$100 oil response?
On the cusp of oil selling for a record $100/bbl, some people are calling for ACTION, but what can we do?
http://oilawareness.meetup.com/21/calendar/6648640/ Event Description: How should the Twin Cities respond to $100+ barrel oil?
Heck if I know. I don't own a car. I commute by bike mostly, and bus as a backup under poor weather.
I think expensive oil is WHAT WE NEED to change directions. There is quite a lot of TALK about change, but nothing to me looks realistic. The future isn't likely to be filled with liquid fuel transportation, at least not at a price that allows us the consumption we know now!
It is still laughably ironic to me to have politicians past and present still calling for reducing fuel taxes to help people, while cheaper prices merely delay the hard decisions. And the government wouldn't have as much debt if we had a nice $5/gallon gasoline excise tax!
I admit I'm so frustrated that all "public outreach" seems fruitless. People are Freakin' sheep, or so I exclaim, or better yet Lemmings marching happily towards the cliffs, blissfully unaware their their blessed leaders could be as clueless as they are! But I'm a sheep or lemming too, just a well paid one, earning more money than I need at present.
Yes, plug-in hybrids - rah rah! Let's do it! And some FULLY electric cars as well - much lighter and efficient for city driving. YES - let's go!
But mostly my only public message is "We're freakin' screwed. Don't blame anyone you can't see in the mirror. You wanted your cake and now you can lay in it, six feet under." Or something more sensical than that.
Anger isn't a very productive tool beyond immediate response to a threat.
No, worse than KNOWING our fate, I don't have any solutions but "powerdown", scaling back our expectations, scaling back our consumption. I don't see capitalism as being able to help people when energy costs more than people can afford. I don't see government as being able to help people for the sheer scale of need that will come. AND the reality is those who BEST prepare now, or are fortunate enough to have something, will likely have to surrender it to the needs of the many. So HOARDERS beware - your gold and your land won't protect you.
No, what I'm missing is actual willingness to take economic risk - to invest money in solutions rather than just paying down debt, to invest time in SKILLS that will be needed in a future I can't see clearly, and still seems "far away" even if it might come in 5 years or less!
Sure, we need the capitalists to revision the world under less energy, and take risks to get rich on the rest of us poor slobs waiting for someone to save them. AND we need the social workers and do-gooders to handle the soup lines for those who failed to prepare.
We need lots of good ideas on how to change our expectations, to restore community as the proper center of life over consumerism. LOTS of change needed.
And I feel powerless in 90% of it, and will continue.
And worse, some "American First" organization is going to rise in the next 5 years to national power on the claim to restore the greatness of America when the rest of the world stops paying for our debts and all the smart capitalists have fled to Argentina. Hitlers can rise in a future lacking clear direction for self-esteem. We're all sheep afterall, and the wolf is scariest when you can't see him coming!
A $100 oil response?
Get out of debt, and "dig in" where ever you can, since you might be there for a while.
http://oilawareness.meetup.com/21/calendar/6648640/ Event Description: How should the Twin Cities respond to $100+ barrel oil?
Heck if I know. I don't own a car. I commute by bike mostly, and bus as a backup under poor weather.
I think expensive oil is WHAT WE NEED to change directions. There is quite a lot of TALK about change, but nothing to me looks realistic. The future isn't likely to be filled with liquid fuel transportation, at least not at a price that allows us the consumption we know now!
It is still laughably ironic to me to have politicians past and present still calling for reducing fuel taxes to help people, while cheaper prices merely delay the hard decisions. And the government wouldn't have as much debt if we had a nice $5/gallon gasoline excise tax!
I admit I'm so frustrated that all "public outreach" seems fruitless. People are Freakin' sheep, or so I exclaim, or better yet Lemmings marching happily towards the cliffs, blissfully unaware their their blessed leaders could be as clueless as they are! But I'm a sheep or lemming too, just a well paid one, earning more money than I need at present.
Yes, plug-in hybrids - rah rah! Let's do it! And some FULLY electric cars as well - much lighter and efficient for city driving. YES - let's go!
But mostly my only public message is "We're freakin' screwed. Don't blame anyone you can't see in the mirror. You wanted your cake and now you can lay in it, six feet under." Or something more sensical than that.
Anger isn't a very productive tool beyond immediate response to a threat.
No, worse than KNOWING our fate, I don't have any solutions but "powerdown", scaling back our expectations, scaling back our consumption. I don't see capitalism as being able to help people when energy costs more than people can afford. I don't see government as being able to help people for the sheer scale of need that will come. AND the reality is those who BEST prepare now, or are fortunate enough to have something, will likely have to surrender it to the needs of the many. So HOARDERS beware - your gold and your land won't protect you.
No, what I'm missing is actual willingness to take economic risk - to invest money in solutions rather than just paying down debt, to invest time in SKILLS that will be needed in a future I can't see clearly, and still seems "far away" even if it might come in 5 years or less!
Sure, we need the capitalists to revision the world under less energy, and take risks to get rich on the rest of us poor slobs waiting for someone to save them. AND we need the social workers and do-gooders to handle the soup lines for those who failed to prepare.
We need lots of good ideas on how to change our expectations, to restore community as the proper center of life over consumerism. LOTS of change needed.
And I feel powerless in 90% of it, and will continue.
And worse, some "American First" organization is going to rise in the next 5 years to national power on the claim to restore the greatness of America when the rest of the world stops paying for our debts and all the smart capitalists have fled to Argentina. Hitlers can rise in a future lacking clear direction for self-esteem. We're all sheep afterall, and the wolf is scariest when you can't see him coming!
A $100 oil response?
Get out of debt, and "dig in" where ever you can, since you might be there for a while.
posted by Ares Olympus at 3:13 PM
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