I once had a high school teacher who told us this: "I am going to tell you something that I know to be the truth, and I would scream it from the highest mountain if I could make you believe it: There is no such thing as a revolution in the mind of man, there is only slow eventual evolution." Of course he, and I, would agree that there are a very few whose mind can grasp the eventual outcome of events that are unfolding, regardless of their severity, though they be denied by the vast majority of people.

Peak oil, or rather the eventual consequences of peak oil, is a revolutionary concept and they are arriving far too fast for general acceptance. It is only human nature that they be denied. The general public, regardless of the evidence to the contrary, will continue to take cheap energy for granted. They will continue to believe "X" will save us. And X is either the government, science, providence or God.

Peak oil will happen, or more correctly, has happened. The consequences of peak oil are currently happening but almost no one realizes it. They all expect there will be a huge recovery and the economy will return to growth, year after year and so on forever. It will happen because it has always happened that way in the past.

Even many of those who are acutely aware of peak oil believe that only good and better times will come from it. That is, they believe we will find something better than oil to fuel our society. This is the argument that Roger Connor made on TOD for many months.

The terrible consequences of peak oil, and peak everything else, will simply happen and they will come as a total surprise to the vast majority of people. They will panic, they will demand that action be taken to correct the situation, they will blame the Democrats or the Republicans or the government in general or the "elites" or "the powers that be" or anyone except the true culprit. And that culprit is none other than the evolutionary success of this rapacious primate called Homo sapiens.

Ron P.