[Atlantean_Relic]

Maybe I'm nuts but I have a feeling I'll come out better at the end of this mess. How much of this mess we call life is necessary?

[PolestaR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Atlantean_Relic', 'M')aybe I'm nuts but I have a feeling I'll come out better at the end of this mess. How much of this mess we call life is necessary?

[Atlantean_Relic]

The world of course! I'm not planning on killing anyone, yet.

[12amps]

even if you manage to come out in the top 1 percentile, that still probably lower living standard than today average high school drop out. so it depend what you mean 'better'.

[Atlantean_Relic]

I did the whole poverty level thing as a kid. I'll survive. Some how the happiness associated with money never popped up. You can keep your damned electronic crap and chinese trinkets. I felt happier as a kid in the backwoods of Maine than I ever did in civilzation. I want the happiness and peace of mind

[PolestaR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Atlantean_Relic', 'I')'m not planning on killing anyone, yet.

[Grifter]

I didn't do the poverty thing as a kid although i was never allowed things like fasionable clothes.

I also think if anyone can, so can I. Just the simple fact of understanding what is happening and simply nodding in agreement with others is a tremendous benefit.

Being resourceful.

I have a sneeky suspicion i'll do ok too.

[arocoun]

You are nuts! Don't you know that happiness is directly related to how much money we spend, and by extension, how much energy we use? These days, there is practically no depression or unhappiness except in third world countries. Before the second half of the 20th century, when people had less energy, only the very rich were ever happy. And before the Industrial Revolution, absolutely nobody was ever happy, except kings.

When peak oil hits, we won't have nearly as much energy as we do today, and stuff like happiness and having a life worth living will be completely forgotten.

[/parody of all-too-common attitude toward energy]

-----

Seriously, though, I think it's cool that you're thinking of peak as an opportunity for change, rather than the end of the world. Why roll over and die when you can at least try to have a good life?

[rushdy]

Damn right! I take a look out of the window and I see people happy living their lives completely unaware of peak oil, they don't care. If peak oil causes trouble, there'll be a rough ride for some people. One thing I do know though, the ones that come out allright will keep being happy, and they'll keep not caring!

[SeasonOfPain]

As has been said many other times on this message board, it's not my own reaction I'm worried about, it's the reaction of everyone else.

You may be ambling along, enjoying the collapse of the modern consumerist lifestyle just fine, when some wild-eyed, frothing-at-the-mouth former soccer-mom driven clinically insane after losing all her worldly possessions comes along and brains you with her useless Playstation 3 so she can steal your practical walking shoes.

[Atlantean_Relic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeasonOfPain', '
')
You may be ambling along, enjoying the collapse of the modern consumerist lifestyle just fine, when some wild-eyed, frothing-at-the-mouth former soccer-mom driven clinically insane after losing all her worldly possessions comes along and brains you with her useless Playstation 3 so she can steal your practical walking shoes.

[willjones4]

We grew up lower middle class, did without a lot. But we learned all the "country skills" like gardening, livestock, hunting, fishing---Im sure some of you have heard the Hank Williams Jr song "Country Boy Can Survive". Well, Im the better armed, atheistic, thinking epitomization of that song. I think the south in general will be a dangerous place for marauders, almost all of us guns and know how to use them...