[OilyMon]

An interesting article about doomsday psychology:

http://college.hmco.com/psychology/reso ... 20129.html

I know not everybody here is as extreme as this article suggests, but there are a lot of similarities between posters here and the mentality of a survivalist.

[OilyMon]

Also, I think the people here are less delusional and the theory is more sound than other potential doomsday scenarios.

[UIUCstudent01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')itchell does not address the fact that the scenarios that survivalists create are, for the most part, delusional. They are not based in fact or reason; indeed they, as Mitchell describes it, "deconstruct," "reinvent," and "transform" accepted bodies of knowledge like science, economics, and history to fit their bizarre schemas of the future. He explains the violence and horrific crimes of some survivalists like McVeigh and Nichols as the acts of people who got tired of planning and hoping for the apocalypse and created their own disaster.

[vegasmade]

I'm no psychologist, but I have to chime in here. I think the survivalist mentallity is a reasonable balance to the current lazzie-faire attitude in modern America. The Yin and the Yang. Survival is the most basic of animal instincts. In an age of red state/blue state striffe, class struggle, and general apathy, the group ideal has been forgotten. By participating in a Survivalist group, the induvidual can transcend many of the trappings of modern life. The group provides the sense of security and fellowship missing from many peoples' lives. If they wanna go out and play army men, good for them. The suburban push has, in many ways, isolated induvidual families behind double locked doors and fenced in yards. Back in the 50's at the birth of suburbia, doors weren't locked and yards weren't fenced. People looked out for each other and were happier and more content.
This post has just spawned an interesting theory. Could it be that the individualist idea is the root of many of the social problems currently facing American society? Though individualism can hardly be measured, as it has infected our lives, crime and other anti-social behaviors have increased. We created the title Neighborhood Watch, and people stopped doing it. My parents and grand-parents were speaking of this the other day. When my dad tried to pull some shit growing up, the neighbors took him home. They knew he'd be dealt with proprely, and could expect the same for their own children. That sense of civic responsibility no longer exists. Instead we add redundant locks and have 911 on speed dial.
Could it be, at least fundamentally, that survivalists are only searching for the simplicity and security now missing in our lives.
And let's not forget the principle of divide and conquer.

[jato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')urvivalists are made up of groups as diverse as citizens’ militias, white supremacists and other racial separatists, and extreme religionists of various faiths. Others predict eminent nuclear war or invasion by aliens. Rejecting the norms of mainstream culture, survivalists become marginalized members of society. Social psychologists would explain survivalism as a product of deindividuation and group influence.

[UIUCstudent01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'m no psychologist, but I have to chime in here. I think the survivalist mentallity is a reasonable balance to the current lazzie-faire attitude in modern America. The Yin and the Yang. Survival is the most basic of animal instincts. In an age of red state/blue state striffe, class struggle, and general apathy, the group ideal has been forgotten. By participating in a Survivalist group, the induvidual can transcend many of the trappings of modern life. The group provides the sense of security and fellowship missing from many peoples' lives. If they wanna go out and play army men, good for them. The suburban push has, in many ways, isolated induvidual families behind double locked doors and fenced in yards. Back in the 50's at the birth of suburbia, doors weren't locked and yards weren't fenced. People looked out for each other and were happier and more content.
This post has just spawned an interesting theory. Could it be that the individualist idea is the root of many of the social problems currently facing American society? Though individualism can hardly be measured, as it has infected our lives, crime and other anti-social behaviors have increased. We created the title Neighborhood Watch, and people stopped doing it. My parents and grand-parents were speaking of this the other day. When my dad tried to pull some shit growing up, the neighbors took him home. They knew he'd be dealt with proprely, and could expect the same for their own children. That sense of civic responsibility no longer exists. Instead we add redundant locks and have 911 on speed dial.
Could it be, at least fundamentally, that survivalists are only searching for the simplicity and security now missing in our lives.
And let's not forget the principle of divide and conquer.

[mididoctors]

IMO a more common symptom of doomsday psychology is that it forms a excuse for individuals to avoid day to day responsibilities.

for many people doomsday is a way to recreate their life which uptil now they perceive as unsatisfactory or too difficult to face up to.

'once peak oil occurs thee is a lot of thought of some sort of magical transformation taking place.. this i believe they see as a way of reinventing themselves.

they may think that their prior awareness of the issue will elevate them away from their current life or problems.

it is a beacon or light they are attracted to as almost any new world is seen as preferable to dealing with the one they are in..

inadequacy is overcome by peak oil taking the problem away to be replaced by a single issue that while daunting in scale and real meaning has an allure of being understandable.. this is reinforced by by a sense of power that must surely become theirs when they are vindicated.. especially when they compare themselves to people they feel inferior to in some way now.

having peak oil as their 'thing" makes them better than those they now see as superior or more successful and dooms day will be a reversal ... a fantasy where they get to defeat the school yard bully and get the girl.

of course the reality is peak oil will be just another problem rather than some transformation of themselves..

one will still be an inadequate arsehole post peak whether you saw it coming or not

this of course does not apply to everyone who subscribes to peak oil theory or even to the same degree to people who do suffer from this..

intuitively I think its pretty common..

I can detect strands of it in my own personality

its pretty childish

boris
london

[mididoctors]

and as if by magic...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')
I'm just glad that the rich fatty will be least likely to adapt to a post PO reality. More hot chicks for for us adaptable uglies. And screw the hot chicks who measure a man by the thickness of his wallet.

[vegasmade]

I agree Boris and see it's application in my own life. That said, could it be a subconcious awareness of the futility and absolute wrongness with the way our lives our being lived? By grasping on to PO, we allow the day to day stuff to slide because it all perpetuates an excessive, unnecessary way of living? Could this be mother nature calling us back to simpler, more harmonious lives? Or am I just an animal masquerading as a human?

[Chocky]

Nice response Jato

[mididoctors]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vegasmade', 'I') agree Boris and see it's application in my own life. That said, could it be a subconcious awareness of the futility and absolute wrongness with the way our lives our being lived? By grasping on to PO, we allow the day to day stuff to slide because it all perpetuates an excessive, unnecessary way of living? Could this be mother nature calling us back to simpler, more harmonious lives? Or am I just an animal masquerading as a human?

[bobbyald]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 't')he scenarios that survivalists create are, for the most part, delusional. They are not based in fact or reason

[pongle]

(quotes clipped heavily)
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mididoctors', ' ')
'once peak oil occurs thee is a lot of thought of some sort of magical transformation taking place.. this i believe they see as a way of reinventing themselves.

it is a beacon or light they are attracted to as almost any new world is seen as preferable to dealing with the one they are in..

of course the reality is peak oil will be just another problem rather than some transformation of themselves..

one will still be an inadequate arsehole post peak whether you saw it coming or not

[Pops]

There certainly is a taste of group-think here, as well as some - if not delusional at least rather extreme, future scenarios. Soylent Green, overnight die-off and ‘going native’ are similar, IMO, to black helicopters, aliens and chemtrails. I’d guess as well, some posters here are like the teenage boy who hopes for calamity to bring down The Man that has all the money and power.

OTOH, in the US at least, the idea that our “way of life” is permanent and all the bad things that happen to other people, in other places and in other times could never happen here seems somewhat delusional as well. In the end however, I agree with Boris regarding fatties, as they say, life is like a $hit sandwich; the more bread you have, the less $hit you have to eat.

As for self-analysis, there is more than a little of the squirrel in me to be sure, along with a small sense of the distance modern civilization has come since we found cheap energy, but the de-individualized, conspiracy paranoid, disaffected parts really don’t fit I think.

More the feeling (Paranoia? Delusion?) that the nature and complexity of our just-in-time, consumption rather than production driven lives, makes us probably the most vulnerable people ever – if not from a pure survival standpoint, at least with respect to the distance we have to fall.

I guess that makes me a Neo-Luddite.

[OilyMon]

I'm curious about the motivation for coming to a community like this one and typing away at a keyboard. I wonder what impulse drives this behaviour? What about reading the same threads and the same news over and over again brings satisfaction? What compulsion is fulfilled?

The doomsday event in the fantasies of those who hope for it is representative of the life-altering epiffany that they so desire. I think individuals like McVeigh were just confused about their desires, and acted on thier impulse for change. A lot of people do it but for most it's an inwardly focused effort.

[OilyMon]

Great saying pops!

[OilyMon]

I think there has been a rise in these types of groups for precisely the reasons that Jato pictorially discussed. There is a tremendous amount of fear cultivated by the governemnt and by media. The reasons this fear can be cultivated so easily is because people are so afraid. Another viscious cycle! People are so afraid because most of them know that what they have been doing is not sustainable. People are connected to thier environment and are inherently aware of this connection, so when a disconnect occurs they intuitavely feel that sever, even though they may not be able to identify it exactly. Have you ever left the city for a cottage or a camping trip for a few days? There is a tremendous difference in the way one percieves reality when removed from the artifically created environment of the city, which serves to illustrate the disconnect that people - living in the cities and suburbs at least - experience.

Now, all of a sudden, they are the guilty child who has had his or her hand in the cookie jar, and impulsively ate the whole jar - they know they will be found out and repromanded eventually. This is the source of the fear to begin with, and this fear and sense of coming reprobation is channeled into theories of doomsday events. Collectively, we feel, and in fact are, responsible for the state of the world, and know that we can't eat all the cookies without being punished. Children are abundantly aware of this idea. We call it borrowed time. We are living on borrowed time and I think the increasing frequency of doomsdays scenarios is indicative of our collective acceptance of an inevitable fate.