THE "Telling Others About Peak Oil" Thread pt 1 (merged) Ar.

[RonMN]

Welcome

How's it feel to be the family nutcase?

Seriously, I would consider that speak no more of it will be your safest bet. Otherwise you may end up with 100 friends & family & coworkers kicking your door in when TSHTF.

If you wont take that advice, the it really comes down to "all roads lead to an economic collapse" as bad or worse than the great depression.

Problem: Our economy is based on GROWTH...it must have it or it dies! There's no way around this one.

Next problem: Everything (and yes i do mean EVERYTHING) is created with, produced, or shipped by OIL. (this one took me a few months but i finally figured out it was true).

Next problem: As world oil production starts to decline, the economy will decline (contract). But not in proportion with eachother...in the jimmy carter era, we had 5% less oil then we wanted...that QUADRUPLED the price of gas...so what happens when we have 10% less than we want? 15% less than we want?

Good to have you on board!

[Carlhole]

Welcome, Veritas

Would you like a glass of Kool-Aid while you're waiting for the stock market to discover the impending oil cataclysm?

[coyote]

Welcome Veritas... I started a similar thread way back when, 'bout a year or so ago I guess. It's amazing to me that we're still getting the same reaction now as we were then, after all that has happened. But I think most of us have had similar experiences. People just don't want to believe this: it just sounds to big, too scary, too reminiscent of wrong scares in the past, y2k etc. It's incredible how quickly the entire idea is dismissed. People don't even hold it in their heads long enough to argue against it. Maybe they can't.

I understood peak oil pretty well the first night I read about it, and I suppose most others around here are the same. But my understanding has still deepened since then, and yours will too. My advice is the same that was given to me: choose carefully to whom you speak of this, and choose your opening words carefully too. If you let slip even the slightest hint of peak oil's true ramifications, then you'll suddenly be talking to a brick wall. For gods' sake don't mention population or food production. Gasoline prices and dependence on foreign oil are good, pretty safe places to start. People don't mind complaining about their wallet or national security. After that, if there's a decent response, you might mention that the resource is finite, or that 'someday there may be an issue.' If there's still no problem with that, then wait a while, and maybe next time mention that world oil discoveries peaked in the 1960s, or that US oil production peaked in 1970.

Or, if you really just want to knock the top of their head off, just say "A thousand barrels a second" and walk away.

I'm still not sure why it's such an extremely difficult concept for people to wrap their heads around. But it is.

Welcome and good luck.

[savethehumans]

I hear you all.

My brother cannot fathom why his intelligent sister with a college education cannot find a good paying job. He talks of IRAs and 401Ks and retirement and Social Security and savings. And if I opened my mouth and told him ANYTHING of why none of this matters, he'd see if he could get power of attorney and have me put in an asylum.

People are conditioned to this society and its structures. That the whole thing is about to collapse is something that simply cannot register in their minds. I remember years ago that the naysayers about the ozone hole pointed out that satellites recorded nothing out of the ordinary. Turns out that they were all programmed to reject any data outside of a certain range. Why? Because such data "wasn't possible." Guess what data got rejected? The data that proved the ozone hole problem!

It's the same with this society. Certain events/outcomes are simply "not possible," so any data proving otherwise is automatically rejected--by the system, by the powers that be, by our very minds. Guess which data is being rejected? Aw, you GUESSED!

People simply aren't conditioned to receive this information. And so many "authorities" who admit to problems frame it as a bumpy time ahead, and we'd better get moving on solutions cuz we only have 10/20/50 years left. Of course, we have nothing of the sort! But they don't want the people to "panic." Why they think that people WON'T "panic" when TSHTF is beyond me. Maybe they think they'll be in a safe haven by then. They delude themselves; there is no safe haven.

My advice? Frame useful preparations in some other context: "in case we're in severe depression, and money is tight," "in case there are temporary shortages," "because it's good for us to have a backup plan." ANYTHING that will get the preparations made. (Nice thing about these arguments: none of 'em are lies.) Then, when TSHTF, at least they will be prepared, whatever the motivations to get that way were!

Good luck and God bless!