[guest]

The Peak is at hand, whether it's right now or 5-10 years away. Functionally it makes little difference to me. With the peak comes the destruction of my culture. Society will experience a massive upheaval marked by poverty and possible starvation for myself and all of my family and friends, and probably everybody I have ever worked with or gone to school with.

I may end up struggling with my neighbors over warm clothing, which I have, but which they mostly lack.

I know my culture is based on greed and the manufactured needs that our economy needs to grow. I know that my culture has some bad features that I wish it didn't have. Nevertheless, it's the only one I know.

The concept of cooperative effort to ensure group survival is totally foreign to me, and I'm not sure I trust my fellow man to work with me rather than take any advantage they can over me. It's just a part of our culture, you know? We seek advantage over others through manipulation and a general lack of concern for others.

I believe that the massive upheavals heading towards us are going to be horrible and without merit of any kind. I also believe that there is nothing I can do to preserve my culture. Maybe it's better that it dies out with my generation.

I foresee a future of living in a thrown-together shack somewhere cold and rainy with very little in the way of material comforts such as a comfortable bed or light in the darkness. I'm not used to living that way.

I look around at other people who are not aware of the coming times and I see that many of them are happy and that they enjoy their days. I would like to rejoin them, but find myself unable to do so. I doubt that things will get any better than they are today. It's my opinion that we're at the very height of the good things that civilization here in the US provides.

The price for the good times we now enjoy is that we force millions of people in third world nations to put their children to work for us, strip them of their natural resources, pollute their water and land, and bomb into submission those who would oppose us. All in the name of a cheap pair of sneakers or a little more MSG for our food.

Soon, we will join the ranks of the oppressed and poor. Those in power in the US will put their collective boot on our collective necks and begin to lean ever more heavily on us. They have had much practice at this and are unaccountable for their actions.

We will suffer, sicken, and then we will give up the ghost. Nasty, brutish, and short. Camelot falls.

Now, I look out the window and see people driving to work and stopping at Circuit City to pick up a cheap DVD player so they can catch up on old episodes of Friends. I'm unable to resolve this contradiction. How am I so despondent while my neighbors are so upbeat and sailing along without a care on this matter?

Is it that I'm just a fucking lunatic? Could we be wrong? Am I just buying in to a weird little cult of people who want to see the system go down? Seriously, I feel like I'm losing my mind. Am I just like one of those guys who thought the spaceship was coming so I need to put on my purple track suit and load up on quarters for the journey to Alpha Centauri?

[KiddieKorral]

We've all felt like that at one point or another. You feel like you do because you're aware; others keep sailing along because they're clueless.

[oowolf]

Hello guest! Welcome to the real world. You are now aware that you're going to die--guess what, you were going to die all along, weren't you? So NOTHING has changed. OK, so its not death you lament, its the loss of your comfy guilt-ridden "lifestyle". You are obviously an informed and caring person who knows our culture is doomed as it should be. Be thankful you still have time to try to find out what it REALLY means to be a human being and not some brainwashed wal-mart shopper zombie. Be thankful for today-which is a gift-not a "right". Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Good luck!

[bart]

Your description reminds of the upheaval that many religious and political people go through. To pick one example, here's what the Buddha experienced:


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')3. What kind of life did he lead up until the age of twenty-nine?
There seems no doubt that the Buddha was born into a wealthy and privileged family and that materially he wanted for nothing. His life up to the age of twenty-nine was, in material terms, very pleasant. His father Suddhodana was a wealthy king or tribal leader and Sidhattha married a local princess, Yasodhara.

4. What were the four sights?
On his excursions outside of the palace walls, Siddhattha encountered an old man, a sick man, and a corpse. Such sights brought home to him the prevalence of suffering in the world and that he too was subject to old age, sickness and death. On his fourth excursion, however, he encountered a holy man or sadhu. This gave him some hope that perhaps there was a way beyond suffering.

From the Introduction to Buddhism Course. The same story is told many places.

[0mar]

The future is gonna be mad max style, sounds like fun!

[katkinkate]

As long as you don't run foul of Aunty Em.

[Sencha]

I believe my feelings would be best described in a quote by Charleton Heston in "Planet of the Apes"

"DAMNIT, DAMNIT ALL TO HELL!!"

I'm angry, bitter, resentful, misanthropic, depressed, demoralized, disillusioned, frightened, defeated and every day I feel my will to live and last of my sanity slipping.

Every time the people in my life talk about what they are so sure they are going to have, when I damn well know they will not, only works to deepen and twist the wound of knowing about Peak Oil.

I can totally relate to you guest. You're not crazy, even though it might seem like. The only thing that is crazy is the way we are living and the way the world works. My modest and humble hopes for the rest of my life have been hopelessly dashed. I wish there was someone I could take it out on, but then I realize, I'd have to take it out on everyone.

"Life sucks and then you die." -Beavis.

[chargrove]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ow, I look out the window and see people driving to work and stopping at Circuit City to pick up a cheap DVD player so they can catch up on old episodes of Friends. I'm unable to resolve this contradiction. How am I so despondent while my neighbors are so upbeat and sailing along without a care on this matter?

[pepper2000]

Aware though I am of the perils facing our world, I can't seem to bring myself to worry about it too much. I never felt too much need to cling onto my life, since already in many things haven't turned out the way I had hoped they would.

I first became aware of the oil crisis (only recently have I encountered the term "peak oil") in 2000, and at that time the literature was much more technical. Although I'm sure it existed, I didn't read much at all about wars, mass starvation, etc., just charts with humps at about 2010. Nevertheless, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on from there. I graduated from high school in 2000.

Both throughout high school and in the years since then, I never felt like I had much to be attached to, nor has it ever seemed I have much to look forward to. So to this day I'm just not at all worried.

[larrydallas]

I had a little taste of what life will be like post peak natural gas.

The furnace in my home died the other day and the repair man had to buya speiail order part. I used to have a space heater which I gave away some time ago. Just to see what it would be like I decided to try and stick it out to see if I could do it. It was miserable and the fact remains that it does not even get that cold where I live. The low outside was 45.

I think the coldest it got in the house was 58 degrees. I didn't want to get up in the morning and the only thing that got me gong that day was a shower with hot water. After that I was fine. But guess what? Hot water is requires gas or electricity to heat.

I think it will be very intersting times once we peak.

Life in any climate where it freezes will be impossible. You say "But the colonists did it". Agreed, but the colonists did not go from hot water and furnaces to a hut and fire. The first winter that occurs once there are heating oil and natural gas shortages will see many deaths.

It's perhaps time to start looking for a place where the temp never drops below 60 degrees. Heat is tolerable and survivable. You will smell like a pig and be covered in sweat but you will survive.