[Ibon]

Taking a break from the daily visits here at po.com has been great actually along with the rest of my withdrawal from social media and useless internet usage. At the beginning I had to self impose the withdrawal and now I can frankly say that 10 minutes of a day of the NYT and BBC and a quick perusal of po.com is just enough. A couple times a week I listen to a podcast or two. That's it.

All the news outlets (including this site) just feel like wheels spinning gaining no traction on the topics that are hashed over ad nausea. Which leads to this insight of the intractable inertia we are now in as a global civilization which po.com as a microcosm reflects perfectly as we spin with no traction over the same topics year after year.

Which is a perfect reflection of the intractable nature of the big macro topics of peak oil and climate change, year after year going by stuck in an intractable inertia. Same with our financial system. It seems to be the same also with the political polarity. As KJ has mentioned it doesn't matter which party in the US is in power there is this intractable division that impedes any real break through on issues. Gun control the current hot topic. Intractable in finding solutions.

The trend toward automation and digital media increasing controlling our lives? Intractable.

The government and advertisers having full transparency if where we go, what we buy, what our ideology is. This power of the state and corporations... Intractable.

So this seems to be a theme.

Where to go with this as a topic. Nowhere frankly but I felt compelled to post this because it has been an insight I thought worthy of sharing.

Ask yourself. Why engage in discussions on intractable topics? For me it is engaging in what is obsolete.

I only really have juice and interest anymore in these 400 acres, the people who visit, preserving this little piece of wilderness, growing coffee and doing taxonomy on bugs. Family and friends.

I feel the intractable nature of the macro systems around me on all fronts and it no longer interests me to engage because it is a dead end pursuit of inquiry.

Much nicer just hanging with the locals and this piece of land.

You guys have all been an important part of a sounding board for me through the years and I feel I do owe some explanations on why I am withdrawing so this post is just that.

[ralfy]

These topics are not obsolete because they will affect everyone.

[asg70]

These topics are not obsolete because they will affect everyone.

They're obsolete because of what Ibon said, it's all talk and no action.

For instance, how much has Bill McKibben accomplished with 350.org? How much had ASPO accomplished in its entire lifecycle before it shut down? If they can't move the needle, what positive impact will the average random post on peakoil.com make?

The answer is none.

Now, obviously, if people really felt that way, they'd withdraw the way Ibon is. And that is exactly why the membership here has dwindled the way it has. Convergent evolution is to come to the same conclusion one way or another, which is "TEND YOUR OWN GARDEN".

So I think those still posting here with an activist bent are driven by some degree of delusion of grandeur--that by keeping a discussion alive it has some sort of positive impact, however slight.

The more the movement withers down to nothing, the more significant it might feel to be one of the last men standing, so to speak, despite the overwhelming evidence that it won't amount to anything.

That's what I'm seeing here, and I guess it holds some degree of morbid curiosity for me. As much as I was frustrated by Short and PStarr, they were really the last catalyst of discussion. It was a dysfunctional catalyst, of course, but with them gone, there's very little left to power the day-to-day discussion.

[MD]

very well said, and healthy choices.

[jedrider]

I learn something new everyday. That keeps me going. If you got it all figured out, then withdrawal is fine.

On doing something about climate change and changing our non-negotiable way of life, yeah, probably not much to be accomplished here or anywhere.

I admire that you can keep away and involve yourself in something more meaningful to oneself.

I still haven't gotten over the urge to rubber-neck over how bad our predicament is.

I saw some good you tube documentaries on Anita O'Day and Art Pepper on my day off, so my web time is not all hand-wringing and such.