by clueless » Thu 09 Aug 2007, 11:51:25
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')eople have endured hardships in the US and elsewhere before. But never has a world-wide crisis like peak oil happened before.
You may have faith in the average American person post peak, but I don't. These people (strangers) you have faith in to work together peacefully are now all well fed and can still buy whatever they want and need, whether it be on credit or with cash. Take that away and most of these 'trustworthy, peaceful people' will turn into angry mobs, putting their families first above all else. These are the facts, whether you like it or not. It's called survival. I do believe that in a peaceful, unselfish world where people would sacrifice for the common good of the country there could be a smooth transition to power down. But unfortunately we don't live in that kind of fantasy world. Welcome to the reality of a spoiled, selfish, individualistic society.
Well - Even the ultimate doomer (Richard Duncan) says some places will be worse than others. I am sure in a depression inner cities will be a nightmare, but if you take off your fatalistic glasses just for a second and look at how things are running now. We arguably peaked last year and no disaster - There have even been some local fuel shortages in this country and still no disaster. The world will be producing alot of oil for quite a long time and the level of awareness will begin to increase more as time goes on - This is not going catch most people by surprise, as Kunstler says - "This is a Long Emergency" - But back to one of my original points, people in this country are running on borrowed money now - Do you you really think they think they can continue living this way ? I don't think so, I think they are fully aware something big is going to break very soon.
Most people I talk to have a reasonable understanding of the energy dilema we are in and know there are difficult times coming, you cannot stereotype everyone in society in the same camp - and just for the record I am a firm believer mankind has a destructive nature and always will - But until the entire system breaks people gunfighting in the streets isn't going to happen.