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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby Ibon » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 08:14:43

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Hawkcreek', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', '
')I observe an interesting difference between our European and North American guests. The Europeans keep the lights to a minimum in their cabins and it is often dark. The North Americans generally leave all the lights blazing. I have had to tell our European guests a number of times to please leave the lights on as much as they want since we have excess power with no one to offer this to being in such a remote location and it gets dumped anyway.

It would be pretty easy to dump that extra power into hot water heating. That way you could cut down on your propane use.


The dump is a cistern of 6000 liters of water, just 3 meters from the generator, there are 8 channels, each one 1500W. The first channel is almost always dumping unused power, the following channels only dump when we are not using hardly any power. I could connect channel's one and two to an electric hot water tank to heat water as you suggest. The problem is that the turbine is 200m from the nearest cabin and I would have to run a power line up there. Could be done. The 6000 liter cistern itself is stagnant water and full of moss and critters. To use that water directly I would have to chlorinate it and have maintenance of constantly cleaning it. Not worth it. I do sometimes go down there when there are no guests around, get naked, and dump mossy green slimy hot water over my head and pray to the salamander gods.

I did think of an interesting application for this 6000 liters of heated water. Put a thermostat and a cold water line so that when the temperature reached between 70-75F cold water would switch on and keep the temperature steady in this range. And throw in some Talapia. Serve them up in our restaurant when they got nice and fat.

I usually have 1000 ideas here but can only ever realize a small fraction.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby AdamB » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 10:54:48

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ralfy', 'T')here's no need for posters in this forum to make TPTB "stifle" profits. The latter will go down on their own because of limits to growth. It just so happens that limits to growth is the point of this forum.


Perhaps you can say that in the world where people cannot read. I recommend checking the domain name.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby Ibon » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 11:41:43

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'N')ot to go further off topic (huh?) but Ibon I like the tilapia idea.


I am going to take this off topic tangent and relate it back to the discussion regarding TPTB.

Going off topic to discuss off grid strategies is symbolic to a viable orientation to TPTB and the billions of serfs with Iphones who follow so obediently. You make them irrelevant.

As Tanada pointed out quite eloquently the vast majority are willingly submitting. The elite who hold the leadership reins of the status quo, being beneficiaries of the system, will never change what would be against their self interests. Especially with almost everybody so willingly obedient and satisfied with mediocrity.

Your choice is to insulate yourself, not by fighting it, getting upset over it, feeling disdain for these sentiments only hold you firmly in relationship to it. Your relatioship to the the status quo essentially goes down to zero and they disappear. They do not even merit anger or disdain. Actually, not even compassion. Irrelevant in the deepest sense of the word.

Those examples that Tanada mentioned in Syria and Egypt....consequences that awaken the insolence?

We gotta wait for that to happen to re engage any relationship with the status quo and by default TPTB. In the meantime you throw pearls before swine.

So the dialogue that went off topic discussing off the grid energy strategies was a wonderful couple of posts whereby we made TPTB and the status quo totally irrelevant :)
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby Ibon » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 12:59:25

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'Y')our choice is to insulate yourself, not by fighting it, getting upset over it, feeling disdain for these sentiments only hold you firmly in relationship to it. Your relatioship to the the status quo essentially goes down to zero and they disappear. They do not even merit anger or disdain. Actually, not even compassion. Irrelevant in the deepest sense of the word.

Is that why you are in a cloud forest on top of a hill in a faraway land? It's why I am in Humboldt.


No. If I decided to come up here to a remote location in order to escape from a dysfunctional status quo that would frame the narrative of why I am here and this would keep me tethered and in relationship with the dysfunction. This is the main problem most doomstead owners suffer. They never really escaped in being in relationship to it. I have no interest in this. I am here because I love the ecology and am passionate about preserving this habitat. In no way does my presence here have anything to do with my perceptions of the strength or weakness of the status quo and TPTB. As I mentioned they are totally irrelevant to my existence and to the choices I make.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')I found no reference to Syria or Egypt in this thread. To what do you refer? How could the violence and bloodshed there be a good thing?


Go back a couple pages to Tanada's long post here it is again below. This is very important because the only thing that will break the mediocrity and willing compliance of the masses to maintaining the status quo is when the physical infrastructure that holds them up becomes undermined as in the examples Tanada mentions below. This is my point that the catalyst of consequences, external human agency will be what breaks down the status quo. Or human agency reacting primitively to external constraints. As in Syria and Egypt. Until then the vast ocean of human mediocrity is irrelevant. Once that physical infrastructure becomes undermined however neither you behind the Redwood curtain or myself up in some cloud forest will be insulated. You do still depend on the status quo almost as much as anyone else despite the sustainability of the local bio region and your off the grid trappings. I have no illusions about this.

TANADA WROTE
The 90-95 percent of people who would rather follow than make any decision will do what TPTB think is best until their situation is so bad they can no longer tolerate their personal living conditions. That pretty much gives TPTB license to do whatever they want so long as it doesn't actually blatantly harm their followers.

Three modern examples,
The primary reason the Syrian civil war broke out is simple, their was a drought, that lead to famine and TPTB were slow to respond to the hunger of the masses.

In Crimea the junta that expelled the democratically elected government of Ukraine picked them as the scapegoat and made noises about ruining their lives and business dealings even further than they already were.

In Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood that seized power during the 'Arab spring' went so far reactionary that the people revolted a second time and the Military went back into power as they had been for decades before the Arab Spring.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby ennui2 » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 13:25:25

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'O')nce that physical infrastructure becomes undermined however neither you behind the Redwood curtain or myself up in some cloud forest will be insulated. You do still depend on the status quo almost as much as anyone else despite the sustainability of the local bio region and your off the grid trappings. I have no illusions about this.


It's great to read this. This is why you're not on my ignore list and PStarr is.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 13:33:51

Ibon, if the AGW fanatics are correct, Tropical biomes are doomed in the long run. Even if they are incorrect, the process happens naturally, we are 6 degrees C below the average temperature of a Climatic Optimum. The Tropics turn into a belt of dusty deserts, the Temperate zones become Tropical and sub-Tropical, and the even Antarctica becomes sub-Temperate and is covered in evergreen forest. The rising waters displace coastal residents, large rivers turn into brackish estuaries, the changes are dramatic compared to now.

That's not happening for another 200-2000 years, of course. Or in the most extreme AGW scenario, in the next 20-200 years. You don't have to care for yourself, only your kids and grandkids. This is not the first time this has happened, only the first time we human primates have understood what is about to happen.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby ennui2 » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 13:43:06

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'I')bon, if the AGW fanatics are correct, Tropical biomes are doomed in the long run.


Did you read the statement I quoted from him? What makes you think he's denying the local impacts?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '
')only the first time we human primates have understood what is about to happen.


Only the first time we've FORCED it to happen. Sorry, your "it's not our fault!" denialism is showing.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 13:57:36

Ennui2, time to get past the whole denialist thing. Even if you AGW fanboys are correct, the world is warming, and your obsession is only about the trivial rate that the warming is occurring, and placing blame is a completely futile exercise.

So what is your plan to survive, and have your descendants live? Because we are not stopping the warming, ever. That remains true whether the rate is entirely natural or forced by excess atmospheric carbon. You just can't get past that last one - stopping the FF burning has direct and dramatic fatal results, so we are gonna burn every bit of carbon fuel we can get our hands on.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby ennui2 » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 14:07:25

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 't')rivial rate


Wrong.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '
')So what is your plan to survive


You mean where my escape rocket is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPSqHCy ... be&t=1m52s
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby Ibon » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 14:17:38

The most adaptive position in my view to the most dire forecasts is to do absolutely nothing. You really want to frame your worldview like a rodent in a hole trying to outsmart chaos?

No thanks.

I do not worry at all about the adaptation of natural ecosystems to the disruptions of climate change. Humans and their artificial landscapes are far more vulnerable to the consequences as I have mentioned in the past.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby ralfy » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 22:39:38

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kublikhan', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ralfy', 'T')here's no need for posters in this forum to make TPTB "stifle" profits. The latter will go down on their own because of limits to growth.
That not what I said. An argument was brought forth that TBTB were using language barriers to keep people out of contact with each other. I countered that TPTB were trying to tear down language barriers via globalization because they are also barriers to profits.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ralfy', 'I')t just so happens that limits to growth is the point of this forum.
We were discussing languages. There are other topics discussed on this forum. Do you think you can go 1 post without mentioning limits to growth? Oh, and going 1 post without "scare quotes" would be great too.


My point is that it won't matter what TPTB does. They can create more funny money or insist that various technofixes will lead to continuous growth. But limits to growth will eventually take their toll on the system.

Now, why would you want me not to mention limits to growth when the topic of this thread involves peakers?

Finally, I use quotation marks to partly show that what we are doing also involves languages.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby ralfy » Sat 10 Sep 2016, 22:41:41

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdamB', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ralfy', 'T')here's no need for posters in this forum to make TPTB "stifle" profits. The latter will go down on their own because of limits to growth. It just so happens that limits to growth is the point of this forum.


Perhaps you can say that in the world where people cannot read. I recommend checking the domain name.

Poorly worded nonsense.

You want to say that a lack of education will be the downfall of man. Perhaps true, but then you would be the first to go, and unable to verify your own troll. Sad :cry: 8) :lol:


Oh, the irony! That's why he stays in my ignore list.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby Hawkcreek » Sun 11 Sep 2016, 00:05:51

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')he most adaptive position in my view to the most dire forecasts is to do absolutely nothing. You really want to frame your worldview like a rodent in a hole trying to outsmart chaos?

This statement would sound better coming from someone living in an urban environment
(Walking the walk).
Regardless of your reasons, you have decided to live in an environment which has a better potential of being insulated from the effects of a societal meltdown than most others. I am only talking probabilities, but the odds are what most preppers are trying to beat. They all know there are no sure things, but why not try to make the odds slightly in your favor and then just relax and enjoy the show?
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby Ibon » Sun 11 Sep 2016, 08:56:36

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Hawkcreek', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')he most adaptive position in my view to the most dire forecasts is to do absolutely nothing. You really want to frame your worldview like a rodent in a hole trying to outsmart chaos?

This statement would sound better coming from someone living in an urban environment
(Walking the walk).
Regardless of your reasons, you have decided to live in an environment which has a better potential of being insulated from the effects of a societal meltdown than most others. I am only talking probabilities, but the odds are what most preppers are trying to beat. They all know there are no sure things, but why not try to make the odds slightly in your favor and then just relax and enjoy the show?


Here is a simple way to explain this. I drive our 4WD vehicle up and down 10km of rough road. I carry a spare tire, tools, machete in case of tree fall, shovel in case of landslides, winch.
This is all common sense preparation for the unexpected calamities that might occur on this road. But my orientation toward this road is not that it is unsustainable, that it is about to collapse, that there are forces looming on the horizon that will tear it apart. The road is a road is a road. Nothing more. My relationship to the road is not over layed with any kind of narrative
that I think about much. It has unstable elements, every 5 years a flash flood requires a back hoe to come up and clear things up.

Now, the comparison of the road and human overshoot and upcoming upheavals is not perfect, since in the case of our species plight I do think about this a lot, even constantly. So this seems contradictory to this orientation I am discussing that the status quo and TPTB are irrelevant. How can this be? It's all about your primary orientation toward your existence. To what degree your forecast of upcoming instabilities dominates and frames your moment. How much all of which we perceive as dyfunctional holds you day to day in a certain grip that keeps you in relationship to this.

In my case our project, being sustainable energy wise, food wise, growing coffee, cultivating native fruits, reoforesting, hosting visiting entomologists and bird watchers, european eco tourists, trail maintenance, maintaining an insect collection, raising beef cattle, landscaping, etc. etc. is in and of itself so rewarding and enriching that the back ground unsustainable status quo fades into irrelevance.

If mad max happens short term I prefer to orient myself like an artist living at the base of Mount Vesuvius in Pompei in AD79, deeply immersed in my art and nature, not focused on an eruption that I cannot control anyway.

If changes are slow and will effect my offspring what is the greatest gift I can give them? An obsessive fear and distrust of the status quo and encouraging them to act like a rodent in a hole? Or to celebrate the joy of creation and all the wonders out there in the natural world, allowing the mediocrity that is the vast majority to be reduced to irrelevance.

It isn't either or, that shovel and winch and machete are there to enable me to enjoy where I am, they are tools. But they are not the reason.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby ennui2 » Sun 11 Sep 2016, 11:51:58

I see where this thread is going...

The evergreen debate of city vs. country during collapse.

There's no objective answer to that question. There are a set of pros and cons to both although generally speaking the majority of doomers think cities will be deathtraps and discount the different set of challenges that come from living in the boonies.

What people also seem to have trouble considering is massive waves of human migration, either with the cities outpouring into the countryside like locusts or pouring INTO the cities thinking there's strength in numbers.

It's an interesting thought experiment but nobody really knows how this will play out.

My opinion is that the pros of living within the support-structure of BAU far outweigh the cons, with the most obvious example being jobs and access to advanced medical care. This is why current trends favor urbanization and why the boonies are increasingly a no-man's land of dysfunctional rejects (meth addicts, inbred yokels, etc...).

This is why, by and large, those pushing the rural doomstead approach are either already in retirement or don't have very promising job-earning potential to forgo or they have such extreme ideological positions that they'd make the sacrifice anyway, doom or no doom.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby Hawkcreek » Sun 11 Sep 2016, 12:55:30

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', '
')If mad max happens short term I prefer to orient myself like an artist living at the base of Mount Vesuvius in Pompei in AD79, deeply immersed in my art and nature, not focused on an eruption that I cannot control anyway.

I understand and applaud what you say, and the lifestyle you have chosen. I was only trying to say that the same lifestyle, and your choice of venues to discuss it (Peak Oil.com), seem to be in contradiction to the words. It seems to me that many who inhabit these peakish halls, do so, at least partly, because they are expecting the upheaval of BAU.
If someone were to value actions more than words, they might think that your actions say that you have already placed great credence in developing a bug-out posture.
In your case, I accept that you just like the lifestyle you have chosen.
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Re: Peakers underestimate TPTB at maintaining the Status Quo

Unread postby Hawkcreek » Sun 11 Sep 2016, 13:08:36

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ennui2', '
')My opinion is that the pros of living within the support-structure of BAU far outweigh the cons, with the most obvious example being jobs and access to advanced medical care. This is why current trends favor urbanization and why the boonies are increasingly a no-man's land of dysfunctional rejects (meth addicts, inbred yokels, etc...).

I agree about the pros of living within the support structure of BAU outweighing the cons.
In many cases, however, those pros may be more psychological rather than concrete. I love the boonies. To me a day without a campfire, beautiful scenery, and a cup of coffee to start the day, is a failed day. But I also like to get back into town to a good bookstore (with coffee shop), and people to talk to - even if it is just a waitress taking my order. I don't need the job thing, and I avoid the medical care as much as possible. Hospitals will kill you. My hope is to eventually drop dead during a hike up a mountain, looking for a view.
I don't know where that puts me in the dysfunctional reject pool, but I hope it is in the deep end.
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