This is my first post .  I enjoy reading the oildrum largely because of a higher level of civility .  This post Is, in the short run, off topic .  
Pigeonholeing: I'm 62 years of age and retired .  I have a master of arts degree in sociology with a minor in psychology .  I view myself as a paleo-conservative .  
I love metaphor and would like to suggest two.
western industrial capitalism , in the context of our times, can be studied as a Ponzi scheme .  Inexpensive , available fossil fuels and rising population are required to keep the game going .  The game is over .  How disquieting !  
The second metaphor may give Many reader's a headache.
a significant number of those who post here have a background in the hard sciences and know far more than I do about this topic .  The topic is linear programming .  Some readers may have never looked into this .  
In its simplest form , one minimizes Or maximizes a function .  This effort is subjected to constraints .The constraints can be viewed as defining a playing field .  The playing field must have mathematical volume in order that the problem Is feasible .  Take your excedrin now.
as we plummet into what has been called "the long emergency " feasible solutions do not exist on a political level .  Myriad special interest groups are clawing for power and influence .  I think that most people would rather die than scale back their ideologies .  Geological certainty will eliminate worn out inappropriate ideologies by eliminating the morons who cling to them. that'll restore volume to the playing field . At that time, perhaps, the optimization process can begin .  
Thank you for your patience .