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64 comments on Report Review: Prosperity without Growth

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porge on May 23, 2009 - 10:09am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

A lot of despair starting to accumulate here.............maybe that is an early sign that the worm is turning as relates to mass awareness?
Always darkest before the dawn No?
The next demand spike for energy will send prices up again and that will get a lot of peoples attention.
I really want to thank all the contributors to this and other like sites for making information available that otherwise would not be.
You have opened my eyes and i , in turn, am doing what I can to wake others up to this monumental period in human history. Hopefully it will gain traction and spread geometrically....hopefully.

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Nate Hagens on May 23, 2009 - 1:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

A lot of despair starting to accumulate here.............maybe that is an early sign that the worm is turning as relates to mass awareness?

1)My comment shouldn't have been read as despairing. I am many years past despair and am more hopeful/resolved than ever for long term. Short-intermediate term will be some pain. Kind of like waiting for surgery...

2)I have reached point where I don't believe mass awareness would be a good thing. But it's just a belief...;-)

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ericy on May 23, 2009 - 3:46pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I guess my thoughts here are that most people are going to remain ignorant until far too late. The perception will be that "things just aren't working" any more, but for the vast masses they won't really understand why. We saw some of this last year when gas prices spiked. All kinds of people were blaming OPEC, speculators, or greedy oil companies. You try and explain it to them, and they blow you off and repeat the previous assertions. I suspect that to an extent people are really looking for simple explanations, especially ones where there might be a relatively simple fix of some sort.

In the future I expect this pattern to be repeated. There will be some shortage of some sort - prices will spike, and the general public will be looking for more scapegoats. While they may never really grasp the underlying reality, the higher prices will ultimately force them to use less of whatever is in short supply, but there will still be a yearning to go back to what they had before.

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porge on May 23, 2009 - 3:54pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

That's a catch 22.
Nothing is going to change until a very significant percentage of the population recognizes just how dire the situation really is.
I agree with you though it will be more like a panic than a light bulb moment.

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Todd on May 23, 2009 - 8:25pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Porge,

You are too optimistic - and if you weren't posting on TOD, I'd say you don't get it. Not a damn thing is going to change until everyone gets it. "They" are only going to get it when society collapses and people are dying left and right and services have died too. And, even then, there will be a few holdouts who refuse to change paradigms.

There will be no "light bulb moment" before it is too late to transition to anything that is stable-state. The result will be chaos.

Todd

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porge on May 23, 2009 - 8:46pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I also think that it will be a panic.
I think you may have misinterpreted my post.
I see what you see out here in suburbia.
Complete denial or if I want to sound more formal "cognitive dissonance".

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eric blair on May 26, 2009 - 1:19am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

A lot of despair starting to accumulate here.............maybe that is an early sign that the worm is turning as relates to mass awareness?

This is a self selecting group - people who think "the topics here are downers" and don't want to be 'down' leave.

The people who are "ok" with "down" stick around and comment. Sometimes the comments are light and flippant, other times have yet another interesting fact to help others weave their own narrative taperstry in their lives.

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64 comments on Report Review: Prosperity without Growth

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