The tighter one tries to hold on to something, the more it slips away. The wealthiest among us will try to hold on to power and status as our oil dependent economy slows and morphs into a post oil economy. How bat things will get, I think it is a question of how fast we move into an economy without oil as the life-blood. The slower, the more painful it will be. There will be more and more wars fought over scarcity and it is not totally impossible we will again see the use of nuclear weapons by some set of fools who thing they can “win.” Safe clean water will also become an ever-scarcer resource. So will food. Hang on! Looks like the road ahead may be a bit bumpy. Thinking about masses of desperate hungry poor people and an ever shrinking group of elites trying to cling to their lifestyle at any cost is not all of that pleasant. I believe we are seeing the beginnings of this now and it looks like it will only grow worse. Worldwide, there is already the so-called bottom billion. It may need to be changed in time to the bottom two billion. It looks like the fun is also starting here in the USA as well.
With the recession / depression (what ever you want to call it) showing no signs of ending desperation will soon start to set in here in the USA as well. The unemployment money has so far been just enough to hold things together but it is ending for more and more people each week. All the Federal unemployment extensions end at the end of the year (give or take a week or two). Given the current batch of lunatics in Washington DC, I'm not looking for any renewals this time. They have no interest in addressing the real problem of no demand equals no jobs. Mind you the people that fund the circus also known as campaign season are doing quite well. But I think this is temporary. More and more people will stop playing the game either by choice or by becoming destitute.
As more and more people stop playing the game, the current system will grind to a halt. With no jobs, there will be less and less to pay the big finance companies on mortgages, credit cards and other schemes. People may soon start to realize that this is indeed a one party state and the meaninglessness of Democrat or Republican. When this happens, they will opt out of the political game as well. What would happen if only 10% or 11% of us voted? Who could claim a mandate? But the winning tool would try. It looks like we are going to have to pass through a pretty dark time. Blogs, like this one, that ask important and uncomfortable questions may disappear. The freedom rhetoric we are so fond of on race day will still be there but people like me who ask why are there terrorists in the first place, will be silenced. Somehow, asking why there are terrorists will become support for terrorists. But this too will pass with time. Lying leaders don’t last long. Adolph and Pol Pot now know this. What comes next may be pretty cool if you can live without some of the toys (made into necessities). Okay so the entry is still pretty dark.
If we deplete all of the oil much faster than current estimates much of the bad stuff mentioned will still happen but people will figure out how to live on their own much quicker. Instead of depending on lunatics in places like Washington DC, distant finance companies and long distance truckers, they will learn how to be truly independent. Local relations will become the only relations that matter. Imagine getting to know your neighbors! We will have to get to know our close neighbors and trade skills like building, security and food production. Today, this seems like living on another planet but civilizations rise and fall. The Incas, Aztecs, Romans and Egyptians all found out. But but our civilization is so much more advanced you may be thinking but plain old human shortcomings are still with us. Our arrogance in thinking our American way of doing things is the best and only way. Our pride in our powerful military that we think of as undefeatable that drains the treasury and indeed loses wars from time to time. We may want to re-think “military solution.” Our greed that drives us to take resources from others and says to hell with you, we have a lifestyle to up-keep. Our ignorance is bliss attitude that ignores the views (and basic rights) of other peoples as well as science. Global warming could give two shits if you think it is real or not. There is no way around this simple fact our civilization cannot last. What else happens to the arrogant, the proud, the greedy and the ignorant? They collapse! The greatest technology in the world is no match for basic human failings.
I do not buy into end times or similar non-sense. The changes from an oil based economy to what ever is next is not world ending. People will do what they do best and that is adapt and adjust. We don’t need 200 cable TV channels, imported food and the latest gizmos from slave labor factories in China to live well. We really do not have to have cars. I think we will be getting back to basics. All we need for a good life are the basics, food, shelter, clothes, love and to be useful.
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