[hubbertspeak7777777]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'S')o, Hubbert, you're looking forward to collapse as revenge against those more successful than you?


Man, that is one of the most pathetic things I've read on this board.


Pathetic.

[hubbertspeak7777777]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'S')o, Hubbert, you're looking forward to collapse as revenge against those more successful than you?


Man, that is one of the most pathetic things I've read on this board.


Pathetic.

[oowolf]

How can you be so negative when positive, life-affirming, hope-inspiring events like this are coming to redeem our future!!!!

http://www.indy500.com/news/story.php?story_id=4105

[Baldwin]

At 17, I am feeling pretty damn bad at the moment. At the moment, doing something to sustain myself in the future is necessary. However, because of my location and upbringing (a suburb of NYC....long island specifically and of a middle class family), I am being railroaded from high school-->expensive private college--->graduate school for a masters-----> middle class wage slave who gets his daily caffeine ration at Dunkin' DOnuts.

[mercurygirl]

This thread probably belongs in Psychology.

Thanks for the laugh, oowolf.

I feel rather stuck right now myself and often have mental states varying from terrified to disgusted to depressed, but still you can laugh every day. I try. Ludi is right, action helps.

I find myself envying you Baldwin. You're young, strong, and smart. I've seen your posts about your situation and it seems tough. I know the feeling. But really, you can do college for a couple years and then...take off! Get a motorcycle, go to work, do whatever you decide is good. I think the world will hold together that long. I've no doubt you will succeed at whatever you really want.
I liked the idea of being a farmer and bagpiper in Ireland, and if I was 20 I'd ask to go too.

I'd say everyone here cares, or we'd be somewhere else.

[Madpaddy]

Aimrehtopyh - Thanks very much. I enjoyed listening to that.

http://dingo.care2.com/cards/flash/5409/galaxy.swf

Mercurygirl wrote,
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') liked the idea of being a farmer and bagpiper in Ireland, and if I was 20 I'd ask to go too.

[mercurygirl]

Oh good, deal then. Madpaddy do you have room for a bunch of PO refugees? I even have red hair!

[Madpaddy]

You don't need red hair, you just need to speak Polish.

[frankthetank]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ',') Hubbert, you're looking forward to collapse as revenge against those more successful than you?

[mercurygirl]

You lost me there Paddy.

[Madpaddy]

I was being ironic. We have 300,000 Eastern Europeans here in the last 2 years. I for one welcome our Slavic masters.

[Baldwin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Madpaddy', 'I') was being ironic. We have 300,000 Eastern Europeans here in the last 2 years. I for one welcome our Slavic masters.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hubbertspeak7777777', '.')..Grow up, go to school, work hard and get good grades, go to college and get good grades so you can get a job so you can do even more work and be a corporate slave, get a raise so you can buy even more useless junk, put up with people's bullshit, get married to a woman who will end up becoming a nasty hag with saggy tits who will bury you in credit card debt, go to church, pray to imaginary friends, pay taxes, vote for dishonest politians based on their insincere promises, get screwed over by the politicians you voted for, have kids that will grow up to hate you, retire, grow old and watch lame-ass sitcom reruns all day and then, you finally die. And it was all for nothing...

Is anyone else slightly bothered by such bullshit? Does anyone else not care if our bullshit way of life ends soon?

[mercurygirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Madpaddy', 'I') was being ironic. We have 300,000 Eastern Europeans here in the last 2 years. I for one welcome our Slavic masters.

[I_Like_Plants]

sounds like they're like Mexicans in the US or Dalits in India, BTW on Dalits, look at the YouTube video, "I'm Dalit, How Are You?" amazing - what is it, 1/3 of the population there not even considered human, guess who does all the dirty work while the Brahmins sit around? Just like 'merka.....

[auscanman]

I've given some more thought to the seemingly pointless lifestyle most seem to lead today. While I think most people are materialistic by nature, it's evident that this rampant consumerism has only become the sole preoccupation of the masses in the last 10 years or so. People also generally have an altruistic side to them. Up until recently most people could indulge their materialistic side while still being able to see the bad in life and trying to do something about it, as they wanted to help in some way and thought that a solution to the various problems was possible.

Now I think you're limited to going one of two ways. If you choose to be altruistic, you see the overwhelming number of irresolvable problems we face, and realize you're implicated in that when you indulge in consumerism, and are morally unable to lead what most would call the 'regular lifestyle.' Or, you become afraid of the terrible situation we're in, materialism wins, and you decide to basically become a selfish being. This is where a lot of the antipathy to peak oil and global warming to a lesser extent comes from... as people on this board know, once you start thinking about any of these issues you can't stop!

[Aimrehtopyh]

I'm definitely in agreement with what you guys are saying about the futility and hopelessness of pursuing a "normal" consumerist ostrich way of life.

I've always had the feeling that high-energy living didn't have much of a future, even as a child. But since I was instilled with a belief in progress and faith in human ingenuity and flexibility it didn't worry me too much that our way of life would eventually have to change drastically.

Upon learning about Peak Oil and deepening my knowledge of the interactions between energy, population, ecology, culture and technology it seemed clear that the inevitable change that I had always forseen would not be gradual enough for the human race to adjust to. Frightening though it was, this was just the beginning.

Long story short: I find myself doubting many of the core beliefs I've had since childhood. The first to go was my belief in the ability of technology to solve all problems and continually improve beyond our wildest dreams or understanding. More recently my confidence in civilization itself has been shaken. "Stop the world, I wanna get off"
If you've read Thom Hartmanns Last hours of ancient sunlight, you might understand where I'm coming from.

I'm almost getting to the point where I'd like to just withdraw and read nothing but People magazine and watch nothing but sitcoms just to avoid the pain. You want some high-quality glossy-paper doomer porn? Go pick up this months National Geographic. I swear, they should start mailing them with a voucher for free emotional counseling or booze.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hubbertspeak7777777', 'I') just don't give a shit if this pathetic society ends?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'D')efine successful.

[jdmartin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kochevnik', 'A')s Yoda would say :

Wisdom you have found.
Smart you now are.

You're asking the ultimate existential question, 'Is this all there is ?'

And the answer is : Beats me.

Personally, after a few decades on this planet I have come to a few conclusions :

1) You have to pick and choose.

For the most part you are not forced to participate. Don't like where you are or what you do ? Change it. Quit your job, sell your shit, move to India or Africa or China - get some perspective. Be a bum, be a truckdriver, be a musician, join a cult, join an ecovillage, whatever, get a bicycle and ride across the country. Do whatever, but whining - even existential whining is not useful. Change.

2) You might have a purpose - but it might be that that purpose is to serve as a bad example for others ...

The universe works in strange ways. Consider that IF PO turns out to be true and IF everything turns to doggy-doo-doo you are one of the privileged few to not only get to watch the Big Show live, as it occurs, but because you were exposed to PO.com you get the privilege of being able to understand it as well.

I think that's a pretty amazing thing - if you look at the really BIG picture - after all, you could have been born 20,000 years ago when the biggest thrill of your year would have been who got the biggest slab of buffalo meat this season.

Instead you are here, now, watching the biggest event since the invention of sliced bread. Pretty cool if you ask me, no matter how it all turns out.