by seldom_seen » Tue 10 May 2005, 19:25:24
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lorenzo', '
')There's nothing Americans have to fall back on when their system falls apart. They have no such thing we call "culture". Therefor they're the only ones who should really fear the effects of PO.
heh.
My brother in law is from France. Nice guy and all, but his idea of nature is the dirt on his driveway that he tries dearly to avoid when he steps out of his BMW. I don't think the poor guy has ever been fishing or camping or walking in the wilderness. His complete disconnection from nature is symbolic of the European condition.
On the contrary, many Americans grew up outside. In and around woodlands, forests, creeks, mountains rivers and deserts. The US still has wild open spaces in many parts of the country. Europe on the other hand has been closed in, stifled. With no outlet, many Europeans escape in to drug use, extreme pornography or virtual realities while their countries are silently and incrementally islamicized by a constant influx of immigrants hostile to their way of life (witness the recent near civil war in holland over the killing of van gogh. This is before peak oil mind you).
America has its slow motion disaster called suburbia, its rampant consumerism, its obesity and waste of resources. This is what normally makes the headlines. There is a more quiet group of Americans though. The ones that brought the world the National Park System, The Wilderness Act, The Endangered Species Act. As well as Earth First and the environmental movement (thoreau, muir, abbey, brower et al.)
Much ink has been put to page on the European subjagation of the American Indian. Little has been said about the fact that some of the native culture seeped in to our own. Our fates are now sealed and intertwined. The quiet Americans are waiting in the wings, on the periphery. At the edge of civilization looking inward. They can see the writing on the wall and they know what is coming. These people will be the leaders in the new American culture that rises out of the ashes of suburbia.
I don't wish the effects of peakoil on any country, and I think both the US and Europe will suffer. However, given the choice I'll take the US. If only for the satisfaction of knowing that if I have to, I can escape. Deep in to the heart of our mountains forests or deserts. Sure, I may not make it, but in Europe, there is no escape, where metropolis becomes necropolis (city of the dead).