[the_red_pill]

Peak oil has started me on what many would call a mid-life crisis. It has reversed a course that I believe would've left me with partially an empty, wasted life.

I continue to read books and study philosophy and history. It's not just the PO issue, but the whole path of humanity in general that I wonder about now. I've seen this country I live in turn its back on the principles of the constitution, I've seen a people becoming complacent, lazy and unconcerned about what goes outside their borders.

Thomas Jefferson wrote:
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.....The people cannot be safe without information.

I think of all the ignorance that has caused our government to become big and completely unconcerned for the common good, only the elite, wealthy who can speak into the congress' ear. It troubles me that I too, was so asleep for so long.

I'm struggling now with the question of: Can I make a difference? Can I do something to change where I see the world going? It is terrifying.

I have turned off my tv, opened my mind and began letting the written word of our forebears and the prophets of today. I see that man's course of overuse and spoiling its planet is about to be paid back in spades. We had a great present gifted to us by God, nature, whatever/whomever you call it and we've blown almost all of it on some really stupid ideas: globalization, Hummers, McDonalds, Wal-mart.

Somehow, I want to be positive for the tomorrow's generation. But somehow, I am rooting for the earth and hope that it gets back what belongs to it. A billion years from now, the planet will have erased all that once was.

So much emotion, intellectual stimulation, questioning and contrarian beliefs to my upbringing are colliding in my head and leaving me exhausted of thoughts of what I should do. I continue to maintain my job and continue to exercise our frugal habits (some newly learned, others have been for a long time). At some point in the future, I hope to let this life go and embrace a new one. I'm not sure yet what that is, though.

Do others of you feel the burden of carrying this truth? It's as if we have been to the future and we know what is going to happen, but are powerless to convince anyone of what may be. Many people here just don't give a damn. They don't think, they waste, they are so blissfully unaware in their ignorance of what life is supposed to be.

I see this day by day in the wasteful usage of resources, in the shopping carts in the store, in the forests choked with trash, to brand new clothes in the dumpster. It hurts me to see so much injustice in this world.

I used to embrace technology but now question that perhaps we have really lost touch with nature, the land, the earth with our lust for manufactured perfection. I question that renewable resources will be a panacea for us to evolve as a race. What price have we paid to make our lives so easy that they lack meaning or depth? What accomplishment can we say is made when a couple must work full time jobs, be away from each other, their children/families and the things they should cherish in their lives? Everyone is working so hard. Working to pay for what? Things? 401ks? Cars? McMansions? Ipods? Where does this insanity end?

Technology has not improved our lives in the right ways I believe. Sure, I don't have to get up and plow a field and hope I get to eat, but I won't get to spend time with my wife b/c I have to be in a closed office being enslaved by a corporate master. I will argue that maybe our toys are cooler now than the times past, but the fact is the US is no better than the pillaging Romans, the murderous Spaniards or even the tyrannical sovereignty of the country we just invaded. All we do is try to excuse it by saying we're putting others free and expanding our liberty. What a bunch of bs.

My rambling will cease for the moment. I hope you can see some of what is going in my mind.

[Nano]

Hi. I sure know what you mean. My situation is about the same as yours it seems. PO hit me in the back of the head round about this time last year. Can't say I ever really recovered. The good thing is I've been taking life much more seriously since then. The bad thing is that people around me think I've gone nuts, since I used to be good for a laugh and now I'm all serious!

A few thing you might want to keep in mind, would've saved me some problems:

1. Go easy on the doom and gloom. You don't want to alienate yourself!
2. Go easy on criticising other people, your country, humanity or technology or whatever. Danger, pain and death are a part of existence, even before PO. Nothing new under the sun.
3. Don't worry too much, worry is most often a waste of time.
4. Be happy. "Life is what happens too you while you're busy making other plans"

[EdF]

Hey red pill,

I suspect this reply is going to be a lot of random observations and opinions.

Appreciate the fact that you're asking those questions and that you're uncomfortable - it's real living. You've made a leap of consciousness to get to the point you're at right now. It's no small feat, and yes, it's painful because it's tossing what's likely a harsh light on all kinds of assumptions and beliefs you're probably lived with most of your life. I think it was the Buddha who said "the path is the goal", and a 15th century Tibetan monk who elaborated it to say that the purpose of life it the search for meaning. (I'm sure that monk wasn't the only one who said it).

As far as our rapacious ways go, I was reading something on the web a few months back called The Final Empire. The author's premise is that it's "civilization" itself that's the problem. He defines civilization as an orientation of viewing the world around us as resources to be exploited, rather than the stance that humanity is part of the world, and can use its intelligence to work with the gran rather than against it. Not a new idea, nor one you won't find in a lot of other places, like permaculture literature.

As far as influence goes, I really believe that we each influence (and are influenced by) our immediate living circumstances, and we can have effects that are meaningful even in such apparently circumscribed a situation. Sometimes we can affect the larger scale too.

I'll second Nano's recommendation not to get too far into gloomerosity - it's paralyzing because it shuts down our ability to see what we can do. And if times get tough, as it appears they will, we each need as much alertness to our options as we can muster.

Off the soapbox.

- Ed

[Ludi]

EdF, if you liked "The Final Empire," you might want to try reading Derrick Jensen and Daniel Quinn, who deal with the same themes in different ways.
Jensen writes nonfiction, Quinn mostly writes fiction and essays.

Some of DQ's essays: http://www.ishmael.com/Education/Writings/

[EdF]

Thanks, Ludi.

[Jeremiah]

I don't kid myself that I somehow know the future. No one does.

If you want another entirely different perspective on the future, try Ray Kurzweil "In the Age of Spiritual Machines". Or his new one, "The Singularity is Near".

[lowem]

"One man can make a difference."

- Yeah, I know, for the old folks here, that was from Knight Rider, but it's appropriate enough.

Yes, you can make a difference. Sure, you may not have the clout to affect millions, but you can start with one person at a time - you. Then your family, friends, colleagues.

Spread the word. Blog your thoughts. Discuss in forums like here and energyresources. Collect news clippings for the peakoil.com front page. Make changes to your lifestyle. Save. Invest. Learn. There's a lot one can do. Or *not* do, come to think of it (spend frivolously, consume recklessly, blah).

[Guest]

Hi red pill.

I noticed you found peak oil about the same time I did, and it seems like we are riding the same cycles of coping (when I often feel like posting a new idea, its seems like you beat me to it by hours. )

What this reply comes down to is that your feelings are shared by many. I, too often, find myself sickened by the over consumption of our society, and our misplaced values.

We are lemmings running towards the cliff. However we can make a difference. We know that the cliff is high, and the water is deep. We can stop running. We can try to get others to stop as well.
Yes a lot of our fellows in humanity are going to take that plunge. It's unfortunate.
But you can make a difference, if at least on a personal level.

Others are right. Theres no point in worrying. Worrying is inaction. Channel the worry and do. One step at a time. Each day I: rid myself of more clutter and things that are not useful, learn or read up on a handy skill, try to make someone smile (friends are important), and make my self more energy independent.

And don't take it all out on the country. There is a lot of good, that you have thrown out with all the BS. People have just grown complacent is all.

It all comes down to survival and love. Love yourself, you're fellow man, and the earth to the best of your ability. We all have to go sometime, Might as well make the best of the time we have left. Now get out there and tell a special someone in you life how much they mean to you.

[pjd2]

That last post was me. I did not realize I wasn't logged in. Sorry.

pjd

[Barbara]

Great post, great person.

[Guest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('the_red_pill', 'I') continue to read books and study philosophy and history.

[the_red_pill]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') book I have just read is "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond.

[FairMaiden]

Well written post - I enjoyed reading your eloquent way of putting my feelings onto screen.

I do differ somewhat from you, in that I have never been asleep. I've also felt the destruction we were causing. My mother likes to tell a story of me crying uncontrollably whenever she bleached the counters. I chose a career where I promote dense neighbourhoods and try to help others become less car dependant. Even still it feels as tho its a drop in the ocean. I feel useless - as tho I've been wasting my time. I should have gone the corporate root and made lots of money. Then I would have the necessary finances to protect myself. As it is, I have nothing. No savings, no home with land and I'm wondering how to prepare.

[Guest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s it is, I have nothing. No savings, no home with land and I'm wondering how to prepare.

[AmericanEmpire]

Sorry, that last post was me. But like I was saying the old people created this world that is now polluted, concreted and paved over, and resource depleted and have left the young people with the bill.

Yes, it pisses me off that they had no regard for the future. I got a feeling they didn't give a damn cause they would be dead when the problems hit anyways.

[Paul64]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AmericanEmpire', '
')So, yeah at times I get pissed at the old folks who created this mess for us young people while they partied their whole lives. Maybe its jelousy but I don't give a damn. They had an easy life at the expense of future generations.