[charliebrownout]

I've been writing some articles related to Ireland and, as such, I've been reading up on the place: history, culture, etc.

It got me to thinking about a discussion I had with my husband about the potato. My husband, not being all that interested in history, was shocked to learn that there was such thing as a "potato famine" and that many people died because of it. The question was, "How could so many people rely so heavily on just one resource?"

To me, the famine boiled down to a messy, highly stratified system, poverty, overcrowding, etc. It was a perfect storm. And, from what I read, there were inklings that relying on the potato could lead to deaths/famine leading up to the "great potato famine".

So, what do you think? Is oil our potato?

[aardvarktonsil]

One part:
there is also impending plague, impending powerdown, impending natural disasters, impending financial collapse, impending layoffs, and impending riot

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', 'I')'ve been writing some articles related to Ireland and, as such, I've been reading up on the place: history, culture, etc.

It got me to thinking about a discussion I had with my husband about the potato. My husband, not being all that interested in history, was shocked to learn that there was such thing as a "potato famine" and that many people died because of it. The question was, "How could so many people rely so heavily on just one resource?"

To me, the famine boiled down to a messy, highly stratified system, poverty, overcrowding, etc. It was a perfect storm. And, from what I read, there were inklings that relying on the potato could lead to deaths/famine leading up to the "great potato famine".

So, what do you think? Is oil our potato?

[charliebrownout]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', 'I')'ve been writing some articles related to Ireland and, as such, I've been reading up on the place: history, culture, etc.

It got me to thinking about a discussion I had with my husband about the potato. My husband, not being all that interested in history, was shocked to learn that there was such thing as a "potato famine" and that many people died because of it. The question was, "How could so many people rely so heavily on just one resource?"

To me, the famine boiled down to a messy, highly stratified system, poverty, overcrowding, etc. It was a perfect storm. And, from what I read, there were inklings that relying on the potato could lead to deaths/famine leading up to the "great potato famine".

So, what do you think? Is oil our potato?

[eastbay]

The big difference between potato's and oil is that our oil monoculture wasn't forced upon us at gunpoint.

[jlw61]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', 'I') keep saying: I see oil...everywhere..our containers, our cars, our food, our buildings, our clothes. My husband keeps saying: oh, don't worry, they're working on it but they just aren't telling us about it. Things will be okay. We're too smart and developed a civilization. I know what you said about the potato famine and Rome...but we're different. We're way more advanced. It can't happen. I wouldn't worry about it.

[bodigami]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', '(')...)
I keep saying: I see oil...everywhere..our containers, our cars, our food, our buildings, our clothes. My husband keeps saying: oh, don't worry, they're working on it but they just aren't telling us about it. Things will be okay. We're too smart and developed a civilization. I know what you said about the potato famine and Rome...but we're different. We're way more advanced. It can't happen. I wouldn't worry about it.

We've got one thing we depend on almost exclusively and we don't own it and it is being used up rapidly.

Nothing good can come from this.

[charliebrownout]

[/quote]

indeed. I once re-started talking about PO with a friend, and he something with the usual "cornucopian hope". And that our civilization is actually more complex is worst, it has more points of failure and has more "possible distance" to fall.[/quote]

Agreed, if you're already at the bottom, the fall may still be hard but more...expected? I'm not sure if that is the right word.

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors expected to be whiped out at any moment. We, on the other hand, expect everything else to be whiped out while we survive, untouched. Crazy.

[charliebrownout]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlinkBlink', 'D')oes everyone know that it is the International Year of the Potato?
http://www.potato2008.org/

[WisJim]

I would say that corn has a place in the USA similar to the potato in the time of the potato famine. Most of the hybrid corn grown commercially has been bred from a few closely related strains of corn, and there is little genetic diversity among the corn varieties now grown, the same situation with the potatoes in Ireland at the famine.

[bobaloo]

Of course the potato famine wasn't all about a loss of production, it also had a great deal to do with the fact that the English continued to export potatoes from their vassal state, Ireland, even during the shortages, starving the population. The Irish were treated in approximately the same way by the English as the Americans were treating the Native Americans at the time. Most famines have more to do with politics than food production, but it does make a good analogy to the current situation.