[JohnDenver]

IMO, this is the best argument against peak oil causing the collapse of modern civilization: it's too good to be true. The idea that we could get out from under the rat race which governs our lives is appealing -- so appealing in fact, that we should be very suspicious of it.

The post-peak utopia is not going to arrive for the simple reason that it is a utopia.

[Carlhole]

One sunny Tuesday, two proto-mice were watching an iron asteroid, that looked bigger than the moon, as it crashed into the distance. "Well, said one, that's sure to kill off all the big predators. Maybe, there will be a golden age for us finally".

[Battle_Scarred_Galactico]

I don't know John, food riots and lots of people dying doesn't really sound like Utopia to me.

Well maybe if you managed to snatch the last pack of pot noodles from Safeway.

[linlithgowoil]

i see what you are saying. Peak Oil is appealing to many people who look around them at western civilsation and think 'This is the best we can come up with?'. I know I feel that way. I thikn to myself that the average person actually wholeheartedly throws themself into working 40+ hours per week for around 40-50 years, just so that when they retire (possibly at 65, maybe later), they have 5 or 10 years in which they can sit back in self-satisfaction because they've paid off their house. After which, they keel over and die.

Therefore, they've given up most of their waking lives to work - to achieve what exactly? Dont get me wrong, i know we all have to do some kind of productive work just in order to have food and shelter, but does it really have to be this way?

My utopia would be a 3 day working week. You'd start work around 10am and finish at 3pm. There would be little excess money and capital floating around, so there would not be constant technological progress as there wouldn't be enough excess capital to invest in it. Therefore, society would be simpler, less busy, less tech orientated and perhaps more natural and satisfying.

Unfortunately, this kind of society will never exist, for the simple fact that people are very greedy and require to have more things than other people to make themselves feel powerful. Its tragic really.

Peak Oil might very well be the 'come-uppance' that greedy people need. The realisation that tomorrow you'll be poorer than today isnt a nice one - and is unthinkable to most people in the West.

[jimmydean]

The "Simple Living" movement Simple Living is an existing lifestyle alternative to the typical consumer hungry approach that most of us lead in the west. I saw a show on it and it was remarkable how some people re-engineered their lives to essentially work less, consume less and have more free time to spend doing the things they actually like.

I'm sure a lot of us will be following the simple living mantra's once PO hits.

As essentially a computer geek though I don't have the skills to be "in demand" in a post PO world. Perhaps just after post PO I'll be able to telecommute from home though as oil becomes rationed/too expensive forcing companies to allow more people to work from home

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jimmydean', 'T')he "Simple Living" movement Simple Living is an existing lifestyle alternative to the typical consumer hungry approach that most of us lead in the west. I saw a show on it and it was remarkable how some people re-engineered their lives to essentially work less, consume less and have more free time to spend doing the things they actually like.

[aldente]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('linlithgowoil', '
') There would be little excess money and capital floating around

[lee]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JohnDenver', 'I')MO, this is the best argument against peak oil causing the collapse of modern civilization: it's too good to be true.

[FatherOfTwo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JohnDenver', 'I')MO, this is the best argument against peak oil causing the collapse of modern civilization: it's too good to be true. The idea that we could get out from under the rat race which governs our lives is appealing -- so appealing in fact, that we should be very suspicious of it.

The post-peak utopia is not going to arrive for the simple reason that it is a utopia.

[nero]

FatherOf Two, I rather think John is attacking others on this forum who are hoping PO will solve the problems they see with society and lead the way to a sustainable utopia. I sometimes in my more optimistic moments feel that way and then have to do a reality check, to get back to the gloom of a soft landing and the continued ravishment of our environment.

That being said I rather take issue with this being "the best argument against peak oil causing the collapse of modern civilization". It's hardly an argument at all.

[FatherOfTwo]

Nero, I certainly hope you're right.

[bobcousins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FatherOfTwo', 'Y')es there are enormous problems with modern society. But NO ONE should be gleefully looking forward to the kind of mass upheaval that our little planet may be about to undergo. [...]
Shame on you for wishing such pain and suffering so that you can "get out of the rat race."

[0mar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FatherOfTwo', 'Y')es there are enormous problems with modern society. But NO ONE should be gleefully looking forward to the kind of mass upheaval that our little planet may be about to undergo. Post-peak utopia? Have you upgraded from soft drugs to hard core drugs JD? There is not likely to be anything utopia-like about the downward slide of the curve.

[arocoun]

If you're tired of the rat race, just drop out of it.

And as for the careless sheeple that are slowly and carelessly ruining the earth, and enforcing their hierarchial empire on the whole known world, I have no sympathy for them. They destroy life and resources without a second thought; and when they cause their own misery and death, I'll return their lack of care.

[arocoun]

And people aren't necessarily greedy. Indeed, most humans were living in peaceful, communal societies before the imperialist minority took over. Humans are greedy only if raised in a society as messed up as ours.

[TrueKaiser]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Battle_Scarred_Galactico', 'I') don't know John, food riots and lots of people dying doesn't really sound like Utopia to me.

Well maybe if you managed to snatch the last pack of pot noodles from Safeway.

[JohnDenver]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nero', 'F')atherOf Two, I rather think John is attacking others on this forum who are hoping PO will solve the problems they see with society and lead the way to a sustainable utopia. I sometimes in my more optimistic moments feel that way and then have to do a reality check, to get back to the gloom of a soft landing and the continued ravishment of our environment.

[JohnDenver]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', 'W')hat goes around comes around. For the past several hundred years, we have been handing out peak oil style punishments to the rest of the world. We finally get to experience a bit of the same medicine.

[entropyfails]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JohnDenver', '
')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hat being said I rather take issue with this being "the best argument against peak oil causing the collapse of modern civilization". It's hardly an argument at all.

[Doly]

John, if you mean that most people's ideas about the results of peak oil are too simple to be correct, you're probably right.

If you're just trolling, like always, happy trolling.