[DesuMaiden]

I believe that I'm unfortunate to be born at the end of the age of oil. If I was born in 1930, I would probably be dead before the Malthusian catastrophe truly strikes.

I think the best age to born in would be 1930 because that was when the age of oil really took off. That was when the greatest benefits of oil were developed and reaped. Someone born in 1930 would be dead before the massive global economic collapse and starvation/famines from peak oil strike.

I was born in the worst period in history. I was born in 1990. I was born near the end of the age of oil, which is a very short era in human history. I will grow up in a time when oil resources become scarcer and scarcer. I was born in a time when a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions is about to unfold. I will be alive and well when the greatest catastrophe in mankind's history is about to happen. I am going to be alive when the greatest famine on earth will arrive. I will be alive when the greatest dying of human beings is about to arrive.

I only wished I was born in the 1930s because I wouldn't be alive anymore when the greatest catastrophe in human history strikes. But I will only be in my 30s or 40s when the greatest catastrophe in human history arrives. I will have to suffer the full blow of the greatest catastrophe ever in the prime of my life.

For kids born today, they will even be more unfortunate. They are going to live straight through the worst era of human history. Kids born today might not even ever be well-feed and educated as society totally collapses around them as they grow up.

I guess I was lucky enough to reap the benefits of the age of oil before all of the oil was sucked up. I guess I was lucky enough to enjoy the wonders of fossil fuel energy before it was used up. But I believe my children will not enjoy the same benefits of fossil fuel energy as they grow up. My children may have to grow up in a terrible and chaotic world full of anarchy, unrest, war, famine, starvation, disease and death.

The end of the age of oil is basically the beginning of a Malthusian catastrophe. The end of the age of oil is basically the beginning of a new dark age. I believe a new civilization will emerge from the ashes of our civilization, but that's only after billions of people die from this planet.

Anyways, that's all I got to say. Good night my friends.

[MD]

Look at the bright side. I am not going to spell it out for you, because you need to find yours on your own.

You do have one, though. Of that I am sure.

Good luck!

[Ibon]

The end of the age of oil is basically the beginning of a Malthusian catastrophe. The end of the age of oil is basically the beginning of a new dark age. I believe a new civilization will emerge from the ashes of our civilization, but that's only after billions of people die from this planet.

Anyways, that's all I got to say. Good night my friends.

Desumaiden, the sun is setting on modern industrial civilization for the reasons you now very well understand. But you are not unfortunate. For you will live in an era where you can see the sun starting to rise for all the flora and fauna that will slowly recolonize areas as we recede. And the sun is rising for all the degraded landscapes that will then slowly start to heal.

Hell in many ways was being born in the 1930's because the trajectory was moving only in the direction of degradation. You will be alive during a time when this destructive force starts to wain.

You can nourish the seedlings of that healing process. Those of us born in the baby boomer generation who understood these environmental problems were watching the destruction unfold for the past 50 years while the juggernaut was unstoppable.

Now you move into a time when finally this destructive force gets hit with feedbacks.

Your Lucky.

[Pops]

The bright side to your version of doom is you get to witness the peak of civilization. Better to focus on that than waiting for the apocalypse.

My thought is it will take many generations for your malthusian catastrophe to pan out, each one getting a glimpse but not the entire story. That is the great fault of the doomer perspective, lots of bad and good things will happen in a person's life but the story won't be done when they are, no one gets to see the ending.

[vtsnowedin]

Well if you had been born in the 30's you would have been drafted into the Korean war or maybe Vietnam so be careful of what you wish for. You can see the approaching problems which gives you a heads up over the competition. Also you will be in your physical prime when the peak of the adversity hits not handicapped by age and declining health. Could be a lot worse.

[radon1]

Desu,

You were born in the most fortunate of times. The variety of opportunity and choice available now is unparalleled in history.

The malthusian cycles are natural and not something new. The humanity and its various parts have been through those a number of times with varying success, from outright catastrophe to smooth and even gainful transition. So there is nothing to suggest that we have to hit the wall. We may, but we don't have to.

[basil_hayden]

I don't think that you need to worry about a malthusian cycle in your lifetime.

Just try not to be the start of one.

[Tanada]

If I were to pick a birth year I would select 1905. That generation got to miss WW I, be young adults during the roaring 20's, still be young and healthy enough to weather the Great Depression, then they were too old to get drafted for World War II and modern medicine let most of them live into their 70's to pass on shortly after oil in the USA peaked.

[JuanP]

Desu, I mostly agree with you. The younger a person is in today's world, the more fucked up your prospects are. Older people like to deny this, particularly older people with children and grandkids, but it is true. Don't listen to the people that tell you to have children anyway. I am 45 years old, and had a Vasectomy and no children because my children would have been around your age. I understood more than 30 years ago how fucked up the world would be today. Do not take advice on how to live your life from people that didn't see it coming.
You should consider getting a Vasectomy and living childfree like I am doing.

[Newfie]

There is some research that supports the idea that if you feel unlucky, you will be unlucky.

Of course it's really attitude, not luck.

Those down in the mouth tend to be isolated and internal. Optimist tend to mingle and more forcefully seek opportunities. They are sure there is good luck to be found so they hunt diligently.

Extremes of either are no good, but generally it pays to be a bit optimistic.

Further, you where born when you were born, not 1930. Your wasting energy on coulda, woulda, shoulda. Take that energy and put it into something that has the potential to improve your life, if even just to give you a nice memory.

[ROCKMAN]

I'm constantly amused by folks who want to attribute their lot in life on externalities. From my experiences THE primary controlling factor has been an individual's own actions. By far the majority of problems I've seen folks suffer were their own makings. Likewise the majority of high points in someone's life were typically the result of their actions.

So just some friendly advice: stop blaming you parents, tree hungers, Republicans, oil exporters, etc. for your "problems". Grow a pair, get your sh*t together and construct the best life you can for yourself and your family. LOL.

[DesuMaiden]

Desu, I mostly agree with you. The younger a person is in today's world, the more fucked up your prospects are. Older people like to deny this, particularly older people with children and grandkids, but it is true. Don't listen to the people that tell you to have children anyway. I am 45 years old, and had a Vasectomy and no children because my children would have been around your age. I understood more than 30 years ago how fucked up the world would be today. Do not take advice on how to live your life from people that didn't see it coming.
You should consider getting a Vasectomy and living childfree like I am doing.

Most baby boomers are deluded. My parents were born in 1963, so they are late baby boomers. Most baby boomers are deluded because they believe that the modern life style is possible in the future. It simply isn't. We don't have infinite resources to tap into. This is not like the Great Depression where we had more resources to tap into. We are basically at peak everything. All the essential natural resources are becoming too scarce because there is simply too many damn humans on this planet thanks to oil.

I was planning on having children. But since I realized that their chances of survival in this new world are not really good, I actually don't think it is worth having children anymore.

[eugene]

Well, I see you've gotten the usual empty phrases by those who have lived in easy times and have lived easy lives. I entered the Vietnam era military with a good future ahead of me and came out a PTSD mental health mess. Nothing made any sense anymore and I wandered in crazy land. Took me decades of confusion, drugs and a host of other crap before I finally dug myself out of there. So don't give me the luck, attitude, suck it up, etc. I've been there and listened to the crap, what I call "normals", hand out. It's bullshit. Slid by the suicidal ideation successfully and just struggled for survival. My advice is watch your despair and manage it as best you can. Things like persistence, ignoring simplistic/stupid advice, manage your anger as best you can, don't expect "normals" to have a clue, stay the hell away from drugs (particularly depressants), work at not over reacting and find some like minded people. I may be over reacting myself but I think there's a shit storm coming. Good luck.

[GHung]

Desu, where's your sense of adventure? When I was 16 in the mid 70's I sensed that our civilization was already on the down-slope, at least with things that mattered. I quit highschool and became a hobo; rode freight trains around the country, saw things most people never will, and met folks way outside of my socio-economic circles who I never would have met. One of the greatest learning experiences of my life.

Get out of your comfort zone and live your life, eyes and ears open; mouth shut. Go shovel shit somewhere and establish a base of understanding that will be more useful than any higher education. You'll be surprised where it may lead you.

I know, I know you probably scream and cry
That your little world won't let you go
But who in your measly little world
Are you trying to prove that
You're made out of gold and, eh, can't be sold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK8N6DjJccc
Oh, to be young again.

[Ibon]

Desu, where's your sense of adventure? When I was 16 in the mid 70's I sensed that our civilization was already on the down-slope, at least with things that mattered. I quit highschool and became a hobo; rode freight trains around the country, saw things most people never will, and met folks way outside of my socio-economic circles who I never would have met. One of the greatest learning experiences of my life.

Get out of your comfort zone and live your life, eyes and ears open; mouth shut. Go shovel shit somewhere and establish a base of understanding that will be more useful than any higher education. You'll be surprised where it may lead you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK8N6DjJccc
Oh, to be young again.

Best advice of all right there Desu. When I was also your age I rejected suburbia and I had this adolescent seething anger and actually a hatred of sorts of this American ideal of suburban life of which I was a product. I spent over 6 years wandering with a back pack, hitchhiking all over North America and wandered down into Mexico, took expedition length canoe trips in Northern Canada, hiked the Appalachian Trail and it wasn't until I was in my late 20's that I started to become "domesticated". All the successes I had afterwards had far more to do with the "street smarts" I got on the road rather than the education I had. You have no excuses. In fact, being sure of the fate of our industrial civilization should be incentive enough to hit to road and develop those street smarts. What do you have to lose?

One more piece of advice. Start to monitor you time on line. This medium is a huge ERSATZ to really living life. A huge part of depression, anger and frustration happens because your mind processes stuff but your body doesn't metabolize a damn thing.

Here you are alarmed and getting all this flight response adrenalin going through your body as you are learning the fate of industrial civilization while your sitting stagnant in front of the computer. This is bad news. You need to take that angst and hit the trail and an amazing clarity comes when you can physically metabolize the shit that's going on in your head while walking, hiking canoeing, digging in the soil etc.

[dinopello]

I think the best age to born in would be 1930 because that was when the age of oil really took off.

I think 2466 would be a good year to be born. By then all the posers will be gone, the magnetic field will be reversed and we'll have figured out things a little more hopefully. Heck, maybe we'll be on our way to evolving to the thing after homo sapiens. That would be cool. And, I'm really curious what they will be saying about this time. But, since reincarnation is probably not all its cracked up to be, I think just trying to explore the time and place we find ourselves is not such a bad deal. Maybe its just me, but I find just observing and listening (whether in the forest or the city) can keep me entertained and/or inspired.

What do you find funny and are you curious about things? If you have a lot for the former and answer yes to the latter, the world is a great place to be,

[MD]

dsu:

If you are going to thrive here, keep a finely tuned bullshit meter, 'cause there's lots of stinky shit laying about.

[AgentR11]

I have a completely different outlook on this thing. To me, it seems like this is the greatest moment to live or be born at. Not so much for comfort or pleasure, but a moment in the history of the species where real things change, when existential results happen. For instance, by actuarial table, I should die somewhere around 2050; pretty much all climate models indicate that by 2050, the if, how, and how strongly questions will be blatantly obvious to everyone. I will have seen the entire period of rising concern moving to fundamental knowledge on this issue for life on Earth. My daughter, by the same standard could live till about 2080-2090; and she'll have played whatever role she saw fit to, during the approach to the bottleneck, and her children, should she have any, (or theirs) could very easily be the ones to boldly contest the bottleneck for good or ill.

Luxuriously pleasurable? Not a chance.
Substantive? Absolutely.
Interesting? Certainly.

I would say... fortunate.

[Ibon]

I have a completely different outlook on this thing. To me, it seems like this is the greatest moment to live or be born at. Not so much for comfort or pleasure, but a moment in the history of the species where real things change, when existential results happen. For instance, by actuarial table, I should die somewhere around 2050; pretty much all climate models indicate that by 2050, the if, how, and how strongly questions will be blatantly obvious to everyone. I will have seen the entire period of rising concern moving to fundamental knowledge on this issue for life on Earth. My daughter, by the same standard could live till about 2080-2090; and she'll have played whatever role she saw fit to, during the approach to the bottleneck, and her children, should she have any, (or theirs) could very easily be the ones to boldly contest the bottleneck for good or ill.

Luxuriously pleasurable? Not a chance.
Substantive? Absolutely.
Interesting? Certainly.

I would say... fortunate.

A Big + 1

That's it right there.

Can we notice something here with these comments? Attitude will play a big role. Perhaps even a selective role.