[AmericanEmpire]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ince i know this life is gonna be miserable what a waste of existence.

[Revi]

Welcome to the world that 4/5 of humanity lives in every day. We'll all just keep waking up every day. We'll make it through each day, god willing. There may be food, there may not be. It may be cold, we'll have to deal with that. Life's a gamble. Don't, whatever you do, commit suicide. There may be lots of chances to die later. Don't you want to stick around to see the show? At least long enough to tell a few people, "I told you this would happen. You never listened to me when I was ranting about peak oil..." It may be worth it to stick around just for that moment!

[stopper]

I agree with Revi - stick around and enjoy the show!!!

Just like Slim pickens riding the nuke or Steve Boush - whatever his last name is in Armageddon - "what are you doing? I had a great seat to watch the end of the world!!!"

Don't kill yourselves for the love of pete, it would be a waste of a good bullet. Use that bullet on a looter!!!!!!!!!!!

[PrairieMule]

Johnie Cash summed it up best

When I'm all through if I haven't been what they think I should be
If the total isn't high enough when they figure me
When I grow old if there's no gray from worry in my hair
What do I care what do I care
What do I care just as long as you were mine a little while
When the road was long and weary you gave me a few good mile
What do I care if I miss a goal because I make a slip
I'll still be satisfied because I tasted your sweet lips
What do I care if I never have much money
And sometimes my table looks a little bare
Anything that I may miss is made up for each time we kiss
You love me and I love you so what do I care

[AmericanEmpire]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')on't you want to stick around to see the show?

[sameu]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AmericanEmpire', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')on't you want to stick around to see the show?

[SeasonOfPain]

This discussion is fascinating. I often wonder where people's strong desire to survive comes from, if not to:

a. pursue happiness without devoting all your energy on survival (I've spent my whole life developing my mind, conspicuously ignoring my survival skills)
b. avoiding afterlife punishment for suicide (I'm areligious)
c. perpetuate the species (I'm strongly opposed to breeding more resource-consumers)

I can see some deriving some basic satisfaction from getting "back to basics", but as much as I despise our consumerist society I must acknowledge that I am fully its prisoner, and would derive no satisfaction from grubbing out a living after a lifetime of living without serious want.

Really, I don't think I'm alone in wondering about this. I'm not suicidal, yet I don't have much to live for past the collapse other than a vague notion that I'd rather not "give up". If you don't have fitness, religion, or kids, what does a resource-depleted world offer?

[Wrencher]

This is an interesting thread. It seems to speak of a lot of very empty lives. Our lives will be different, and maybe harder physically.

When my kids were little, I read a lot to them. We read all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. The kids liked them, and there was another layer above the simple story for the adults. These were people that sometimes had almost nothing, and yet they weren't poor. Laura, Carrie and Mary often lived in situations where they couldn't attend school, and yet they became educated and cultured individuals. They had a work ethic, supported each other as a family, and had an emotionally and culturally full life.

I also have to fall back on the experiences of my parents as they went through the Great Depression. Both families had very little money, and depended on gardens, canning, home raised chickens, sewing their clothes to get by. Maybe it will be different on the way down from the great wealth and convience that we have now. They were always hoping and working for better times. We really don't know that some unforeseen good things will come from this change. Maybe you could argue that they just didn't know enough to be unhappy with their lot in life. But it seems to me that while we have more 'things', more education, more sophistication that our lives have less meaning, and we are spoiled and less happy.

The coming changes from the Peak Oil experience will make us generally poorer in material things. No one really doubts that. But life will still be full of surprises, and the sun will still shine. If we lack emotional or spiritual depth in our lives now, we have too look inward, not outward for the solution. You can be broke without being poor.

[bruss01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeasonOfPain', 'T')his discussion is fascinating. I often wonder where people's strong desire to survive comes from, if not to:

a. pursue happiness without devoting all your energy on survival (I've spent my whole life developing my mind, conspicuously ignoring my survival skills)
b. avoiding afterlife punishment for suicide (I'm areligious)
c. perpetuate the species (I'm strongly opposed to breeding more resource-consumers)

I can see some deriving some basic satisfaction from getting "back to basics", but as much as I despise our consumerist society I must acknowledge that I am fully its prisoner, and would derive no satisfaction from grubbing out a living after a lifetime of living without serious want.

Really, I don't think I'm alone in wondering about this. I'm not suicidal, yet I don't have much to live for past the collapse other than a vague notion that I'd rather not "give up". If you don't have fitness, religion, or kids, what does a resource-depleted world offer?

[Princess]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bruss01', 'I') wonder, how can someone justify going on living RIGHT NOW, if everything they value in life can be taken away by a simple social or economic collapse? That person must be very "poor" indeed!

[AmericanEmpire]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') wonder, how can someone justify going on living RIGHT NOW, if everything they value in life can be taken away by a simple social or economic collapse?

[AmericanEmpire]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') wonder, how can someone justify going on living RIGHT NOW, if everything they value in life can be taken away by a simple social or economic collapse?

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AmericanEmpire', '
')With peak oil we are talking about the vast majority of us no longer being able to get our basic needs. Thats what will cause the dieoff.

[bruss01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AmericanEmpire', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') wonder, how can someone justify going on living RIGHT NOW, if everything they value in life can be taken away by a simple social or economic collapse?

[AmericanEmpire]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hy are you so sure things will go that bad?

[Guest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AmericanEmpire', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')I'm sorry but most people don't have and won't ever have those skills. For them the choice is gonna be rolling over and dieing or killing for and stealing the things that they need.

[SeasonOfPain]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AmericanEmpire', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') wonder, how can someone justify going on living RIGHT NOW, if everything they value in life can be taken away by a simple social or economic collapse?

[RacerJace]

I am growing weary of the imminent hell on earth prophecies on this forum, speculating a sudden crash into chaos and mayhem. Even the poorest nations in isolated regions of the world (eg Zimbabwe) are not crashing overnight but are gradually day by day sinking into 3rd world poverty and starvation. Their vulnerability is based on the fact that their economies are already weak.

Whilst I do believe there will be a die-off it will most likely happen over many decades and be periodically accelerated by natural disasters that we no longer have the means to recover from or from resource wars waged by nations that have big enough caches of weapons to outlast their opponents.

Many cycles of recession and minor recovery (due to demand destruction) are likely to happen over the next decade. Each cycle will strip away another layer of excess and consumerism until the cost of business is prohibitive even for the most basic of modern human needs (providing food water and electricity). When the foundations of a nations GDP be it agriculture, mining, manufacturing or technology etc, collapse then the rate of sinking will increase like a phase change and 3rd world existence will arrive.

Hopefully by then those that manage to avoid the hazards of rising unemployment, crime and human desperation will have found a safe and sustainable life to go on with.

.

[jesus_of_suburbia_old]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') am growing weary of the imminent hell on earth prophecies on this forum, speculating a sudden crash into chaos and mayhem. Even the poorest nations in isolated regions of the world (eg Zimbabwe) are not crashing overnight but are gradually day by day sinking into 3rd world poverty and starvation. Their vulnerability is based on the fact that their economies are already weak.

[RacerJace]

Jesus_Of_Suburbia wrote:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he term doomer, I think, is thrown around a little too willy-nilly. It's often given to anyone who doesn't think life on the downward slope will be better or the same than life on the incline. It should be saved for the overnight collapse, die-off in a year w/ constant and indiscriminate killing future...types.