The Oil Drum

Yes. The wide-ranging, thoughtful discussion here is like being with friends before battle. After years of lurking and preparing as best I can (which is not very much), a major benefit of these sites for me now is psychological. Often, I think of Kipling's poem:

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies...

In this vein, Kunstler tells this story today:

"You know, you've been predicting all these catastrophes for years now, but we're still here, the cars are all rolling down Broadway out there, and life is going on. You're beginning to sound like a crazy person."

It didn't bother me especially that G thought my my ideas were outlandish so much as being comprehensively written off by an old friend as a crazy person..." http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2007/12/a-chri...

He continues by discussing Orlov's thesis that:

The biggest difference, though, between Soviet Russia and America today is the psychology of the people.
Soviet citizens were prepared for hardship by lifetimes of comparative hardship.

My wish now is simply to keep my head.... ;-)

ditto