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197 comments on DrumBeat: March 17, 2007

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Samsara on March 17, 2007 - 9:33am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I am not at all ready for the big return to the agrarian life, as predicted by the most dire Peak Oil prognosticators. I am not at all ready to have the devastated cities plowed under, so that we may plant crops in the ravaged landscape in a desperate attempt to survive the onslaught of a world without home pizza delivery and without drive-thru dry cleaning and without instant and immediate access to supermarkets with their 47 kinds of pasta and 138 different brands of vodka, not to mention the meaty edible flesh of nearly any animal I wish to custom order from the Williams-Sonoma catalog and have FedExed to me within 24 hours in pretty decorated tins. Mmm, prosciutto.

Well Pick up a Talking Heads CD.
They wrote a song for you.

Nothing But Flowers

Here we stand, Like an Adam and an Eve
Waterfalls, The Garden of Eden

Two fools in love, So beautiful and strong
The birds in the trees, Are smiling upon them

From the age of the dinosaurs, Cars have run on gasoline
Where, where have they gone?, Now, it's nothing but flowers

There was a factory, Now there are mountains and rivers
you got it, you got it, We caught a rattlesnake
Now we got something for dinner, we got it, we got it
There was a shopping mall, Now it's all covered with flowers
you've got it, you've got it

If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower
you've got it, you've got it

Years ago, I was an angry young man
I'd pretend, That I was a billboard
Standing tall, By the side of the road
I fell in love, With a beautiful highway

This used to be real estate, Now it's only fields and trees
Where, where is the town, Now, it's nothing but flowers
The highways and cars, Were sacrificed for agriculture
I thought that we'd start over, But I guess I was wrong

Once there were parking lots, Now it's a peaceful oasis
you got it, you got it, This was a Pizza Hut
Now it's all covered with daisies, you got it, you got it
I miss the honky tonks, Dairy Queens, and 7-Elevens
you got it, you got it, And as things fell apart
Nobody paid much attention, you got it, you got it

I dream of cherry pies,Candy bars, and chocolate chip cookies
you got it, you got it
We used to microwave, Now we just eat nuts and berries
you got it, you got it

This was a discount store,Now it's turned into a cornfield
you got it, you got it

Don't leave me stranded here, I can't get used to this lifestyle

So my question is, why would I want to survive if this is what life on earth will be like? I think I shall prefer to die with the unprepared.

I predict many, many will chose this alternative. Many will take a left turn off that bridge.

Everyone will chose their own way to... er... "Adjust" (or not) to the new reality.

John

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EngineerAU on March 17, 2007 - 11:27am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I predict many, many will chose this alternative. Many will take a left turn off that bridge.

It's a pity that they'll also be filled with toxins and pharmaceuticals from modern life when they decide to give up... they would have made great sources of protein for those who choose to try to survive.

Seriously though, it is impossible to know how much a complex system as our modern world will react to the decrease in energy inputs that runs the show. If we want to look at movies for some possibilities, all three Mad Max movies showed different shades of a post-collapse civilization. There were shops and tourists in Road Warrior, pretty much all chaos in Thunderdome. Both were set in a time that appeared to be past some sort of collapse point.

If we don't end up with some technology miracle, my guess is things will slowly get more and more uncomfortable for a while, eventually reaching a snapping point when all hell breaks loose, and after a relatively short period (perhaps a decade), the survivors will be fatigued and try to settle into the new realities of life, building a civilization that isn't as easy as our current one [is for industrial nations] but much better than Thunderdome.

This is provided that no one decides to release the demons of NBC weapons which really could screw things up for centuries without doing much good for those who used them. If we can avoid that, it may be that current third world type cultures, especially the most primative ones, end up fareing the best.

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desiderata on March 17, 2007 - 1:59pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"it may be that current third world type cultures, especially the most primative ones, end up fareing the best."

I recall reading somewhere one time, a rather shocking assertion that went "the meek shall inherit the earth."

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MUDLOGGER on March 17, 2007 - 2:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

...but not the mineral rights.

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adamdschneider on March 17, 2007 - 3:51pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I think you mean in Mad Max there were shops/tourists and in the Road Warrior all was chaos. In Beyond Thunderdome, there was Bartertown, a first faltering step toward reestablishing civilization, at least until Max came and fixed that. ;-)

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oldhippie on March 17, 2007 - 12:01pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

What a great song. There's a recent cover version by Gaetano Veloso you would like. On CD "A Foreign Sound"

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