Actually, in my history research, the fall of the Roman Empire was predicted and the government was trying all kind of things to save their world. They even hired the Huns to fight for them. You can't get anymore desperate than hiring your enemies to train your army.

It was predicted once things visibly started going down the tubes. If you look around right now instead of looking ahead, things seem pretty good and pretty stable. It's difficult for the average person to believe the whole thing could just end. It's difficult for politicians to do it too. Gas prices have been shooting up over the past few months, and that's got people's attention. Guys like Bartlett are starting to talk about it and make it a primary issue. As more and more visible signs of instability pile up, there will be more and more talk and action. But as long as things seem ok, there will be a tendency to put it on the back burner and not think about it too much, no matter what the graphs say when you project out 10 years.

Grimnir, Yup, you are correct. Forecasting doom won't work. You have to have evidence. Once evidence appears, then people will react.
I agree. I guess you just think by then it is too late.

Pssssst…….. This ain’t the Roman Empire, things are a pinch or two different now, please update your thinking. What are we going to compare today’s world with next, the fall of Babylon?

Yeah.. you should never try to learn from history.. what were you thinking?

My only point is that I don't think there's some giant inter-governmental conspiracy to cover up and prepare for peak oil. I think most government officials have never heard of the issue, don't believe it will happen, or don't think it will be a serious problem if it does. Most of them are too preoccupied with all the problems they have right now to worry too much about something that might happen and some unknown point in the future. Some are more savvy than others, but things average out to complacency. The neocons seem to have some idea, but they also seem to think that taking over an oil-producer or two is all it will take to solve the problem. <shrugs>

Talking about taking things out of context. I was responding to the posts. They were using history- feudal society, old civilizations, etc....

'Let's See What Happens,' Says President
link

A little public castigation would be a good thing. When I lived in NYC I would routinely see taxi drivers (and others) open their doors going down Broadway and dump their lunch detritus onto the street. I would see people defecating in the streets.

Once when in Zurich, I was visiting a friend. She was a smoker and threw a cigarette out the window of her 3rd floor apartment. Within a few minutes an elderly lady knocked on her door. She had the cigarette butt in hand and proceeded to lecture my friend for several minutes about cleanliness and required public behavior. Zurich is the cleanest city I’ve ever seen. They even have doggy doo dumpsters every couple of blocks with those little plastic gloves for picking up the excrement.

Wow. Bush finally did something that I really, really support. Now we can kick those drug-dealin' n*gg*rs out of town and start fining all them atheists (may they burn in hell) for not going to church.

Actually, sarcasm aside, I DO ACTUALLY like this. There are a lot of problems in our society that the police have no way to deal with or just look the other way. It's going to be VERY important however, to be able to enforce law and order on the vigilantes when they start hog-tying anyone who's different (like the vigilantes that kicked the woman's family out of their neighborhood for basically being a whore).

Difficult thing to sell to the intellectual public, difficult thing to keep the general public from getting out of control...Hopefully more solutions than problems will arise.

hmm, this may have to roll around in the head for a few days before I have a valid opinion...
Reminds me of that movie 'Boondock Saints' and one of the closing lines that can be summed up like this: Don't lie, cheat, steal, hurt, or kill others or we will fuck you up.

Of course, in a year when my friend is forced to move from his apartment by a group of 'vigilantes' for being homosexual, this is just going to be another reason for me to seriously despise our current administration.

hmm, this may have to roll around in the head for a few days while gathering more info on it before any of my opinions feel more valid...

btw, is that a shotgun he's holding? just noticed it...is this picture even real?

But of course . the onion is a totally serius news source .

This is not new. Vandalism, arson, bombings, and murders at family planning clinics and gay community centers have been strongly encouraged by 'socially conservative' religious leaders and politicians for over 30 years. The white christian domestic terrorism is just going to expand to other victims.

Ok, I'm at a loss. Is this true? (It wouldn't surprize me, but is it?) I read that Jeb Bush has just demolished 300 years of sanity, by allowing people to shoot others to death if they "suspect" that the other person is threatening them. So that's not a fantasy out of some national-socialist propaganda leaflet. These are not the thoughts of a severely psychotic lunatic. It's an actual law now in Florida. The world couldn't stop laughing when it heard the news, but hey, it's America at it's best, and it's a sign of the beginning of the end, so we enjoy it. But vigilantes? That's something of an entirely different order.

It is satire everything that is published on the onion is satire. Shame on you for not knowing this. On the other hand for a totally serius news story read this: link