[trespam]

I'd like to start a good reading list for Realists who are interested in peak oil. The Peak Oil for Realists Reading List. This is a reading list that encompasses the many different sides of the issue. It is a reading list composed of many books written long ago, and others more recent. I'll compose bit by bit, over time.

I've not looked at any of the responses (or lack thereof) to my comments yesterday. Primarily because there is no need to immediately. We have time. What’s the hurry? In a week, we’ll be discussing the same issues. In a month, the same. Better to make progress than just dither posting uselessly and arguing about how incompetent the Katrina response was. Peak Oil is a long-term phenomenon, though it is incumbent on all of us to always define our terms and quantify what we mean by “long-term.” For the moment, it will remain undefined.

As an aside, I would like to point out the irony, if that’s the right word, of Kunslter calling his book “The LONG Emergency” (emphasis on LONG). The irony is that Kunslter was announcing the end of industrial society, or at least a major breakdown (read run to the hills) for Y2K. It didn’t come to be. Now here’s the problem. He defined an event. With a date. Always bad. He was called on it. He was wrong. So now isn’t it convenient that he’s latched onto an event that is LONG? No matter how LONG it takes, he’s right. If the major major crisis isn’t by 2010, who cares. He still selling additional copies of The LONG Emergency. Cause it’s long. Get it. 2020. Still selling books.

A second thought to keep in mind. Any issue of interest and importance will almost always have the freaks and the psychos and the fanatics and the never-to-be’s at the front, at the vanguard. Why? Because those psychos and freaks are at the vanguard of everything damn thing out there. And low and behold, one of them is going to finally hit pay dirt. I assume you guys know the story about the expert coin flipper? Line up 1 million people. Have them flip coins. Heads you stay, tails you’re out. Keep flipping. Soon you only have a handful of flippers left. The expert flippers. Finally, only a few remain. Stop at say five to ten. That’s enough. The worlds expert flippers. These guys write books. They go on talk shows. They get their little radio spots. Some of those flipper-winner-types are writing the articles you’re reading (maybe at financial sense?) about investment advice, the end of the financial world, about putting all your money into gold, etc. etc. etc. Caveat emptor. Not saying there aren’t problems. But caveat emptor all the same.

Of course, you know these guys can’t flip any better than you or me. Luck of the draw. So there are all these fanatics and psychos on the vanguard. Some of them have been telling us about peak oil for years. Well, you know what, peak oil is a problem. And here’s the deal. At this point it’s time to get the psychos and freaks and wanna-be’s out of the way. Because they are not going to do anything. I will not name names. It’s inflammatory and you can decide. Just remember: at the vanguard of any great idea are the wackos. And once the wacko hits pay dirt, competent people need to knock them aside in order to make real progress. That is a fact a life, and you can make more, and do better in life—financially and otherwise—by keeping that in mind, and not spending so much time on the survivalist doomer dribble that passes for peak oil around here.

With that out of the way, I suggest today’s book on this thread to be the following:

Entropy: A new world view. By Jeremy Rifkin. Written in 1981. It spells out in nice detail all of the entropy related arguments that have been discussed here. Buy it used. It’s cheap. Find a library that has it. Read it. Then you can be done with all the entropy discussions. Don’t waste your time further. Rifkin is right—in theory—but it’s all a matter of perspective and timing. Rifkin thought the end was near. Immediately. So did most of the people who wrote this and similar books in the 1980s (based on the problems with energy that occurred in the 1970s, 1980s, the increasing ecological consciousness, and the fears about overpopulation and other matters). It’s all in this book. He discusses entropy in terms of energy, but entropy in terms of matter. It’s a neat concise—and correct—analysis of the issue. But remember it says nothing about the relationship between entropy and economics and industrial society. That is a complex problem. Some sophisticated modeling will tell us more. More on that later.

So that’s today’s recommendation. There are more. I’ll dredge them up. I’m going to bet that a lot of them are similar to books that are referenced at dieoff.org (which is a great source of information by the way), but since this is an open forum, and I think the blather that takes place on peakoil.com is pretty mindless, I’ll at minimum post a few things of use.

And also note the following: Some will accuse of me “not contributing.” Just posting stuff to cause problems. Or the likes. Wrong. They miss the point. This site might be useful as an entry level into peak oil, but like so many other sites—Life after…and even some of the extreme “we need to go back to nature” types—they will finally have to be slapped out of the way so real progress can be made. And they will turn off just as many people as they attract—probably more. I suspect if you analyze the use of the site that people will come here, use it for a while, and then those that stay are largely the doomers.

Mingling the discussion of peak oil with Illuminati conspiracy theories and the latest-whatever-Ruppert is ranting about problem is not going to help. It won’t. As they say, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” And the racists and genocides and conspirators and depressed people who having nothing better to do than post news articles about tragedy and despair are not part of the solution: they’re part of the problem.

You will have to decide which you want to be. Remember: I believe in peak oil. I believe that industrial society is a problem. I’ve always believed it. Huxley’s Island should also be on our reading list. I read that 20 years ago. I agree with Thom Hartmann's Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. And many of his others writings. I’m not an economist (and don’t play one on TV). Nor an environmentalist. Nor any of these “labels.” I’m simply looking at the facts. And the unknowns. And the facts of life (we’re all mortal). And then looking at the world to determine how we make progress with those facts. Spending too much time with the survivalist, racists, genocides, and depressed on this site is not progress. And that’s not to malign the many good people on this site. It’s argued that peakoil.com is better than yahoo. Sure. Fine. Great. But not good enough. Not sufficient. Not really part of the solution—getting peak oil into the mass psyche—and therefore part of the problem.

PS: For the unnamed individual who thinks a man with a sign asking for gas is relevant to peak oil: you need a new thinking cap. The world could be swimming in the fucking stuff and a category 4/5 hurricane would screw everything up so bad that people would be up with these signs. My point: Spending the time to put up a post with a picture of man with a sign like that is the sign of someone pointlessly wasting his time. Not a good example of someone to listen to very closely.

Ok, back to flipping those coins.

[Jack]

Jeremy Rifkin?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')lthough Rifkin possesses no formal training in the sciences, he nonetheless speaks out against biotechnology, the genetic research that could offer cures to diseases such as Sickle Cell Anemia, Alzheimer's and others and has already made possible the development of heartier, more disease-resistant agricultural crops. Rifkin apparently fears that without strict government controls, biotechnology would allow scientists to "play God" and result in Nazi-type attempts to create a master race.

[trespam]

Jack: Rifkin's book addresses the topic of entropy. There is an unnamed moderator on this board who does the same, hold's very similar opinions about human development, technology, etc. In fact, two of the moderators are very negative about human development. Rifkin's book is a good way for someone to read it, understand that 20 years ago these issues have been considered, and once they've read it they can move on to the next issue.

Now: I've got a degree in physics, I've worked on some of the hardest problems in the area of physics (tensor fields to solve seismic propagation problems at Scripps institiute's IGPP, the institute of geologic and planetary physics).

I found the book a good read. What credentials do you bring to this discussion?

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('trespam', 'A')nd also note the following: Some will accuse of me “not contributing.” Just posting stuff to cause problems. Or the likes. Wrong. They miss the point.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('trespam', 'N')ow: I've got a degree in physics, I've worked on some of the hardest problems in the area of physics (tensor fields to solve seismic propagation problems at Scripps institiute's IGPP, the institute of geologic and planetary physics).

I found the book a good read. What credentials do you bring to this discussion?

[trespam]

Another addition to the reading list: Straw Dogs by John Gray.

But before that, I just want to add a couple comments to yesterday's book on Entropy. It was pointed out that the author is not a scientist. He's not. He's also written additional books on topics like the Hydrogen Economy and the problems with modern society—e.g. employment, etc. Some will argue that the Hydrogen Economy is a farce. They're probably right. Though I think at the time he wrote that book--don't know when--it made sense to (a) address once again the issue of hydrocarbon depletion and (b) provide some thoughts on alternatives. In addition, if you look at the work of folks like Richard Smalley and his efforts to address energy problems with nanotechnology, you will find that even a fairly bright guy with a Nobel price under his belt is giving it the old Navy try on solar and hydrogen. Miracles are required, as Smalley points out, but we won't achieve them sitting on our ass stuffing our cellars with military rations.

Now about Rifkin and his book on Entropy. I just want to add that this book does have the support of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen. For those who have not looked too much at the field of ecological economics, most working in that field consider Nicholas to be the source and inspiration for much of their thinking. Nicholas produced several books, attempting to create a field of economics that is based upon energy and entropy. It's said that all roads lead to Plato in Western thinking. That idea is probably bunk. But it's pretty safe to say that most roads leading to current thinking in ecological economics start with or pass through the work of Nicholas. The fact that Nicholas supported Rifkin's book and authored the Afterword is a good sign in my thinking.

OK, on to today's book. Straw Dogs. The doomers are often telling us--or at least me--that humans are pathetic animals, there is no morality other than power, and that even if there is a veneer of morality, it will fall apart at the first sign of conflict. The powerful are all. I’ve read Foucault so I’m pretty game with this whole truth = power thing.

And there is some merit to this thinking. Humans are animals. I'm with them on that. And humans are fairly constrained creatures in a lot of ways--like bees in a hive. (Read the User Illusion by Norretranders to discover just how autonomic we really are).

So I do suggest that all those interested in peak oil and the horrors of humanity (here you should pronounce horror like our friend in Apocalypse Now for good effect—the horror) take a good look at Straw Dogs. It’s very aphoristic. A lot like reading Nietzsche. I find John Gray in fact to be a chip off the old Nietzsche block. Here are a couple quotes to wet your whistle. I’ll paraphrase to make it easier for me:

- species (including humans) cannot control their fates
- humans are highly inventive, yet the most predatory and destructive species.
- The humanist belief in progress is only a secular version of the Christian belief in salvation
- Darwin shows us that there is nothing called progress in the real world
- Humans are a rapacious primate, destroying the natural world
- A plague of people (think Agent Smiths comments here)
- Humanity does not exist. There are only humans driven by conflicting needs and illusions, subject to infirmity of will and judgment

OK, you get the point. 200 pages of small essays incorporating these ideas.

So here’s my recommendation. Read it. Absorb it. Much of it is true. Then get over it. Move on. I’m not saying to ignore it. But when certain unnameds on this board blather on about how peak oil means this or that because---and here they think they are providing you with some profound insight—tell them to fuck off ‘cause you read Straw Dogs. Been there. Done that.

Remember, I’m not saying to ignore these ideas. I’m simply saying that they are part of the toolkit one brings to the idea of peak oil. Entropy. Humans are shit.

Happy reading.

PS: to those on this board who say the Abu Ghraib problems (however you spell that fucking place) was just a few misfits, how come some of you are the same ones now arguing that the misfits causing problems in New Orleans are not just a few bad apples but representative of humans in general? Perhaps the same reason the news showed to white folks with “supplies” and said they were in search of food and showed a black kid with “loot” who was “looting.”

All a matter of perspective I guess.

PSPS: I’ll end with a poem I memorized over twenty years ago. It’s by Aldous Huxley. You might want to memorize it as part of your Humans are Shit addition to the peak oil toolkit.

The leech’s kiss
The squid’s embrace
The prurient ape’s defiling touch
And do you like the human race?
No. Not Much.

This was in a book by Aldous, though which I can’t remember. It doesn’t matter. I had the poem nicely framed by a calligraphist friend in college so know it’s accurate—she thought it was pretty strange to want to immortalize such an uplifting message. I’m just that kind of guy.

Cheers.

[bart]

1. Richard Heinberg. "The Party's Over" and "Powerdown". Required reading. He publishes a "Museletter" regularly that's worth subscribing too. Some back issues are on his website and on various other sites.

2. David Holmgren. "Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability". Co-founder of permaculture goes deeper into the ideas behind permaculture, and its place during Power Descent (his term for PO). There's a long interview with David on the subject at Energy Bulletin. Many of Holmgren's essays are available at his website; some are at Energy Bulletin.

3. "The Limits to Growth" (latest edition), Meadows et al. The book that started it all off in the 70s.

4. H.T. Odum. "The Prosperous Way Down" (deep thinking about a post-Peak society). Co-written with his wife, so it is more readable than his previous books. Odum was a genius, several decades ahead of his time. He focused on energy transfers in ecological systems.

There are links for these and many other writers at:
http://cwo.com/~bart/peak.htm
http://cwo.com/~bart/visions.htm
http://cwo.com/~bart/perm_links.htm

About Kunstler and Rifkin.

I like Kunstler because he's a good writer, full of fire and brimstone and he's generally right. I read him to hear that good Old Time Religion rather than to get new insights. He also can be hilarious -- like his piece on visiting the high-tech company (Google?) in California.

Rifkin is okay. He seems to be more of a journalist than a groundbreaking thinker, and I wish he were more critical in the ideas he pushes. I was dismayed to hear him arguing in favor of the hydrogen economy. I haven't read "Entropy" yet, and it probably is good.

[Ludi]

Beyond Civilization by Daniel Quinn. Also by him; Ishmael and The Story of B. The first is non-fiction, the second two are novels.

Permaculture: A Designers Manual by Bill Mollison.

[Macsporan]

Trespam, Trespam, you're back! (Macsporn capers)

I'll check out these books at once.

Loved the parable of the coin-flippers and dissing the doomers.

My sentiments exactly.

"This day, we fight!"

[PenultimateManStanding]

Straw Dogs by John Gray, reviewed by Diana Judd, Phd, Rutgers University:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')Religion, humanism, philosophy, belief in progress (indeed, belief in anything), industrialization, even civilization itself has, according to Gray, kept us from realizing our true nature: that we are just one more species of animal. And since “other animals do not need a purpose in life . . . can we not think of the aim of life as being simply to see?”

In two hundred pages of text, Gray never explains what this means.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Clearly, if you want to read drivel, follow along with the author of this thread and read John Gray, et al. For you discriminating types, I recommend Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace.

[J-Rod]

I think Twilight in the Desert Should be on this list. It's a no nonsense data heavy book that relies on facts from SPE papers. As realistic as it gets in the PO spectrum, even if it does read like a thesis.

[trespam]

Ok. Another addition to our reading list.

But first a few comments. To our poster who brought up this whole mars and venus thing, I've not researched it too much. But a quick peruse makes me ask the following of you: Do you think there just might be two John Gray's in the world? Maybe just two. Consider that. Do some homework, and report back your findings. Perhaps there is a fucking idiot named John Gray who writes books on mars and venus and another who writes on modern western society, a John Gray who also held senior and influential positions in the British govt for a time.

Perhaps they are the same. Tell you what. I'm not even going to take the time to research that one. And here I will test myself. I might prove to be an idiot on this one. Totally clueless. And then I will apologize. But everything tells me that these John Grays are different people. One is a thinker. The other a fucking idiot.

Let us know what you find when you've done your homework.

OK, with that out of the way, the other comment I saw, reviews that said the book was incoherent, proposed nothing, etc. EXACTLY MY POINT. John Gray, by the way, has taken a very solid look at the liberal project. The liberal project, for you dolts who don't realize that Republicans and Democrats are both part of the western liberal project, is an outcome of the enlightenment, science, Hobbes, Locke, etc. John Gray is a great critique of this thinking. And he's clearly written an aphoristic book on the human condition in producing Straw Dogs. Absolutely right. Somewhat pointless? True. But once you've read it, you can discount all the similarly pointless drivel you read posted here which is nothing but weak attempts to produce what John Gray has produced.

See, here's why I'm posting this stuff. We've got a lot of people here who are spending lots of time reading and writing drivel--or in many cases good stuff--that's already been written. Stop wasting your time. Do something positive with your life. Step back from the computer. John Gray and Rifkin, in Entropy, will clear the fog for that whole set of discussion that take place. Now you can ignore them. When newcomers come on board, just point them to Straw Dogs and Entropy. Done. The pontificators are out of a job. Now they’ll have to do something constructive with their time.

OK, with that said, let's look at a new book. I'll include two, since they're related. William Ophuls. Profound thinker. Very profound. Wrote Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity: The unraveling of the American Dream. And then produced Requiem for Modern Politics.

Both absolutely excellent. During the time that I ignored this site, I read those books. It was a much better use of my time. I've been researching this whole topic for quite a while (similar to the way I research the next big thing about 15 years ago and decided cellullar wireless communications was that next big thing). And I've spent the last 6 months looking more in depth with all that free time I have on my hands not working and ignoring this place.

So what's so great about Ophuls? He critically analyzes our political system, the western system in general and the American system in particular. And he looks at the ramifications of resource depletion. He looks at the effects of mass media. He looks at the effects of corporatization. He looks at the nanny state. The breakdown of morality. The subservience of news to politicos. It's all in there. It has got to be one of the best books I've ever read (Requiem that is).

So once you've read these books, you've got a couple more tools for your toolkit. All the discussion of politics, all the discussions of resource depletion, fascism, etc etc etc are in many ways footnotes to his thoughts.

Now, you're asking yourself? What has this got to do with peak oil? Exactly my point as well. The things run down argument (entropy), the humans are shit argument (straw dogs), and our political systems are inept and corrupt and blind argument (ophuls) are all true and can be put into your kit. These are background considerations to resource depletion.

Later, when we discuss Jantsch's book on the Self-Realizing Universe, and the more general theory of emergent properties, we'll discover that even with all that knowledge about entropy, all that knowledge about humans are shit, and all that knowledge about political corruption, nobody, and I mean nobody knows how this will play out. That's the whole point of emergent properties. Humans are an emergent phenomenon. So are bacteria. But the people who say humans are bacteria, and that when a dish of bacteria collapses in a certain fashion when the food runs and therefore humans will collapse in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY do not understand emergent properties. I'm not saying that we don't have problems. But get a life. Get away from the computer. It's not all doom and gloom.

Look at it another way. The world is a ship with limits (rifkin). Humans are shit (gray). Politics is corrupt (ophuls). We should not have developed agriculture (Diamond). So we're on this ship. Perhaps it is sinking a bit. We're not sure when. All ships sink (the entropy thing). The doomers argument: get into your lifeboat and head out. Head out where? Out there they say. Why I ask? To survive? What for? Well, just because. Because why?

It's just such a funny argument. The doomers want to circle the wagons, stock up supplies, so they can ride out the crash. For what purpose? I say: what a bunch of fucking wimps. Go down with the ship. If humans are shit, then lets take the whole god damn thing down and let the earth repair the damage. The last thing we want to do is to create little lifeboats of "sustainable living" that will do nothing more than repopulate the earth and start the process all over again (remember the humans are shit straw dogs thing). See. That’s the problem. The doomers say humans are shit and we need to do something—create sustainable communities—so that we can sustain ourselves in order to fuck the whole thing up down the line. I say if we’re going to fuck it up, let’s do it right now and get it over with. Or better yet: Let’s not run to the hills like sorry ass wimps, let’s not produce book after book after book on this conspiracy (read illuminati): let’s do something. That’s my attitude. And the doomers are doing nothing. They are therefore part of the problem (see my previous posts on the hopeless and the realists).

I say if the ship is sinking, do the right thing: stick around and help reducing the suffering of all those who remain on board. Be a person who helps a little kid into a lifeboat, or amuses him while the ship goes down, not one of the ass holes who kicks the little kid out of the way, grabs a lady by the hair, and jumps into a lifeboat which will, after two days in the open ocean, overturn him and his sorry ass into the sea.

So you get it. Even the environmentalists who want to save the earth by creating sustainable communities. If humans are shit, then we're just going to fuck the whole place up. Might as well do it now, all go down with the ship, and then let the earth evolve something better.

Ok, now that's not what I really believe. But the argument that you need to save your sorry little ass is just pathetic. Self-serving. Maybe I'll throw a Buddhist text into the set of required peak oil reading. (Though The User Illusion is probably just as good). The whole self thing. The self is the source of our problems. Greed etc. And the dorks who think they needs to save their asses by surviving are just another example of the humans are selfish shit argument as discussed in straw dogs.

Here’s something I am wondering. Should I put any of the peak oil books into my list. Wouldn’t it be easier just to say the following: Resources are limited, as resources run out, they become more expensive, as they become more expensive, people switch to something else or do without, if they have to do without they either do fine, have a lower standard of living, or die. People will die in the end anyway. That’s a given. Odds are the lower standard of living path will be most likely. Oh yeah, and oil is a resource. And there are signs that we are running up against the limits. Though perhaps I should also add a small comment. Approximately 75% of US oil production comes from stripper wells that produce, on average, 2.2 barrels a day. Read Youngquist’s Geodestinies for more on this topic. As oil becomes more expensive, the ODEC, the CERAs, the ASPOs will not take into account the enormous about of money that will be funneling into creating low-volume wells. I’m not saying we don’t have a problem. I say it ameliorates the problem. Makes it a little less worse.

So we should probably end with a different poem today. One that once again demonstrates that I'm not some kumbaya hippie. This one’s by Hemmingway. It fits with the whole Ophuls politics is shit theme:

The age demanded that we sing
And cut away our tongue
The age demanded that we flow
And hammerd in the bung
The age demanded that we dance
And jammed us into iron pants
And in the end the age was handed
All the shit that it demanded

See, I’m negative just like the rest of them. Had my friend nicely write that one so I could hang on the wall.

PS: Just to be clear. I love reading Kunstler. Very amusing. Great social criticism. But just as I don’t set my world view on that produced by a comedian on the stage, I’ll not form a world view just from the writings of Kunstler. There’s Rifkin, Younquist, Ophuls, Gray, etc to help me form my world view.

Later.

[Ludi]

Wow, you're in super-rant-mode, trespam.

Why would we leap to the conclusion that "humans are shit." Why not consider the possibility that our culture made some wrong moves. Cultures can change. Ours isn't the only possible culture.

[trespam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'W')ow, you're in super-rant-mode, trespam.

Why would we leap to the conclusion that "humans are shit." Why not consider the possibility that our culture made some wrong moves. Cultures can change. Ours isn't the only possible culture.

[Ludi]

I don't think it's possible to have a public internet forum without what you call "psychos" et al. I've never seen a messageboard without these types of people. Heck, I'm one of these types myself. And you look like one too, trespam, with these long rants, to be perfectly honest.

I'm hoping you'll find time to post in my "global community solution" thread.

[PenultimateManStanding]

One of the John Grays is sort of a Mr. Dr. Laura, Relationship Counselor. The other is a third rate Nietzsche wannabe who says, 'Humans are shit'. Would be funny if they were the same guy.

[HoveRoyal]

Ah, at last a thread with some intelligence in it... I think...

Well, if all that homework looks a bit daunting to you - it does me - I will get my copy of Limits to Growth out again soon, promise ("Once I put it down, I could not pick it up again!", etc, etc ) - you could do a lot worse than look at anything by John Wyndham. The Chrysalids is my personal favourite, although Wyndham was thinking in terms of a post-apocolyptic-nuclear-type-thingy, it seems strangely appropriate to some of the fears surrounding PO. Or then again completely irrelevant. As trespam says: you be the judge...

[bart]

Thanks for bringing up science fiction, HoveRoyal . Science fiction of all sorts encourages flexible thinking about the future. That's critical when we're facing a drastic change in the nature of society.

There's a forum about sf ("Peak Oil... novels") which has good recommendations:

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic5721.html+fiction

Our big problem is that our thinking and ideas have been formed during a period of cheap fossil fuels -- it's hard to get outside this mindset.

Once you accept any version of the Peak Oil thesis, I think it's more important to read history, science fiction and self-sufficiency/survival skills than to spend time wondering exactly when the peak will hit.

[trespam]

Ok, if people don't mind, I'm going to keep this particular thread going for a while. And don't forget [The Hopeless and the Realists].

Recapping a bit: My intent in posting recently on this and other threads (rants, I agree) is to bring a certain perspective—my perspective no doubt—to the discussion. The Hopeless—many of whom are bottom feeders to me, feeding on people’s fears or greed—will misinform or misdirect. Hence the spate of posts comparing Katrina to peak oil. All nonsense. All bottom feeders. Katrina is a natural disaster compounded by incompetence (a FEMA leader with—hmmm—no leadership experience; even Bush finally had to pull the idiot). The bottom feeders will grasp at anything to prove their points.

Hence my placing Entropy and Straw Dogs and Requiem for Modern Politics on the required reading list. Bottom feeders use entropy to argue that the end is nigh. They also love to argue that humans are the lowest-common-denominator and therefore morality is out the door. If you want to believe this nonsense, fine. They’re ready and willing to sell you more of it.

Another area of nonsense brought to you by the bottom feeders: the debt based economy, the debt based monetary system. It is about to implode they tell you. You ever notice how the bottom feeders are always using superlatives. As the dictionary says: Excessive or exaggerated. Now I agree, I’ve used quite a few superlatives myself. I’ll stop.

Now on this money thing: the bottom feeders wish that we could go back to the good old days, the gold standard. It does make sense. If you’re going to have a monetary system, tie it into some random element. Make it a shiny one. One that people like to wear. One that, if you look at the details, you’ll find can be found readily in, for example India. They love gold. Bad news: if we switch to the gold standard, watch out if India decides to bathe the world’s economy is a river of flowing gold as they melt their many gold holdings to convert to oil and other products. What will happen will be similar to what happened in Europe after the Spanish raped—I mean developed—South America. It’s called inflation. Huge inflation. Suddenly your gold isn’t worth what you thought it would be. “Hey” you say, “I thought gold held it’s value, that it was a stable source of value.” Answer: Sometimes. Sometimes not. In debt based economies we have something called the money supply. In gold based economies, there of course is the gold supply. Does the fact that politicians eat into your wealth bit by inexorable bit (or quite fast) through inflation, in the fiat money system, suck? You bet. That’s why there is something called interest bearing accounts. It’s all relative. And by the way: long term, gold bugs have failed big time. Really big time. They’re coin flipper. Beware the bottom feeding coin flippers.

Debt based money has its problems. It also has its nice side. When the debt collapses, as has happened many times in the past, the money supply collapses as well. Exactly what you would want. So I’ll put on the required reading list “The Future of Money” by Bernard Lietaer. [link]. In addition to describing monetary systems, it also proposes alternate systems that local communities can create. Are there better books? Yup. No doubt lots of them. Are some of his examples silly? Yup? Like frequent flyer miles. Funny thing though, they have become an alternate money system.

Whatever the case, I just think that, when dealing with the bottom feeders in the peak oil realm, it is important to have a good handle on monetary theory, entropy, the human animal, and human politics. Then start discounting the “superlatives.” Peak oil is a problem. But I’m still highly confident that higher oil prices are going to ameliorate the peak into a long, painful plateau. That’s the “long emergency.” Beware the hopeless.

And for the gold bugs, I highly recommend you consider putting your money into the Yap Stone Money. [link]. Here’s the reason. When the shit hits the fan, as you like to say, you’ll have a store of wealth. And note this. It’s big. If someone steals it while you’re out composting, you know you can easily hunt them down. Just follow the ruts made by them rolling it away. They will not have gotten far. And, here’s the best part. When the shit hits the fan, and the world falls apart, you can make one of those cool Flintstone cars using this money. See: they’re stone age wheels. Much more useful than gold.