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Page added on April 8, 2016
Peak Oil: Are We Not Better Than This? Pt 2
In Part 1 of this series, I confessed at the outset that I had mixed feelings about posting this series. More of the same tiresome pieces [1. 2.] of fact-light energy abundance Happy Talk designed to do anything and everything but start a meaningful conversation [at least from this peak oil advocate’s perspective] was instead an invitation to just jump on the More Nonsense train and have at it once again. There was nothing remarkable about either article alluded to, nor from the comments offered by readers dutifully following guidelines from the Denial Playbook.
Both were easy targets in that regard, but the articles and ensuing comments were just the vehicles to serve as the jumping off point for a broader discussion. As this series progresses I will actually discuss the content of each as they bear upon that purpose. But for now, laying the foundation is more important.
It finally dawned on me why those two articles nagged at me as they did.
They served as an indictment of how unbearably awful public conversations have become on subjects which will impact everyone regardless of political leanings. The Right likes to claim its mission is to “take America back” to an idyllic place from long ago, but they overlook the fact that long ago political “opponents” were respected. Conversations took place. Facts were debated, discussed, argued about.
But problems were addressed and solved, too—cooperatively and with whatever measure of compromise was called for to advance us all one step forward. Is anyone paying attention to what happens if that aspect of policy-making and cultural discussion continues to be overridden by insult, fear, disrespect, animosity, and the occasional bout of paranoia?
Public dialogue, such as it is, is now mostly not much more than a numbing, ignorant series of ever-escalating insults and pointless disagreements about … everything. Does the sky still appear to be blue for everyone?
Perhaps a different approach to deliver the same points might be more advantageous and beneficial for all of us? It certainly can’t hurt…..
Research has powerfully illustrated that a lack of knowledge in domains such as energy and the environment can lead to bad decisions and erroneous beliefs that hinder a society’s ability to create change in domains that require it. [1]
Seems to be, or at least it should be, an observation readily understood and accepted by everyone—political inclinations notwithstanding. But we’re still knee-deep trying to persuade a large segment of the population that oil production facts actually matter, and that a wild-ass notion about a climate-related hoax being perpetrated—on a scale so astoundingly improbable that it’s a wonder even one individual anywhere on the planet subscribes to it—should be relegated to party games played by those suitably lubricated to make it fun.
That’s a nice, comforting thought … useless, but comforting. Unfortunately for all of us, the dismissive condemnations directed towards countless individuals and organizations and professions attempting to do nothing more than help others will never alter the fact-based realities. What to do?
If we could be assured that the consequences of a warming planet and a steady decline in the availability of our primary energy source—one with no comparable, available, abundant, affordable substitute in sight, by the way—would be restricted to those who cannot or will not accept that there exists a large body of substantial evidence contradicting their happy all-is-well narratives, perhaps it might be time now for us to throw in the towel and wish them a lot of luck. But neither climate change nor a peak in fossil fuel production will alter their respective courses to inflict damage only on the misguided, misinformed, or mistaken.
Given the psychological discomfort associated with epistemic uncertainty, one appealing way to deal with the anxiety of being unable to comprehend or manage information is to simply out-source personal responsibility to supposed qualified others. This strategy may, at times, be considerably more appealing than seeking out knowledge and information for oneself, which assumes that people have the time and ability to sieve through challenging, and potentially threatening, information. The amount of information available to us to sort, comprehend, and assimilate has substantially increased due to technological advances, all of which compete for our time and attention. As a result, trade-offs have been made over time whereby society’s members have forfeited a certain amount of autonomy to have these burdens placed onto systems of power composed of knowledgeable others. [2]
As much as those on the Right seek to avoid ambiguity, nuance, and examination of the various complexities of most significant social, political, and economic issues, the resistance to acknowledging the potentially drastic impacts and implications of a peak in oil production [and climate change] cannot be fairly or honestly explained in a sentence or two. Of course, that immediately presents a bit of a challenge. Pre-disposed to ignoring or dismissing any set of facts which create cognitive dissonance or stimulate the fear they are actually trying to avoid, those ensconced in their denial bubbles will not avail themselves of the very information they’ll need to avoid the conditions which will in fact arouse the very fears they try to avoid! Whew!
Quite the conundrum….
Defensive exclusion also prevents individuals from entering situations where they might learn that such novelty need not necessarily prove threatening, as when new experiences or greater education might expose a person to unfamiliar people or events in a context of safety or reward. When fear is not triggered because a person only selects into environments with which they are familiar, their avoidance behavior becomes reinforced and encouraged. [3]
True. So now what?
20 Comments on "Peak Oil: Are We Not Better Than This? Pt 2"
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 3:15 pm
Toxic political discourse, rampant mental illness, a gun crazy culture, near term limits to growth; what could possibly go wrong?
makati1 on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 6:26 pm
One does not LIVE life by not taking chances and going beyond your comfort zone. Soon most Americans are going to be forced out of that zone by circumstances out of their control and chaos will reign as it is in Europe, but for other reasons.
TPTB know the end is coming and are speeding up their One World plan to the point of explosion all over the world. Divide and conquer. The “If we cannot have it, no one will” mentality of rich old men playing their power games.
But Mother Nature is also speeding up her extermination plans. Who will win? My bet is on Mother Nature.
Pass the popcorn.
onlooker on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 6:32 pm
what is that adage I once heard “this life is overrated”. The best plans all of us can make is get used to the fact that you may leave this life/world prematurely.
onlooker on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 6:33 pm
Oh and pass the popcorn.
Practicalmaina on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 7:22 pm
Truth, lack of mental health can be associated with pollution, along with most of the other curses we are living with. When mothers are exposed to certain size pollution particles it can have massive negative effects on the fetus in vitro.
makati1 on Fri, 8th Apr 2016 7:58 pm
Practical, yep, but it can also be caused by indoctrination from the day of your birth. THAT is the situation in America today. Not air particles.
onlooker on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 12:08 am
This point you make Mak is so true. The subtle mind manipulations are something not many of us Americans are even aware of.
GregT on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 12:16 am
“The subtle mind manipulations are something not many of us Americans are even aware of.”
Those “subtle mind manipulations” aren’t so subtle to those of us on the outside looking in onlooker. They would be glaringly obvious, and a subject of conversation amongst pretty much everyone that I have known for the last several decades.
onlooker on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 12:23 am
Well yes Greg and that is because you guys have not been manipulated. To the manipulated they are subtle as in not being able to differentiate truth from fiction, unable to have a basis of comparison etc.
makati1 on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 2:03 am
Onlooker, I had suspected it for a long time, but I had to move outside Imperial Propaganda Land to really see it in all it’s terrible glory. And it is terrible.
The American sheep think they are free. The fence is a mental one, not barbed wire. They are first indoctrinated by those unknowing parents who have, themselves, been indoctrinated from birth. Child abuse on a massive and terrible scale. Then the corporate state takes over with ads and TV programs aimed at them. I said the “Pledge of Allegiance from day one in school. All TV, movies, magazines, and most web sites originating in the US are pumped full of indoctrination in very subtle ways. It has gotten so bad, I hate to even watch a movie out of Hollywood with my friends as I see the blatant propaganda inserted in almost every one. I check who owns/supports the websites I visit before I follow them. Who the authors are.
It took years to get my Filipino friends to look at the real Us. They have also been indoctrinated over the last 100 years by the 50 year colonial period and now by their Imperial ass kissing leaders and the Us based trans-national corporate advertising, movies, etc. Now that they see it, they agree with me that the Us has to go. To be leveled to a 3rd world country status to save the rest of the world.
I agree. Tomorrow would be a good time, I think. As a famous Egyptian once said, in an old movie: “So let it be written. so let it be done!” Or a famous star-ship captain: “Make it so!”
onlooker on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 2:09 am
Mak, I live in the US and I hate what this country stands for and what is has been doing and all its lies and conceits. My wife is from the Philippines and who knows maybe we can escape there or someplace else. Though it looks like the whole friggin planet is doomed. Salamat for your attempt to open peoples eyes about the Empire Mak.
makati1 on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 2:30 am
onlooker, I would suggest that you visit the Ps if you have not been here for a while. The P’s cities are much like the Us shit holes cities, but the countryside and small towns are beautiful and the people, as you know, are nice and family oriented. You can start a business easily and live an eternal summer lifestyle much cheaper than you can in the Us. And a Filipino citizenship should be easy as you’re one by marriage. You could even renounce your American one if you decided to. Wish I could.
My partner’s sister is moving back to the Ps in a year, before her daughter has to enter high school in the US. She doesn’t want her exposed to American schools and the trash that mostly inhabit them, both teachers and students. She is investing in the Ps, not America, even though she is in the Us upper middle class, if not the upper class. Her husband is an long time engineer/trainer with Apple in San Francisco.
She has seen the real America from a few years of living there and is building several businesses in the Ps as a fallback when the SHTF in the Us. My friends here are not stupid. Nor am I, though some here accuse me of being so. LOL
Davy on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 5:21 am
“Those “subtle mind manipulations” aren’t so subtle to those of us on the outside looking in onlooker. They would be glaringly obvious, and a subject of conversation amongst pretty much everyone that I have known for the last several decades”
Wow, what a stuck-up attitude to have. I see no evidence Canadians are anything better. In fact I see Canadians as worse because they have this attitude of being better than everyone else when they are not. People like that usually have inferiority complexes. What a joke.
Davy on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 5:34 am
Come on onlooker, you aren’t going to be sucked into Makatti’s circular hate game are you. You should know better what is going on in the world. We know all too well all the bad things in the US but they are not as bad as Makatti’s forced discussions portray them as. Those forced discussions along with exaggerated glowing praise for his adopted country. You are smart enough to see something is not adding up with that kind of attitude. Don’t you detect a personal agenda of someone who is very angry and upset? I see an individual with cognitive dissonance to justify a big move away from his family and country. It is one thing to leave for normal reasons. It is another to leave and live a deadly serious passion of hate and resentment to justify that move. The Philippines is not that great even where it is great. It has its good and bad points. One bad point is 100MIL people living in the space of Arizona. You are smart enough to know that does not add up. The US has some bad things going on but that “I am good/you are bad” discussion redundantly every day for years is the most basic example of a personality failure.
onlooker on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 6:27 am
I did say “Though it looks like the whole friggin planet is doomed.” Yes the overpopulation is a horrid problem in Asia and I have noted that in previous posts. No way around this problem all Asia has. As for passions I can understand why everyone has passions these are serious issues which frustrates us all because of all of humanities unwillingness to really confront these issues and because they are scary. So keep up the conversations and let us at least try to keep it civil.
makati1 on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 8:56 am
onlooker, the Us is over populated if you consider what will happen when the SHTF and all distribution and imports end. The Us cannot feed itself now without importing at least 20% of it’s food. 47 million cannot afford what food is available. When that system shuts down, it is going to be a shock to the drugged up, obese, dumbed down, spoiled and angry armed populace. When the grocery stores are shuttered and never reopen. When the few real farmers still alive are not able to feed anyone but their own families, THEN they will know they are worse than 3rd world.
I’ll take Asia any day over the Us. Asians are not generations away from self-reliance and survival skills. Most use them everyday. Americans cannot even spell self-reliance and “Survival” is something they watch on TV.
onlooker on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 9:11 am
Yes but Mak, how do you see Asia’s 4 and half billion feeding themselves once fossil fuel system winds down and considering the ever decreasing fresh water supplies from aquifers and wells?
makati1 on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 9:55 am
onlooker, I see them managing just as they have for the last 5,000+ years. Some will die of course as they will everywhere, but most will survive. Obesity will disappear and the lean, strong workers will reappear. I see the city dwellers with no family in the province being the most likely to die. But, that is life and death. It is how nature weeds out the chaff. Starvation is no stranger in the 3rd world.
You have to remember that Asia (China in particular) is on the Us shit list (along with Russia and Iran) so no good news about them is allowed into the US MSM system. The Chinese are working with Russia and many other countries around the world to take care of their food needs and they are exporting many thousands of Chinese all over the world to “protect” their investments at those locations. Millions are moving into Russia as we type.
Americans like to point their fingers at others and think that they will be immune to the death and chaos because they have been told so by their government. True the Ps imports food. It also exports food. And what it imports is mostly Western stuff not in the Filipino diet pre-globalization. They will survive as a people. After all, they have been here in the islands for 10,000+ years. They are not like Americans who are from all over the planet and not a culture or tribe. Mostly, they are about 320 million individuals that have no ability to survive without the social safety nets and just-in-time delivery system that brings the world to their door. About 1%, according to the many articles I have read, are truly self-sufficient or working to be so. The other 99%? Well, most will die the first year, I think
Davy on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 10:41 am
Onlooker, 4Bil of the 6 Bil population rebalance is coming from Asia. Let’s hope it is spread over a couple of generations. Anyone bragging about Asia is selling snake oil.
onlooker on Sat, 9th Apr 2016 11:46 am
Yes and I think we now also have to take into account climate change and its effect on agriculture in sub-tropical warm countries.