My Observations of Peak Oil people ::)

[podunkinak]

     I can't let this go without my two cents worth.....ok let me think for a minute or two.....uhhhh....ok.

   Survivalist-- Ya I got some of that , actually a lot , sorry nicole there seems to be a wilderness guy on the net,hey I live in Alaska. I do not ,however, see it as a permanent condition of survival, only as something that may be neccessary at some point to be able to live outside a hot zone. I already spend a lot of time in the woods,have physically identified edible plants and eaten them,can build shelter of various types(and have when needed), fish,hunt,climb yada yada yada.

   Agrarian- old and new, I grew up gardening and know how but have only recently bought land. I'll be planting in the spring.

   militant--  Beans and bullets sir ! got some caliber gotta get more

   perpetual prep- keep on thinking of more ways to survive but do not implement. Most of this is for the fact that they require more people (militias,co-ops,guilds governing groups..etc).


   Thankfully I don't think I fit into the looser group that hopes to trade food for sex, got what I need. 'nuf said.

   My house is being designed and built to utilize as little energy as possible and I am not useing high tech stuff like PV. It may include such devises but not rely on them. I'm not sure where this would fit in.

   Already don't use much and continually looking for ways to cut back.


Anyway, I guess I don't fit into any one group.  As for hard or soft crash I expect to see both and everything in between depending on where a person looks and at what time. Some areas may just totally collapse while some may see very little change at all. Some of the really remote villages in Alaska will probably just hickup and go on with life- Anchorage could very well tank.


   I suggest that the most important survival trait will be flexability, a willingness to adapt and move on and not get tied down by your pre-conseptions. If you gotta bug out of your homestead or camp or whatever then just bug the f%$! out, be it for MZBs,weather, nukes, warring factions, whatever...get out of the way.

  OK so maybe it was more than two cents worth

[SabreKai]

Guess I don't really fit anywhere on your chart Nicole. I would have to say the closest is Wilderness Survivalist. So now you have two of us posting.

But what the hell, I'll probabley croak it early on anyway.


Sabre

[icurhuman2]

 Well, that's telling them!
 I'd really only divided fellow peaksters into two obvious groups myself; one that was optimistic in its appraisal of human cooperation and one that was pessimistic. Of course there are plenty of varieties of sub-groups that have different plans for the coming die-off, but I think it's a little too harsh to judge them on their individual plans for the days of reckoning - most will find it difficult to impossible to prepare the best way they'd prefer.
 The great separation in financial resources available for planning is one area of difficulty, another is the ability to bring together others of the needed "tribe" (whether family and friends or like-minded acquaintances) - everyone in our positions has found how hard it is to educate others.
 I'd like to consider myself an amalgum of several of the afformentioned stereotypes as I can survive well in jungle, bush or desert and have many skills related to self-protection. I'm also well-versed in farming and animal husbandry and have a broad range of other less obviously valuable skills. The trouble is these skills are only valuable if I'm to care for myself only. What about my family and friends? In a pinch I could probably be able to care for my family if it came to living hand-to-mouth off the surrounding countryside - but that would be seriously difficult and would entail hardships they've never known. I doubt there'd be many people who have my skill-set in the peak-oil community, they'll have to consider seriously preparing themselves with aid from others in a mutual bond of survival - this is what Im trying to do also but with dismal results so far.
 I keep four chickens and a small vegetable patch in a garden and can catch a meal every time I go fishing at a nearby beach, but that doesn't mean I'll be able to that when everyone living around here decides to go fishing as well (I might not get back from the beach with my day's catch if someone decides to purloin my efforts).
 As for having enough friends, which is always a good commodity, it's not the number of friends one has but the quality of the friendships one amasses that counts. I'd prefer to have five very close friends of like mind than a hundred who wouldn't be interested in an end-of-world preparation.
 The difficulty we all face is predicting how it will all unfold. Will it be sudden or will it creep inexorably toward us? What will be the sign, or signs, that tells us to run for cover? Will we have to wait until lawless mobs begin roaming the streets looking for food before we really need to run and hide, or will we see a slow decline that weakens, from slow malnutrition, even the most hardy and likely rioters? Who knows? This has never happened in our lifetimes, and in history all we can note are the gnawed bones of human remains around the periphery of long-lost civilizations. I hope it won't come to this, but hope isn't something you can eat.
 What I do expect is that a fair percentage of those who die in the early stages will be from suicide. I recall reading about Wall Street investors, bankers and stockbrokers doing high-dives off buildings when the Great Depression began, and I'm sure there were many others who did the same thing - farmers and business people who lost everything in a day among the many. Our future shock will be greater than that of the Great Depression for we will have no end in sight as they did back in the early twentieth century.
 The optimistic peak oilers, I was one for a long while, see an orderly decline as being a reasonable possibility, but I haven't as yet seen a large group of people behaving reasonably when there's an emergency. The idea would be feasible if the majority of people could be convinced in time, but I believe time has run out, and, the majority of people are impossible to convince no matter how convincing the bare-faced facts are - I'm sure I don't need to persuade anyone here of the difficulty in pointing out the problem to the uninitiated.
 Personally, if it weren't for having two young children I'd be happy to see the whole corrupt mess that calls itself "civilization" collapse into a pile of dog droppings, but I'm screwed like every other member of this grubby little specie when it all comes to pass.
 

[Michelle in Ga]

Kinda defeats the goal of having family around to rely on.  Or help.  Or avoid, depending on the individual involved.

   A resource I sadly lack... And a burden I am spared, I suppose.

Especially around the holidays.

[Calles]

A country boy can survive...?

Michelle,
Regarding what I will trade for a box of shells, it depends on the situation.

I also agree with what someone was saying earlier, in regards to labels. This is a nice idea to go on, but it is also self-depreciation in regards to "you will die" conclusions. isn't the overall goal ultimate survival? Save as many as you can? Keep your chin up?
It is for me anyways.

[suburban_junkscape]

icurhuman2, your post echoes my thoughts exactly. I've already pretty much gotten over the psychological shock, so suicide, at least early on, won't happen. But I don't have nearly the survival skills you have plus I think even if I did, all the wild game, and fish, and whatever would get consumed right away since I'm only a few hundred miles from the megopolises of Los Angeles and Phoenix, which are likely to become suburban salvage yards. Thus, I'm "The Despairing."

[Nicole]

Okay, here is Version 2. 

I've added some likely transition paths (URBAN HOMESTEADER moves to the country, apprentice in a post-peak trade joins a NOMAD community because his skill is in demand, etc.), but of course others are theoretically possible.  It isn't logical that someone with a good agrarian or fortified homestead would abandon their work, so I didn't show that.  On the other hand, an URBAN HOMESTEADER who moves to the country still has some dues to pay and skills to learn to have a relatively good AGRARIAN HOMESTEAD.  In my opinion, most of the links I left out are more likely to happen post peak -- agrarian abandons homestead and retreats to the city or vice versa.

I have deliberate not linked WILDERNESS SURVIVALIST to NOMAD COMMUNITY, because although both share some of the same mentality and skill set, they are polar opposites when it comes to a sense of community. 

I've accounted for PROFESSIONAL people who are solely preparing by learning and skill, and included the likely urban connection.  Yes, Matt, I would call opening a bike shop skill, since if you haven't learned how to repair bikes you business isn't going to do very well.  You have to learn the skills to open a shop or business, whether it's tailoring or running an urban farmer's market.

Plus, I have added the MERCANTILE path to handle traveling traders and trading posts, and have linked that to it's most probably rural or small town location.  Kinda like the PROFESSIONAL path, but with a different focus.

Just to make it clear one more time: I am not trying to suggest that preparedness paths = skills.  OF COURSE a farmer learns to shoot and OF COURSE all kinds of people might choose to stockpile critical goods, including defense items and OF COURSE a person learning to be a blacksmith probably has a garden patch.  My intention is to show attitudes and strategies that PO folks gravitate to.

Yeah, and I changed a couple of names.

Without further ado...


Okay, how are we doing now?

[Michelle in Ga]

Excellent. And so much more optimistic about the skills/pluck of the board members than the original post.

[CreoleGenius]

Leaf;

In order to be qualified to categorize us 'Peak Oil People',
you should learn how to spell OLDUVAI.  You claim to be
aware of the theory of peak oil and the gorge hypothesis
since 2002.

[Anasazi]

Give him a break, he might be 2 people and is probably not a native speaker of the English language. I can't say squat in Ukranian (or any other language for that matter).

[aussie]

JurisDoctorofD, .... if you pull the barking bit and the guy doesn't walk away then you have a full blow certified psycho on your hands. ..? Sure. And if he walks toward you, does that mean that he is into Beastiality? Oh boy, that seems a  risky response.

Down, Rover....good boy


Woof...

[Nicole]

Give him a break, he might be 2 people and is probably not a native speaker of the English language. I can't say squat in Ukranian (or any other language for that matter).

Except he claims to be an expat.

[heretic]

Give him a break, he might be 2 people

which one is the real leaf?

http://www.killsometime.com/pictures/images/Pic1173.jpg

[Michelle in Ga]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

Heretic,

Thanks for (yet another) incredibly disturbing picture. Remind me never to have a look at what you keep in your porn collection. Anyhoo, Leaf posted some pics of himself a while back. Speaking as a man as heterosexual as a water buffalo, Leaf's a pretty good lookin' guy.

This is a very interesting thread so if you want to post any more things like the pics above please take it to the Thunderdome.