[jdmartin]

Some days I almost feel as if I'm watching all of this happen as an out-of-body experience. It almost seems surreal what's going on. What makes it worse is that you people are pretty much the only people with whom I can converse this point without looking as though I've stepped off the Red Planet.

Case in point - the new NY Times article out, especially the interview with the retired head of Aramco. He flat-out states that we are going to have a problem very soon. Right there he says that every couple of years we (the world) would have to find another Saudi Arabia, and that it can't happen like that.

It almost feels like "invasion of the body snatchers" or "dawn of the dead", where you and a few people are the only ones who see what's going on. You go to tell someone and find out they're one of the zombie hordes. This whole perfect storm that's brewing is kind of freaking me out a bit, actually. Like watching some type of TV series, waiting to see what happens next week....

[backstop]

jdmartin -

In answer to your question I'd say yes, very, and inreasingly so in the last 25 years.

For me the sense of humour is the key tool for handling it.

The quote of Pops that you display seems an excellent example of what I mean here.

Regards,

Backstop

[threadbear]

Living through bad outtakes from Dawn of the Dead is awful--as far as surrealism goes, that just involves flying fish and melting clocks, this involves a societal-economic meltdown.

I had a dream (based in reality) once that my boyfriend was drunk and wouldn't admit he'd been drinking. To prove it I tried to find someone to reinforce and support me, by running out to the street and trying to round people up to witness his stumbling and slurring. They were all stumbling slurring and stupid drunk too. It was a very interesting foreshadowing, I think.

Are we the only ones who aren't on prozac, zooloft, or drunk on consumerism?

How many people do you figure have been rendered insensitive to survival issues because they're so doped up on mood elevators?

[backstop]

And what exactly does the breathing of fossil alchohol vapours, known as VHCs (volatile hydro-carbons) do to the human mind ? Particularly with twice daily binges while commuting ?

Worth having a look around in Texas, where breathing VHCs has gone on longer than most places . . .

Regards,

Backstop

[Carrie]

It's incredibly surreal to me. Have you ever heard of that "many-worlds" theory of time, where time can branch out into an infinite number of different possibilities? Ever since 9/11, I've felt like I took a wrong turn and ended up on this weird alternate-reality branch. How do I get back??

Seriously, it is hard to deal with it, and I find myself in denial quite a lot. It's hard to get your mind around something this profound.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carrie', 'I')t's incredibly surreal to me. Have you ever heard of that "many-worlds" theory of time, where time can branch out into an infinite number of different possibilities? Ever since 9/11, I've felt like I took a wrong turn and ended up on this weird alternate-reality branch. How do I get back??

Seriously, it is hard to deal with it, and I find myself in denial quite a lot. It's hard to get your mind around something this profound.

[MicroHydro]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carrie', 'E')ver since 9/11, I've felt like I took a wrong turn and ended up on this weird alternate-reality branch. How do I get back?

[UIUCstudent01]

jdmartin, I feel the exact same way.

Sometimes I see drunk, stumbling college students walking down the street - right now, they have no worries and they're getting drunk to have an excuse to rub up against each other and talk 'freely'. I had a strange feeling a day ago that I might be seeing much more drunkenness due to immobility / unemployed / depressed / bored kinda reasons in the future...

[Ayoob]

Not really. Most people are stupid, and can't see past their next happy meal. And they will be really pissed off when the happy meal following that one doesn't show up.

However.

Most are sheep and will do as they are told, whatever that is.

My guess is that the small businessmen of the world will once again do what is necessary to get what they want to have. Actually, let me clarify. The OWNERS of small businesses in the US will do what they have to do to get what they want to have, the rest of us be damned.

I believe this is called Natural Selection.

[gego]

Consider that the decline in population will start out slow and build to a catastrophic pace, then if you feel strange now, just think how it will be to witness what will come.

[Guest]

I was at a concert this weekend, attended by around 20,000 people. We camped the first night there (it was a several-day show) along with maybe a quarter or a half of the other concert-goers. So I'd say that first night there were maybe 5,000 people camping in the area we were.

And all I heard that evening (the whole evening, all night long) was a bunch of drunken lunatics spouting all kinds of stuff at each other, some nice but some not-so-nice (I woke up at around 4am to an argument several tents over filled with an enormous amount of profanity; I almost was thinking it was coming to physical blows, over what I don't know).

Granted, it's a concert and many people drove a long way away from their normal lives in order to attend, so for many folks that kind of activity may have truly been a rare fun indulgence (being a psytrance fiend I have sympathy for outdoor parties on occasion, and while this concert wasn't psytrance I'm sure the love for some people is the same). But I just had a gut sense that for at least a few thousand people, this was their normal weekend routine (if not weekday), not just a rarity, and that this defined part of their lifestyle at this time.

And in a way that was not related to age (I wasn't much older than most of those people and I'm certainly no fuddy-duddy), I became really deeply discomforted in this situation, especially after overhearing that loud argument, because it just gave me a deep reminder of how precarious our culture is right now and how some situations are to the brink of either quiet dissolution or utter chaos.

And that was deeply surreal; sitting at my campsite watching and listening to a bunch of other loud people there and thinking to myself "I feel like the whole thing is coming off the tracks, and I'm watching a bit of it happening, right now".

So believe me, you're not alone. And in all honesty I think treating the situation as surreal is probably one of the most helpful ways to cope with the whole thing, because IMO that "one step removed" feeling coincides with the kind of holistic empathy that we're all going to need to get through this mess alive (and not necessarily alive in physical terms; I'm thinking of a different kind of "alive" here).

I discovered PO almost a year ago now, and not only has it changed my outlook on a great many things, it's also made me pay attention to some things I previously ignored. And what I started finally paying attention to really hit home for me in terms of understanding our overall situation.

A year ago, if you'd showed me a movie of what this past year has been like to witness from a PO perspective, I would have thought it was the weirdest most outlandish fiction I'd seen in my life. And yet, here it is.

Fiction has got NOTHING on what reality is doing right now.

[chargrove]

Err, that was me. Not sure why I wasn't logged in.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')
Are we the only ones who aren't on prozac, zooloft, or drunk on consumerism?

How many people do you figure have been rendered insensitive to survival issues because they're so doped up on mood elevators?

[MD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '.').... I think I'm fairly in touch with the possibility of impending banana, ......

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', ' ')thanks a bunch!

[Sencha]

I just want to let you know, I can totally relate to you jdmartin. Let me tell you, one of the wierdest things is walking across my campus green on a busy day. Everywhere I look there are these students and I can't help but think they haven't the slightest clue their career paths will probably be obsolete in less than a decade. Somtimes I think I'm the only one that realizes whats going on.

I actually feel bad for these people, at least I have a heads up. But everyone else is so clueless. They have no idea what's coming. Yet, I just know they think they're going to graduate, ease themselves into a nice, steady job and live the American Hallucination. I was wrong to have allowed myself to be scammed by "higher education", its just a racket like most things. But at least I know it, unlike the glorified proles I go to class with.

[Aaron]

Nope... it's only you.

[Free]

I totally know what you mean, peak oil is my daily terror soap, but the bad news is it steps out of the monitor.

Always when I start to think I have been sucked up by some weird banana sect there is news in the mainstream media which makes it clear it's not some weird nightmare but a reality I have to deal with.

But as you said, the worst part is that nobody else seems to see this, which makes it sometimes hard to believe I am still sane.
Do you know the movie where some guy discovers shades which show reality? People look like aliens and on money and adverts there is written in huge letters "Obey" "Work" "Sleep" and so on. Peak Oil is like these shades to me.

[SeasonOfPain]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Free', 'D')o you know the movie where some guy discovers shades which show reality? People look like aliens and on money and adverts there is written in huge letters "Obey" "Work" "Sleep" and so on. Peak Oil is like these shades to me.

[Triffin]

Some days I almost feel as if I'm watching all of this happen as an out-of-body experience

Or as a bit actor in someone else's play ..

My problem is that I'm living with the "zombies"
I can't seem to break thru to my wife/daughters to convince
them that PO is something that will alter our/their
lifestyles .. I get the ... "hmmm that's interesting
dear .. gotta go etc" ... I'm chomping at the bit to
initiate some changes and everyone around me has
the blinders on and just continuing to go about
their business ... There's barely enough time to
just keep up with the day to day demands of living
never mind to evaluate something like PO and it's
possible/probable ramifications ..

Triff .. @frustrated.com