Joe Street wrote:
Hi Robert et al;
Rising energy costs and the
secondary effects of that will force a tremendous change on our wasteful
style of living. After it is all over and the new stable system has
settled down things will look very different. During the transition
people who are currently in denial will be forced into a brutal reality
therapy.
I watched "A Band of Brothers" recently and am reminded of a scene in
which an American Airborne officer enters a German house with the
intent of looting. He sees the framed photograph of a Nazi officer,
which he drops on the floor and proceeds to grind with the heel of his
boot. In walks the well dressed, well fed, matronly woman of the
house, replete with a haughty _expression_. She stares the officer down
and he leaves.
In the next scene, this same officer walks into a local "work camp"
housing many men who are near death from starvation. The American
commander has "recruited" assistance from the nearby village in
collecting and burying the dead, people who have denied any knowledge
of the camp. (My saintly mother in law, who lived in Germany during
the war, also tells me she and her family knew nothing of the
atrocities going on around them. But she, a Sabbatarian, was beaten
for not attending school on Saturday. She has no love or sympathy for
Nazis.) This Airborne officer walks into the camp and sees a woman
struggling to loosen a corpse from the pile. This woman is the same
one he saw earlier, in her home, but now the haughty _expression_ has
been replaced by one of horror, as the reality of the situation beyond
her comfortable existence overwhelms her consciousness. (She uttered
not a word in either scene, but the actress playing that role
portrayed the change beautifully.)
Likewise, the social paradigm which we enjoy in North America (and
maybe Europe, too) will come to an end. All the denial in the world
will not suffice to smooth the harsh reality of that day. Part of me
feels like those who engage in denial deserve the suffering they will
endure, while another part grieves for the hardship my countrymen must
face for the arrogance and lack of leadership overflowing from the
Congress and Executive. We have been well trained as consumers. Many
of us know no other way, and the generation that survived the Great
Depression is dying off as we write.
And there will be a war.
Indeed . . . The roots of the new conflict originate in the ashes of
WWII.
What happens during this time will
surely be chaotic because those with thier heads in the sand right now
will not accept change willingly, but as for the nuclear arsenal I think
its real value is in the deterent aspect. That was why I used the
grenade inside a closed room analogy. Even if things get really bad
economically and the house of cards comes down, I like to believe that
although people can be selfish, greedy, arrogant....(insert your
favorite insult here) ....all of those self serving iterests also serve
NOT letting off one of those firecrackers. They are only for show. (I
hope).
I would like to believe you, but I don't. Nothing fundamental has
changed in human nature since we first developed nuclear weapons.
There are very powerful and influential people in the United States
who believe that we have to fight and WIN (is that possible?) a
nuclear conflict. The proliferation of thermonuclear weapons around
the world may serve as impetus for continuing the development of the
"next generation" weapons.
We have used them in anger once. I honestly believe we will use them
again, especially if those in power feel threatened. I would far
prefer having a man in office who has actually seen combat and knows
about suffering in battle, than the megalomaniac with limited capacity
for understanding we have now. Someone like our current president,
who BELIEVES he is directing the nation according to God's will and
has no compunction against inflicting suffering on other people, has
already utilized the power of our military in a preemptive manner.
Raise the stakes higher and I don't see any means of restraining him,
nor the others who advocate force as a solution to our foreign policy
problems.
Your comments on hyperinflation are well founded and well taken. I have
been considering the investment in a photovoltaic system and have
started to consider that although the cost is almost prohibitive at this
time just imagine what the asking price for alternatives will become
when the restructuring hits!
That's why we have to look into these things NOW. I'm learning how
to build an engine management computer that will enable me to program
any internal combustion engine to run well on different fuels. I'd
really like to do ethanol, but I may end up using producer gas because
the raw materials for gasification are abundant where I live, and
doing so will not run me into difficulty with Canada's duly elected
authorities!
Methanol would be nice, as liquid fuels are far easier to handle, and
it burns very well in an internal combustion engine. (Whoo hoo!
Crank up the boost! Detonation? What detonation?) Thus far,
however, people far more clever than I have not been able to find a
backyard solution to methanol production.
It may be that the window of opportunity
for that type of investment is about to close (for the average joe).
And the question of worth begins to take a radical turn as you pointed
out. What will become the new controlling economy once oil and its
derivatives are out of reach? Consider what results when massive
unemployment collides with massive debt. Those SUV's that people cannot
unload, will they get reposessed? Along with the 2500 sq ft houses that
are suddenly unaffordable? And if so who are the banks going to sell
them to?
This was the gist of the NY Times article on peak oil that the
"economist" my sister quoted responded to.
Your eldest sister may be able to hang on for longer than most
but unless she invests in a strategy that gives her some degree of
independance it will run out at some point. If the economy could be
restarted she may weather it, but suppose the house of cards cannot be
rebuit because it has been sitting on a foundation of cheap energy which
no longer exists and will never return? She will be the latecomer to
this list.
If she hasn't been listening to me for the last 30 years (and trust
me, she hasn't), she won't listen then, either. The easier solution
is to impose America's military might on the resource rich regions of
the world. If Canada won't give up her tar sands, we will see
American troops in Alberta to "restore order". (Those pesky
Albertans, with their wind turbines of mass destruction!)
We will pay for this, dearly . . .
Enough doom and gloom already.
That's why I have a garden. Plants are among the most optimistic
creatures of God's creation and serve to keep everything in
perspective. My boys and I picked several liters of black currants
this morning. We have two boxes of peaches awaiting full ripening on
the patio. The blackberries are bursting with fruit right now. Some
of the sweetest strawberries I've ever eaten have come from our
planter boxes this year. We've had delicious corn, succulent beets
and more purple beans and zucchini than we can eat. (Our freezer is
stuffed FULL already!) Compost, sweat, sunlight and water are all my
garden requires.
robert luis rabello
"The Edge of Justice"
Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.newadventure.ca
Ranger Supercharger Project Page
http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/
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