[AlterEgo]

Garrison Keillor gets it.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')So we will need to amuse ourselves in new ways. I predict that banjo sales will pick up. The screened porch will come back in style. And the art of storytelling will burgeon along with it. Stories are common currency in life but only to people on foot. Nobody ever told a story to a clerk at a drive-up window, but you can walk up to the lady at the check-out counter and make small talk and she might tell you, as a woman told me the other day as she rang up my groceries, that she had gotten a puppy that day to replace the old dog who had to be put down a month ago, and right there was a little exchange of humanity. Her willingness to tell me that made her real to me. People who aren't real to each other are dangerous to each other. Stories give us the simple empathy that is the basis of the Golden Rule, which is the basis of civilized society....

So when gas passes $5 and heads for $8 and $10, we will learn to sit in dim light with our loved ones and talk about hunting and fishing adventures, about war and romance and times of consummate foolishness when we threw caution to the wind and flung ourselves over the Cliffs of Desire and did not land on the Sharp Rocks of Regret.

I'll tell you about the motor home trip and how lovely it was, cruising the prairie at night and drinking beer, stopping by a little creek and grilling fish on a Coleman stove, listening to coyotes. The vanishing of the R.V. only makes your story more interesting. One thing lost, something else gained. Life is like that."

[Cashmere]

In my opinion, thinking that way only takes your focus off of the important things.

Sure, families will become closer, hypersexual promiscuity will end, STD transmission will be reduced, late onset diabetes will disappear, heart disease will go way down.


So what?

When 5 billion people are dying around you, there is no upside.

[AlterEgo]

I prefer not to think of the rest of my life as having no upside. And I see huge benefits to less people in solving all of our environmental problems. The people are going to have to go anyway; either through famine, pestilence, or war. Might as well get something good out of the big changes as well as the small ones.

Your argument, Cashmere, sounds like argument for argument's sake. Or is that the best you've got for coping mechanisms?

[desultorypawn]

There are always positives and negatives, focus on whichever you feel comfortable-- although IMO I think coping mechanisms are pretty difficult to change and slowly evolve throughout your life.

[Cashmere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'Y')our argument, Cashmere, sounds like argument for argument's sake. Or is that the best you've got for coping mechanisms?

[aflurry]

It's hard to have a single emotion about the Whole Big Picture.

I mean, i kind of feel like, the oil was always there, and we - being what we are- were eventually going to find it and start gulping the stuff down.

And, given everything i suppose i'd rather be alive right now seeing it all go down than at any other time in the past... it'll be interesting, at least until i get rounded up into a work camp or die of starvation.

... and i mean all those 6 billion people were going to die eventually, they will just die sooner now. i mean this seriously, and i don't think it's flippant or heartless even. when your perspective gets so wide with issues like the fate of the planet, you lose that urgent sense of "this is good, that is bad."

... jeez Cash, what's so bad about hypersexual promiscuity... among consenting adults.

[aflurry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', 't')hinking about it any other way just makes you less ready, mentally, for what's ahead.

[AlterEgo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', 'T')here is no upside - there is only catastrophe, and it's my opinion that thinking about it any other way just makes you less ready, mentally, for what's ahead.

[AlterEgo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('aflurry', 'w')hen you drive your car off a cliff, perhaps the absolute least important thing at that time is whether you were "ready" for it.

[threadbear]

You want to be aware and vigilant without being hyper vigilant or overcome with depression becauuse that's going to do any organism far more harm than anything peak oil could do.

Also, Cashmere, How you figure 5 billion people are going to die, is beyond me. At least 3 billion of those, aren't very oil dependent.

[Hermes]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', '
')I'm advising people not to get caught up thinking there will be <i>any</i> upside to this.
There is no upside - there is only catastrophe, and it's my opinion that thinking about it any other way just makes you less ready, mentally, for what's ahead.

[mos6507]

He gets it, but like most, he doesn't see the die-off part, or at least isn't willing to write about it.

[AlterEgo]

No, proper midwesterners avoid talk of die-off.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AlterEgo', 'N')o, proper midwesterners avoid talk of die-off.

[Olaf]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('aflurry', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', 't')hinking about it any other way just makes you less ready, mentally, for what's ahead.

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'H')e gets it, but like most, he doesn't see the die-off part, or at least isn't willing to write about it.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wisconsin_cur', '
')He has an image to uphold. whatever he believes in private he has a public image to maintain. Therefore he is required to face the issue in a certain way.

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wisconsin_cur', '
')He has an image to uphold. whatever he believes in private he has a public image to maintain. Therefore he is required to face the issue in a certain way.

[CarlinsDarlin]

Not to mention his paycheck...

[mgibbons19]

Good grief. Those ppl were going to die sooner or later anyway. Hell so am I and so are my children. And sooner or later the sun will expand and swallow up the earth.

There's more than enough misery in the world already. There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying where you're at right now. Same goes for GK.