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135 comments on Crisis Blogging: Opiate of the Masses or Catalyst for Change?
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135 comments on Crisis Blogging: Opiate of the Masses or Catalyst for Change?
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Wow -- what an interesting question!
If I knew where we were headed -- absolutely deep in my heart knew -- things would be a lot easier. Instead I spend my day thinking about the worst, preparing for what I consider likely, and hoping for the best. But even that preparation for the likely case is difficult with the uncertainty surrounding global climate change and the error bars I place on my personal view of the energy decline curve.
If I knew I only had 5 years before I was plunged into the World Made By Hand scenario, my first reaction would be to cash out my savings immediately and head out in search of a sustainable looking place to hunker down and do my best to survive.
If I knew that business as usual was going to win out, I'd likely go all-in in the stock market and take a vacation.
For better or worse, peak oil is not on the radar screens of most of the people I interact with on a regular basis, but with the ongoing US debate (I'm in the US) over climate change, I can only imagine the multitude of directions people would tend toward if PO emerged as a focus point to even half the degree climate change has.
I became convinced the American Empire was going to crash long ago, maybe by 1970. When we got to 1975 I realized that energy and consumption were at the core of the problem. I spent several years then trying to convince others and get some policy changes at the state level. When I proposed a graduated tax on non-renewable energy with the revenue going to support R&D in renewables I was politely informed that such an idea was politically impossible and laughed at behind my back. It's called a carbon tax these days. I pretty much gave up on this frustrating activity. Decided that the best solution was to burn up the oil as fast as possible. Then things would change. Nobody had heard about climate change due to anthropogenic CO2 back then. I started working on my personal plan.
Hadn't given up on collective solutions completely. Still had hopes people might listen to reason. Throughout the '90s I published an email and web newsletter that dealt with diverse local political-social issues. In 2002 I stopped. I had said everything I had to say and I was sick of the futility. Just about then the term "blog" came into currency. All of a sudden, everybody was shouting. And nobody was listening except to what they already thought they knew. Do blogs help anything? I don't know. I tend to think not in general but some help me. I think it's a pretty mixed bag with no way of telling except on an individual level.
Would I do anything different if I knew the ultimate decline would happen in 2014? I'd try to do everything I'm doing now a little faster, a little more urgently. Probably wouldn't succeed but I know I'm already better off than 99.9% of the population. So, no worries, mate. Let the winds blow. I've been expecting it. A bit surprised things have held together as long as they have.
Would I do anything different if I knew it would be business as usual? No again. I'm doing what I do because that's the way I want to live out my life. Simple.
Oldchuck:
I enjoy reading the thoughts of, above average intellects. Your story struck me because of its relative time line in comparison to those of us who just (past 5 years) have jumped on the world's problems are paramount.
For some reason I began to think about "The Doomsday Machine" or the supreme deterant. If someone could build one of those things or a punishment machine that would affect all humans with the same pain or discomfort, with no pain trading credits allowed, we (that is WE) may begin to evolve into something different and better.
These replies to this post also made me wonder about the quiet and easily influenced soul who looked out his door and noticed it beginning to rain, softly obstructing his view of Noah's Arch off in the distance...that crazy Noah.
Lately, in my pursuits as a Mavin, I have been more observant of counter arguements returned to me under the beleif that if a condition is written as a law then it is fact and is actually being done. It struck me harder this time that I do not and will never understand the minds of people (and there are many) who avoid fact, watch from their armchairs, and beleive that government and a countries laws are omnipitant.