Healing Crisis

The world is quickly ramping-up toward a full awareness of the various fundamental crises affecting our way of life (peak oil, economic collapse, religious/resource wars and strife, climate shift), and on the coat-tails of that might even come the larger awareness that our problems actually extend beyond mere individual “issues”--that in fact it is our entire culture which has teetered beyond the tipping-point of sustainable progress. So whether we're ready for it or not, the veil of illusion about our way of life is about to be ripped away for a great many people, regardless of whether they're immediately affected by these issues or not. But as many readers of this site are doubtless already aware, that experience of disillusionment, in and of itself, can be extremely distressing.

Yet for some reason those of us who might be considered analysts of the impending collapse rarely speak directly about this initial period of "culture shock"--although it's a shock most of us have personally had to struggle through. And I think it's crucial that we do talk about it, since how (and whether) we cope with this anxiety determines how (and whether) we will be able to embrace the life-changes that are being demanded of us.

In this respect I thought I'd offer my own thoughts on the subject, and if other readers choose to share their experiences as well then we'll have preserved on the internet at least one little reference--maybe a kind of virtual support-group--for those who are suffering from culture-change anxiety.

But first I'll say that what started me thinking about all this was a piece I penned a while back about the LA South Central farm collective called What Is It That You Would Chain Yourself To?. There were a number of good comments that were offered, but two of them in particular really struck home with me.

A reader “technofreak” said...

"I am sad, so sad about all this crap that is going on everyday where some asshole with more money than sense gets to make the decisions that negatively affect so many. It has to stop, it cant go on for too much more - it has to eventually eat itself through its own ignorance and stupidity...??!!

I feel sorry for those who lost the farm. It must have made them cry and end up feeling cold and alone....helpless.

For me personally I cannot say what I would've done....its not very nice."

...and another comment by reader “slomo” put it more succinctly...

"Hard to say what I would chain myself up for, since there are so many things dying right now. It's so depressing I sometimes feel I'm going to lose my mind."

Then more recently, "Roger" responded to Tuesday's post by saying...

"There is so much to read and so many stories are frightening, but still I hunger for more. It seems as if I *want* the whole thing to blow up so people around are confronted with the lies we've been put up with. But this will never happen (the part where people understand the lies).

...The whole situation has me banging between two opposites: the one side where I try and prepare a little for what's coming by storing some food, getting some knowledge and buying useful items that would be priceless when TSHTF, like a waterpump. The other side tries to ignore all the warningsigns and has decided that if TSHTF all the fun and partying will be over, so I'm enjoying the rich western life to the fullest.

...And every day I'm being bounced between the idea that it would be good to rent some land and start growing my own food, but then I come home again and the microwave heats my dinner in 2 minutes, I can play World of Warcraft and go out partying like there is no tomorrow...In the end I would like to be more like you: take risks to go for something you really believe in, but considering my options I don't think it's going to happen."

Now as I mentioned, I'd wager that most of the people who read this site regularly either have or are still struggling to deal with these same kinds of psychic reactions. For myself I've come to accept such feelings as just necessary symptoms accompanying the profound process of disillusionment we're being confronted with. It's something that homeopaths frequently refer to by the term healing crisis, which is defined as a "severe symptom or set of symptoms that may appear quite suddenly or unexpectedly during the course of natural healing, and which can be temporarily uncomfortable. According to the principles of herbal medicine this is the body's way of rebalancing and of discarding toxic residues that have built up over the years."

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

So I thought I'd offer up some conclusions from my own experience. What I've found is that the most beneficial antidote to these initial feelings and reactions which threaten to overwhelm us (i.e. fear, depression, hopelessness, anger, a generalized "psychic vertigo") actually lies through greater awareness of our problems and our situation, and not through "shutting out" or turning away from the discomfort these issues bring up--although this is often our instinctive reaction. But at the same time we also want to caution that we don't allow ourselves to be drawn too forcefully into these topics either, and it's quite common for many people to become like deer in the headlights when the first dawning of disillusionment begins to break--stricken with fright, yet unable to pull themselves away from the full glare of impending doom. As that psychiatrist nonpareil Dr. Seuss counseled, we should “remember that life’s a great balancing act”, and that frequent, small doses of disillusionment are much better for the digestion and the constitution than obsessive binging. It's important that we work to "rebalance" ourselves, but we don't want to end up unbalancing ourselves in a different direction.

Still I’ll emphasize that it is only through a deepening awareness of our situation that we will ultimately realize a positive change and a truer understanding, whether in our individual lives or as a society. In fact the chief problem we face is not the lack of communication or evidence and information, it's that so many people turn away from any hint of self-recognition when they encounter the first signs of distress. And that's true for even especially intelligent and enlightened people--there are certainly a great many sensitive, responsible, dedicated, spiritually and mentally well-developed people who haven't a clue as yet about how our future is set to unfold.

So I think it's crucial to try to clearly understand just how it is that a deepening awareness of something actually changes who I am.

Suppose I decide, as an example, that I no longer wish to be in debt. Now if this decision has been made only intellectually, or perhaps during a bright but superficial flare-up of emotion, then I'll most likely find that the decision doesn’t actually take root in me. Yes, I may pay a little extra on my credit card or mortgage for a month or two, but then I quickly fall behind again as my goal becomes forgotten. I can see then that the force of a merely "intellectual" decision or a momentary emotional outrage is really quite fleeting, and certainly not strong enough for the kind of determined persistence I need if I wish to effect a lasting change in my lifestyle. And if I notice this fact enough times I might come to recognize that in order to build real determination I have to see--to experience--my situation more clearly and more deeply. Thus I need to see again and again, and in ever new ways, how my indebtedness truly works to enslave me, and how it further serves to enrich people and corporations who are actively working against my freedom.

Another aspect to consider is this: that if I don't strive for an ever clearer and deeper awareness I will almost certainly fall prey to the first comforting "answer" or "solution" I come across. Again, this stems from my instinctive desire to want to calm the inner discomfort, because I don’t naturally distinguish such discomfort as being just a stage in the healing process.

For instance I've been seeing a great many stories in recent months lauding how society is set to embrace an "exciting green future" of environmentally-aware corporations and technologically advanced "sustainable eco-cities". By my own reasoning however it’s clear that there simply can't be any eco-cities in our future--or at least not for very long into our future. The kind of mega-cities we’ve seen exploding throughout the globe today are solely a symptom of life at the "peak". And they’re among the least sustainable manifestations of our modern way of life. Eco-towns, perhaps, are viable, but at some critical mass the whole thing comes tumbling down when the fuels begins to drain. And the same could be said for large corporations, regardless of whether they've embraced solar powered HVAC and eco-friendly shrink wrap or not.

But I didn’t come to this understanding simply through an intellectual accumulation of information. Just as, taking the contrary view, I couldn't promote a belief in this coming green revolution of eco-cities merely by a sentimental kind of “hoping”. To recognize what is realistically possible and how a more beneficial future might unfold, I have to clearly see the reality of my present situation--and the only way to see this is by observing and questioning my direct, lived experience of it. Until I've observed over time how my day proceeds, how my week proceeds, how my life proceeds, how the lives of those around me proceed, how the flows of energy and resources proceed, what the central desires and decisions of myself and my culture are, what I and my culture value and what might be required to redefine those values…countless such “intangible” and unquantifiable observations and a million other details, connections, and interweavings besides--until I've observed the living process of my life I can never have any real confidence about what is real and what is fantasy. Thus I'll eagerly embrace even the most fantastic of ideals that I’m offered so long as they serve to sooth my discomforts--sustainable mega-cities included.

The transformative affect that occurs when we actively attempt to observe and question a dozen tiny, unconscious habits and manifestations each day acts on us and has an effect over time, just as a myriad drops of water invariably work to reshape even the densest landscape. Not long ago I recommended Donella Meadows' paper on "Leverage Points" which was a scientific investigation of how social paradigm changes can most efficiently come about (and also why they often don't). But the wisdom she offered applies to our personal paradigm changes as well:

"There's nothing necessarily physical or expensive or even slow in the process of paradigm change. In a single individual it can happen in a millisecond. All it takes is a click in the mind, a falling of scales from eyes, a new way of seeing....

So how do you change paradigms? Thomas Kuhn, who wrote the seminal book about the great paradigm shifts of science, has a lot to say about that. In a nutshell, you keep pointing at the anomalies and failures in the old paradigm, you keep speaking louder and with assurance from the new one, you insert people with the new paradigm in places of public visibility and power. You don't waste time with reactionaries; rather you work with active change agents and with the vast middle ground of people who are open-minded."

That last sentence by Kuhn especially sticks in my mind: "You don't waste time with reactionaries; rather you work with active change agents and with the vast middle ground of people who are open-minded." To my mind--and keeping with the idea of paradigm change on a personal level--this implies that I probably shouldn't spend too much time trying to affect the parts of me that are already either strongly convinced of or strongly resistant to the need for change. So for example if there's a part of me that hates the meaninglessness of my job, it probably doesn't really benefit by being fed a continued diet of "heh, heh, I can't wait for that collapse to come...". Similarly, I need to respect that the part of me that craves to tucker-down with a bag of chips for another few hours of World of Warcraft isn't going to bow down gracefully when I try to explain to it that I might instead go hook up the new water-collection barrel to the roof downspout for drip-irrigating the summer vegetable patch.

Perhaps the best bang for our buck is to work with the things that are "on the fence" so to speak--our inner robot that just automatically grabs those Indonesian-made jeans on sale at Wal-Mart even though I know I'll have to pay for them with a credit card. But even then, even when I actually have the presence of mind to catch this robot in action, I don't want to scold myself and scream "Bad Steven! No! No jeans for you!"...in fact I may well end-up buying those jeans anyway. Regardless though, by the very act of questioning I'll have observed something new about myself...for instance I might see what actually happens within me when I challenge my inner spoiled-child, when I confront all his inbred cultural expectations of consumerism and undelayed gratification.

And perhaps...eventually...maybe after I've observed those reactions a few dozen times...I might suddenly discover that I've begun to have a completely different response upon seeing those cheap jeans. Maybe I'll even find that I'm no longer shopping at Wal-Mart at all.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

I also think it's helpful for us to realize that the primary reason why our situation looks so bad right now is simply because things are finally coming to a head. Ran Prieur, who runs one of my personal favorite websites, phrased it quite perceptively a few weeks back: "as with almost every aspect of civilization, the system has no negative feedback mechanism except collapse." In other words, in our present culture the red-flags and the alarms simply don’t work, and the definitive warning signs only come after it’s too late to act. Yet at the same time that so many unsustainable systems are crumbling, we can also observe a steadily growing response against this generalized, systemic corruption as well as the various domination-policies that characterize our Empire culture. These counter-movements are happening worldwide, and they’re happening because people on an individual level are becoming more aware and more informed (which in itself is reason enough why the recent attack on Net Neutrality must be opposed). I won't draw out any details about these counter-movements since that's already a common theme on this website, but nevertheless we should remember that our over-stressed cultural fault-lines run both long and deep...and that means the demands we’re being called to meet are going to leave an awful lot of people feeling like they've been swept down-river without a paddle--or even a canoe. Those who embrace these demands for culture change beforehand, however, will have at least a log to cling to.

We might also recognize that if we are becoming more aware of these critical issues as a society then that's solely because we've finally begun to resist them as a society. It may not necessarily seem this way but there's always a reciprocal action: the growing awareness and the growing friction we feel are corresponding forces. Right now this resistance is mostly internalized, but if it continues growing the way it has then at some critical juncture that will no longer be the case.

And not to draw this discussion on longer than necessary, it's also important to acknowledge the "plus" side of what's happening. For instance we're seeing a rapid progression of popular interest in a wide variety of "counter-cultural" movements--counter to the old-guard forces and ideologies of Empire culture. I can say for myself that five or more years ago I had never shopped at a Co-op, never bought organic on a regular basis, never even considered that I might NOT buy corporate-industrial food of one form or another. Now however my wife and I do all our grocery shopping at Co-ops, and we even get a large percentage of our food directly from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA’s) and local, organic, sustainable farms and dairies. I've come to strenuously avoid fast-food places and corporate restaurants. I never buy processed food or soda pop. In fact we don't even have a microwave anymore. And I've actually come to love finding new local, independent businesses to patronize--even more than I used to enjoy finding cheap, bargain-sales at big box stores.

I didn’t “make” these changes happen. They came about "organically" if you will, as I started to become more and more interested in and aware of what was happening in my world and myself.

How many of you reading this had even heard of Permaculture say, five years ago? I hadn't. Yet I recently spent a weekend at a work-period with a local permaculture organization--which was playing host to Australian perma-guru Geoff Lawton I might add. Five years ago I was confused and upset about the state of the world. Now however I've become quite confident that permaculture theory partly represents a seminal groundwork for the coming revolution that’s simmering below the surface of popular consciousness. If “I” changed over the last five years it was only because five years ago I started to seriously investigate this nagging inkling I had that there was something desperately wrong with our world. Others took heed of such inklings sooner than I did, others only later. Many, many more are only just now starting to feel that something is amiss...

Again, I think the long-winded point I'm trying to work toward is this: I've discovered that as I become more aware of my situation I begin living a different way of life. And as I begin living a different way of life I simultaneously begin feeling my power to resist all the subversive forces in our modern culture which had previously left me feeling helpless and "deflated". It happens in slow steps certainly, but those steps add-up. Also, I'm entering into a different "circle" of people, people who are themselves striving to live a different way of life.

Thus I find that I'm becoming much more sure of myself and the direction of my life, less driven by unsustainable and unsuitable ideals which make me doubt my self-worth, and I feel a more authentic sense of community than I'd felt when I was completely immersed in our consumer/success culture. In my experience then I can say that a greater awareness of all the things that are "dying right now", as the reader I quoted at the beginning put it, has actually helped me find a better ideal for which to live.

Since I've touched on permaculture, founder Bill Mollison's experience might be instructive to close with. In a 2001 interview he admitted:

"I remember the Club of Rome report in 1967 which said that the deterioration of the environment was inevitable due to population growth and overconsumption of resources. After reading that, I thought, "People are so stupid and so destructive — we can do nothing for them." So I withdrew from society. I thought I would leave and just sit on a hill and watch it collapse.

It took me about three weeks before I realized that I had to get back and fight. You know, you have to get out in order to want to get back in."

Of course in Bill's case he was able to process his disillusionment into such a revolutionary new direction very quickly, because he already possessed a vast background in sustainable living to draw upon. For the majority of the rest of us this process will be a little slower. But we can all come to such equally revolutionary conclusions, even if ours don't extend beyond the borders of our individual lives.

Comments

[Jeff]

I find it interesting that you either consciously or unconsciously touched on some of the fundamental concepts behind Buddhism - understanding that all life is organic and flowing, that all suffering is self-caused (made by your choices), and that the only way to end the suffering is to become aware of these choices you are making, and gradually choose to stop making them.

I became aware of the fundamental crisis three years ago, while I was still in high school, and it never really sunk in what I need to do to begin changing my life. Now, I'm working and actively saving my paycheck while investing in as much education as I can, as well as building as many non-collegiate survival skills as I can - learning the basics of successful gardening/farming, learning how to apply my skill at building instruments to building wood tools, and going to school for structural engineering - a choice fueled by the need for people to be able to build solid homes, regardless of whether this goes down the way you've written about or not.

Anyway, long story short, I'm still in the process of disillusionment, but I'm ready to begin taking steps. I think there's hope on the other side - and reading your blog and the comments posted on it has only provided fuel for that fire.

[Dennis Gallagher]

Steve,

An excellent piece that fills a need no one has addressed before, I believe.

When you described the incremental way in which we embrace deep changes, I kept remembering the function daily meditation plays in my life. I often tell people that while meditation can be about spirituality, it also stands alone quite well as a purely secular tool. In this manner, it helps one develop the ability to maintain focus and the ability and opportunity to 'remember' daily what it is you want yourself to become. So that rather than derive your motivations to change from an occasional epiphany of insight or spasm of disgust, you sit, consciously, each day and ask 'who am I and who do I want to be and why do I want to be that.' And by revisiting these daily, you quicken your transitions.

You also talked about bouncing between doing the 'right thing' and just giving into what's easy. It made me remember a line from the recent movie, "Way of the Peaceful Warrior", where Socrates tells Dan, his student, as he, Socrates, lights up a cigar and downs a shot of whisky and invites Dan to join him, that you actually can do anything you want - you just have to consciously choose to be responsible for it.

And you mentioned that a good antidote to feelings of stress about the coming problems is ever deeper awareness about the actual situation. Hindu scriptures and Buddhist, as well, tell us that we cannot see anything clearly and thus deal with it with maximal effectiveness until we can see into it deeply and remain emotionally unaffected by what we see. Indeed, they call us to do the very best we can at every moment, just because, and to be utterly indifferent to the fruits of our labor.

Finally, I'd like to offer a thought of my own. I believe that the causal roots of why civilization and the planet are in the mess they are now can be traced back to our deepest biological imperatives. I.e., to survive and to propagate our genes forward in time. All biological forms have had this inherent motivation since early evolutionary time. Up until recently, these desires to propagate ourselves and the derivative desires to possess power to ensure our ability to do so (and here by power, think military, money, sexual attractiveness, physical strength and etc.) have not been life threatening to ourselves and the other biological entities that share the planet because we've had room to expand. But, now that we've essentially hit the walls of this finite Eden we've been loosed within, it has become critical that we consciously understand our biological imperatives and seek to transcend them for more rational motivations and given that they are woven into the very grain of what we are, that will not be easy. And this leads us back to meditation and other forms of consciousness raising and expansion.

Best wishes and thanks for creating a great blog!

[Steven In]

Very well written and very timely...oulls in a lot that I've vaguely felt and points out some interesting occurences: mainly, that as a society we are - we must - shift, but do not want to.
In my "job" I deal with many executives and people well-placed in the culture...and I am sensing an increasing, almost subconcious sense of panic among them.

[Patrick Schettig]

Steven, may I refer to a work by Julius Evola called "Ride the Tiger." I know you are familiar with this author. Anyway his premise is that the "Tiger" is the world itself, and that we have an option of riding the tiger. But when the tiger is exhausted we must jump off. The idea is that we can still be "in and of" the world but we must use it as a "support" for what is beyond this world and willing to abandon it when it no longer serves this purpose.

A previous post mentions Buddhism, which brings up a similar idea of detachment, and the key to detachment is awareness itself. With awareness you don't have to stop doing something, awareness allows the individual to continue to do something but not "identify" with it.

The question of resistance hinges upon the idea of what is worth fighting for. Or as you put it "what would you chain yourself to?" This is a question of identity, what have you identified yourself with to the degree that you are willing to die for it?

Having a wife and children (which I do not have) allows one some freedom in considering one's spiritual options. A family is an "investment" in the world and surely places huge pressure on the psychology to believe in a hopeful future. Or even to care about the future itself.

Then I guess it goes without saying that I disregard these ideas of "biological imperative." The direction is up not down...

[Sol]

One reason I find myself giving in to the alienated practices of our culture instead of building my life raft as much as I should be is that I feel like I dont have the ability to really develop a reasonably strong position or ability to deal with the coming collapse. Id love to buy some land and start some permaculture, but Im nowhere close to affording that. Ive been learning about foraging and hunting, and that will help in a pinch, but not for long.

Im not really that well connected socially. A lot of my friends and family understand what is coming, and if we worked together we could build a significantly stronger response, but no-one is really willing to commit to this action, since no-one is sure how long it will be till crash time. It does seem a little crazy to abandon a functioning life based on nearly apocalyptic beliefs.

I too have this problem of judging the right level of commitment. Since Im not going to be able to get any land, I have decided to pursue sustainable medicine as my leading skill, niche, and social value. If I knew that a severe crash was coming very soon, I would drop what Im doing and pursue some informal training to get as many skills as possible. But since I think that the current regime may drag on for a number of years still, I think that I should pursue formal training in naturopathy, so that I can practice legally in the meantime. But of course this path is much slower and so I will hardly prepared in the case of a more imminent collapse.

Anyway, my point is that since I feel like none of this is really going to add up to much in the face of a real crash, I sometimes feel like its not really worth fighting the current now. In these moments, I feel like the crash is going to be a wild ride and Ill just do my best as it develops.

[Smckinley]

OK, now I truly feel like a slacker.

I was about seven years old when my next door neighbor and best friend (he was eight) exposed me to some of the conclusions of the Club of Rome and (I'm pretty sure) global warming. This would have been about 1974, and it was a college neighborhood, which partially explains why seven and eight year olds were getting into such heavy issues.

I don't think I've set foot in a Walmart in two years, maybe five times in five years, bought something twice, mostly felt dirty and traitorous. I absolutely refuse to buy gas from a station with and Exxon or Mobil sign (most don't even buy their gas from Exxon/Mobil, but it's guilt by association). I've got my wife to the point where she looks for things produced as locally as possible or, where that's not an option, at least as sustainably as possible. I'm introducing the idea of moving to a city where we could ditch the whole car idea (maybe keep a beater for special trips) and rely on walking and public transit.

So why do I feel like a slacker?

As noted above, I've known about a lot of these issues for over three decades and that's all the farther I've made it. To make matters worse, I took a Bachelors in Urban Planning, where I learned to really analyze how it all works. Heck, I even sought out and attended the presentations on Global Warming at an American Planning Association national conference way back in 1989. I studied Buddhism and Systems Theory and saw the link between the two.

So, while I'm trying to also live my life and raise kids, aged three and 12, I constantly feel like Schindler at the end of "Schindler's List." That's the scene where he translates all the accoutrements of his life into the number of lives he could have saved with the money.

[Robert Gable]

Not to be reductionist but isn't this like the difference between quiting a bad job and being laid off?

In the former, you've worked through the grief and made the decision to leave. In the latter, you are surprised and in shock because you haven't processed it.

On the other hand, just because you've taken the initiative to understand what's next, it's still difficult.

Everything we do gets put into the great mixer that determines our outcome. And for better or worse, as the "avant-garde," we have more influence in the outcome than 98% of the rest of us...

For the record, I take mass transit but today, the train was delayed so I drove to work for the first time in awhile and had a flat on the freeway. The part I never anticipated was talking to the tow truck driver and learning why his day was bad as well...

[sara]

thanks for this post. it's a good one. it inspired a post on my blog. i enjoy reading your blog (if enjoy is the right word.)

[Amos Keppler]

The only viable (and right) solution is a return to a primitive, «tribal» lifestyle, really. Permaculture, like so many other similar «solutions», is just yet another way of kissing up to civilization, in my opinion.

And we should stop doing that. It's long overdue.

[Mark]

As more of a reference I turn fifty this year.
The first meaty book my mother had me read was, "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carlson. Then came the oil embargo and peak oil for the lower 48. Then came water gate. I was convinced that the s was hitting the fan then. Well the world as we have come to know it did not come to and end. Dropping out did not change a thing in the world. As time passed, I slowly came back into the world of ordinary American life. I was able to get a job as a darkroom tech; I was literally in the dark every day. It seemed the only way to deal with the BS that was going on around me. I met a woman that had a similar outlook on the world, cynical and untrusting. We made it work for some time, but all things negative come to and end, she moved out got a degree and went to work as an archeologist, and I got my commercial drivers license. Needless to say, I now find my self way deep in the American experience.
I do dread the population shifts that are already happening, more people are moving out of the cities into the country where I live, putting more pressure on water and land. I get to resenting this. It's kind of and invasion of the commons. I do long for a more Thoreauian life style, well maybe more on the lines of Helen and Scot Nearing. Now I find my self living in two worlds, one foot in the soil of the garden, that part that has solar panels on the roof, the part that loves the land, a part that is in the real earth. The other foot in the tar of the present culture, the one that pumps carbon into the air at a mind-boggling rate, the man made toil and trouble. Yes, I want to see this part fall and fall hard for what it is doing, for the freedoms it takes away from me. But I also know too that I am also part of the BS and toil, and when that big flywheel of commerce comes flying off the bearings, it is really going to hurt. It almost feels like going to work is a waste of time, the money just goes back into the system that I don't really care much for in the first place, adding more velocity to the flywheel, very little money goes to the things I need for when the shtf. It is all too easy to say F--- it, go native and head for the hills. But I am getting tired, I want to sit back more, watch the sun set, drink a beer with friends, chat with my wife. (BTW, this partner wants to live a more Helen and Scott existence too).
Now for me the hardest parts are; that I intuitively felt that the world was heading where it is now, and that I did not prepare well for it, which leads to wasted energy getting mad at myself. Also, wanting to slow it down some, taking in the good life as I get older, not having to work so hard, But knowing that I will have to work as hard as I did in my twenty’s to make the back to the land living that I did then. I also harbor too much of "the rugged individualist", it's part of growing up in a western rural state. I know I can't make it on my own like I used to in my twenties.
To sum this all up, its like after hiking for two weeks eating from the land, I can't just go to my parents' house, do laundry and eat a home cooked meal. The land I live on is now The Parents House. This is for real. That scares me; there is no ditching this.
It is all too easy to go to war on things that are happening in the world. As I get older I am tying to just letting go, not to hold onto the old assumptions and paradigms. Also a kind of youthful impatiens comes over me wanting the new paradigm to show its self, but that in a way is holding onto an idea that may not look like what I want to see, so it may be hard to recognize. There is pain and suffering in the world, as a culture we have been delaying alot of the pain and suffering that happens organically in life as it is, now comes the great American hangover.

[Peaknic]

I've spent a majority of my intellectual energy studying these issues since I discovered dieoff.com in 1999. I also got married the next year to a girl raised in NYC and the county just next to NYC in NJ.
She was raised in a family that believes name-brands of everything is the only place to find quality, perception management is more important than underlying character, and that "if it's not metro NYC, IT'S HICKSVILLE!"
I waaaay overspent for my property in upstate NY in order to appease my wife and inlaws because the property was very well manicured, had a small, 5 year old house that was cute, and was generally very aesthetically pleasing. I could have gotten twice the land for the price, but it would have had a decrepit-looking old farmhouse on it, and my wife and in-laws would have turned their nose up at it.
Now, however, they still aren't ready to make the leap because the local mall is small and crappy and 20 miles away! My wife complains "You want to take me away from everything and everyone I know!" My god, it's only a three-hour drive away! I feel that I just can't win.
My wife understands the issues intellectually, but her emotions rule her decision making and she's just pissed that she can't have the typical American dream of a suburban McMansion, staying at home to raise the kids, and sending me off to my six-figure corporate job.
Her parents are even worse, because they know that they'll never be able to afford to retire in northern NJ, but they turn their nose up at anything that doesn't have 5 malls within 10 miles of their home. Here's an example: I had to explain to them why I was buying the property in upstate, so I showed them my copy of "End of Suburbia". Their response was "That movie made me feel like I did when, during the 50's, they showed us movies about the coming nuclear war with the USSR. Look what happened with the USSR - nothing. So therefore, I refuse to believe this, too." AAAAAAARGH!
They even accused me of "planning too much" once. My response was "My father taught me that Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail." They have no idea what they want or can do when they retire, but they say that they'll figure that out when the time comes.
The bottom line is that I can't give in to what will make them FEEL GOOD because I know that there is no future in it and I cannot sacrifice our entire future so that they can feel good for today.
Rant over.

[Bubba]

Excellent article, and interesting responses. My 2 cents (if they keep the penny?):

"riding" the collapse will be nearly impossible, without some skills, preparation and strategies, and the more people that attempt this--the more likely that a violent chaotic resolution will be more widespread.

Also, I've done some foraging, not an expert by any means, but without some permaculture/horticulture--its going to be a tough go in the future. Mininimal lands for good foraging in much of the country (US). Foraging will be a needed complement, but very few people will be able to survive in this manner. The ability to be mobile, and deal with how each locality collapses, what type of governmental, or local raiders exist etc, likely will predicate your strategy. Unfortunately these are unknown--unknowns, so a mix of foraging, permaculture, and self-defense probably provides you the best base to build from.

All that being said, the key issue is taking things from the contemplation stage of change, to the "Action stage", this involves a balancing act for most, trying to prepare for a unknown future without the current permatation of civilization, while still "in" civilization. Dropping out, isn't really an option for many at this time, although I think that its a goal.

Try going into your local woods for 1 week, with just a small back-pack and no food, and see how hungry you get foraging, many areas just don't have the amount of readily available biomass to support many human beings. Going with the foraging "only" idea, would mean an unprecidented die-off, since this is not a method of survival that large tribes/villages of people will be able to use effectively.

Just because civlilization will end, does not mean some type of non-heirarchal utopia will result. Smaller heirarchies with shorter reach, will continue on, since human's will continue to be easily manipulated by fear, religion, and the desire to accumulate power, in a futile attempt to use externalities to provide pleasure vs. internal locus of control type lifestyle.

[j]

So wonderful to read these posts.

As the world seemingly disintegrates, we get the opportunity at this site to hear the stories of people who are willing to stand and face horrifying fears in pure awareness; people who have been fighting overwhelming battles alone that decide to stop and build the community they need; and people who are willing to dream and create new lives and healing in the midst of this raging sandstorm of events; and each and every poster accepting unquestioningly that they are willing to continue with no guarantees of anything. Pretty amazing.

Even if not one positive thing were to result from this coming transition, we have already accomplished something significant in attaining this level of development and mind training. I think if a person would analyze any one coming bursting bubble and investigate it in depth, we could see interesting aspects related to awareness.

For example- who would you think is going to fall the hardest in the housing bubble burst? The areas(CA,PHX, LAS,FL..) where prices have been bid up by 300% in recent years? real estate speculators who were driven by greed to over invest on credit? builders who are using magical enron-style accounting? finance companies doing fraudulent appraisals? realtors not doing accurate disclosure? people with Mc-Mansions who are heating 5000 sq ft albatross houses 2 hours from work? bankers who were lying about ARM’s and selling loans to the poorest credit risk households?

None of these groups have chosen awareness when offered the opportunity. Now the opportunity knocks on their endangered rainforest wood doors. If all these people awaken to a life beyond greed, consumerism and corporatism through a personal hard fall, might this actually have a necessary effect and bring our community together?

Maybe you are correct and it is all about awareness.

[mtlouie]

Steven

Often come to your site and enjoy it immensely.

My story: I've related this on JHK's site, but this is the gist: I lived "the life" with my ex-husband for twenty years. It wasn't a life I grew up with, but somehow thought back-to-the-land was for me. So I progressed from some chickens and tomato plants to living in a hand-built log house, raising almost everything that went into our mouths (good thing, as we were POOR) including the all the meat. Some of the meat was suppemented by my ex's hunting. I've had a huge garden, canned hundreds of quarts of food for my family, made yogurt, cheese, etc. milked goats, butchered chickens, pigs, etc. Made most of my family's clothes, and on and on.

It's hard, hard work. Hard work. Scientists like to say that we have a longer life-span because of improved nutrition and health care, but mostly, I think it's because of indoor toilets and much, much easier work. Oh, yeah, we had an outhouse, too. Not fun in the middle of the night with little kids in the winter. Learned quickly why the old-timers had thunder mugs...

I no longer live that life. In fact, completely the opposite. Although I have convinced my "new" husband of the mess we are about to be in and we are planning for that.

I guess I just want to say two things: that whole life is nasty, brutish, short thing that was once the norm may become true again. I can't emphasize enough was back-breaking all-consuming work this is and I had the twentieth century right out my front door. You don't get to take the week-end off. You can't leave your animals. You don't get to throw up your hands in despair (and you want to) when the green beans are needing to be harvested, you are already eye-deep in some other vegetable that is being canned, you have small children needing your attention, the hay crew has to be fed (you're cooking) and all the animals need to be tended to. This might not sound so different from the working soccer mom, but remember, if she throws up her hands in despair, no one goes hungry. Just run to Albertson's.

I read somewhere that things are never as bad as we think they'll be or as good. I hope that's true. I suspect it is true unless what is happening in Iraq or Beirut right now happens here. God forbid.

[mtlouie]

I want to add something to my above post. And it's more of a philosophical point than anything else. I recently read an article somewhere about how the lives women lead in the first world has been completely dependent upon cheap energy and how much they will change, i.e. feminism, etc.

In the era of cheap oil, food production has been so plentiful and we've evolved from being compelled to grow our own food to survive, to mass produced fifties-type food, to the "food revolution" of organics, free-range, the myriad "health" diets (paleo, mediterranean, et al) and finally, to the "foodies" that we are. No matter what we eat, either good or bad, we are consumed by food, by eating. The French say we are unhealthy because instead of enjoying our food we approach it in the sense of a clinician trying to figure out how to use it as a pill to get well.

I wonder if a lot of the discussion of food in any forum is our complete divorcement of understanding the physical labor involved in providing literally everything one must eat. That it seems almost romantic to think about a life where one is compelled to return to a closer relationship with the earth. At least that is the picture we are given.

I was raised by an aunt who grew up on a farm that DID have to raise literally everything they ate. She hated everything about it and perhaps that is what drew me to it: I grew up in a typical 60's-70's home where everything came from a can. She had a huge grape arbor and liked to can her own grape jelly, but loathed gardening or anything approaching it.

I wonder if, for many of us, the notion is much more compelling than the fixed idea? That we are so disillusioned with what mechanization has brought us, we think a pastoral life will be better. I read many blogs and posts from people who live in the city and picture that as the ideal (cities will be the new utopia as everyone will band together) or those that live in rural areas and think theirs is the only way to go. Almost always it hinges on food: production, transportation ,etc. The rurals will have it and the cities will have the monetary means to get it.

In reality it all hinges on one thing: eating. Well, and staying warm in the winter. Many peripheral things branch off from this, but in essence it is about the task of being constantly involved in producing or getting enough food to survive, somehow or another. Just the mental stress this produces can shorten the life-span, I would think.

I have a cartoon from the New Yorker on my refrigerator: one cave man says to another, "I don't understand it, all our food is organic, free-range, our water is pure, our air is clean, we get exercise, yet none of us live past thirty." It's about stress. The stress of survival.
And whether that is because it is so labor intensive or because cheap oil has given us the opportunity to pursue things we find more enjoyable, I don't know. I do know depression sets in when you are compelled to do a thing you do not like, or even find distasteful.

I enjoyed aspects of that life, but I've never forgotten what an old lady said to me one time, "There was nothing good about the 'good ole days.' They were nothing but hard work."

[CRZ53]

Posts like this are why Deconsumption is part of my regular reading. I suppose I find myself in a situation similar to the one described by Peaknik. I've tried to explain my take on modern life and where we're headed (Peak Oil, climate change, economic instability, etc, etc.) to my wife and her family. On the surface I think they get it, but that inner realization about what it means for our day to day lifestyle hasn't happened. And that's what makes it hard for me. Nobody lives in a bubble, and when you have a family, they'd better be on board if you're going to make any semi-significant changes to your lifestyle. My wife, whom I love dearly, says that she refuses to live her life being afraid of what might happen in the future - ie. she's not about to change the way she does things now, regardless of the potential future consequences. How do you get someone to see the difference between living in fear and thoughtful planning? How do you convince your family that their current lfestyle is headed for a dead end without completely alienating and pissing them off?
- Mike Lorenz

The current system survives by a mix of 'easy food', fear, and cultural conditioning that creates mostly 'social robots'.

Most just go on the merry way, eating, staring at the tv, complaining about misc. stuff, not really worrying about climate, collapse etc. since most haven't felt this in their lives--perhaps just the few old stories from those still alive from the great depression era.

And IF you happen to awake to the fact that modern society is psychologically, and physically unhealthy for the majority of folks (sure a sliver of humanity is doing great)then FEAR kicks in. What about your "stable" job, house, car, what will people think of you if you don't be a good robot? Although I'm being sarcastic, these are tough things to struggle with.

In addition since so many people are apathatic/or fear (comfort) driven folks, you run into few who share your beliefs--this will certainly include most people's family. Its a difficult predicament emotionally/psychologically...but no one said life was easy. People can always disregard future concerns/changes and live life with their "short-sighted" glasses on, drink, eat and be merry, don't worry about the ecosystems, which really means the future for humanity.

If things don't change soon, the 21st century will be the largest die-off of animal life/including humans ever known. We don't even need a meteor to do it for us, just keep on living the consumer lifestyle--its doing a pretty good job.

"The future belongs to those who prepare for it." Emerson

[steve wohlrab]

On the Psychology of Peak Oil
By Steve Wohlrab (7/12/06)

The facts about Peak Oil seem to cry out for immediate action. Why has the response been so disappointing? Reasonable, sincere people have been warning us for years now about a number of serious issues. Collectively, we should have been listening and begun mitigation efforts sooner. Why isn't a well crafted, thoughtful, reasonable presentation enough to convince people to take action?

Grieving and Denial
To more fully understand we must also look at the non-rational forces at play. Those that both help and hinder us should not be quickly dismissed or their power underestimated.

Fear, ignorance and our deeply held beliefs about the world are all difficult obstacles to overcome. Deep insight is required along with a willingness to suspend our assumptions and at least consider how we might be unconsciously distorting our “reality.”

One of the non-rational forces that hinders us is our collective inability to grieve. Or perhaps, stated differently, we're a culture locked in a stage of grief known as denial.

How does a species grieve the loss of its progeny, it's future? While I'm not a parent, my guess is this might be similar to the experience of loosing a child - a horrible thing to think about and exactly why we don't - few are willing to go there. I'm suggesting that the mere contemplation of such an event is so emotionally overwhelming that our innate defense mechanisms refuse to allow us to experience it emotionally. It's too painful to even consider - so we don't, despite dire warnings from reasonable and respected experts.

The possibility of severe, dramatic, global catastrophe is not only emotionally numbing but the socio-economic and cultural transformation required to prevent such a disaster inhibits the necessary behavioral changes required to avert it (to many people the cure might seems worse then the disease).

A more proactive cultural transformation may only be possible once we’ve begun to recognize how deeply sad and scary the future looks. The more we ignore that future the worse it will get.

Unfortunately, we must first overcome our denial, at least some degree of it. How do we "bracket out" our denial?

As I come to terms with my own grief about the future, experiencing its different stages, I'm starting to better recognize how we each react differently, at different times, to the reality of looming crisis.

Collective Grief
From the perspective of a psychologist, I've come to view much of our collective response to current events as analogous to grieving. Our reactions can be viewed in that context. Grieving involves well documented "stages" (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) which can occur at different times, not always sequentially. We might even "re-experience" a stage and/or experience several at the same time.

Deep despair work - grieving for a dying planet and for the end of civilization as we know it, might take some time. Time, unfortunately, is not on our side. Denial is one of the more common stages where people can often become "delayed."

Denial can also be viewed as "healthy" response to a difficult situation or event -to an extent, a certain degree of denial serves as an important defense mechanism necessary to our daily survival. However, it’s unconscious effects may be difficult for us to recognize and it’s power easily underestimated. This fact more then any other causes me to worry. I often loose confidence in our collective ability to turn things around in time. As yet, no one I know has figured out how to expedite the process of grieving and/or overcome our collective denial.

Willingness to embrace such heavy pain - to allow oneself to grieve requires a great deal of courage and endurance. It may also require the ability to suspend our assumptions and "beliefs" long enough to entertain the possibility that a worst case scenario is entirely possible. We might need to do some "as if" playing and pretending - serious playing in which we are existentially touched and emotionally effected by this experience (allowing ourselves to experience what it would be like, to imagine a horrific future, to consider it a realistic possibility). I recommend doing this not to encourage or support that reality but to recognize the more shadowy aspects of being and honor ourselves enough not to suppress any thoughts.

I believe that you give power to that which you deny and are most afraid of - that it ultimately takes more energy to suppress something painful (we pay a heavy price by avoiding painful truth). Sometimes the only way out is through.

We must also somehow not get too pre-occupied or overly identified with this darker stuff lest we be paralyzed by despair. Ultimately we want to affirm and visualize the brightest future we're capable of imaging. Warning folks about potential danger is not mutually exclusive of this.

Authentic grieving requires that we endure an experience which seems unbearable - so incredible, unchangeable and final. The process takes as long as it takes - sometimes years, perhaps an entire lifetime. My point here is we need to figure out how to "midwife the transition" (re-localizing away from fossil fuels in an eco-friendly manner) while supporting, nurturing, respecting, and honoring each other through this unprecedented time. Our collective future on this little planet might require an equally profound spiritual and emotional transformation along with profound lifestyle changes. Therefore, we might want to cut each other a little slack, not expect perfection and be more ready to forgive that imperfection in ourselves and others.

Hope and Denial
Denial reflects a complex process when used in a psychological context. Our ordinary "self" - our normal human consciousness reflects many variables and dynamic forces.

For many people who are just starting to understand our current global predicament all the dire predictions must seem a bit overwhelming, frightening and hopeless. Therefore it’s too emotionally overwhelming for most folks to seriously consider the possibility of a worse case scenario actually occurring. Have compassion for those who aren't able to take in all the ramifications of your message. However, urgency requires us to forge ahead - move on with your truth to a more receptive audience.

There may be some "truth" out there but it might be dismissed as another crack pot, doomsday, conspiracy theory or its reality accepted but not the conclusion or remedy ("technology will save us" - a rationalization, another stage of grieving?).

Telling people in denial that they're in denial doesn't cut it - it's like confronting a paranoid patient about their delusion - the delusion is not rational. (that's why, to our rational minds, the delusion seem "crazy").

Sharing hopelessness authentically with integrity ("from the heart") will not comfort most folks. You're just increasing their anxiety levels to the point where psychological defense mechanisms prevent them from considering any serious threat to their cognitive well being.

By definition, someone who is in denial is not consciously aware of the experience (they will generally refuse to consider that possibility if confronted). Awakening from our collective and individual denial tends to be a gradual process.

Intellectual honesty, personal integrity and a courageous and dedicated pursuit of truth are prerequisites.

Unfortunately, an actual traumatic event can also serve as a wake up call (similar to waking suddenly from a vivid
"nightmare")- this type of "shock to the system" is a much less desirable way of breaking through someone's defense mechanisms. Trauma is not a cure. It often leaves its victims more emotionally crippled then in their prior state of denial. Hoping for a severe enough event to occur so that a majority of people wake up from their collective denial in time is sadomasochistic. If Katrina didn't sound a loud enough alarm bell one wonders (and dreads) what it might take?

To some extent we're all in denial, how could we be otherwise? For many people, the threats to our species are so great that they're unable to permit themselves to be emotionally effected by it. This deep level of denial resembles what is clinically known as a dissociative disorder in which the avoidance of a traumatic event leads to individuals literally creating and maintaining their own reality. If we were able to move beyond the veil of cognitive dissonance (for we have no reference for the scope and scale of the crisis unfolding) we would be quickly overwhelmed.

Natures feedback mechanisms are often too subtle for us to notice. Denial along with day to day distractions and rationalizations help to keep us "deaf, dumb and blind." Unless we turn down the sound, and crank up the hearing aide we may not hear the alarms sounding.

The way I dealt with my grief was to let go of hope. This does not mean I gave in to hopelessness and despair, rather this reflects a deep spiritual insight. For me it's about surrender, faith and humility and letting go of outcomes. These "insights" reflect my understanding and experience of the dynamic openness of Being.

For me, this wisdom has led to some degree of acceptance. Of course I'd let go of hope - or I let go of outcomes. This helps me to better accept whatever comes my way. Of course, I still feel compassion for this "realm of reality" in which we dwell and I still intend to persevere and help organize my community.

Whether we survive as a species or not (no guarantees) there's no doubt that the earth will go on, with or without us.

Conclusions
Offer your truth with humility and integrity, let go of outcomes and lighten up - it's only life. Don't expect the information you share to quickly "convince" others. At best you may be able to plant a few seeds. Qualify remarks by first discussing theories about denial and listener bias - share some of your own biases as presenter.

Visualize the future you want as if it already existed and also wisely prepare for an emergency (perhaps even a “long emergency“).

[Daniel "Floater" Proctor]

as a 21 year old college student i tuned into the coming changes 3 years ago. i searched and searched and what i found astonished me. i made changes, but nothing seemed to be enough -especially continuing my university education -despite changing my major to environmental studies -which served to only further reinforce my knowing that the changes were well beyond anything i could use this education for. i attempted to quit school and after much struggle did -moved out island country and began living on the land -only to come back -finish school and spend time with my family and friends from where i was born and raised -north orange county. as most know the concrete paves nearly the entire semi-desert basin and chances for survival off the land here seem minimal amongst the vast population and little resources. i would love to see a collaborated exodus out of this place and into a harmonious lifestyle that we would all love. my friends and family here are from all over the earth -every culture imaginable -and we have all grown here together in the concrete -cut off from the land -as brothers and sisters. i know there are others, who want out, too -but how difficult is it to leave family behind - i made changes and came back - i contemplate staying -dancing and singing as we step into the destructive reactions that are about to unfold. the other part of me says be the change you want to see -go live in harmony and maybe some will come with you -but i feel ashamed at the thought of leaving behind the others to go through this without me. i'm thankful for this blog - who else has ever been in this predicament. i wish i can just up my vibration and walk through the destruction with them -then help nourish and live the new culture.

[bigfoot]

Thank you so much for "Healing Crisis".

For the past year it seems like I have been going insane with worry. What looks to me like the end of life as we know it--appears to be no big deal to those around me. Somebody is nuts here and I have been afraid it is me. Perhaps my instability is only part of the healing process.

[David Mathews]

I take great comfort in the living world -- the smallest accomplishments of Nature are about a billion times more impressive than the greatest accomplishments of humankind -- and also in the knowledge that the Universe is so vast and so ancient as the render humankind's existence & demise meaningless.

The Earth has functioned successfully as a living organism for four billion years. Humans have only existed for several hundred thousand years. Undoubtedly, the Earth will continue to function as a host to life for at least a billion years longer. The Homo sapiens and modern technological civilization are transient phenomena.

The decline of civilization is an inevitable outcome of its existence. Old age, sickness and death are inescapable events in any individual's life. The same applies to every species, including the Homo sapiens. Extinction is coming, to imagine otherwise is as reasonable as believing that each of us will live forever.

There's a lot of pain and suffering in our future, but let's be realistic: Billions of humans are already experiencing pain and suffering on a daily basis, and none of these people have any prospect of escaping from their impoverishment and misery. Why is it terrible for us to suffer when we have spent the last several centuries tolerating so much suffering throughout the world?

I don't worry about the future: I know that eventually I will die, and everything short of that outcome is a gift from Nature and Nature's God. So I celebrate every day and spend my time appreciating the beauty of the Earth and the Universe.

Have you noticed that the sunrise is just as beautiful as the sunset? Also, the night sky is as beautiful as the Earth at noon. The smallest things in the Universe (such as subatomic particles) are as amazing as the Universe's largest structures. Humans have enjoyed a special privilege in discovering that all these things exist.

Seventy million years ago, dinosaurs dominated the planet. Long before then, the trilobites owned the Earth. Humankind's end is not any more tragic than the passing of any other species throughout the history of the Earth. Extinction is the natural, inevitable outcome of a species' existence.

Erosion will erase each and every accomplishment of humankind from the surface of the Earth. Soon enough, only fossils will preserve a memory of humankind's existence. While some may view reality as tragic, Nature is sending humankind a very important message about our place in the Universe.

A long time ago, Africa and North America were joined together and the Atlantic ocean didn't exist. Nature spent millions of years tearing apart the continents and creating the Atlantic ocean basin. Does anyone really believe that the was eagerly waiting for the last 100,000 years of history and its dominant animal, the thinking, tool-making primate?

Soon enough, Nature will close the Atlantic ocean and collide these continents back into each other. A majestic mountain range will preserve a memory of the existence of an ocean several hundred million years old at its demise. Within the life span of the Atlantic ocean, humankind's existence will measure less than 1% of that time. Those who assume that we are the center of the Universe (or evolution's greatest accomplishment) are seriously deluded.

Humankind doesn't amount to anything in the great scheme of things. Once you gain this knowledge you will learn to appreciate existence rather than mourn its loss.

[Ryvr]

I think it would be important for people also to focus on the wonderful benefits that are ahead for those who can survive.
Right now, I have to work 40 hrs a week to survive, am surrounded by stressed, rushing, angry people, and have to deal with constant unnatural ringing, buzzing, whirring, etc.

After half of the oil is gone, we shall live in a paradise where about 15 hrs work a week is plenty to eat comfortably and be safe.
And we will all be happy, singing, telling stories, and making art around the campfire.
The really bad thing was overshooting human carrying capacity. Get away from the cities and be ready to live how nature evolved you to over millions of years!

[Nicholas]

I can't believe the amount of optimism that is being written here

We’re facing a global crisis of unprecedented proportions and we’re told to gain a greater understanding of the issues ahead of us, I couldn’t be more understanding about the issue’s surrounding peak oil, my awareness about peak oil is as deep as it can go, but this doesn’t give me peace of mind.

We still have the luxury at the moment to write about and pretend that this is something we are going to be able to deal with when it hits. The reality is our civilizations are hurtling towards the biggest Great Depression humanity will ever experience, yet unlike the Great Depression of the 1920’s that was caused by having to much, this depression will be caused by having not enough and an ever dwindling supply of not enough.

It’s easy to talk about and feel optimistic about the future now, but I wonder how we’re all going to feel when the shit actually does hit the fan.

[steve]

If you like World of Warcraft or any other kind of game, I think part of coping and working with this situation is to make a game out of it. This is slightly geeky, but if you look at your various useful post-oil skills in the context of a game, then you can begin to enjoy the adjustment period. If you can raise your "sling" skill from zero to 1, you might be able to kill enough squirrels, rats, pidgeons to survive lean times.

Also, if you have a hobby, it's easier to try to apply it to the post-oil context than just ditch it and say that it's a useless trade without abundant energy. Being a hardcore computer geek, I ask myself what I'll do in the future when electricity is scare or unavailable? Since I have a mind for databases and relating information, I've begun training my mind in memory techniques. If you like making models, you may find a nitch manufacturing wooden or clay figures, totems, tools. If you get bit by our consumer-society shopping bug from time to time, perhaps you'd make a decent merchant of hard to find goods in a post-oil world? I could give dozens of examples, but this is how I cope and learn to prepare. I know that I won't have nearly all the skills I'll want when the time comes, but no need to fret. Do what you can, accept that you may fail, and try not to stress about it. You grew up in modern civilization, don't be to hard on yourself if it's extremely difficult to adjust.

[Survivor]

I have really enjoyed the article and blogs posted here. Thanks. As I scour the websites on life after peak oil for tidbits of useful information for preparation, I often wondered why so many people are in a state of desparate panic about the coming petrocollapse. It eventually came to me that when an emergency is eminent. I simply lack the emotional response that so many of you thoughtful souls have experienced. Not sure why, but I am a pure survivalist and have been since my early days as a Cub Scout. When winter camp came, I spent weeks preparing lists and supplies (even in 4th grade). I even did what-if scenarios to make sure I was covered. From Boy Scouts to the Marine Corps I did not stew about the predicaments I knew were coming, I prepared.

Let me ask you what your reaction would be if NASA suddenly announced that a planet killing astroid would strike earth in a week and only a few fortunate individuals in North America may survive. My reaction would be, I'm going to be one of those fortunate survivors and immediately begin preparing. It would never be a question of what if I am going to die. Quitting and laying down like a Frenchman is not in my character. I blow off the emotions and direct my efforts at survival. If the rest of the world is starving, I will improvise snares , fishing traps, eat local forest vegetation, shoot deer, squirrel, birds, even fried earthworms if thats what it takes. Sure I may die, but not by quitting.
Our ancestors ten generations ago lived a tough life, but made it.

Fear of the NWO and corporate elitists that plan to enslave us in indentured servitude is something I have struggled with for 15 yrs. There is little doubt that globalism is rapidly approaching critical mass. World War III over oil and resources is around the corner. This war will go nuclear, but there will be survivors. Everything looks more and more hopeless. Are you going to curl into a spasm of French fecal matter or try to survive?

Twelve years ago I bought 20 acres in the country close to a large large lake for the very reasons I stated above. I don't have much money, but I knew that the astroid impact is only a few years off. I may not make it, but I will not sit in suburbia while:

*Civil order breaks down and starving, marauding gangs try steal and kill for what is left,

*People are starving when the food distribution system breaks down as transportation fuels disappear.

*Freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer as natural gas production falls way below demand.

*Cower with my head down as totalitarian US govt troops try to force my family into the numerous detention camps for corporate slavery.

Now is the time to prepare. DO WHAT YOU CAN. Stop stressing over the loss of the good (oil spiked) life and get you ass in gear. Buy everything you can think of for survival. If you can make it through the first 4 billion who dieoff, You may just survive. But try!