Who's cried?

Ayoob · Expert Joined: Jul 15, 2004 Posts: 1115

Cry? Fark that. Get pissed off and FIGHT you goddamn pussies! This is crunch time! Get your dopamine on and MAKE IT!

Liberals. Bleh.

seldom_seen · Fission Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 2047

I have shed a few tears of joy knowing that the industrial megamachine is in a terminal state, with death through starvation of resources an assured prognosis.

seldom_seen · Fission Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 2047

RacerJace · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:53 am Post subject: Re: Who's cried?

I've cried in my mind and in my heart almost every day since comprehending what the consequences of peak oil and the aftermath will bring. I have always been excited about the wonders of new technology and the prospect of living in a world that is full of fantastic new ways that mankind can evolve through the being able to transcend the limits of being human and being a slave to a petty economy. I came crashing back to earth when I realised humans would never reach true self actualisation and break free from materialistic and capitalistic goals, at least not in my lifetime. The long term future reality may be a form of tribal self actualisation based on being closer to nature and knowing what it means to be sustainable. But the horrors of transitioning to this will last probably through my children’s lives let alone my own.

I cry for knowing what we could have become if we had only been wise custodians of the precious resources we have had at our disposal.

I cry for the inheritance I leave my children and grandchildren (if any).

I cry for the suffering that will ravage this planet as those with the means to do harm will do so, so that they can prolong their set ways.

I cry for the coming whimper of humanity as we know it.

.

PenultimateManStanding · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:07 am Post subject: Re: Who's cried?

NEOPO · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:27 pm Post subject: Re: Who's cried?

ubercynicmeister · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:21 pm Post subject: Re: Who's cried?

EH? Why bother wasting the energy crying?

"There's no use crying over spilt milk" may be re-worked as "there's no use crying over Peak Oil."

"This is bad" does not equal "therefore let's burst into tears over it"

"This is catastrophic" does not necessarily equal "therefore let's burst into tears over it."

Think about the countless examples of humans who have - facing overwhelming odds - haven't burst into tears but got in there and at least helped to try and ameliorate the odds against them. Sure the Titanic is hurtling towards the Iceberg, this time with a captain who is utterly incompetent and partly drunk on his own power, and fully drunk on his own ignorance.

But the two looksouts who spotted the Iceberg both survived as did the helmsman - as did First Officer Lighttoller. ALL OF WHOM WERE IN THE KNOW, either about the ship and it's capacity to survive the encounter with several hundred million tonnes of ice OR about the encounter before it happened. Captain Smith voluntarily went down with his ship (which was what was demanded of Commanding Officers in those days), but he certainly had the opportunity to survive.

None of them burst into tears about it. They took the knowledge and used it to alter their own activities in such a way as to help either themselves or others to survive the experience they knew to be inevitable. Lest anyone think I am advocating "insider knowledge", I am not - the knowledge was freely available to everyone aboard the Titanic, especially the First Class Passengers, many of whom refused seats on the life-boat, simply because they didn't want to get off the warmth of the Titanic to step aboard a cold uncomfortable life-boat. More Fool They.

Mind you, that happened in the days of "women and children to the lifeboats first", and those days are long gone. I guess, with the Ayn Randist style of "The Virtue Of Selfishness" and the Feminist style of total competition between the genders, then it'll be a rather horrifying blood-soaked Darwinian struggle to get to the lifeboats first - and God Help The Weak, because their overly competitive fellow humans won't. That's what actually worries me far more than Peak Oil.

But we're all told we should welcome Darwinism & The Survival Of The Fittest, red of tooth, sharp of claw. I guess we're about to get what we've been insisting on for the last 150 years. Mebbe after Peak Oil & it's more shocking consequences have beaten "competitiveness" out of us, we'll stop worshipping competition.

Perhaps I'm asking too much?

At least we don't need to cry about it. The following poem by Rudyard Kipling gets over-used but is indicative of the temper of that age, when humanity still had the capacity to face uncomfortable things without flinching:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -Yours
is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Remember: triumph and disaster really are imposters. And imposters are not worth the effort to cry about, are they?
_________________
.
"To Get Rich you have to:

*Get up early;

*Work Hard;

*Strike Oil"

J Paul Getty