My Observations of Peak Oil people ::)

[OldHorseman]

person who is a complete loser in our current society and hopes that he can be a bigshot post-peak.

   Hey! I wouldn't say I was a complete loser.

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

There is another type of Peak Oil person as well (and this is NOT meant as a dig at anybody here): the type of person who is a complete loser in our current society and hopes that he can be a bigshot post-peak. I tried commenting on Jim Kunstler's board, but gave up because so many of the posters fell into that category. I specifically remember one frothing sociopath who went by "Joe." Joe would simultaneously complain about women (those lousy bitches who refuse to pay attention to him), and then salivate over the thought that after the peak he could have any woman he wanted in exchange for a can of pork and beans. Translation: "After the shit hits the fan, I will FINALLY get laid!"

Mem and Thuja, I also believe peak oil will be an economic decline rather than a Mad Max scenario. We should start a thread of our own discussing the plans we are making in regards to that. The problem is, such a thread wouldn't really fit into any of the forums here. (Hey, Doctor Doom! Remember when I suggested starting a sub-forum for non-doomers? Hint, hint.)

yeah and I told you to get the stick out of your non-doomer ass and just post it on whichever forum you felt most appropriate and you'd likely get plenty of good answers. 

Pretty sooon I'll have 1,001 subforums for every type of Peak Oiler:

lefthanded agraian LGBT doomers
urban homestead fast crash atheist doomers
wilderness survival homo-pagan doomers
militant ambidextrous race mixing conservative slow crash doomers who are also baseball fans and suffer from insomnia

you get the point

[Nicole]

Good add, Matt.  I would suspect that in order to get to that stage, one would have had to secure one's own physical survival first -- which leads toward one of the other paths, except survivalists.  It might be an extension of urban preparedness, because one has to be in a populated area to be a merchant?

Jennifer, the losers seem to fall mostly into the AMMO STOCKPILERS.  Mostly AMMO STOCKPILERS I guess; of the people preparing for anything it seems to be the one requiring the least intelligence and skill and the one least likely to succeed, except for maybe the WILDERNESS SURVIVORS, and I kinda glossed over that category since there are so many levels of skill involved.  AMMO STOCKPILERS don't have anything to contribute until (and if) they move on to a more well-rounded development.  Maybe I should have just called it STOCKPILERS, but people who are pretty much only stockpiling stuff could also be urban.

But I doubt any category is completely free of the losers.

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

Good add, Matt.  I would suspect that in order to get to that stage, one would have had to secure one's own physical survival first -- which leads toward one of the other paths, except survivalists.  It might be an extension of urban preparedness, because one has to be in a

I think the two overlap. Your commercial or entreprenuerial skills may be what you need to employ to secure one's physical survival. 

Imagain 25 semi-self-sufficient homesteads located in some type of physical proximity to each other.  Now each homestead is likley to have a surplus of one thing or another and a deficiency of another thing or two. Maybe you have lots of good shoes or seed or whatever that you procured before the collapse, some other homestead has no shoes but lots of hair care products. Now women being women, they're still going to want hair care products even after society has totally collapsed. One person trying to go around to the other 24 homesteaders to see they have to trade is extremely inefficient. That's why they have a trading post or arrangement.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

Nicole,

What about someone who is focused on acquiring knowledge and skills in one field?

As opposed to someone who is looking to learn various trades well, someone who is looking to become an consumate master of one.  Kind of like a role-player in a group or community. 

I'm sure you weren't looking for people to take this 100% seriously as a way to categorize themselves, but just out of curiousity I would like to know were I would fit in.

[Nicole]

I agree; I've contemplated the trading post idea myself.  I don't think I'm sufficiently sales-minded and am not as good of a negotiator to have it be Plan A.  I really think someone would have to have both of those skills in plenitude to succeed at it right out of the gate.  Once trading posts and/or traveling merchants are a firm part of the economy again, it will be easier to get into the biz.

So Matt, is your next vehicle purchase going to be an ox-drawn Romani cart? 

[Nicole]

Nicole,

What about someone who is focused on acquiring knowledge and skills in one field?

As opposed to someone who is looking to learn various trades well, someone who is looking to become an consumate master of one.  Kind of like a role-player in a group or community. 

I'm sure you weren't looking for people to take this 100% seriously as a way to categorize themselves, but just out of curiousity I would like to know were I would fit in.

I would consider it the same as the merchant/trading option.  Securing ones physical survival seems to come first... unless of course we have a very, very soft crash, which kind of negates the whole idea of progressing toward the ideal of the "Post Peak Survivor." 

Maybe you do that by stockpiling, urban gardening, or by joining a small community.  I'm just having a hard time envisioning a scenario where one proceeds smoothly into a new low-energy specialist profession from one's current higher-energy bread and butter.  Maybe my mindset is more doomerish than I think it is, but how to you get from factory produced weapons to traditional gun smithing without some sort of upheaval in between?  How do you compete as a trading post with the Wal-Mart, unless Wal-Mart is utterly destroyed in the meantime?  And if you have the upheaval, how do you stay on your feet until then?

These are riddles to be solved by people who see these paths as more viable than me, I guess.

[Called_Bluff]

JDD-
  you wrote-" be a "new agrarian" but does not yet have the asset base yet"


your telling me Mr rainwater has'nt called you up and invited you out to the compund?

[Michelle in Ga]

Joe would simultaneously complain about women (those lousy bitches who refuse to pay attention to him), and then salivate over the thought that after the peak he could have any woman he wanted in exchange for a can of pork and beans. Translation: "After the shit hits the fan, I will FINALLY get laid!"

Talk about ridiculous. Doesn't he know it's gonna be freezed dried food that's gonna get him some after the peak? Why would any woman trade sex for a can of pork and beans that only has an 18 month shelf life when she can trade it for something with a 30 year shelf life?

What will a GUY trade for a box of bullets. (I will rule!!!)

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

JDD-
  you wrote-" be a "new agrarian" but does not yet have the asset base yet"


your telling me Mr rainwater has'nt called you up and invited you out to the compund?

Nope. Never had any contact with him or any representative of his. 

[mem]

Jennifer, I would join you in a non-doomer thread.  Every time I read your stuff I start nodding my head....

I would classify myself as moving between Urban Gardener to Urban Homesteader.  Except for the PV panels (for which I am saving up) I'm getting there. 

And I also plan on entrepreneurship.  Can't imagine a better role than broker between those who don't want to do sales-ish stuff and those who want to sell their stuff.  (Well, and I also live near the coast and I'm reading up on salt production.)  I will probably have about 5 threads of income/sustainability strategies.  I do now--it is just the way I am.

[suburban_junkscape]

I'm a Despairer because once the nuclear missiles start coming in from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia, they won't care what category you belong in. You'll burn up just the same.  Maybe the despairing category can be renamed "the realists".

[Nicole]

Maybe the despairing category can be renamed "the realists".

Don'cha think everything thinks they are the "realists?"   

[OldHorseman]

OH, you are probably the best candidate around here for PEAK OIL SURVIVOR

   I hope you're right. If we can avoid major set-backs and stay on-track, and SHTF holds off until late '08, we should be in pretty good shape...  But only time will tell. 

You seem to have a militant mindset, yet have achieved a mature agrarian homestead.

   I'm actually pretty good at avoiding and diffusing conflicts.  I just find it useful to operate from a position of strength.

  Your biggest problem is that you need about 4 more families just like you around there and more household members.

   I think there's a pretty decent chance of a number of families holding on out here.  Few know anything about PO, but they're old-school country folk who aren't inclined to evacuate their lands under any circumstances.

   Of course, if you'd move a bit farther to the right after you escape California, we could have a fully PO aware neighbor.

Personally, I think PO SURVIVORS will have to be able to have a sustainable farm, be able to effective defend it, and in the event of major disaster have at least one critical skill that makes their brains worth keeping around enough that others will contribute to your survival.

   I think we'll actually have all that covered.  If the future finds strong, free, young folk taking a break from running the farm (with the skills I helped them learn) to drop my ancient carcass into a hole on the northern pasture, then I'll qualify as a PO Survivor.

[Michelle in Ga]

I'm an optimist.