[Ayoob]

Yesterday I waited in line for a haircut at the barber shop around the corner. I think I got there around 4PM. I think I have located the single slowest barber in existence, because I ended up waiting until 6:15 for TWO PEOPLE to get their hair cut. Unbelievable.

Anyway, while standing there waiting, I read about half of the newspaper. The two kids in front of me were joking around and hitting on the girls as they walked by, talking about little jobs they had and where they can go to get some good weed.

Around 5PM, I said to one, "As long as we're here waiting, you want to hear a story?" He looks at me. "It's a scary story."

"Yeah, let's hear it" he says.

I just started with M. King Hubbert and rolled straight up through the Iraq war, food prices, electricity prices, riots for food where there's no food, my nephew and his four nephews/nieces.

He was the one to bring up dieoff.

We stood there and talked for about an hour and ten minutes. By the end, he asked me what he should be doing? I said, Maybe carpentry would be good. Or tanning leather. He said, I was gonna be a psychologist. Damn. There go all my hopes and dreams. Mine too, I said. Well, it's actually a little different for him. He's 18, I'm 32. He would be drafted long before I would be if we went in that direction.

It was so weird. This is a tough part of town, and this kid is obviously on the edge between gangbanger and upstanding member of society. He was on the verge of tears by the time I had to go. Dinner reservations with my girl, you know. $50 for fajitas and a margarita.

He looked up and said, And there all these people go, just driving around like everything's cool. They just don't know. Just like you did this morning until you ran into me, I said. His buddy was inside getting his hair finished up. He said, you know, he doesn't know about this shit either.

I made sure he knew the term "peak oil" and that he'd look it up on the net when he got home.

Was I an asshole or did I do the kid a favor?

[marek]

Ayoob, I think it is a very good idea to warn as many people as possible. The earlier people know, the more time they will have to think through the consequences and to adjust their world view and therefore might not go berserk when PO happens. I am in an economics graduate program and am a TA for an introductory econ class. When I taught my students about supply shocks, I mentioned M. King Hubbert, Peak Oil and ASPO and told them to look it up on-line.

[skateari]

that kid got his head on his shoulders.. or you really just explained it to him in an amazing way, because usualy I cant get my point across with that much acceptance in normal conversation. I think you did him a favor, I mean, you might have bummed him out, but at least he can take time to prepare and help his other friends raise awareness. Asshole? no way, if he accepts it, and does something about it, you are more of a life-saver. if they rant on and wont believe you - then your being an asshole, but if you really help someone, and get your point across.. all you are doing is raising awareness and helping someone by giving them an advance warning for the future. you really think he would have had much of a future in psychology?

[Ayoob]

I've been a salesman for the last ten years, so it's pretty easy for me to present my case to people. The way I've put food on the table for that entire time was by talking people into doing things. I'm not much of a mass-communications type guy, more of a hand-to-hand combat type, as far as convincing people goes.

I kind of felt bad about it, though. He looked like he was going to cry, and I don't like making people suffer. He just wanted to go get a haircut and I mentally raped him right there on the corner.

I do my best to not talk about this kind of thing with my girl, you know? It's funny, it makes for some long silences between us. It's such a downer to talk about it. She's all about living in a log cabin out in the middle of nowhere, so it's fine with her to actually do the preparations, but talking about the end of consumer society and food riots and shit like that is just not something I feel the need to do with my woman, you know what I mean? I like having a happy girl around. Happy girl = happy life. Sad confused paranoid girl = ???. No thanks.

[Coolman]

Excellent work. I think you really helped the guy, even if you scared the absolute shit out of him. When I first learned about Peak Oil I was scared shitless and I am still scared. But, people just need to know because this is the future and we need to deal with it.

[Sencha]

I can't support what you did Ayoob. That was cruel of you to rob his ignorance. I wish I had never learned about those two dreaded words, peak oil. Maybe I wouldn't have been any better off, but at least I could have had a little more hope than I do now.

I didn't deserve to know about peak oil. It's been awhile now, and I don't plan to do a damn thing about it. So why did I have to know? I'm sure as hell not telling anyone about Peak Oil. Let them find out for themselves, like I did. I don't want the guilt on my conscience from ruining someone's hopes for life.

I am a modest individual, and all I wanted was a modest life. Because I know about peak oil, I had to throw all that away. Now, I worry about the draft, war, famine, die-off, P.O., terrorist attacks (government sponsored included) whether or not I will get a job out of college, hell, even graduating college seems questionable now.

Had I not known about peak oil, I would have been just like all the other sheeple, but I would have been a hell of alot happier compared to the way I am now. Getting out of bed could be an olympic event for me. Why should I bother doing anything anymore, the world is ending after all.

[americandream]

Yeah, I know how that kid must feel. I don't want to believe PO but what alternatives are there?

[pepper2000]

It's important for people to think for themselves, but that's hard to do if they don't have the information. It took me several years to learn that there's a lot of garbage out there and not to believe everything I hear. This kid probably hasn't learned that yet.

I'm not saying that what you said is garbage, but I do think that what happened for him is an important step in learning to think for himself. He might forget about this "Peak oil" business, or he might eventually take it seriously, or he might study some more and decide against it. In any case, it probably did him good to hear about it.

[savethehumans]

You may not like making people suffer, Ayoob...but they ARE going to suffer, anyway. That's the point. Most of the time you can handle suffering (pain, grief, etc) a lot better when you know it's coming. At least you have time to brace yourself....

Sencha, I get the same feelings myself. But it's coming, and that's that. So I try to make the most out of each day. Focus on what's REALLY important. Care and learn and grow. Good habits to get into for when TSHTF.

There's an irony in all this: politicians, corporations, the other rich and powerful--they all determinedly only looked to the short-term. Now, the short-term is gonna be all we've got.

[trespam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', '
')Anyway, while standing there waiting, I read about half of the newspaper. The two kids in front of me were joking around and hitting on the girls as they walked by, talking about little jobs they had and where they can go to get some good weed.

[Ayoob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('trespam', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', '
')Anyway, while standing there waiting, I read about half of the newspaper. The two kids in front of me were joking around and hitting on the girls as they walked by, talking about little jobs they had and where they can go to get some good weed.

[Aaron]

We were discussing a simple way to get the word out about peak just the other day actually.

Trying to come up with some inexpensive and pop fad sort of vehicle.

So far we have come up with:



PO Bumper Stickers
PO key chains or key fobs

Kind of labeling the very things responsible for this mess ya know?

PO drink cozies shaped like little barrels of oil

Lance Armstrong styled PO bracelets

Something cheap which says "I know about peak... just ask."

My favorite so far is a PO Pint glass. We were hoping to get Dr. Campbell to let us use his famous pub analogy to print on the pint glass...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U')nderstanding depletion is simple. Think of an Irish pub. The glass starts full and ends empty. There are only so many more drinks to closing time. It’s the same with oil. We have to find the bar before we can drink what’s in it.

[smiley]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')ny other ideas?

[skiwi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', 'W')e were discussing a simple way to get the word out about peak just the other day actually.

Trying to come up with some inexpensive and pop fad sort of vehicle.
Something cheap which says "I know about peak... just ask."
Any other ideas?

[skiwi]

I'm also posting emails from peakoil at mac.com being a mac fan

Thinking about paying for that one before my 2 month trial expires :

[BILL_THA_PHARMACIZT]

you did the perfectly correct responsible thing.
The reason things have become so fucked up is because people prefer not to have this type of discussion.....

you might have just saved that kid from being a victim of the draft....never know.

[Ayoob]

I'm going rogue in LA to advertise the Peak this week. Production companies in LA use these smallish yellow or orange signs to direct their staff to locations for shooting video projects like commercials or music videos. I'm picking up about 100 this week and bombarding Sunset Blvd with them. A couple of the messages I'm putting on them are Peak Oil and Ghawar is Dying. I wonder if anyone will notice. Maybe.

From what Ruppert says, and I'm not sure how credible this is, Richard Duncan is forecasting a huge crash in 07. I wonder how it will really play out. I'd rather have my neighbors prepared for this than not, you know? Get them to do a little bit of planning.

[Sencha]

There's nothing responsible about force feeding peak oil down someone's throat. Give them their blissful ignorance while it lasts. Think about it, how many people that become aware, are actually equipped to do anything about it?

I'm not alone, I know there are plenty others who are not doing anything. I hate that its true, but it is. I am cornered into my mundane life, and since there is no set date for the crash, even if I wanted to break out of it, it would be a risk too big to take.

Doesn't anybody remember life just being a little bit better before they found out? Sure, I take almost nothing for granted, but that doesn't help. All it does it remind me of what I have to lose someday.

I use the inevitable, impacting asteroid as an example. If you knew an asteroid was going to impact the earth, and there was nothing anyone could do about it, I wouldn't say a damn thing. I'd rather spend my last days with peace of mind, then counting down the end of the world to its last seconds.

[Guest]

I'd rather be informed.

be a soldier

wussy.

[Sencha]

And I'd rather be ignorant and happy, rather than aware and wanting to drop dead.

Be a pacifist.

mesuinu.