[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I') "tipped" when I turned 50 (two years ago). I did not expect that that number would have the profound effect on me that it did.

On that birthday I tipped onto my personal downslope.

I see clearly, now, how surplus I am, and how near to the horizon.

The broader events that are in motion interact synergistically with my age to produce the blackest of clouds inside my head.

Because I know that, even if I have the means and knowledge to "prepare," I won't have the strength.

Also, that preparation is likely to be futile in any case.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I') "tipped" when I turned 50 (two years ago). I did not expect that that number would have the profound effect on me that it did.

On that birthday I tipped onto my personal downslope.

I see clearly, now, how surplus I am, and how near to the horizon.

The broader events that are in motion interact synergistically with my age to produce the blackest of clouds inside my head.

Because I know that, even if I have the means and knowledge to "prepare," I won't have the strength.

Also, that preparation is likely to be futile in any case.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'P')ops, some of your posts remind me of the "soma" people take in the novel "Brave New World." Sort of a calmness pill.

Bear in mind that most Americans aren't settled down on farms. They're huddled in angst in their overbuilt, heavily mortgaged suburban shacks on tiny lots, totally dependent on TWAWKI.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I') "tipped" when I turned 50 (two years ago). I did not expect that that number would have the profound effect on me that it did.

On that birthday I tipped onto my personal downslope.

I see clearly, now, how surplus I am, and how near to the horizon.

The broader events that are in motion interact synergistically with my age to produce the blackest of clouds inside my head.

Because I know that, even if I have the means and knowledge to "prepare," I won't have the strength.

Also, that preparation is likely to be futile in any case.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'P')ops, some of your posts remind me of the "soma" people take in the novel "Brave New World." Sort of a calmness pill.

Bear in mind that most Americans aren't settled down on farms. They're huddled in angst in their overbuilt, heavily mortgaged suburban shacks on tiny lots, totally dependent on TWAWKI.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I') am starting to feel afraid because when I talk doom I realize it is no longer in a purely academic sense. It's getting real. It's getting personal.

[Ferretlover]

Mood swings aside, it's an awfully big picture to take in, and sometimes we are only reflecting on one small area.
I would also note that this is one of the few places I've ever known where the people don't just take an unyielding stand, refusing to make adjustments when evidence or other information would dictate that ideas be revised.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I') am starting to feel afraid because when I talk doom I realize it is no longer in a purely academic sense. It's getting real. It's getting personal.

[BigTex]

Pops,

Nice post.

Thanks.

[Homesteader]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I') "tipped" when I turned 50 (two years ago). I did not expect that that number would have the profound effect on me that it did.

On that birthday I tipped onto my personal downslope.

I see clearly, now, how surplus I am, and how near to the horizon.

The broader events that are in motion interact synergistically with my age to produce the blackest of clouds inside my head.

Because I know that, even if I have the means and knowledge to "prepare," I won't have the strength.

Also, that preparation is likely to be futile in any case.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I') am starting to feel afraid because when I talk doom I realize it is no longer in a purely academic sense. It's getting real. It's getting personal.

[wisconsin_cur]

I have had to think for a few days to think of where my tipping point for thinking that the energy fairly really has pulled something off would be.

$1.25 a gallon diesel and regular unleaded.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Homesteader', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I') "tipped" when I turned 50 (two years ago). I did not expect that that number would have the profound effect on me that it did.

On that birthday I tipped onto my personal downslope.

I see clearly, now, how surplus I am, and how near to the horizon.

The broader events that are in motion interact synergistically with my age to produce the blackest of clouds inside my head.

Because I know that, even if I have the means and knowledge to "prepare," I won't have the strength.

Also, that preparation is likely to be futile in any case.

[evilgenius]

What is going to be a tipping point that I will react to? First of all when I see the US troops either scaled down or removed from Iraq I will begin to watch for gold to come down in price. When it is low enough I will buy as much as I can because you need to buy low and sell high. If you want to use gold in the world to come you will need a lot of it so you had better be planning on buying it cheaply. In addition I will want to be into every oil opportunity outside of the ME as those prices collapse too. Yes, at some point, when the time is close, I plan on shorting the S&P 500.

Within a year of any withdrawal they will have to go back in order to quell the civil war that will have developed. I want to be in gold already when the US re-invades. Similarly, I want to be in gold if/when the US goes after Iran. Though I have taken the line that a re-invasion is what to expect further expansion of imperial aggression would amount to the same thing, an overreaching.

I won't be able to buy much gold before an invasion of Iran, but I will probably be able to short the S&P 500.

I think that the current Western system reaches its own tipping point once it has overreached. With that, I think, comes unforeseen military loss along with the loss of hegemony. I compare it to the Athenians overreaching in Sicily (Syracuse) and losing it all (war, freedom, democracy) in a short space of years.

[s0cks]

I reached the tipping point last year. Not really through any particular instance, but more just slowly realizing that what I am doing is pointless and has no future.

For the general public, tipping point will almost never come. Not until things are really bad. Most likely, post-peak, after famine, and die-off, when people start to relaize there is no going back. Until then people will always think the current situation is "temporary".

A tipping point in the reverse direction? The ONLY thing which MAY suggest a return the business as usual would be a break-through in fusion technology for commercial use. But even if this were to happen there would still be many years (even decades?) of hardship while a transition took place. And this does not solve other resource problems (topsoil, fresh water, etc...).

I would be slightly more hopeful the day I see government and councils abandoning roading projects. As long as this were to happen now or very very very soon. But it is probably still too late.