74. ISN'T DEBUNKING BAD FOR PEAK OIL AWARENESS?
I think this is the #1 question my readers ask me. As Avo put it:
If you want people to make profound changes in their lives, you must first convince them that there IS A PROBLEM. Yet the overall theme of your blog/group postings is, don't worry, things are not nearly as bad as those nasty racist peak-oilers would have you believe.
The main concern of the well-intentioned peak oilers is that our current culture is unsustainable. We are drowning in a sea of waste, consumerism, cynical commerce, greenhouse gas, toxic waste, pesticides etc. etc... We've got to get a grip on ourselves: stop eating so much meat, grow organic food grown closer to home, drive more efficient cars, conserve, compost, develop human-scale walkable communities, hold hands and sing "Kumbaya". This is where "peak oil awareness" comes in. If we can just get "the message" out to people, they will understand and start taking steps in the right direction.
Unfortunately, experience shows that this is exactly the opposite of what happens. After all, what is the peak oil "message"? Briefly, it is that the human population has ballooned together with oil production, overshooting the earth's carrying capacity, and most of the world population will soon perish in a peak oil die-off because food production/distribution is totally dependent on oil. Four or five billion people will have to die in order to bring humanity back into balance with the earth. We're talking about rivers of blood up to the horse bridles, folks.
This is the peak oil message:
People don't respond to that apocalyptic message by thinking: "Oh, hey, I better buy a Prius" or "Maybe I'll take the bus to work." In fact, they respond to it with panic, and look for solutions not in conservation and environmentalism, but rather in survivalism, hoarding, profiteering, fascism, racism, eugenics and murder. This is the crux of the problem, which the well-intentioned peak oilers do not understand. Spreading the "peak oil message" has an effect exactly the opposite of that intended. It leads to social disintegration, not community. To illustrate this I will be showcasing a series of "Doomer Types", beginning in the following article (#75).
posted by JD @ 3:16 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Peak oilers are now smelling blood with events in the US, high gas prices and growing membership and are feeling more free to express opinion. In case anyone has any doubt to the way these people think, let's have a look at one of today's posts:
Jenab
Heavy Crude
Joined: Sep 28, 2004
Posts: 202
Location: Hillsboro, West Virginia
PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 12:46 pm Post subject: Re: The Superdome, A sign of things to come
You're probably right that that White man probably wasn't killed by those specific Blacks who are carrying him. But his attackers were almost certainly other Blacks. Or do you think they might have been some of those tourists from Australia, or Russia, or Britain? Nah, if he's dead, Blacks killed him
I really find the powerdown uber conservation theories of most peakoilers as seriously misguided. They don’t seem to understand that stopping and reversing growth isn’t a future; it's the end. The only way forward, the only way to achieve sustainability, is actually to grow – but preferably at a healthy rate.
I like to think of an analogy for the peakoilers theory of powerdown as the theory an anorexic has. They both think that things would be better with a massive reduction in consumption, not aware that it will kill them. You need to consume to stay alive.
At the same time, the analogy for our current system seems to be of a gluttonous fat pig gorging himself at the expense of the majority.
I enjoy your blog JD, keep it up.
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