My Observations of Peak Oil people ::)

[icurhuman2]

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."

 I wouldn't box myself in with a label if I were you, we are all individuals with individual strengths and weaknesses, many of which will not become apparent until the doo-doo hits the fan. If I were you in your position, which is very presumptious if you'll pardon, I'd likely consider an exit strategy with bare minimum supplies and transport. Transport could be a bicycle or a small vehicle along the lines of a motorbike with a sidecar, you'd be surprised how far a bicycle will carry you and a rucksack of supplies, and, a motorbike on a full tank can carry you a long way. The big choice would be where to go. North, south, east or west. If you have no hunting skills you might find survival tough, but I don't think it would be as great a problem as finding yourself without access to water - so I'd consider where the best access to water would be before deciding on a location to head to. Perhaps the greatest threat would come from your fellow man, I'm pretty sure how most people will react, which is defensively, but I don't know how bad that might become in America where weaponry is nearly universally available. There is always the other more nasty option of joining a local militia group and arming yourself in preparation, though I'd suggest that this would be best only a stopgap measure until you were able to slip away from such an organised group (which is likely to not be very organised at all).
 
As for the suicide option, I've always believed that one should always "rage against the dying of the light" and "don't go down without a fight". Unless you're living in absolutely unbearable physical pain, suicide should not be an option, it goes against natural law, which is far more credible than religious doctrine.

 There may be a better choice in immigration, if you can stand leaving your mother country, and don't mind starting up elsewhere. My own neck-of-the-woods, Australia, will most likely suffer last as the world falls into crisis, but this doesn't mean it won't join every other country and suffer similar travails. They call Australia "the lucky country" and that has as much to do with the up-till-now abundant resources as anything else, but fresh-water is going to be a problem when our own widely spread population starts to feel the pinch. Those lucky enough to have water and good soil will do better than most I'm sure, and the distances are such that marauding groups will be unlikely to wander into your rural realm should you have a country farmlet (twenty million people covering a land mass the size of continental USA, more than half of which live in three state capitals). You might consider immigrating to Australia or New Zealand (another safe-haven country), especially if you have what are deemed "valuable skills" which don't include survivalism. Hey, we even speak a similar language. Anyway, there are a lot of things that can be done when they eventually need doing, preparations of any kind will be helpful, don't become despairing and don't sell yourself short. You were smart enough to see "the writing on the wall", that sort of nouse will be big plus when the sorting out is done. Good luck!
 

[OldHorseman]

Thanks for (yet another) incredibly disturbing picture.

   I was running with graphics off and didn't even know there was a picture until your comment...

   You think those guys are disturbing? We've got way worse than that roaming the woods around here. See why we don't worry about strangers encroaching on our territory?

[heretic]

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.

those pics weren't meant to represent his physical appearance.

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.

i agree, but when a thread starts wandering i sometimes manage to take it totally off course(unintentionally).

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

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...

If he's an evangelical preacher, the answer is "yeah, he probably is."

[galacticsurfer]

I thought of a scene from a Vikto Frankl(founder of Logotherapy) autobiographical book where he describes in KZ during Nazi times how the inmates all gathered around and label the next ones to die in camp slang as "muslims" and Frankl as a weakly intellectual was pointed to by one of them as  next to die. He survived them all however and reconstructed his lost mansucript with his  psychological theories in which he says you survive because you have a meaning in life.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logotherapy

The following list of tenets represents Frankl's basic beliefs regarding the philosophy of Logotherapy:

Life has meaning under all circumstances -- even the most miserable ones.
Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stand we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering.

A short introduction to this system is introduced in Frankl's most famous book, "Man's Search for Meaning", in which he outlines how his theories helped him to survive his Holocaust experience. A follow-up to this book was written by Alex Pattakos, named "Prisoner of Our Thoughts". Pattakos worked closely with Frankl, and his goal with the book is to summarize Logotherapy in 7 core principles that can be applied to one's life. These core principles are [1]:

Exercise the freedom to choose your attitude
Realize your will to meaning
Detect the meaning of life's moments
Don't work against yourself
Look at yourself from a distance
Shift your focus of attention
Extend beyond yourself

I think someone who survived the holocaust and has  been able to show other people meaning in life (without simple religious answers) whould be relevant in such times. Noone can tell someone else if they can make it or how. Everyone has to find meaning and motivation in themselves.

[flute]

If I catch people hunting/foraging on my property without permission, I'm going to shoot them.

If I catch people hunting/foraging on my property without permission, I'm going to make them work for the grazing/hunting rights instead. Or pay me rent, e.g. one lamb for every X area units used.

I'm not gonna shoot anyone unless I'm cornered or they do something really bad.

[kaykay]

Noone can tell someone else if they can make it or how. Everyone has to find meaning and motivation in themselves.

Excellent observations galacticsurfer......we do a grave disservice to ourselves and others by trying to fit them into some kind of preconceived notion.
I understand that its "mankinds" inclination to understand their world and to share that understanding we need to communicate and label......in the coming chaos, that will only hinder survival.  Whose to say someone can't have what I like to call an "aha" moment and "get it".  Trying to make plans for the future is a natural fit for most people.....understanding your situation and what to do in case of A, B, or C puts you way ahead of the game.  All the rest is distractions from fear, doubt and insecurity, which we all feel at some time or another.

[Nicole]

If I catch people hunting/foraging on my property without permission, I'm going to shoot them.

If I catch people hunting/foraging on my property without permission, I'm going to make them work for the grazing/hunting rights instead. Or pay me rent, e.g. one lamb for every X area units used.

I'm not gonna shoot anyone unless I'm cornered or they do something really bad.

If they show up and raid my garden, strip my orchard and shoot my ducks, they are thieves and I will consider them MZB's to be shot on sight.  I consider stealing from me "very bad."

OTH, if they ask for permission, they may get it provided they give me a share.  That would depend on whether I could spare it, or I might have a deer problem and ask them to stay a bit to clean up the population and feast on venison.  If I say no, hopefully we can at least share glasses of cool water, news and maybe give them some pointers around the area where they may have more luck or a place to camp for the night.

[Leaf]

Sorry my DSL-Phone has been down for the past 2 days. I did a do it yourself type stuff and its back up.
Look by starting this thread I didnt mean to hit anyone here personnaly as Nicole seems to think. My post was purely observations
Oh on spelling..How many times I have to say..I am writing on a internet forum..NOT a fucking book...Thus it saves me a hell of alot of time..I try to Use  a basic spell check "sometime as I did on this begining post..but Oldovia was not on a spell check You understand so shut the hell up!

[Michelle in Ga]

I could use a spell check as well.

[Log hauler]

         

                  And someone else, could use a Bar of Soap in Their Mouth!!

[CreoleGenius]

but I do think it will be in most of our life times here. "Aslo note Oldovia is really the idea

better off Oldovia time then group 1,

people will be of coarse a few

their own Oldovia time. Wont be easy for these people, but they will be better off then the 3

Snippets from Leaf's post: No, leaf.  You didn't even use a spell checker.
It would have detected Aslo for ALSO, and Wont without an apostrophe.
It would have missed then instead of THAN and coarse instead of COURSE.

Worse than the spelling, however, is the completely uneducated abuse
of English grammar.  I'm not sure that leaf could be taught to employ a
grammar checker.  Such software will at least give recommendations for
repairing all of the run-ons, half sentences and dangling participles that
leaf manages.  He belongs in his own category of RETARD.

[Nicole]

Now, now, go easy on Leaf.  He's special.  If you want to dissect Leaf's spelling and grammar, feel free to take it to the Thunderdome or join one of the threads already there.

TIP:
For those that do care about these things, Firefox 2.0 has a built-in speller checker that checks your spelling as you go.

[Frodo]

I only see 3 types of peak oil people:

1. Doomsayers, conspiracy theorists, end of timers, people who think that the WTC towers were pulled down with explosive charges, hillbillies/rednecks, (oh sorry, I meant to say "survivalists") with guns.  This probably accounts for about 90% of the crowd.

2. Scientific types who use sound data from the best possible sources available and only cite peer reviewed articles to make their arguments.  People like George Monbiot, Colin Campbell, a few of the crowd over at the oil drum.  Accounts for about 5% of the peak oilers.

3. Fools who cannot be bothered to spell Olduvai correctly even though it takes two seconds to type "Oldovia" into google, who, in all its kindness and wisdom, will immediately respond with: "Did you mean Olduvai?"  About another 5% of the population. 

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

I only see 3 types of peak oil people:

1. Doomsayers, conspiracy theorists, end of timers, people who think that the WTC towers were pulled down with explosive charges, hillbillies/rednecks, (oh sorry, I meant to say "survivalists") with guns.  This probably accounts for about 90% of the crowd.

2. Scientific types who use sound data from the best possible sources available and only cite peer reviewed articles to make their arguments.  People like George Monbiot, Colin Campbell, a few of the crowd over at the oil drum.  Accounts for about 5% of the peak oilers.

3. Fools who cannot be bothered to spell Olduvai correctly even though it takes two seconds to type "Oldovia" into google, who, in all its kindness and wisdom, will immediately respond with: "Did you mean Olduvai?"  About another 5% of the population. 

 

You forgot the fourth category: "condescending assholes".