How are doomers made?

[Shamaness]

Doomers are made by excellent elementary/jr high history teachers 

Oooh...spill the beans, MissM!   

[gnosis]

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.  -Lao Tzu

[madison]

I'm not a doomer, I'm a realist living in a doomed world.

Nice one, Dignity!

Somedays I don't understand how anyone could NOT see that we are doomed. 

But, I'm feeling particularly doomish today. 

[nicekitty]

Raised by a single mom.  She bought extra when she could afford it, so we could eat when she couldn't.  Her mom grew up in the '30's, and lived on a farm, always had plenty on hand because you never knew when you wouldn't be able to run to the store...or be able to afford the goods.  Pack-rat-ism runs in my family.  So does always putting a bit extra by.  It's just what we do.  The doomerism is just a hobby 

[ThePoint]

How are doomers made?

Fire and brimstone!

[Squalor]

Hmm, interesting reading all these characteristics and how almost none of them seem to apply to me. I'm the younger child, had an extremely stable, happy childhood with caring parents and went to a pretty great school for 12 years (finished two days ago). I had almost no hardship, ever. The only thing I had to deal with is a pathologically narcissistic older brother who to this day continues to berate me and go on about how amazing he is (as if he's joking but I've figured out now that he's serious) all the time and doesn't seem to feel empathy. He's probably responsible for my very low self-esteem and very weak, totally non-resilient mind, plagued by anxiety and worries about what other people think and expect of me. Probably also the reason I expect people to generally be crap and be hostile toward me, which has led to pessimism and an inability to trust others

I had and still have a very active imagination that resulted in me questioning many things, and that was what led to me finding out about climate change when I was 12. That was massively important, I think. Pretty sure that was responsible for directing my interests in a more intellectual direction and making me think there was something very wrong with the world around me. Being fairly alienated from people my own age, due to my different interests and extreme shyness, also probably made me want to distance myself from the norm. Even before I was fully aware of all the issues relating to PO, I didn't like the thought of entering society. It seemed horribly mediocre to me, all I wanted to do was be left alone with some books and some peace and quiet (I still want that, but it seems like I'm never going to get it now). I didn't want to become some sort of suit totally motivated by getting money like everyone else seemed to be.

So I guess Pessimism + defeatism + lack of trust + alienation + curiosity = doomer, in my case...nothing to do with resilience or even experience, I just always am drawn to the worst case scenario of anything

[Satori]

hate to be all clinical and all

but I saw a speech by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett on C SPAN about peak oil

that led to finding LATOC and doing A LOT OF RESEARCH on my own

the conclusion was inescapable

I'm merely responding to the facts/figures and statistics available

[quietnite]

I was a doomer from a young age due to being raised by two crazy people and therefore developing a very finely tuned bullshit detector...plus I read too damn much.

Just the creation of one particular doomer.

I didn't understand Peak Oil til I read "The Long Emergency". It was just a lifelong sense of impending doom before that.

[MissMachinegun]

<<Oooh...spill the beans, MissM!>>

From the fall of Rome to the Plague to the Inquisition and constant wars on the European continent until fairly recently, the conquistadors to Wounded Knee, the Wild West to the Depression, and Africa in general since Colonization, coupled with living in Tornado Ally, seeing on TV the devastating floods of '93 that were very close to where I grew up, it occurred to me as a child that the probability of me having to live through some ah, hard times, was immenint no matter what the teachers and parents said. I've always expected it, TPTB were never working for the Common Man's interest in any country, in any time period, and if there's going to be pandemics, famine, flood or winds exceeding 150 mph there's not much you can do about that, either, except prepare for it 

[more-gloomer-than-doomer]

I'm relatively new to the doomer thing.  I had a pretty good life over all, but always knew I was going to have to make it on my own.  Things were not just going to be given to me, so I did good in school and worked hard at the jobs I held over the years.

When I was young we had a something between a large garden and a small farm so I learned how to grow things, can, etc.  That gave me a bit of a self reliant streak.  I also like others on the post said, always try my best to look at the world in a realistic way, and cut through the B.S.

Hurricane Katrina was my wake up call.  When I saw the disaster it was and how poorly our government dealt with it I knew I had to become even more self reliant.  Shortly after that I ran across peak oil, climate change, and lastly our financial crash and really became a doomer. 

It's funny when I joined the site a while back I signed up as more-gloomer-than-doomer, but after reading all these posts, and seeing the financial mess we are in now, I probably should change it to more-doomer-than-gloomer. 

[wiccawench]

I'm relatively new to the doomer thing.  I had a pretty good life over all, but always knew I was going to have to make it on my own.  Things were not just going to be given to me, so I did good in school and worked hard at the jobs I held over the years.

When I was young we had a something between a large garden and a small farm so I learned how to grow things, can, etc.  That gave me a bit of a self reliant streak.  I also like others on the post said, always try my best to look at the world in a realistic way, and cut through the B.S.

Hurricane Katrina was my wake up call.  When I saw the disaster it was and how poorly our government dealt with it I knew I had to become even more self reliant.  Shortly after that I ran across peak oil, climate change, and lastly our financial crash and really became a doomer. 

It's funny when I joined the site a while back I signed up as more-gloomer-than-doomer, but after reading all these posts, and seeing the financial mess we are in now, I probably should change it to more-doomer-than-gloomer. 

oh that is COOL........and yes i agree!
doomers are connected to their perceptions......
end of story. xox

[Grower]

Welcome to the see-saw gloom/doom. It gets better. Then it gets worse. Then it gets better. It gets worse. Then you get used to it.

[wiccawench]

Welcome to the see-saw gloom/doom. It gets better. Then it gets worse. Then it gets better. It gets worse. Then you get used to it.

PMSL!

[ArmaGoof]

I suspect that most of us are of better than average IQ, but moreover, we are very literate.  Ever notice how most people simply do not read things?  They may see and hear, but that limits them to their friends and whatever the MSM shoves down their throats.  I can't see how anyone who spends the time to read, understand and evaluate the various opinions concerning the course of the planet could not be a doomer.  Most people are uninterested, unable or too busy to take the time to know the crime.

[HungryRaven]

  When I was younger and thinking about the future the idea of a farm seemed sparkling and wonderful.  Then I heard it is impossible to make a living doing that and it is pure drudgery day and night.  Also I was laughed at as a naive idiot for even contemplating it.  Apparently if you weren't born into a family with thousands of acres and massive equipment it was only a money sucking hobby.   Also my older relatives had stories of the horrors of having to get up early to milk cows and shell peas and such.  All the horrors they mentioned sounded exactly like what I would like to do but I reasonably enough went into the business world doing sales.  I was depressed to see the word "farm" used to described the group of people I was supposed to market to.  Such a nice word ruined by pure drudgery and misery of a sales career.

  Anyway I couldn't stop my instincts and found myself with chickens, turkeys, rabbits, gardens, bees etc even with a business career.  When I mentioned to people that I was busy shoveling out the chicken coop they reacted with horror like life must really suck for me.  That puzzled me.  It was a pleasant enough job with just the right amount of exercise and seeing the flat clean floor with fresh shavings with contented chickens was nice.  Now I realize they sounded like my relatives who diverted me from a life of financial ruin and misery by ridiculing the idea of a farm out of my head.   So I was beelining for more and more farm type activities despite what others had told me.  I had the cow barn already planned out and goat breed selected etc.  

Then on a clear blue day at about 1:30 in the afternoon I had a vision of the future that really made me realize we have trouble ahead.  That's when I probably stepped through the gate to become a doomer.  To not have taken that step would have been impossible if you have small children and any survival instinct.  I just wonder why I am the only one I know that has happened to and also the only one who wanted all along doomer or not to get back to the basics and raise food that we need ourselves.  Are the two factors related?  I don't know.