[FatherOfTwo]

It's funny, on this site I'm not considered a doomer. Outside of this site, with friends and family I might as well be called Mr. Doom because I try hard to get people to realize that the light at the end of of the tunnel isn't the sky, but a train coming at them.

Anyways, for the hard core doomers, and I define hard core doomers as those who believe we are headed down a never ending spiral into the abyss, a world that has undergone a massive die-off with most technology gains lost, disease rampant etc. etc. I'm curious:

what keeps you ticking?

Do you believe you personally will be able to somehow escape the pending doom? Aside from joining a huge ecovillage that is armed to the teeth, I don't personally see that opting being in anyway feasible. Learning to grow vegetables, while noble (and hey I have 24 tomato plants in my green house) is like brushing the snowflakes off your shoulder as the avalance comes tumbling straight for you.

Do you just accept it and carry on? If so, are you living today as though there is no tomorrow? Or are you permanently depressed?

Other?

Please know I'm not trying to belittle or be derogatory, I'm just really trying to understand the unwavering position of the eternal doomer.

[Jack]

I think I fit the definition of a hard-core doomer.

I expect to control - mitigate, if you prefer - the impact of peak oil on me. I am armed to the teeth; and, I am pursuing various financial strategies that I believe will soften the blow.

That's not the key, though. I believe we'll see some absolutely fascinating events. We will live (or not) through one of the great eras of history. We will match wits, training, and our will with others - whether in an abstract battle for access to supplies, or in physical confrontation. You and I may not make it, but the events will be worth remembering.

Lastly, I think upcoming events will change people's views to something I prefer. It's probably best that I not define that too extensively. Those who have read my posts can surely figure it out.

[dissimulo]

What Jack said, except I'm not all that excited by the prospect. I think it will be interesting, but I'd rather have a boring life of kicking back and watching my investments compound at 10 percent. C'est la vie.

I'll be about as ready as a person can be, particularly given a few more years, so hopefully I will be spared many of the problems that the masses will face. Time will tell.

[emailking]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '
')Lastly, I think upcoming events will change people's views to something I prefer. It's probably best that I not define that too extensively. Those who have read my posts can surely figure it out.

[SchroedingersCat]

I was raised by parents that grew up in the depression. If we threw something away, it had no further use to much of anyone. My dad fought in WWII and Korea. My mother had 12 kids and raised us well. I was taught to be independent and as capable as possible. Carpentry, plumbing, electical, cooking, sewing, cleaning, gardening (some farming), hunting, trapping, etc.

My parents take on life was hope for the best, expect the worst. Oh, and the always welcome "Life is a valley of tears." And "I can sleep when I'm dead."

While I believe that we are well and truely doomed, I also know that life goes on. Maybe 3/4's of the population will die off in the next few decades. Me and mine will do what it takes to stay in the 1/4 that doesn't.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emailking', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '
')Lastly, I think upcoming events will change people's views to something I prefer. It's probably best that I not define that too extensively. Those who have read my posts can surely figure it out.

[emailking]

For a while I started doing things like ultra-conservation and the like. Now I'm just kind of kicking back and living an average Joe kind of life until I can no longer do that. I want my share of the pie before it all goes to hell. This would be why I bought a 55 inch widescreen plasma TV a few weeks ago. It's a toy, it sucks a lot of energy, makes a lot of heat (which makes a lot more work for the A/C), but the picture is heavenly. It's my pie. Not like I don't have much smaller TVs if electricty goes through the roof.

I am taking certain measures. But there's only so much you can do when you have nowhere near enough money to buy a house, even a down payment. I and am making certain "investments" if you know what I mean. I did just buy a Prius as well. I want to be able to drive and stay afloat for as long as possible. And my job is safe as long as we're dropping bombs from planes.

[Carlhole]

The future has never been certain and it isn't certain now.

Life was never completely safe and it isn't now either.

Samo-samo.

[rwwff]

Doomerland..... Somedays I am, somedays I'm not. When I'm feeling solidly in the doomer camp, my reason for focussing energy on the problem is my daughter. I want to give her every possible asset that I can, to give her the best chance of survival in a situation where others, a large number of others, do not survive.

Maybe its a quest for genetic immortality.

Maybe its just silly sentiment.

To be blunt, we are a species that is "designed" for a 30-40 year typical lifespan, in the wild. Thus, I've already collected and spent all the years that I am entitled to, the rest are gravy. That gravy could be frittered away on pointless vacations, and reckless pleasures; or it could be spent on my progeny.

[jdumars]

What keeps this doomer going?

I love a challenge, and I love to improvise.

Oh, and what Jack said.

[Colorado-Valley]

I'm preparing for a classical homestead that's self-sufficient. And if that gets too edgy, caches up in the wilderness that will last several months.

Then we can probably come back down and see if the skeletons are still watching Fox television, waiting for news of the expected food shipment from the government, due any minute now ...

[SILENTTODD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FatherOfTwo', '
')what keeps you ticking?

Do you believe you personally will be able to somehow escape the pending doom? Aside from joining a huge ecovillage that is armed to the teeth, I don't personally see that opting being in anyway feasible. Learning to grow vegetables, while noble (and hey I have 24 tomato plants in my green house) is like brushing the snowflakes off your shoulder as the avalance comes tumbling straight for you.

Do you just accept it and carry on? If so, are you living today as though there is no tomorrow? Or are you permanently depressed?

Other?

[aldente]

Personalities like Stanislav Grof keep me going and the fact that they seemingly don't really care much about the everyday mortality and the oncomming avalange that everyone is so in awe about (on this forum and in general).

It requires first hand experiences though to comprehend. The breathwork that he developed seems extemely interesting since it completely eliminates the utilisation of (illegal) drugs. No political institution can make breathing illegal, or what?

[gego]

I am a reluctant doomer. By that I mean that I have concluded that the energy ship will sink, probably during the next 20 to 40 years, and a serious struggle for survival, that I would not volintarily choose, will ensue. I am not one of these bring it on type of guys that is looking forward to the carnage, as I have seen posted here and there. As some survivalist do think, I do not think that it will be a matter of hiding out in the basement for 6 months, eating tuna fish and coming out after all the carnage is over. I think that the shift from economic and population expansion will happen over the decade after peak oil, and that, as Richard Duncan concluded, the proximate cause of the dieoff will be the failure of the electric system. I think this will be just the first wave of the dieoff and that the whole process will take at least a century, before stability is reached.

I stopped by Walmart after dinner out with my wife today, and while she shopped I wandered over to the sporting goods section where I found them liquidating some 30'06 shells for $7 a box (normally $17.48) so I bought the 12 boxes (20 shells each) they had. They are shells designed for large game like elk and moose, and I normally would not have bought them for hunting as they are a little heavy for the deer we have around here. I bought them to add to my arsenal, and intend them for use as self defense. As I walked around the store looking at the people and thinking about the idea that one day I might be forced into a they or we type situation, it actually made me feed nausiated.

I do think that those who have access to water, an operating septic system, wood stoves for heating and cooking, gardens, meat on the hoof, stored grains, hand tools, and the like in a rural setting with self reliant neighbors will have some advantage over someone living on the 30th floor of a highrise in a concrete jungle. There is no certainty, just an advantage, so I cautiously voted that I think I will survive.

I am not depressed about it and occupy myself with my life with one eye to the future. I consider the challenge of survival to be something that I want to see if I can accomplish.

[aldente]

You're still thinking one dimensional Gego! As if the world would not experience the onset of an extreme climate change, it might be even an irreversible one. There is only the mind and the spirit that can possibly keep going once this planet goes completely out of balance.

This thing that we are facing is BIGG (remember that poster??)

[gego]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('albente', 'Y')ou're still thinking one dimentional Gego! As if the world would not experience the onset of an extreme climate change, it might be even an irreversible one. There is only the mind and the spirit that can possibly keep going once this planet goes completely out of balance.

[TorrKing]

I don't think I have to die (prematurely), although plenty of others will. I feel reasonably well prepared. Way above average that is.

I am not a hoarder of stuff, but rather of knowledge.

Torjus Gaaren

[jupiters_release]

I wish I had the rest of my natural life to study, research, and enjoy the great cultural wealth of the 20th century but alas as a real NYC doomer I will most likely be in the inital waves of die-off. Not afraid of death but not looking forward to the dying process. In a utopian world the government would legalize self euthanasia and give us the proper pills to take when millions of us in the urban jungle are left without food, water, and electricity our wildest fears won't come close to the reality of our future. Frankly I don't want to be a witness let alone a participant in the meltdown. I can't see any redemption in Brooklyn when TSHTF.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jupiters_release', 'I') wish I had the rest of my natural life to study, research, and enjoy the great cultural wealth of the 20th century but alas as a real NYC doomer I will most likely be in the inital waves of die-off.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '.')..I believe we'll see some absolutely fascinating events. We will live (or not) through one of the great eras of history...I may not make it, but the events will be worth remembering...