[babystrangeloop]

As usually I am the vanguard on twitter about Peak Oil.



The one and only to tweet about this video as witnessed by Topsy.
Jania's video had 297 views when I was watching it.

Meanwhile the interview is available on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jkbyv15A8I

Dear world: you may now view that video and try to catch up to my level of connectedness (not that you ever will.)

[babystrangeloop]

I swear I'm not a pathological narcissist with delusions of grandeur, I'm really just very sarcastic. Well frustrated and sarcastic as I watch the world fall blindly off a peak oil cliff while documentary interviews of clinical psychologists that specialize in peak oil exist. Oh well.

At least more tweets are being sent about the video now.

[babystrangeloop]

Some back-story about Kathy for the newbies:

About the Peak Shrink & This Blog

My name is Kathy McMahon, Psy.D., and I am the founder and main contributor to this site. I’m a clinical psychologist and health care provider licensed in the State of Massachusetts, a clinician, an academician, a wife, a mother and chicken farmer. I’m a clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists, certified by the National Register of Health Service Providers (USA) and certified as a sex educator and sex therapist by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. I teach in three graduate schools in New England as a senior adjunct faculty member. I have 57 rare and heritage-breed hens and one rooster called ‘Phil.’ I also have 9 goslings, a few dogs and a cat.

[babystrangeloop]

Apparently Shorty (peeker01 et. al.) and Oilloser are asswipes because they love us too much.

But not me! I only love you the right amount! <3

[babystrangeloop]

Today's Power Switch Daily now has the video on it because of my tweet about it.

http://paper.li/PowerSwitch_UK/1289840046


The best part about twitter is that most people don't get it yet. By the time that happens we will need the next big thing.

[babystrangeloop]

Jania's video had 297 views when I was watching it.

In one hour the count went up to 335. There's the magic of twitter.

[babystrangeloop]

Jania's video had 297 views when I was watching it.

In one hour the count went up to 335. There's the magic of twitter.

Now 518 views.

[Serial_Worrier]

I'll take James Howard Kuntsler as my peak oil guru.

[Sixstrings]

Watched the first 8 minutes. Good interview.. she makes a very good point about "waiting two years" *after* learning about peak oil before you make drastic changes like a big move. The way I've always expressed that idea is that one should *consider* the cornies may be right, be sure the lifestyle changes you make fit in with all scenarios, doom or BAU or doom 30 years from now. In other words, don't rack up all the credit card because you think the world is ending, don't buy a farm unless you enjoy that even without peak oil concerns etc.

She also has an interesting point about how most people react when you try to tell them about peak oil, she says they are "pathologically positive" about the future -- people always think "things will work out."

This psychologist is really thought provoking, I've read her site before. My only concern is I that mental illness still exists peak oil or not. There have always been people obsessively worried about "the world ending." I think the definition of whether something is psychologically unhealthy is whether it impinges on "everyday activities" and prevents a person from leading a "normal life."

I think a psychologist like this should be a bit more objective, consider the relativity of risk for one thing. Think about it.. some doomers are smokers. The health effects of that are more certain and serious than whether or not we'll have food shortages in 5, 10, 20 years from now. I'm not a psychologist, but I just think perspective is important -- you have to balance everything out and it doesn't make sense if you're obsessively worrying about an existential risk to the exclusion of the every day risks that are just part of being human.

There's nothing about being a first worlder guarantees there won't be war, or calamity, or economic depression or any number of bad big events. The risk has always been there -- in the 1960 it looked like thermonuclear war was likely. If someone had worried about nuke doom from 1960 - 1990 wouldn't that have been a waste of time? Things actually did work out, despite several close calls.

Does it really make sense to pull forward future problems and worry about them? Example, a LOT of people will eventually get cancer. It's smart to make lifestyle changes to lower your risk, but it wouldn't be healthy to obsess over it. Bad sh*t happens, and it's gonna happen no matter what, whether you worry about it 20 years in advance or not.

I kind of like the Buddhist perspective on this, try to come at everything from a perspective of acceptance.

I don't mean to sound cornie in this post, I'm just playing out devil's advocate. Sometimes I wonder who really has it right, the doomers or sheeple. The sheeple are just out there enjoying their lives / paying attention to direct concerns to them in their immediate circle. Isn't that more rational, one can't change peak oil no matter how much food you store the risk of collapse can never be avoided. You can have a doomstead and 5 years of food and a bunker and for all you know a darn flash mob might just over-run it just before cell service winks out. Or you may have a medical emergency but there aren't working hospitals anymore so poof you're gone and won't get to enjoy your preps.

My point is just that risk can never be totally avoided. If the purpose of life is to enjoy your time on this planet, maybe worrying about doom too much gets in the way of that.

[babystrangeloop]

Watched the first 8 minutes.

Read the first five words of your post. Really great!

[babystrangeloop]

Jania's video had 297 views when I was watching it.

In one hour the count went up to 335. There's the magic of twitter.

Now 518 views.

Now 1,532 views.

Plus a re-tweet and a mention:

[Sixstrings]

Watched the first 8 minutes.

Read the first five words of your post. Really great!

Oh zing.

My connection is slow lately it's hard to watch videos.

I'm not a cornie, it's just that I can't imagine a "peak shrink." Think about it, walk into a shrink or psychologist's office talking about how all the oil is running out and there will be blackouts and a World Made By Hand now what do you think the srhink would write down on their little notepad hm?

Delusional.. obsessive.. paranoid.. etc. etc.

I'm not saying I would agree with that, I'm just saying that isn't clinical psychology tied to business as usual? A psychologist's job is to get people back to "normal" thinking but what is normal? Business As Usual is normal, normal sheeple think about what's for dinner and on TV tonite, not possible future worldwide collapse scenarios.

And what about the truly obsessive / delusional.. what if someone has so much food in their house they can't walk around and it's a genuine hoarding problem. What if the patient is making irrational decisions based on possible future calamity -- divorce, arguing with family, selling everything for a shack in the woods.

For a psychologist, I'm just not sure she's being balanced here. It looks more like all affirmation. She seems 100% convinced on Doom herself, I'd feel better about it if she had a message more along the lines of "also prepare for the possibility the cornies are right / it could be a slow crash that might take 30 years."

[Pops]

I'd feel better about it if she had a message more along the lines of "also prepare for the possibility the cornies are right / it could be a slow crash that might take 30 years."

Well of course you would... not that you are a Cornie.



I think she's saying normalcy bias is only a problem when things become disnormalated. Optimism and not preparing for expensive energy IS normal, not much chance any of us are going to go overboard on that, eh?

How many people do you guess are over prepared vs those who've made absolutely no changes aside from glancing at the MPG sticker when they bought the last SUV - on this forum?

[Sixstrings]

Well of course you would... not that you are a Cornie.

All I'm saying is..

If she's a clinical psychologist then some of her patients are troubled.. she might be treating straight up delusional people, therefore is it really wise to give them affirmation that yes, the World Is Ending. But still take your bipolar meds.

As for normalcy bias.. well.. if there's no normal baseline then how can a psychologist treat anyone. Isn't the point to get the patient to conform to "normal?"

Also.. life in general has no guarantee of safety. Statistically the average person has a car wreck every 7 years. Most will be fender benders, some will be serious, one could be fatal. We have no idea. We live with constant risk all around us, every day. This is just a philosophical question I'm throwing out, but what is it about the Doomer issues that captivates us so much while we don't think twice about all the many boring but certain risks we live with every day.

[peripato]

...what is it about the Doomer issues that captivates us so much while we don't think twice about all the many boring but certain risks we live with every day.

Because they have the potential to derail life as we know it and collectively, as a species, we are accelerating our efforts to do so.

Plus, I challenge the idea that the vast majority of people think about the subject of Doom at all, except within the context of religion, or in relation to the next Hollywood action thriller about it. It's only the few like us, on forums like these, who actively discuss the topic.

[babystrangeloop]

Watched the first 8 minutes.

Read the first five words of your post. Really great!

Oh zing.

My connection is slow lately it's hard to watch videos.

I'm not a cornie, it's just that I can't imagine a "peak shrink." Think about it, walk into a shrink or psychologist's office talking about how all the oil is running out and there will be blackouts and a World Made By Hand now what do you think the srhink would write down on their little notepad hm?

Delusional.. obsessive.. paranoid.. etc. etc.

Actually I did have a therapist once. I went through an "education phase" where I just pulled out a truckload of DVDs and maybe some articles on paper and went over them. Eventually he would tell me that he was asking different people what they thought about it and he was mostly impressed with the wide variety of responses.

[babystrangeloop]

I'd feel better about it if she had a message more along the lines of "also prepare for the possibility the cornies are right / it could be a slow crash that might take 30 years."

Well of course you would... not that you are a Cornie.



I think she's saying normalcy bias is only a problem when things become disnormalated.

Is disnormalated like discombobulated? At least my spell checker likes discombobulated.

In any case $3.50 gas is cheap. Three nuclear meltdowns are not a problem. Austerity programs and riots in Europe are, well, they're just stupid. Electricity rationing and contracting manufacturing PMI in China is not import since China will always be there. War all over the Middle East is simply "unrest" (they should catch up on their sleep, medications are also an option to be discussed.)

Islands in the Stream
Jonathan / June 29, 2011

... Not only did Barbara think too much, she felt too much as well. Thus the appointments with Dr. Dillman. To help her make progress toward thoughtlessness and senselessness. She also needed to love herself more, since the time others could spend loving her was very limited. Perhaps self-love would come naturally, when she was thinking less? Right now she was only talking to Dr. Dillman. Drugs were also “an option to explore”. ...

[Arthur75]

I truly hate this kind of "positive thinking" junk, besides the fact that this sacralisation of usefulness and positivness is precisely for a big part what led us in the current mess.
Overall it is so vulgar and ugly