So when your Republican co-worker makes an innuendo about how horrible abortion is, and how abortionists need to be at least stopped, if not punished, you could take that opportunity to help him or her realize how peak oil and the subsequent die-off will just about guarantee that those vile abortionists will be stopped. Explain to your curmudgenly co-worker why he or she should welcome the end of the oil age. After all, people aren't going to be wasting the precious time of medical care personnel on abortions. They are going to be too busy treating the many casualties due to various flus, malnutrition-related diseases, and the huge increase in stress-related problems, including drug overdoses, alchoholism, problems exacerbated by lack of preventive medical care, injuries due to crime and family violence, and so on.

Yes, people are also afraid of change, even if it's not necessarily that they are "comfortable with the world the way it is/was", they just don't want something, which is outside of their control, coming along and changing it. People generally like to choose major life decisions by themselves, at least after their parents are through making them for them. By this I mean the things which affect the quality of their lives for years to come - their education, their marraige partner, number of  children, career.

But if you ask almost anybody, there's at least one thing which they would like to change about the world, as long as the results are what they would like them to be. In one way or another, there has to be a way in which peak oil can bring about some of these changes.

Like your anarchist friends. Sure, after the fall of the police car, there's going to be the rise of the horse cop. Sure militaries will probably grab whatever fuel is left remaining and hold on to it for as long as it remains. But eventually, there's going to be more anarchy, somewhere. There's likely to still be hierarchy somewhere, too. For a long time. And of course, a hierarchy anywhere is likely to become a hierarchy everywhere, so we're back to where we are now. Still - the possibilities sure increase with the end of oil.

See, we should concentrate on the positive aspects of peak oil, in order to lead with a carrot, so to speak. (There's plenty of stick!) We should figure out more ways (than just the elimination of the abortion issue, and the fall of the state), in which the end of the oil age will solve many of their current problems. (Although, of course, bringing in a raft of new ones! :)

Help them feel more in control by helping them identify with the immense forces which are about to wrack our world with change like a real person; a strong, demanding, parent. A little brutal, but one who at least treats all his children equally.

By cheering up a co-worker, you're actually encouraging a fellow citizen in this time of war. And when you help others, you're actually helping yourself. For when we do our part and chip in, we get the satisfaction of knowing that we're at least making a contribution, no matter how small. After all, so many of our own are making the ultimate sacrifice over there in Iraq. Tens of thousands more have been injured. We can do our part.

It makes no sense to be thinking about our own little problems all the time. We should look for the silver linings in life, and encourage others to do the same. One silver lining in the crash of industrial civilization is that abortion and gay rights are not going to be such big issues any more, and finally the human family can move on to worrying about more important things, like food, shelter, and heat.

-FPRP