[Yavicleus]

So...the general response I've had from most people when I tell them about Peak Oil, has been silence.

I've emailed my family about it. All my aunts and uncles, my mom and pop, my sister, etc. Nobody responded. I've emailed a few friends. Likewise, no response.

I emailed a few members of various 'Green' organizations at a local college. No response.

I mean, just about everyone I've told tends to just ignore it. Or pretend like it doesn't exist.

It's amazing. The only one I know of in my family that took it seriously is my Grandpa who grew up during the Great Depression. He forwarded my email explaining Peak Oil to everyone he knew. It's like the only ones who can accept that the shit is about to hit the fan, are the old-timers who can remember a time before the great prosperity we have experienced for the past 50+ years.

It amazes me.

Now, I did tell an Economist friend of mine about it, but he shrugged it off with the general economist answer: increased oil prices will lead to increased drilling in the Gulf, in offshore, in deep sea, etc.

I told a good friend of mine who is a hardcore Democrat. One of the Deaniacs. He doesn't seem to get it either. He still thinks that we should tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 'bring down prices so that they don't hurt the working man'. I'm like..."uh...dude, gas prices are cheap. When this hits, gas is going to be like $10 a gallon."

I just don't get it.

[heyhoser]

Similar reactions here. Some look at me like I'm crazy, others brush the math aside and say things like, "Saudia Arabia just wants to make more money," the worst is this response:

"If you don't want to transfer to university, why not just say so?"
Dang it! I wasn't even TALKING about that!
????????????????

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

Its as though life has so traumatized everyone that they have a pat answer (read: taped program) to answer anything outside their programed existence or that challenges them.

Its almost as though the only reason they don't laugh at you like its a movie plot because they might respect your oppinion.

Everyone just amuses me I think, except for one of my family members who is a fundamentalist christian ultra right wing, and she just tells me everything is going to be fine and that its all a hoax.

The most suprising reaction was from my mortgage broker. He was suprised and thought me exceedingly clever to have figured this all out.

[killJOY]

I had an editorial published in our local buttwipe I mean newspaper that went like this:

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/viewp ... ergy.shtml

also in pdf

http://www.rpalumni.org/nolng/pdf/news8.pdf

Exactly ZERO letters appeared in the paper in the weeks following the column.

There was abundant comment, though--on the Pope, Michael Jackson, and gay rights.

[arretium]

A very well written piece Killjoy. Good job.

People don't care. I'm not a young as the person that started this post, but I encounter the same problem. I can't even convince my wife. People are sleep walking into the abyss. There's little we can do about it. Hell, I'm no where near prepared as alot of people. The only thing I can do is actually spend money to become prepared... That's right, go buy beans and rice while it is cheap and make sure I buy beans that don't require heating.

You know what let me step back, it's not that people don't care. It's that this problem is so fundamental different than the Western way of life that people can not conceptualize it. Hell I have a hard time with it. Everyday I think, "Nah, we'll find a way out of this. This isn't going to be that bad." Then I think about it some more. People can't handle this kind of information because their whole life has been built around the opposite: cheap and abundant energy. The concept is dymmetrically opposed to their way of life and thinking.

[RonMN]

I hear ya on the beans & rice thing...but i go for the dry & have a few enamel covered metal pots cups etc (from the local sporting goods store) i can cook over a couple of candles...

I wonder how many will think i can wave a magic wand & feed them all because i saved a few bags of beans??? in the mean time they wouldn't consider spending a dime "on such foolishness".

[Ludi]

I've had basically the same response on various messageboards I've posted on about it, either insults, or nothing. No one is interested.

I was afraid it was my method of presenting it, but since I see you all get the same response, it must be the material is just something people are incapable of thinking about.

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', 'I')ts as though life has so traumatized everyone that they have a pat answer (read: taped program) to answer anything outside their programed existence or that challenges them.

[Yavicleus]

Heh, out of all of us, KillJoy's story about publishing an editorial and getting ZERO responses seems to be the best example of what I was talking about. It amazes me.

arretium: I'm 26.

I agree with the buying dried beans statement. You can pack in alot of dried beans away, and it really doesn't take that much to cook them. Then again, maybe I'm biased because I just finished making a pot of them.

uNkNowN ElEmEnt: I can't even imagine what your conversation with your mortgage broker must have been like. "So mr. Broker, I hope you've been saving up some extra cash for a rainy day...because like, your entire industry is about to suck..."

[k_semler]

See the reaction for yourself: http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/ubb/ulti ... 1;t=037964

[ohanian]

I gave up trying to tell people about peak oil.

I came to this startling conclusions.



1. Anyone with half a brain can figure it out for themselves.

2. Anyone who cannot figure it out for themselves is not worth informing.

3. Anyone who do not want to believe, will never believe.

4. Anyone who is unsure, will still be unsure long after the peak has passed.

[Madpaddy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he most suprising reaction was from my mortgage broker. He was suprised and thought me exceedingly clever to have figured this all out.