[AlexdeLarge]

Talking among family and friends.........this is the most common response I get.
Many people I talk to still have not heard of the term "Peak Oil". When I expain what it is and what it implies for our way of life, they are skeptical at best. Many say the rise in the price of oil is due to the normal suspects: Big Oil, Speculators, Weak Dollar. (Mainstream media is doing a great job of snowing the sheeple!)

"Nothing I can do about it, so why worry."
Maybe they are right!
What do you hear from your family/friends???

[emersonbiggins]

"They'll figure something out"

[UncoveringTruths]

"OK what's the solution?"

Usually breaks down after that with "No way" followed by emersonbiggins quote.

[Spanktron9]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '"')They'll figure something out"

[kpeavey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat do you hear from your family/friends???

[AlexdeLarge]

"Talking about it will get you ostracized."
That is very true. Remember the Saturday night live skit "Debbie Downer"? LOL
You don't want to be "Donny Doomer" ! It's not a great way to pick up girls! LOL

[allenwrench]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AlexdeLarge', 'T')alking among family and friends.........this is the most common response I get.
Many people I talk to still have not heard of the term "Peak Oil". When I expain what it is and what it implies for our way of life, they are skeptical at best. Many say the rise in the price of oil is due to the normal suspects: Big Oil, Speculators, Weak Dollar. (Mainstream media is doing a great job of snowing the sheeple!)
"Nothing I can do about it, so why worry."
Maybe they are right!
What do you hear from your family/freinds???

[PonyBoy78]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kpeavey', 'T')hey don't know, they don't want to know. If you talk about it, they think you are nuts. The only way the world can continue smoothly is if the people are kept in the dark. Imagine the chaos if the general public understood the nature of the problem and took action. Hoarding of food and supplies, guns, store shelves emptying and staying empty. Farmland prices going through the roof. People changing jobs everywhere, entire segments of commerce shutting down as people make the change in their lifestyle needed to promote sustainability.

[eastbay]

When I started mentioning this to people close to me around four years ago, the resonses were variations of: 'You're nuts'.
After a while the responses changed a bit to: 'we'll think of something'.
Then, as gas prices dropped to under $2.00 a year and a half ago the responses changed back to: 'you're nuts'.

Now the responses are strangely different, Now, they've morphed into: 'we won't be able to get to work if gas keeps getting more expensive'.
The list of places to direct blame has recently expanded too. Remember when it was a short list including primarily environmentalists and OPEC? Now it includes 'speculators', Russians, Chinese, Indians, oil traders, Arabs, Venezuelans, environmentalists, OPEC, Congress, war, Iranians, Detroit, SUV owners, and just about everyone else. The finger pointing has now reached a level of frenzy. Point. Point. Point.

But never pointing at yourself. At gluttony. At the system that survives only due to greed. Greed for more and more of everything. An endless mindless craving to possess it all. The result is mass starvation. The weapon will be ethanol which, as readers here know, will eventually deliver that mass starvation everywhere.

So what do we do? Prepare as best you can, but do not surrender. First, exit the harmful cycle of gluttony and downscale your lives. Then learn the basics. Read the PFTF section. Stay fit. Avoid addictions. Quit whining. All that and more.

[cualcrees]

If there's nothing we can do, and TS gonna HTF sooner than later; wouldn't any kind of preparation be useless anyway?
Let's say I do prepare; I either start growing my own food or stockpiling it or whatever; wouldn't the rest of the "Zombies" go after me eventually? How long could I survive even if I have guns and ammo? And, even more, would I want to survive in the kind of world that would be left?

There will be waaay more people desperate, hungry, mad, and out looking for anything to eat (some if not most of them armed with guns, too) than I could ever possibly fend off even with a whole arsenal.
What do you think? am I wrong?

Does it depend on the kind of decline and post-PO world as to whether being prepared is worth it or not?
Please don't flame me, I'm just trying to learn.

[Mack12345]

As a new commer here to Peakoil.com and a new comer to the idea of PO . "I started getting it after a link apeared on yahoo a while back ..."
I can totaly relate to the "Nothing I can do about it . So why worry ?" Mentality ..

Honestly , I know that this PO thing is true ... I am not stupid ... A combination of common sence , a little bit of investigation on the internet , a semi-competent education and posts on this site have drilled the truth home .
The world as we know it is pretty much gonna end and its likely to end pretty soon .
I accept that .. i am pretty sure its to late for me to really "prepare"

I am a 32 year ould out of shape man with very few skills .
Nothing I can do about it, so why worry .

I have started loseing weight/exercising .
I have started stockpileing food .
I bought a book on first -aid that im reading .
Im, trying to trade my junk car for a junk car that gets better gas milage .
I have commited to quit smokeing , I havent did it yet but im moving twords it .
I am trying to switch to a job nearer to my home .
I am trying to knock out as much dept as I can eventhough "Dept free" cannot be obtained .
I have began reading books and websites about basic survival .
For the first time in my life I am learning how to shoot/care for/ maintain a firearm .
I have even made a post or two on Peakoil.com about things "trends" i have noticed in my profession "grocery store stocker" ...
Nothing I can do about it. So why worry?

[lettered_olive]

My husband's been resisting ever since I first read up on "peak oil" a few months ago. He realizes that we're running out, but apparently prays to the technology Gods. He also tends to be an ultra-optimist and comes out with responses like: "We have 6.7 billion people on this planet and they're all trying to make the world a better place. Surely, someone will come up with a solution." (Wha??!!! Yes ... billions of earthlings ... that's precisely the problem. And I can guarantee you that every last one of them is not trying to make the world a better place. BTW, what *are* you sniffing?)

I think he got a bit of a shock on our 4th of July vacation, however. We wound up hooking up with another well-educated, lucid couple and, (surprise, surprise), they turned out to be real doomers. I had a wonderful time chatting them up, talking Kunstler, Orlov, Energy Bulletin, etc., etc. while Mr. lettered_olive smiled benevolently on.

The result? I found out, on the way home, the problems Mr. lettered_olive really has with all of this. Curiously, these problems are both aesthetic and moral. First, 'peak oil' is ugly. It gives him the creeps. On the other hand, flat-screen TVs are fun and beautiful (in their own way). Second, he's truly bothered by the every-man-for-himself, hoard-your-food-and-gold coins selfishness of it all. Ditto for the we're-helpless-we're-all-going-to-die undertone to the conversation.

Well, unfortunately, I can't get reality out of my mind. But I can see his point.

(I've also decided not to push him any more on the issue. But that's a personal decision and I can see why others might want to keep at it with their friends and SOs.)

[forbin]

it seem the GOP is doing fine in keeping the masses under control
Funny really , wifey said nuthing on telly saturday night as the last idol/singalong / spam TV finished last week
Me? sorry love nuffing been on for YEARS! except that mind control stuff of course........

until the issue is the face of the masses , nothing will be done
I think september look about the right time.....
we can do something - prepare !
( although I admit it will take a goverment to tackle it as we british are very much an "I all right, Jack" type of people )

the govenment have prepared - I sure all those terrorist laws are there for us - we terrorise the GOP greatly!
As for doing something , until the mantra of "the market will provide" is shown to be a sham , nothing will happen.
the market sets prices - nothing else
Forbin.

[eastbay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cualcrees', 'I')f there's nothing we can do, and TS gonna HTF sooner than later; wouldn't any kind of preparation be useless anyway? Let's say I do prepare; I either start growing my own food or stockpiling it or whatever; wouldn't the rest of the "Zombies" go after me eventually? How long could I survive even if I have guns and ammo? And, even more, would I want to survive in the kind of world that would be left? There will be waaay more people desperate, hungry, mad, and out looking for anything to eat (some if not most of them armed with guns, too) than I could ever possibly fend off even with a whole arsenal.
What do you think? am I wrong? Does it depend on the kind of decline and post-PO world as to whether being prepared is worth it or not? Please don't flame me, I'm just trying to learn.

[Tyler_JC]

That's why you explain this as a cost savings mechanism for them.

No one cares about the fate of industrial civilization for the next 40 years...but most people will pay attention if you tell them how much money they will save by buying a solar panel or investing in better windows.

[eastbay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'T')hat's why you explain this as a cost savings mechanism for them. No one cares about the fate of industrial civilization for the next 40 years...but most people will pay attention if you tell them how much money they will save by buying a solar panel or investing in better windows.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'Q')uit whining.

[eastbay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'Q')uit whining.

[syrac818]

Interesting topic.

And to be honest, there is something to be said for the reaction of "Nothing I can do about it, so why worry?". The fact is, peak oil is one of many, many factors that could result in our collective demise. From nuclear war to bird flu to massive global warming to meteors hitting the Earth to....

There is always reason to worry. Death is always upon us. At some point you have to decide whether or not you are going to be consumed these painful thoughts, try to deal with them more constructively or simple ignore them. With thousands of posters on here (and energy bulletin, The Oil Drum, LATOC, etc..) I can all but guarantee that there has been someone who spent months or years agonizing over the horrific future just ahead of them - only to drop dead of a heart attack before any of it really came to fruition.

The bottom line is life is short, and none of us know what's ahead. For me, the biggest obstacle is being peak oil aware while maintaining a sense of joy and purpose in life.

[UselessEater]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AlexdeLarge', '"')Nothing I can do about it, so why worry."
Maybe they are right!