. They are real people with real lives and some of them are smarter and more resourceful than you are.
You have more confidence in humanity than I do. How many peak-oil aware people do you know? How many have you converted? I see no sign the truth has entered the mainstream, must less climaxed there.
Until then there will be no planning, preparation, or even hope of a reasonable reaction. It takes a long time for the emotions to grapple with the implications. Then there will be panic. Yes I see dead people all around me. The feeling is eerie. _________________ ree rah rip ram. sunofabitch godamn. hidey didey christ almighty. rah rah crap
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:30 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
misterno wrote:
I agree with OP %100. I have friends recently purchased large mansions 30 miles away from downtown Houston. 2 cars in the garage on being an SUV.
All purchased with credit. I have another friend yuppie calling me other day how to buy a $55K BMW with a credit card. All these people have two things in common. They all are PO unaware and they are all buried to neck with debt already in their young ages.
Used to work for a large utility company in downtown Houston. My manager bought a 8 cyl Toyota Seq driving to woodlands everyday. (30 miles one way) Can you believe this? She also had a mansion being built in Conroe (35 miles away)
I will feel sorry for all these people when TSHTF.
Such people used to anger me, stealing the future for their own egos. Now I just laugh. Every day now I see a big truck with a missy or a he-man at the wheel and my jaw almost drops in disbelief. Can they be so dumb and vain? Loosers _________________ ree rah rip ram. sunofabitch godamn. hidey didey christ almighty. rah rah crap
Joined: Mar 18, 2006 Posts: 1149 Location: Last outpost of Civilisation
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:44 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
pstarr wrote:
Such people used to anger me, stealing the future for their own egos. Now I just laugh. Every day now I see a big truck with a missy or a he-man at the wheel and my jaw almost drops in disbelief. Can they be so dumb and vain? Loosers
Hi p
Naa, surely you're overstating it. All they need is a working knowledge of Engineering, Ecology, Nuclear Physics, Political Science, Geology & Math.
Errr, surely most people have a basic awareness of the core systems that keep them alive & fed, and also opinions about the future direction of the same, don't they?
I mean they must do. No-one could be that stupid, could they???
JP _________________ The three most beautiful things in the world -
a full-rigged ship, a woman with child and a full moon.
Joined: Jun 28, 2005 Posts: 335 Location: san jose CA
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:37 pm Post subject: Re: I see dead people.
I can relate to what you say, I drive home from work out on the weekends and when me and my girlfriend go out to dinner sometimes I kind of pity some of these restaurant/small business owners knowing what is coming. People investing tens of thousands of dollars into their businesses and countless hours of hard work only to have it all wiped away in a few years as the economy implodes. Many honest hard working people out there are going to get financially crushed soon and I don't think they have much of a clue (though with the economy the way it is many probably do by now)
The flip side of that is that I get frustrated by the shallowness and simple lack of intellectual curiosity demonstrated by 90% of the people I know. For example the Mega Disasters show on the History Channel on the peak oil issue came on once at a friends house and as it started my friends girlfriend came in and said "whats this?... uhhh a documentary on the History Channel... boring" Then she fell asleep. I thought to myself "you'll find out the hard way in a few years when your begging for food or living in a slum somewhere whoring yourself to survive" Granted most of my friends are at least somewhat peak oil aware and I have woken a few up to the issue a couple years back. But still most are clueless, more concerned with reality TV or football or basketball. What is at the root of it I often ask myself? Why are so many content with ignorance and occupying their minds with petty meaningless crap while others crave knowledge and understanding and at least try to grasp the big picture. Is it raw intelligence or is a personality trait or does it have to do with the environment people are raised in ? As I have said before I feel bad for a lot of people out there but at the same time I feel resentment towards them. After all its partially due to the ignorance of the masses that we are in this mess to begin with.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum