I want to see your film another thirty times, and I want all my loved ones and neighbors to see it many times as well–not as a stalling or denial tactic but because I need help in crafting a new life.I’ve always understood that fear is a lousy motivator because it doesn’t provide enough energy to sustain appropriate response.Instead, I’m looking to new vision as a guide to the next culture.

Thank you for making and sharing WaWtG. What will you do with your own feelings of discouragement? What kinds of action would you like to see?

Sincerely,

- HR

We’ve got a joke: “Buy stuff to save the planet”, which is a bit of macabre humor that I see you share.

There are a number of problems: A. your movie takes us into major league grief (as you say), a place where people don’t generally want to go if they can avoid it. Correct me if I’m wrong here - people don’t generally run to embrace information or situations that cause grief (and disorietation and and and . . . ) You’re a therapist you know that. This is more than a loved one dying - it’s the whole planet dying, so, you know, expect a bit of resistance and defenses.

2). As you know, “the magic Kingdom”, everyday, USA, consumer land (I now call it the magic Kingdom after a dream last summer), continues on with some degree of stability - although fissures are now forming. So, there’s a reassuring, seemingly stable place, where people can continue to indulge in their denial. It requires a mental effort - you have to overcome the stability of everyday life that surrounds you (bizarre as the magic kingdom is) with mental effort. People have to sustain a sense of urgency mostly with thoughts about the four horsemen while the TV still works and the fast food huts are still pumping out the garbage and so forth. Easier to lapse back into familiar states of mind.

Yes, that’s it, You have to sustain a sense of crisis and urgency within your thoughts in order to experience deep grief and confusion - all the while bucking the everyday immediate world which continues on. And then there are the pressures of social conformity ect ect. Takes a lot of character. Easier, much easier, to go unconscious. effortless, actually.

OK, yes, I’m about fed up with Priuses and changing lightbulbs and other superficial greenery myself. As I said: Buy shit to save the planet. What can you expect from this insane culture?

Well, I’ve been at this for quite a while and I’ve tried to clue various people in at various times. Most people just can’t hold the information. They just can’t really really take it in and go with it. So, I don’t try much anymore - or only with a very select few. Your film is brilliant in that it addressess four major issues at once (and actually its still incomplete), but that’s the problem. People like to think about the pieces, because you can still come up with “solutions”. This is very difficult to do when you think about the whole. Very.

Sally, they don’t want to grow green beans - understand? They want to be all sorts of make believe identities doing make believe jobs that wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for cheap oil. Most really really really don’t want to grow green beans. Personally, I’ve been getting into eating our own food, but . . . .

Also, they want to be able to just go anywhere when they want to. right. They defenitely want something to save them here - the Prius, the electric airplane or whatever. They don’t want to walk miles. They want to be able to drive 100 miles, have dinner, go to a concert and then . . . yadda yadda. They don’t want to stay in the yard all day and grow green beans and then sit aroun telling stories. They haven’t really figured out that that’s what’s in store, and they definitely won’t take to the idea when they get to that point.

OK, Sally, now I’m a therapist too - many years. Perhaps a little of that cognitive type therapy would help here. Are your expectations rational????

Plus, you don’t really know - neither do I. Might take a week or a month or a year for it to start to sink in with people. You want something to happen immediately when people see the movie, is that reasonable? This expectation may be clouding the good that is actually happening. the movie is doing a lot of good here. I pass it around slowly It is truly excellent. I don’t have expectations - I just let it do what it does with this person or that.

I’d say let go of the expecations. Hope I’m not to presumptious here, but that’s my view.

Bob

Sorry, but we can’t loan you any money to build an ark. Please come back with a 5 year business plan, the mortgage to your home, a recent appraisal, and proof of employment.

It’s too late. Too freakin’ late. If you know people who care, get together with them and build an exit strategy: where can you go to escape the marauding hordes and the Stern-faced Minions of Failing Empire that will be rounding up ‘dissidents’ by the thousands?
What will you need? What skills does the group have?
How will climate change affect the place you plan to go?
How will you develop a community?
Forget the ark, thain’t nobody here worth savin’, and the animals will follow you to high ground anyway.

Excellent, but there is nothing for those who want to take action, regardless of what it means to their present Lifestyle. I am one such person and want to team up with like-minded people and ‘build the Ark’ — whom do I contact?

Here are some thoughts back:

Howie: What will I do with my feelings of discouragement? Well, I’m feeling a shift of loyalties. I had a couple of experiences on tour that gave me pause, caused me to look at how human-centric I am. This warrants more thought and reflection but I think the discouragement with the human creatures of Empire may actually open the way for a new appreciation for the rest of the creatures and that investing in the life that is expressed in the non-human communities of plants and animals and fungi and in the elements, in spirit in all of her forms, may be the result of feeling deeply the limits of my current human family. What actions would I like to see? I’d like to see myself moving rapidly, as rapidly as is possible, to a life that is directly helpful and healing, that is rooted not in the structures of this culture but in the real world of gardening, caring for land and animals, using but not consuming or destroying the gifts of land and water, food and shelter. I want to add more than I take and I want to do that in real, on the ground ways. That will mean moving to a place where that is possible. I’m not sure how it will happen but if I don’t at least get clear thats what I want I won’t get there.

Bob: Yeah, adjust those expectations! I’m working at it! I’m afraid to look at what’s coming down the road with so few people making active preparation. It looks like a tremendous amount of suffering, chaos, desperation, and death, and that’s scary to contemplate. But that may be what is called for to go through this adolescent initiation we are in the midst of.

Ryanstones! Great to hear. Our experience was on tour that the smaller communitites seemed to be more likely to get in action. Less investment in the structures of Empire and a closer connection already with a landbase. Go ARK!

Shannon: You express so well the quandry of the transition. I don’t have an answer for you and you may be doing exactly what you are called to do at this moment. I know that as I let it in deeply what my lifestyle is doing to the life support systems of the planet I want to change it radically. I want to stop pooping in the drinking water and use a simple composting toilet. I want to stop eating food that requires the input of 15 cal. of fossil fuels for every cal. of energy in the food. I want to live in a space that is warm and dry but just sufficient for health and a sense of peace and solitude when I need it. I want to live around creatures that I can be fully honest with, be they human or non-human. That’s what a radical change of life is for me. And I don’t want to be in a place which requires the input of stuff from beyond its local area because it’s not right to require stuff from somebody else’s place to maintain one’s own. You are right, if we build arks that will not guarantee our own safety in the apocalypse. But it does guarantee our integrity and our connection to what’s meaningful and important. If I’m going to go, I want to go well…..It’s the punch line of the movie… what a way to go.

Vivienne: Yeah, scared to numb to scared again. That’s a lot how i’m experiencing it as well. with moments of exhilaration when i step out of the box and trust….thanks for having the guts to feel the fear……..

Antigrav: I may be being naive and idealistic here. It’s happened before. But I do think that there are little cubby holes around where arks may be viable. Places where a dozen or maybe a couple of dozen humans might set about to help the landbase recover and to meet their own basic needs at the same time, cooperating with and supporting and listening to and studying the natural world of a place and doing their best to help. It’s worth a shot. And how to create community? Ah, as a refugee myself from intentional community I am fully sober to the challenge there. But it’s a good challenge, a worthy challenge, something I am up to with others who will submit themselves to the fire of long stretches of time in a circle…..And it bites that they won’t loan money for Arks… but there’s money around…and a few people who have it that are waking up. We met a couple on our tour… keep your heart and eyes open…

David: Stay tuned. One possibility is that this website can become a place for people to find others. We’re doing all of this as fast as we can and that’s been one of the ideas, to be a meeting place for likeminded people to connect. We don’t have the mechanism now but it may come. In the meantime if you want to let me know what part of the country you are in I might be able to suggest some people to contact.

Thanks everyone……..

Sally…Tim…

I’m not sure what to say…

I’m scared. That’s for certain. But mother culture is a soother, as all mothers should be. And her whispers of “calm down. Things will be OK” seem to be getting louder even as the fire rages closer with every passing moment.

I purchased “What a Way to Go” oh, about a month ago. It sat on my shelf, unwatched until this weekend. I recognized it for what it was: a genie, nicely packed in a brown case; a genie, that once opened, I certainly would not be able to get back in the bottle.

Now, I have been waking up since the late 90’s, having been introduced to Daniel Quinn as a college junior. I have been doing what I can to change minds; to tell people about Ishmael and its author. And this weekend, I watched your film. As I already said, I’m scared. I don’t know what to do. I have a wife, a child and another on the way. My wife and I are in constant discussion about doing something. I have a very close friend with whom we regularly discuss the future of our culture (you can view some of our recent discussions at http://whatdowedonow.pbwiki.com/. This is a very rudimentary site that I have created with future purpose, but for now simply chronicles a recent e-mail discussion between myself and my friend.) We are all scared.

I’m afraid however, that we may be part of the choir. We are planning to use your film as a start of point, to wake up some more souls, but I’m slightly discouraged by your experience. The film certainly had an impact on me, but will it wake up others? Even those who are shifting nervously in their beds? I guess that we can only try…

Anyway, I wanted to thank both of you (and everyone else involved) for the film. There are a few of us out here, ready to let go of the shore. Feel free to contact me at the e-mail provided. If, as you say, there are so few awake to the situation, it is important that we all make contact; stay in contact. I, for one, want to know what people are doing. Without dialog, without knowledge of what other awakened souls are doing out there in the world, I’m afraid mother cultures soothing voice may be too strong to ignore; sleep is so nice. We must reach out to each other; we are out here.

Again, thanks much.

Warm regards,
Matt Willbergh

Recently, Carolyn Baker featured a fine essay by Sharon Astyk, who writes a wonderful blog. The piece is entitled “Scared? Duh.” and it dovetails nicely into yours.

http://casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/2007/11/on-being-afraid.html

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered…

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?

Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.

See who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Oraibi, Arizona

As the mass extinction rolls on, the climate change gathers pace, oil dances around US$100 (hah! I started lobbying politicians when it was US$23 a barrel, and that was only 7 years ago!), the dollar slides, and B52 bombers fly loaded with armed nuclear cruise missiles across the USA, blow all non-proliferation treaties out of the water, and Russia and China react, and Canadian front line troops are told to update their wills and shut up about it….my culture tells me f.e.a.r. = False Evidence Appearing Real…including my wife’s sticker with this on next to the computer!

I’m very scared that those who are waking up will jump to ’solutions’ bought off the shelf, not won by hard thinking, research, soul searching, sweat and tears. As you state in the movie, this is a culture of spoilt 2 year olds.

Thanks you!
Ted

To understand how pathologically insane and suicidal the culture is, is very, very scarey indeed.

I’m afraid that such is the depth of indoctrination, we’ll do whatever we can to sort things out within the culture, rather than admit it’s over and go sit at the feet of our indigenous brothers and sisters (and trees, and fish and rivers, etc) and ask for forgiveness and ask for help

Regards
Ted

Thanks for the personal mention! I’m involved with forming an ecovillage and am curious about your “IC refugee” status. Not a way to go? Also, why would anyone move north at this time?

Onward,

- HR

http://www.energybulletin.net/37091.html

See, denial can be categorized. Maybe we can even get a new DSM category. Makes sense to me. When Crazy becomes normal and sane becomes crazy - hmm.

I find some comfort in reading and watching universe-related stuff. One presentation that I may have mentioned when you were here is a Long Now presentation by John Baez (Joan’s cousin). It can be found here:
http://www.fora.tv/2006/10/13/Zooming_Out_in_Time

I’m in the middle of “Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang” by Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok. Thinking about the time and space dimension of the universe somehow makes it a bit easier to accept our demise.

The Spokane viewers had no interest in extending the discussion. Disheartening, but expected.

In some respects it helps to think of oneself as a spectator to the whole, insane show.

All the best, Matt

You wrote:

========================================
What’s the game I’m talking about? The game of “civilized, industrial, technological life as we know it.” We are at the end of that game. And people are just beginning to wake up to the fact that it’s a game… …Having toured 36 communities with our movie in the last three months and having sat with over a thousand people in post-screening dialogue circles, I find myself sad and sobered… …I realize I’m on a bit of a tear here. I can’t help it. I sat with over a thousand people and I’m more discouraged about the awakening in the world than ever. And mostly I’m sad. I’m sad that as a group we are not getting it… …The most frequently reported feelings were sad and glad, followed by ashamed and mad, with only the rare expression of people being scared. I think that’s backwards to what would best be experienced. I think if people were really letting the information sink in, if they were letting it past their denial and defense mechanisms, that they would, first and foremost, be scared.
========================================

I have to disagree - not with your prognosis or facts, but with your mood. Maybe I spent too many years in a zendo, but the mental space you’re exhibiting is actually dis-useful, and your audience is correct to not be fearful.

To be scared and depressed invites inaction - if it’s all going to hell in a handbasket, why bother? Live big and forget about it. That is not MY way of thinking, but it is the logical reaction to fear and depression: compensate through either denial or surrender. Neither are what we need or want, especially at this late of a time.

Therefore, the best reaction is one of determination and steadfastness. Am I planning on retiring to a vacation cottage on lake Simcoe? Hell no. Am I planning on starving to death in some transit camp in eastern oregon? Hell no. Am I planning on working in high tech forever? Hell no. So what am I planning?

I am planning on and am engaged in learning skills and acquiring information that will help me and my neighbours, yes NEIGHBOURS - you know - those people next door or down the hall - those people we have reified into the suboptimal identity political notion of “community” (who or whatever the heck THAT is) so that when things get more difficult, and they will, we will be able to meet these challenges with as little suffering as possible.

The idea is compassion and working with others. This doesn’t mean everything will be hunky dory okey dokey. But it doesn’t mean a living hell, either. One of my dearest friends is cuban, and she said this about the Powerdown they had in 1991 - I remember it almost verbatim, because it really blew me away:

“At first it really sucked. People fled the city (Havana) if they could and set up farms on the outskirts. Abandoned properties were turned into urban farms. It was rough. We only had two meals a day, and a lot of it was vegetables. My dad never had much of an appetite - his metabolism’s slower - so he’d give me his left overs because I was younger. After about six months, though, you got into new habits. You didn’t get with friends and drive to the beach - you rode your bike or walked. But the beach was still really nice, and I still loved my friends. And pretty soon, you remember how to smile and laugh. Still, it was really hard, but it wasn’t “bad”. Just difficult. you adjust.”

It’s not a “switch” - peak oil means there is still a trillion barrels of the crap in the ground. With super high prices, it’ll take a while to pump it out, and very likely, a lot will be left in the ground, when all is said and done.

The situation with the climate? Yes, that is a deep deep problem. I think we need to look at the “unthinkable” and figure out some exact numbers and ranges on clathrate and methane hydrate meltdowns, and get some real numbers on the results of that, with ranges of possible results.

If the results are Permian Level Extinction, then we will need to make a different set of plans than otherwise.

To say “we’re looking at a PLE anyway! DOOM!!!!” doesn’t really help, because tomorrow afternoon, you’re going to have to fill your time doing something, and stocking up on canned goods and ammo is not helpful or even all that smart or productive.

We need to approach this will a certain level of compassion (something I’m not very good at, but am trying to learn) for not only the fuzzy bunnies and silvery fishies that are going extinct, but for the blockheaded retard piloting the 4WD pick up truck three blocks to grab a six pack and a carton of smokes. Yeah, they are retards (I said I wasn’t very good at it) but they - the ignorant North American Middle Class - (but I’m trying) are, along with the OECD and Chinese Middle class - hold the key to the problem. It is their consumption and convenience that is driving this insane machine, and the hegemony (negotiated or imposed) of the system that feeds them.

Media and communications are VITAL right now, and we need to work at getting the ideas out there to help cushion the downturn from a howling disaster of DEATH to a Different Way of LIFE.

Your movie helps. So feel GLAD. You’re doing the right thing. And a lot of others are too. In the end, humanity will go extinct, but it’s a question of when and how (20 years and horribly, or 200,000 years and through evolution), not a matter of if.

Another thing is to just keep on keeping on. but that level of determination requires a certain amount of cheerfulness. It’s not denial - it’s a matter of personal identification.

Do you know your neighbours? Are you helping them?

S2

I’m happy to just stand beside you and acknowledge your process, your wisdom and your feelings.

Thanks
Ted

Alarmingly, I have found that it is not just the topics covered in What a Way to Go that I am unable to talk with anyone offline about…it’s practically ANYTHING of substance! Even in the 80’s I could find people who were passionate about SOMETHING besides Nascar and football! Now conversations that I used to have on a daily basis happen maybe once every six months. You and Tim were two of the only people I’ve run into in quite a while who could converse about these topics freely…and I live in Chicago…a haven for a lot of relatively educated people.

Even more alarmingly, I have found that as most of my friends get married and have kids they all seem to have entered DenialWorld to a greater or lesser extent. Which is counterintuitive to me: I would think that the fact that you have new life to protect and defend, you would WANT to know about all the potential hazards the world you live in may be throwing your way. Nope. “If my kids might starve to death as a result of a collapsed economy I don’t want to know about it, you gloomy bastard” is about the level of response I get anymore.

I feel like I’ve entered Stepford, It is really unnerving at times.

After listening to WAW2Go nearly a dozen times a couple months ago during a trip to Denver I decided to let go of the shore.

What this means for me is I will probably see my kids a lot less as I move to a farmlette away from the city and grow food.

It means I will probably walk away from a good job at some point in the next year.

It means I will leave most everything I have learned to be “the way it should be” behind me and expose myself to something I do not know.

So it goes.

Thanks again!!

On your tour, what did you not see people being or doing that you wanted them to be doing or being?

It’s me, Archangel, from NYC. I dunno if you remember me, but I spent some time with you during the screenings while you were out here staying with Phil and Tom. Just wanted to let you know that I am relocating and have quit my job, and I’m couch-surfing while getting things ready for a change of lifestyle. I’m going WWOOFing, initially not terribly far from you folks, in the Asheville, NC area, and I plan to learn some things, and continue to wander and find companions. It’s time for me.

Thanks for writing this- it’s helped affirm my decision and reminded me of what is at stake. Best to you,
A

I liked how Stuart Studebaker expressed it!

Take a moment and acknowledge,reflect and congratulate yourself for a mission accomplished and a job well done. Take a moment and take satisfaction that your five year effort did yield SOME positive results of actual awareness leading to behaviorail and survival action. And take a moment to be thankful that you still had time to accomplish this wonderful undertaking…..

And now go build YOUR lifeboat. Protect YOUR family, Take care of YOUR needs and do what you and Tim need to do…It is time to be selfish and serve YOURself.

And as all good flight attendants remind us in all crash situations…
“It is imperative to put your own oxygen masks on first or you will be of no use to others you may want to assist in the event of a real disaster (read family).”

And remember we always had Stinson Beach and the warm sunshine of a California day.

Peace out,

J.

I recently read “The City of Saba” by Rumi over at zone5.org. In the poem, Rumi implores us to “Turn towards teachers and prophets who don’t live in Saba. They can help you grow sweet again and fragrant and wild and fresh and thankful for any small event.”

All of you that helped to create “What A Way To Go” are those teachers and prophets Rumi spoke of.

Thank You.

Wow. I’m having precisely those feeling s these days.

I’ve been giving Peak Oil Outreach talks for over a year now, and I’ve been bouncing from crest to trough of the hope/despair cycle for the last three. I grokked the end of industrial civilization about 30 seconds after I figured out Peak Oil, and went straight from there to die-off. I don’t know if I’m surprised or not to find that I’ve ended up about where I started out, but with a more nuanced understanding of the phrase “Estamos tan jodidos!” We are so screwed…

Although I’m more convinced than ever about the end of the global industrial perpetual motion machine, I’m less convinced about the shape of the coming die-off. I no longer think it’s going to be universal. I’ve recently been doing some careful analysis of the impact of energy decline on individual nations I’ve come to understand that the decline will accelerate and deepen the disparities between rich and poor, and that as usual the bulk of the hardship will fall on those who can least afford it.

It is precisely the energy-poor nations that have the highest fertility rates, and will see their populations balloon over the next 30 years. It is precisely those nations that have no margin to absorb the loss of energy and GDP. It is precisely those nations that will need more and more food to feed their burgeoning numbers. And it is precisely those nations that will not be able to pony up for a 10x rise in the cost of of fertilizer as natural gas depletes. Do not move to Africa or Asia in the next couple of decades.

I went to a hope-fest last night sponsored by the Sierra Club that was anchored by a showing of “The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil”. I asked a question to the panel about Cuba’s “Evil Twin” in the Peak Oil Survival sweepstakes, North Korea, whose oil was cut off at the same time and for the same reasons. It was morbidly fascinating to watch their defense shields snap to full power as they hastily explained that the reason North Korea failed to cope and so many starved to death was due to cultural differences - that climate and geography played but a minor role, and if we just created a “spirit of permaculture cooperation” in Canada over the next 10 years, We’d Be Fine.

I think most people are too afraid to wake up, the problem is just too big and too scary. Most of those that try to wake up get their eyes halfway open and suddenly realize that if they come all the way awake they’ll be screwed. So they stay half-asleep and veil the half-recognized realities with sugar-plum daydreams of solar panels, windmills and ethanol…

I am nearing seventy. Raised on a farm, I experienced the transition from the horse drawn culture of my grandfather to mechanized agriculture in the early forties. I farmed myself until 1984. I still garden a little. My point? Those of you who think you can move a few miles away from a big city and live off of beans delude yourselves. When the SHTF, as it must very soon, you will be the first to go, as the starving masses forage outward. That is if you don’t starve first from a crop failure.

My advice: Store up a lot of goodies, keep a low profile, know how and be willing to protect your goodies, and hope they don’t get you anyhow. If you survive, you will find the other survivors, and then, maybe, you will be able to restore the pastoral life you envision. A Planet of the Apes society will probably be the reality, however.

Mike from Spokane here. I was on your immediate right during the discussion time.

Briefly…

It seems to me that…

As you point out… Yup, we are not understanding. We are not reacting. We are not preparing.

In addition, I would offer that there are no solutions - NONE. I would offer that ANY sense of optimism is merely an elegant form of denial.

My denial takes the form of my pursuit of that tiny glow of hope for personal [me and mine] survival. The society at large is a dead man walking. There is no future in facing that direction. One must turn away completely [save for the hope of joining with a few like-minded souls] and make preparations for rejoining with the earth.

In all sincerity, does your denial take the form of “What a Way to Go” as an expression of your hope of enlightening the masses?

survival,

~mike~

I’m Lynnette from Bellingham. With 10 co-sponsoring oranizations, we organized a WAWTG screening and discussion with you and Tim here at Whatcom Community College where we filled Heiner Auditorium to capacity, over 328 people in October.

I want to let you know some good news. Now Western Washington University is having a showing of your film, due to demand!

I remember being surprised at the number who purchased the DVD after the event. Many in Bellingham are talking about it. It made a big impression that rippled out widely here.Thank you so much.

I have a request. I believe your current blog, Horror Movies and Other Things I Don’t Want to Believe Are True is an important report and I want to send the essence of it out to my numerous lists. Would you be willing to condense it into a shorter article and send it to me? I would really appreciate it. I’ve learned that when I send out a paragraph and a link, often only the paragraph gets read because people have so much email and other info to scan. I think they do read short articles though if they have a “calling phrase” something that gets their attention in them at the beginning. And I always include a link to the original article.

Thanks so much for this valuable follow up blog you’ve written..

Lynnette Allen
lynallen.peace@yahoo.com

Sustainable Bellingham Vision Team

Instead what I am wittnessing is the commodification of yet another concept that utilizes fear to get people to spend a few bucks here and there. Without any indiciation of a move away from the centralized production that our global economy is so fond of. In other words, something is being sold, but that something generally results in no one doing anything about the real problems in the world. Algae store 5 times as much energy as we use anually, if they can do it without impacting the world negatively (pollution) then so can we. Undoubtedly.

SHORTEN HORIZONS

You’ll feel better if you shorten your horizons the way a person does when they find they have cancer. That is, focus more on enjoying the more immediate future. There’s no sense in selling your house and sleeping in a graveyard - you can still enjoy what quality of life is available. You’ll appreciate it even more actually.

THINK - TROUBLE IS NOT THAT NEW

Trouble, notably big trouble is not that new. There’s already lots of hassles in our lives, Hospitals are full of people suffering dreadfully, families having to watch it. It isn’t new. Even aging and death are the same as this world decline. The old and sick aren’t running round screaming. They slow themselves down, reduce expectations, become more humble, are grateful for what they have. A lot of them grow roses and live for their grandchildren or for others as a distraction from their own worsening losses.

LOTS OF RECOURSES

The ways of dealing with trouble will be the same - available since time began. Use your brains to make some sensible preparations. Try to be cooperative to balance survival with self-love and relationships. Cry, comfort each other. Remember to be grateful for what we’ve had. Especially leave room for ‘good unknowns’ in the future rather than assuming you’re going to be in constant misery every second of the day from now on. Dare to retain some optimism, even vague optimism. Even hope that turns out to be false has been good value in making you happy.

WHERE YOU ‘GO’ WHEN YOU DIE

Much fear seems to be based on a panicky, superstitious fear of death. I think you actually ‘go’ to the same ‘place’ you were before you were conceived. Not so bad when you consider the ’safety’ of that ‘place’.

OPTING OUT (’COMPLETELY’)

I’ve put a fair bit of thought into ways of deliberately going there if the suffering gets too bad. First point: When suffering gets bad enough (even a bad ‘flu) you really don’t at all mind the idea of dying. Second: In that state of mind, there are lots of merciful ways of escaping. People use all the time, and they work well, mostly within a few seconds or minutes if you can stand some temporary extra discomfort that fades away as you lose consciousness. You don’t have to assume you’ll be ‘trapped’ into staying in extreme misery. You can get ‘out’ if you really, really want to. There are voluntary euthanasia websites, books and groups giving plenty of guidance if you want it.

DISCUSSION GROUP AVAILABLE

There’s an egroup for people new to the petroleum energy decline - where you can confer with others and get some comfort from sympathetic long-experienced peakniks like Lise Maring. I set it up a couple of years ago at
RunningOnEmpty3@yahoogroups.com

It now has about 2,000 members, all giving each other comfort and encouragement about dealing with this stuff.

Regards,

Bruce Thomson

I think pollution is a huge huge problem. But if we reduce it down a bit we can see that life requires energy and raw chemicals to live. Everything of all of civilization requires it. Humanity just uses the chemicals the planet has provided to us irresponsibly. The waste water that is funneled into the oceans, for instance, is made up of the very chemicals that was in the food we consumed. It’s valuable. But we unwisely let it flow into the oceans. You can take any aspect of human civilization and reduce it down to this basic concept, all waste has value. Our current global economic situation places short term profit above long term sustainablity. We won’t run out of resources, either energy or chemical (due to the conservation laws). But we will permit it to get into a state where it is harder to get. By eroding soils, for instance, we’re destroying habitats, not just for animals, but for ourselves. There’s only so much effort that can be made into making fertalizers before it becomes uneconomical to exploit a bit of ground. However, we don’t need soil to grow food, and cities like Chicago and others are looking at hydroponically grown food in skyscrapers. If you don’t need soil to grow food you’ve solved one of those issues, recycle the cities waste (back into the raw chemicals which plants feed upon) and you’ve solved yet another. This is why I mentioned energy, because as it stands now, it’s really the only variable worth caring about (especially since our global economy is energy centric).

In the end I’m a bit more pessimistic than the collapse scenarios, I think. Because I don’t think it will end any time soon, I think the pollution will go on, unfettered, for hundreds of years. About 6 months ago I was researching the Green River Formation, there was one, count it, one oil company experimenting with extracting the oil shale there. Today, out of curiosity, I was reading again, and now there are 10. Ten. In 6 months it went from one to ten. Either the information 6 months ago wasn’t as easy to get to, or in that period of time many more have come up. I saw one of these extraction projects just the other day in Rifle Colorado. I have no doubt that these companies will destroy these pristine landscapes (which the Green River Formation is known to be) to get at it.

I think we’ll ravage the planet until there literally is nothing to exploit unless we do something about it. And that is why I believe my view is far more pessimistic. There was a recent news story about how projects are now putting Global Warming reaching a genocidal level in 12 years. And that’s before we start hitting resource limits because we’re not seeking sustainablity. And when we do and people need heating, and start burning forests, and killing one another, things should get real interesting as far as our ravaging the planet is concerned.

We haven’t even begun. Come out to Colorado, see the oil projects. Compare our energy usage to other life on the planet, we’re nothing.

Anyway, I’m not going to respond to whatever, I didn’t think my comment would be published. Sorry for the interruption.

(Yes I saw the movie. And I’ve read all the books, and so on.)