[Ibon]

It seems a daunting task for our modern society to transform to a more sustainable paradigm in its energy use. The asset inertia alone in many industries like the automotive industry will require a huge re-engineering of our economy and the workforce. In the best of scenarios we can expect economic disruptions during this transition that will test our modern culture’s ability to adapt. That adaptation will require a return to more physical labor and to more basic work that can still be witnessed in many developing countries today where farmers and craftsman still do extensive physical labor. Poor EROEI of most of the scalable alternatives to oil is a further certainty that we can look to the future having to do a lot more physical work than we have grown accustomed to.

Modern society breeds obesity and depression in many people. On the individual level there are many reasons but on the macro level one can suspect that our consumer culture and the automobile certainly have contributed to our poor mental and physical health collectively. Many modern jobs are in the service sector where there is little to no personal gratification in the work being done. Physically and mentally deadening. Pushing papers of flipping burgers has little in common to the organic connections that farmers and craftsmen a few generations back experienced. Our collective culture is framed within the work people do and the direction during the past 80 years to a more abstract, organically disconnected, uniform and unfulfilling work certainly has contributed to a more disconnected fearful collective culture.

In light of the above you almost have to welcome the upcoming consequences of peak oil as it will necessitate a re-engineering of our culture back to more organic jobs and work that will certainly improve our society’s physical and mental health. We will collectively have to experience the cold turkey and getting through the withdrawal systems in the meantime may be quite violent. We may resist like the addict and opt for war. Why are recovering drug addicts so often physically restrained? Rationally weaning ourselves from our oil addiction and getting back to the physical and mental benefits of doing more physical labor and jobs that are more organically gratifying will happen initially against our wills but afterwards we may look back and wonder at the madness of who we were.

[gego]

Now this is someone looking for the best out of a bad situation.

Population of 6.5 billion going down to 1 billion over, maybe 100 years, and the small shinging light is that for the survivors, they will feel more gradified about their work?

I think the history of the world is that life was mean and short, and work was drudgery, and here we have someone thinking that dawn to dusk physical labor will be more a welcome change; I think not. What have you been smoking?

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gego', 'I') think the history of the world is that life was mean and short, and work was drudgery, and here we have someone thinking that dawn to dusk physical labor will be more a welcome change; I think not. What have you been smoking?

[americandream]

I dunno whether it was as bad as some folks think...as a kid, I knew an ol chap in Orkney who had handed down knowledge of life before the enclosures by the landlords....and it sounded fairly equal and fair....till the Lairds moved in.

[mentmush]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'g')ego wrote:
I think the history of the world is that life was mean and short, and work was drudgery, and here we have someone thinking that dawn to dusk physical labor will be more a welcome change; I think not. What have you been smoking?

[Ludi]

Outside of "history" - the life of civilizations - most folks have had lives not particularly filled with drudgery. Hunter-gatherers have tended to work much less than civilized folks, with more spare time and more (apparent) sense of security. This sort of life could be emulated through change to a different form of agriculture and social organization. See Permaculture.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mentmush', 'T')hey seem to have a similar workload and schedule, but live in much more squalid conditions in the city. The only answer I could find was potential. They seem to think that the city holds the potential for a better life, but few realize this potential.

[Ibon]

The grass in greener on the other side in this case needs to be modified to the grass is perceived to be a kaleidascope of colours on the other side but once you get there it turns brown!

We left an agriarian lifestyle behind for the promises of modern consumerism for many reasons. Some reasons certainly have to do with following the path of least resistance and preferring to do less physical work and toiling on the soil. But a big part of this movement was the value system that held modern consumerism as desirable and rural agrarian life as dreary and boring.

I am curious what will happen in the cultural evolution going forward when our value system swings back and perceives a more agrarian organic integrated local community lifestyle as futuristic and sexy?
Some might think it is far fetched to see our culture evolving this way but being forced to exist with far less available energy will certainly influence our cultural values and what is perceived as modern.

The days are numbered that a wasteful consumerism will be associated with the values of modern life.

[Pops]

Don’t know nothing bout psychology so I read a tiny blurb about fear and freedom here:
http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/pe ... tion1.html

It’s my firm (and about 3 minute-old) belief that modern man suffers more from existential freedom than fear.


In my small experience of life – I’m almost 48, I have had experience in both physical labor and small business boardroom labor.

I found the intellectual challenge (and I’ve not a huge intellect BTW) involved in city work falls far short in making up for the lack of control over ones personal direction. IOW the fact that I had so little control over my existential freedom left me little time to worry about non-existence.

I spent about 16 hours Saturday helping the neighbors put up their and some of my hay. Now granted most was done with the help of petroleum but a portion was small bales loaded and stacked by hand.

I can honestly say the satisfaction of getting that hay up equaled that of designing and building a jewelry store or producing an ad campaign – both things I’ve done in former lives.

Add to that the fact that I didn’t have to pitch an idea or set of plans to a board of directors, who, by virtue of the title on their business cards know more about my job than I would ever know and by virtue of the same title, the difference between my success and failure was based more on their mood that particular day than anything I did or said.

Don’t get the idea that I am bitter because of failure – I was fairly successful in a small time way and in fact am grateful I had the chance to experience that life - the experience makes my current life seem much sweeter.

I guess what Im getting around to is it seems modern life has, for many wage slaves, eliminated the fear but also the freedom. And it is no surprise to me that so many people feel alienated to what we term Modern Life and that PO looks to some as the Great Liberator.

(Don’t know how much sense any of that made… )

[Balthasar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'O')utside of "history" - the life of civilizations - most folks have had lives not particularly filled with drudgery. Hunter-gatherers have tended to work much less than civilized folks, with more spare time and more (apparent) sense of security. This sort of life could be emulated through change to a different form of agriculture and social organization. See Permaculture.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '(')Don’t know how much sense any of that made… )

[seldom_seen]

“High technology has done us one great service: It has retaught us the delight of performing simple and primordial tasks - chopping wood, building a fire, drawing water from a spring” ~ed abbey

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ade a lot of sense to me. I think there are many baby boomers who follow a trajectory similar to what you described. An idealistic youth followed by a more pragmatic adulthood in a business that drifted from the idealism of their youth and now in the last 3rd of their lives at this momentous time in history wanting to recapture that idealism in living and community that is ecologically sustainable, especially since this idealism this time round is resonating with the moment the old consumer paradigm is starting to crumble.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '
')
For me it was instinctually home like. They missed their friends who were quickly moving on beyond them in the big city business world as well as all the amenities suburbia could quickly offer...

[Pops]

I see where you are going Ibon but I’m just not sure the reality of the simple life will ever hold sway over bright lights and big city – even if the lights are tallow candles.

Firstly, small town life has always been more Main Street than Mayberry and given a choice, I think young people will opt for the anonymity and perceived excitement of city life.

Second, as someone posted (NordicThroa?) the reality of the back-to-the-land movement was generation of youth looking to do exactly what kids always do, exactly the opposite of their parents wishes – but it was enabled solely because that generation was the richest and best educated in history. They didn’t go pick apples because they had to; they did it because they could.

Another problem I see is the shrinking supply of old farms as well as tools and implements suited to the small-scale outfit. I can testify to the value of buying a place that has been worked for years; regardless of condition. If one can simply look hard at an old farm they can learn quite a bit about what works and what doesn’t.

Of course given sufficient capital and knowledge, one could build from scratch, make mistakes, rebuild, redo and remodel until things worked – but again, the point here is necessity not recreation so assets and time may not be in large supply.

I’m getting OT – just ruminating I guess, kind of an overcast, dreary morning.

At any rate I understand the point. I’ve posted similar ideas before (though not as eloquently as you have) simply because it seems like the best course for those with the basic abilities. It may be years before the change pays off or it may be that it never will - who knows?

Many times as I’m building or doing something around the place I wonder if my kids or grandkids will need or want to leave the city and whether what I’m doing will be of value to them. On the one hand I hope it will be and on the other I hope they will get to make the choice.

So I'll end with the lyrics that have been in my head since the first line of this post - Jimmy Reed I think

Bright light, big city, gone to my baby's head
Whoa, bright lights, big city, gone to my baby's head
I tried to tell the woman, but she don't believe a word I said

[Ibon]

I can't get this thought out of my head that once the status quo really fails to provide a basis of support for peoples dreams than the status quo quickly dissolves. Modern consumerism that seems so entrenched and solid only remains so as long as the dream is intact. When the infrastructure of our society can no longer support the dream then ...puff..out goes the consumer candle rather quickly. Our dreams, like global warming, have tipping points!

[JoeCoal]

Throughout my teens and twenties I did everything I could to avoid doing what I was “supposed” to do – College, Marriage, Kids, Career, Car, House, etc, etc.

I knew it was all bullshit. I played Jazz Fusion and partied like there was no tomorrow. I didn't believe there was a tomorrow – at first, because the Ruskies were going to nuke us, then because of global warming, and now... well, we all know that one.

I didn't know why it was all bullshit until discovering Peak Oil, and like so many others, it was a Matrix-like Blue Pill / Red Pill experience.

Is there something positive on the other side of Hubbert's Peak? Perhaps a way of living that does not call for another way of living. No rat race. No more bullshit.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'I')t seems a daunting task for our modern society to transform to a more sustainable paradigm in its energy use. The asset inertia alone in many industries like the automotive industry will require a huge re-engineering of our economy and the workforce. In the best of scenarios we can expect economic disruptions during this transition that will test our modern culture’s ability to adapt. That adaptation will require a return to more physical labor and to more basic work that can still be witnessed in many developing countries today where farmers and craftsman still do extensive physical labor. Poor EROEI of most of the scalable alternatives to oil is a further certainty that we can look to the future having to do a lot more physical work than we have grown accustomed to.

Modern society breeds obesity and depression in many people. On the individual level there are many reasons but on the macro level one can suspect that our consumer culture and the automobile certainly have contributed to our poor mental and physical health collectively. Many modern jobs are in the service sector where there is little to no personal gratification in the work being done. Physically and mentally deadening. Pushing papers of flipping burgers has little in common to the organic connections that farmers and craftsmen a few generations back experienced. Our collective culture is framed within the work people do and the direction during the past 80 years to a more abstract, organically disconnected, uniform and unfulfilling work certainly has contributed to a more disconnected fearful collective culture.

In light of the above you almost have to welcome the upcoming consequences of peak oil as it will necessitate a re-engineering of our culture back to more organic jobs and work that will certainly improve our society’s physical and mental health. We will collectively have to experience the cold turkey and getting through the withdrawal systems in the meantime may be quite violent. We may resist like the addict and opt for war. Why are recovering drug addicts so often physically restrained? Rationally weaning ourselves from our oil addiction and getting back to the physical and mental benefits of doing more physical labor and jobs that are more organically gratifying will happen initially against our wills but afterwards we may look back and wonder at the madness of who we were.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '
')
How does it all end? The other side might be okay for those who pass through the bottleneck and their descendants, but the bottleneck itself is going to be harsh. Nature, red of tooth and claw, has no mercy for the fools or the luckless.

[Tanada]

Sometimes fear of the bottleneck outweighs the knowledge that our species will be much better off afterwards than we are today. In my younger days I would presume to think I had a pretty good chance of seeing the other side and learning lessons on the way through. As I grow older the odds of seeing the other side decrease each year. Most of the time I do not let it bother me, but every week or ten days something will happen and I will see that things are getting closer inch by inch to the start of the bottleneck. Rationally I know this, emotionally it stirs up fears and regrets.