I seem to keep falling back into a dream.

by **Harlequin** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 14:32:51

I have known about peak oil since some time in 2005, I'm a lurker on this forum and I've been trying to give the home a makeover and have even convinced my mother of the importance of things like having a combustion stove.------>Much still remains to be done.

However, I'm a year twelve High School student in Australia (in case you don't live here that makes me 17-18), as I watch the world I keep feeling like it's a dream, it many ways it is I suppose, dreams are pleasant, usually comparatively short-lived and inevitably end and our civilisation is like so.

I am rather sure that we're past peak and have been for a year or two, and lately I'm seeing 2012 as the end of all things, as it is.

Of course, it won't really be the end of all things, in the sense that if you smash a mirror the glass is still there, but the mirror isn't so.

My problem? I find myself constantly redrawn into this dream that we call modern civilisation, like a dream that I wake fitfully from but can't fully snap out of.
I like to read, watch Japanese animation, I like to go into town and see my friends, catch a movie even, I love many things about this world, despite its rotten-to-the-core nature and yet I KNOW beyond doubt that this world can not last.

I KNOW the renewable can't save us, yet I still see my friends preparing for what they think their lives will be like and on some level I can't help but do the same, a tiny fragment of myself is still disbelieving after all this time with hopeless faith in a future of fairy-dust and angel sparkles.

It worries me, because I've never been very resolute and I feel so confused, every few months I wake myself up and do things, and we are getting things down, I just worry that I can't act fast enough, I worry that I'll fall asleep again only to see the dream become a nightmare, caught unaware.

Sure I'm young, I'll probably survive but I'm afraid, how do you guys stop believing in our modern world?

by **mgibbons19** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 14:54:52

Just live life. You can have a lot of fun being 17 today and this year without PO having any impact on your life whatsoever. Or you can worry and depress and suffer, and PO still might not have widespread affects by the same time next year.

Just treat your life like it's your life. Make reasonable plans for the future based on what you think you know, and enjoy the ride.

by **TheTurtle** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 18:27:41

Someone recently quoted Alan Watts, I shall do likewise.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Alan Watts', 'T')he past and future are real illusions, they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

by **BigTex** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 18:55:53

Alan Watts' writing is quite eye-opening--he argues (or observes) that the past and the future are both products of your imagination and an enormous drain on your ability to live in the present.

by **snowshoegal** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 19:23:48

Those raised on Watts, taught to be responsible for one's own life and to be self-educators and independent thinkers, become abysmally lonely in a world where entitlement-minded people are waiting to be rescued.

I liken it to finding out about Peak Oil. Imagine being raised that way.

by **Homesteader** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 20:56:19

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('snowshoegal', 'T')hose raised on Watts, taught to be responsible for one's own life and to be self-educators and independent thinkers, become abysmally lonely in a world where entitlement-minded people are waiting to be rescued.

I liken it to finding out about Peak Oil. Imagine being raised that way.

by **TheTurtle** » Wed 11 Jul 2007, 20:10:15

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('snowshoegal', 'T')hose raised on Watts, taught to be responsible for one's own life and to be self-educators and independent thinkers, become abysmally lonely in a world where entitlement-minded people are waiting to be rescued.

by **seldom_seen** » Wed 11 Jul 2007, 20:56:17

Yes, Alan Watts. Good.

These two titles hold a prominent position on my bookshelf. You can read them over and over again and the book never gets old.

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Taboo-Agains ... 0679723005

Tao: The Watercourse Way
http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Watercourse-W ... 0394733118

by **Harlequin** » Sun 15 Jul 2007, 07:38:35

I see....So how is it that you guys don't get sucked into the illusion of our modern world?

by **mgibbons19** » Sun 15 Jul 2007, 16:06:15

Enjoy it while you can. Why not get sucked in?

I seem to keep falling back into a dream.

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