[thuja]

What makes me a doomer? Define doomer...there's many kinds.

There's the Hard-Crash-Imminent Collapse-Chaos in the Cities-Starvation-Run to the Hills type. I'm not one of these.

There's the Slow-Crash-Its gonna take 20 years of Depression, before something worse. In the beginning, those with Jobs will do better than those without Doomer. That's me.

There's the We-Will-Adjust but not without a lot of Pain Doomer. (FO2-sounds like you fit this camp. )

There's the Return to Agrarian localized Ecotopia PowerDown Doomer.

There's the Run to Costa Rica/New Zealand "It'll only be safe in this one place" ex-pat Doomer.

And so on.

Its a spectrum...but all agree that Civilization as we know it will change drastically. There's a strand of optimism for some doomers hoping for a better More-In-Balance-With-Nature world down the road. Then there are the Uber-Doomers waiting for the Grid to fail and the nuke bombs to fall, sometimes gleefully.

So...no point in asking simplified questions. But anyways, what makes me tick?

My family. When things get bad, I'll spend my days trying to help out my family, and then friends and the community of people I live around. Its pretty much what I do now-but it will be amplified in years to come.

[django]

I think what defines a "doomer" is someone who predicts a scenario for the future that will be worse than what they want. Everybody wants something different than what we get right now. For example, if you're looking forward to a Cuban/Heinbergian scenario of powerdown and social change, than you couldn't be considered a doomer, because you may very well get your wish. However, that's the stuff that makes Wall Street execs shiver in their business suits.

[Wednesday]

I don't consider myself a "doomer" but I imagine most people would.

I don't think I am special and I don't expect to avoid hardship, but I won't panic either. Acceptance is part of making peace with it. I place more value on the simple experience of being a living organism.

That is what keeps me going, I am a living organism and a healthy living organism is really motivated to stay that way by natural design. Life is short and precious and there are no sequels. Grab it with both hands.

We live in interesting times, it's simply my kismet to be a witness to it.

[horsestoaster]

Gego rocks!What a great outlook.Very similiar to my own.I am in my 40's so I am trying to teach my teenagers and youngest one(as much as possible) to adapt and overcome.Thanks again Gego for a reasonable response to a tough question!

[SeasonOfPain]

Whoo! Tough question.

I am a doomer essentially because I believe in rationality over faith. As MonteQuest has said, at its root, all the issues converging on us right now have their root in overshoot. All I have read of biology, geology, history, and empirically-reviewed data points to this fact.

Thus, though it causes me no little consternation, I must accept the fact that the middle-class lifestyle I was born and raised in to (as a resident of the U.S.) is unsustainable and doomed. To deny this would be to deny rationality in favor of faith, and that I will never do.

As for what keeps me going: primarily a sense of love and responsibility for my wife and immediate family. Other than that, a mild curiosity to see as much of this chapter of history as possible.

[Vexed]

I am a doomer because I was born that way. Questioning everything comes naturally. Question enough and you can only be f*cked.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Vexed', 'I') am a doomer because I was born that way. Questioning everything comes naturally. Question enough and you can only be f*cked.

[Toploader]

In fact, I'm a much stronger person now then I was before I started my research. Peak oil and the awareness of it has given me more of a purpose in life, I now eat better, keep fit and try and learn whatever skills that might be relevant to what is to come. I also kicked a 8 year old cannabis addiction.

The reason? The women I love and making sure she is as comfortable as can be when TSHTF. Truth be told, if not for her I'd have done what many people accustomed to their western lifestyle tend to do at time of crisis, and bury my head at the bottom of a bottle. I feel for the doomers that have no family, it must be a really empty feeling.

[Pops]

Reading this thread straight through to here leaves me with this conclusion:

A majority of self described Doomers are willing to admit that bad stuff can happen because they have both seen it before and survived or believe they have the skills to survive it in the future – not lofty scientific, quasi-scientific or philosophic mumbo-jumbo.

I suppose then the opposite of a Doomer must be one who isn’t willing to make that admission or feels in possession of those skills?

I guess then by my own definition I am a Doomer – I have experienced some bad stuff and I guess I made it and I like to be able to say; "here, I can do that."

So what makes me tick?

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
and
Can’t never did anything.

[Toploader]

Well, you can't blame people for wanting to believe they have what it takes to survive, or they might as well throw in the towel right now I guess. I just like to think that with the head start I have, I can at least improve the chances for me and my family. If not, then it’s certainly not hurting me getting fitter, eating food locally grown or not driving.

We have to believe, right? Too many people give up to easy, and that applies to most things in life.

[FatherOfTwo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FatherOfTwo', ' ')
So, Monte “unwavering eternal facts”. Such as?

[FatherOfTwo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', 'N')owhere have I ever suggested or inferred the end of civilization.

[jupiters_release]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Toploader', 'W')ell, you can't blame people for wanting to believe they have what it takes to survive, or they might as well throw in the towel right now I guess.

[marko]

If I may break into this conversation, the classic work on this question is William Catton's Overshoot. Catton points out that when an ecological equilibrium is disturbed (typically through a one-time increase in a nutrient) such that the population of a given species in a given area expands rapidly, the species always expands to the point that it not only uses up the added nutrient but degrades the environment needed to sustain it and thereby reduces that environment's carrying capacity. Consequently, the population decline is even greater than the population increase that led to overshoot.

In the case of human beings, overshoot has resulted not from a single nutrient, but from fossil fuels and particularly petroleum. This energy source not only increased the nutrient supply but also temporarily improved the human environment to sharply lower the death rate. However, the use of this energy source, and secondary consequences of that use, such as fertilizer runoff creating offshore "dead zones," has degraded the underlying environment of our planet. Overgrazing and erosion from overcultivation are destroying the soils that would have sustained us. Overfishing and pollution are destroying the oceans that would have sustained us. Fossil fuel use is disrupting the global climate in ways that will surely reduce crop yields worldwide and will probably cause a sea-level rise that will devastate key coastal environments and human habitats.

The consequence is that, even if Earth might have had a carrying capacity of 2-3 billion people in 1800, it can no longer support such a population without abundant fossil fuel. Even if the adjustment to the loss of petroleum and the depletion of fossil fuels were to proceed peacefully, the population would have to drop to something well below 2 billion and probably below 1 billion because of the damage to the planet. However, as MonteQuest points out, the adjustment is unlikely to proceed peacefully, and warfare is likely to kill even more people and further degrade environments.

In my opinion, the best-case likely long-term scenario for our species is a reduction to a population of several hundred million living carefully and sustainably in the parts of the planet that can still support human life. Hopefully, there will be some cluster of human population strong enough to preserve the existing elements of civilization, but with the added element of a profound respect for the balance of nature and an absolute prohibition against disturbing the environment on which our species depends.

The worst-case likely scenario is nuclear winter, which our species probably would not survive. Perhaps a small band of people would have the resources and foresight to build underground shelters on a remote South Pacific island, or a remote corner of New Zealand, and store enough food and fuel to get through the nuclear winter and its aftermath, as well as enough seeds to start over when the radioactivity drops off. Although in the very long run, perhaps it would be better for the biosphere if our species did not survive.

As I said before, my consciousness of likely doom makes me all the more appreciative of the joys and beauty that my life offers me in the here and now. Those are what keep me going.

[oowolf]

re: "counseling".

I spent 5 weeks in a private "mental hospital". My inlaws doing. Try spending a few weeks on Thioridizine sometime. I have one question for the psychiatrists and the rest of you:

If you're NOT angry, depressed, &/or anxious--what goddamn PLANET are you living on? Human civilization is an ongoing orgy of hate and destruction while we sit here entertaining ourselves showing off how doomish we can be-or act shocked when someone calls for immediate dieoff.

"Counseling" for me is getting as far back in the woods and away from "civilization" as I can, and working in my garden, and looking for fellow doomers on the 'net.

By the way--my fellow hospital "inmates" were by far the most interesting group of humans I've ever met--although some here are pretting interesting also.

[rwwff]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('oowolf', 'I')f you're NOT angry, depressed, &/or anxious--what goddamn PLANET are you living on? Human civilization is an ongoing orgy of hate and destruction while we sit here entertaining ourselves showing off how doomish we can be-or act shocked when someone calls for immediate dieoff.

[lateStarter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('oowolf', 'r')e: "counseling".

I spent 5 weeks in a private "mental hospital". My inlaws doing. Try spending a few weeks on Thioridizine sometime. I have one question for the psychiatrists and the rest of you:

If you're NOT angry, depressed, &/or anxious--what goddamn PLANET are you living on? Human civilization is an ongoing orgy of hate and destruction while we sit here entertaining ourselves showing off how doomish we can be-or act shocked when someone calls for immediate dieoff.

"Counseling" for me is getting as far back in the woods and away from "civilization" as I can, and working in my garden, and looking for fellow doomers on the 'net.

By the way--my fellow hospital "inmates" were by far the most interesting group of humans I've ever met--although some here are pretting interesting also.

[Heineken]

Here's my prefered method of self-counseling: A modest glass of Jack Daniel's whiskey (a Heineken beer or two will substitute OK), a 5-mg oxycodone tablet, and a good historical novel, preferably about the Classical Era, when civilization was actually something to brag about and not the contemptible mess we have today.

Also: Cleaning my rifle. Very therapeutic, as long as I don't accidentally put a bullet through my brain.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'C')leaning my rifle. Very therapeutic.....

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rogerhb', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'C')leaning my rifle. Very therapeutic.....