[smallpoxgirl]

I've cried for the forests, and the owls, and the wolves. I've cried for the Bison and the Indians. I've cried at the thought of climate change and the Moab talling pile and the fate of the U'Wa and millions of other indigenous peoples. I've cried about all the nuclear waste at Hanford that will continue to leach into the Columbia for another 1000 years. I've cried about the Anaconda mine that will continue leaching heavy metals into the Clark Fork River for 10,000 years. I've cried looking at satelite photos of the Puget Sound. An obvious cancer of humans eating away at a living planet.

Peak Oil is a little sparkling glimmer of hope in a world that is quickly turning into one big cesspool.

[apocolyptica]

peak oil a glimmer of hope? when the united states and china get into a nuclear war over oil will it be a glimmer of hope then? what about when the supermarkets are empty and people are killing one another over a box of corn flakes will it be a glimmer of hope then?

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('apocolyptica', 'w')hen the united states and china get into a nuclear war over oil will it be a glimmer of hope then? what about when the supermarkets are empty and people are killing one another over a box of corn flakes will it be a glimmer of hope then?

[Dukat_Reloaded]

Don't get all like that smallpoxgirl. In away, I think we are doing alot of good. We are re-releasing large stores of carbon back into the atmosphere which have been lost from the environment over the millions of years. If we did not come along, the world would have been starved of carbon which was constantly being deposited underground. We are also enriching the environment by scattering metals across the world which have never seen the light of day, and in my opinion, with more elements in the environment, creatures should beable to evolve much faster as they now have access to elements that were unavilable or in too limited in quantity to evolution ever since the beginning of the earth. I say alot of other planets out there in the universe go through a similar stage. Accually I think the earth was getting pretty bored, now that we've come along, it's having alot of fun, every hurrican is another bout of laughter from the earth.

[weightload]

Do I see light @ the END of the

WL

[galacticsurfer]

I cry almost always at sad places in films but almost never over real life things as I keep up a very cynical front. So no, I do not cry over peak oil (or the Tsunami or Katrina )until that is somebody makes a really moving tragic film about it where the main character loses his child due to a terrible tragedy and breaks down sobbing.

Oddly enough as i visualize this scene in my just invented movie I get a tear in my eyes.

OK now I know how to propagate peak oil to the masses. I must be a genius. Hollywood!! Are syriana and the other oil/mideast flicks any good in this direction? They haven't yet played in Germany so I don't know if I should see them when they do come.

[threadbear]

Galactic surfer. This is sort of beside the point, but seeing as we're talking about crying and maintaining a front, I think it's worth mentioning. Movies make me cry, everything in nature that's suffering makes me cry. Parades make me cry, South American street bands playing pan flutes make me cry, earnest street vendors unable to sell their wares make me cry. But when people in my extended family die, not so much. Perhaps it's distance, but I have a feeling that even if I were there, I wouldn't be terribly moved.


I think it may have something to do with the fact that actors schooled in method acting are trained to reach deep inside of themselves and remember something terrible they experienced, relive it and convey the pain openly. Whereas, people who are ACTUALLY suffering are trained from infancy to funnel their suffering through social inhibitions of all sorts. So faced with an actual death or dying, there isn't the same spontaneity of suffering and so the reaction of the witnesses is similarly muted. Also, characters in movies are generally more sympathetic and the musical score is very effective. When I die I'm going to suffer like hell and have people playing pan flutes around my bed.

[PrairieMule]

Threadbear,I can respect your wish if you must have pan flutes at the end. For the sake of humanity, make sure they do not play Macarthur Park on the pan flute. Not that it makes me cry, it makes my stomach grimace in pain and eardrums bleed. I'm not made of stone you know!

[threadbear]

Prairie Mule, You nailed it. Harris is pure pain on celluloid. Doesn't he seem like the consummate Brit lounge lizard? Macarthur park--silent scream!

[Aimrehtopyh]

No tears yet, I have trouble feeling sorry for the human race. I remember being raised to resist some aspects of human nature, selfishness and ignorance to name a few. While I'm far from perfect, the things I see people do gives me a sinking feeling.

Even when people succeed at applying themselves they do it for the wrong reasons. How many people do you think graduated med school last year only because they want the big bucks. Being a Doctor used to be about being a valued member of your community and having a genuine drive to help people.

Even the hopeful mythology around the "American Dream" has disappeared. Winning the Lotto has become the new american dream. "Something for nothing" used to be a litmus test for vice, corruption and iniquity. Now it's considered the highest form of success.

Our psychology seems to have internalized the idea that things will be good if you just drill in the right spot. The modern attitude seems to be that "Reap what you sow" is for chumps, it wasn't always this way. Creating value doesn't really matter to people these days as long as you are funneling large amounts of money.

I've lost hundreds of good nights sleep worrying about and researching Peak Oil over that past few years. I'll save my tears for those who survive the die-off and have enough courage to stop finger-pointing and learn the lessons of history.

[Ayoob]

Cry? Fuck that. Get pissed off and FIGHT you goddamn pussies! This is crunch time! Get your dopamine on and MAKE IT!

Liberals. Bleh.

[seldom_seen]

I have shed a few tears of joy knowing that the industrial megamachine is in a terminal state, with death through starvation of resources an assured prognosis.

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('apocolyptica', 'p')eak oil a glimmer of hope? when the united states and china get into a nuclear war over oil will it be a glimmer of hope then? what about when the supermarkets are empty and people are killing one another over a box of corn flakes will it be a glimmer of hope then?

[RacerJace]

I've cried in my mind and in my heart almost every day since comprehending what the consequences of peak oil and the aftermath will bring. I have always been excited about the wonders of new technology and the prospect of living in a world that is full of fantastic new ways that mankind can evolve through the being able to transcend the limits of being human and being a slave to a petty economy. I came crashing back to earth when I realised humans would never reach true self actualisation and break free from materialistic and capitalistic goals, at least not in my lifetime. The long term future reality may be a form of tribal self actualisation based on being closer to nature and knowing what it means to be sustainable. But the horrors of transitioning to this will last probably through my children’s lives let alone my own.

I cry for knowing what we could have become if we had only been wise custodians of the precious resources we have had at our disposal.

I cry for the inheritance I leave my children and grandchildren (if any).

I cry for the suffering that will ravage this planet as those with the means to do harm will do so, so that they can prolong their set ways.

I cry for the coming whimper of humanity as we know it.


.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RacerJace', ' ')
I cry for knowing what we could have become if we had only been wise custodians of the precious resources we have had at our disposal.

[NEOPO]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', 'C')ry? Fuck that. Get pissed off and FIGHT you goddamn pussies! This is crunch time! Get your dopamine on and MAKE IT!

Liberals. Bleh.

[ubercynicmeister]

EH? Why bother wasting the energy crying?

"There's no use crying over spilt milk" may be re-worked as "there's no use crying over Peak Oil."

"This is bad" does not equal "therefore let's burst into tears over it"

"This is catastrophic" does not necessarily equal "therefore let's burst into tears over it."

Think about the countless examples of humans who have - facing overwhelming odds - haven't burst into tears but got in there and at least helped to try and ameliorate the odds against them. Sure the Titanic is hurtling towards the Iceberg, this time with a captain who is utterly incompetent and partly drunk on his own power, and fully drunk on his own ignorance.

But the two looksouts who spotted the Iceberg both survived as did the helmsman - as did First Officer Lighttoller. ALL OF WHOM WERE IN THE KNOW, either about the ship and it's capacity to survive the encounter with several hundred million tonnes of ice OR about the encounter before it happened. Captain Smith voluntarily went down with his ship (which was what was demanded of Commanding Officers in those days), but he certainly had the opportunity to survive.

None of them burst into tears about it. They took the knowledge and used it to alter their own activities in such a way as to help either themselves or others to survive the experience they knew to be inevitable. Lest anyone think I am advocating "insider knowledge", I am not - the knowledge was freely available to everyone aboard the Titanic, especially the First Class Passengers, many of whom refused seats on the life-boat, simply because they didn't want to get off the warmth of the Titanic to step aboard a cold uncomfortable life-boat. More Fool They.

Mind you, that happened in the days of "women and children to the lifeboats first", and those days are long gone. I guess, with the Ayn Randist style of "The Virtue Of Selfishness" and the Feminist style of total competition between the genders, then it'll be a rather horrifying blood-soaked Darwinian struggle to get to the lifeboats first - and God Help The Weak, because their overly competitive fellow humans won't. That's what actually worries me far more than Peak Oil.

But we're all told we should welcome Darwinism & The Survival Of The Fittest, red of tooth, sharp of claw. I guess we're about to get what we've been insisting on for the last 150 years. Mebbe after Peak Oil & it's more shocking consequences have beaten "competitiveness" out of us, we'll stop worshipping competition.

Perhaps I'm asking too much?

At least we don't need to cry about it. The following poem by Rudyard Kipling gets over-used but is indicative of the temper of that age, when humanity still had the capacity to face uncomfortable things without flinching:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -Yours
is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Remember: triumph and disaster really are imposters. And imposters are not worth the effort to cry about, are they?