THE PARADIGM IS THE ENEMY:

[4dsc]

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042706_paradigm_speech.shtml

Interesting article.

A Speech by Michael C. Ruppert for the Local Solutions to the Energy Dilemma Conference April 27-29, New York City, at Cooper Union

Perhaps the greatest flaw in the Peak Oil movement’s current operating paradigm is that, a part of the movement at least, instead of building lifeboats in the face of an immediate disaster, is delusionally focused on trying to build alternative-powered luxury liners that operate just like the paradigm we as a species need to be abandoning. Not only is this a futile effort, it may well be responsible for killing or destroying the lives of people who at least partially understand Peak Oil and who are trying to find the best courses of immediate action for themselves and their families.

[neoblues]

1. Lifestyle change must be a part...

of any plan to shift away from Oil... since we simply have no comparable source of energy--even with alternate sources and technologies.

In one sense, ideally, scientists would simply discover a clean, non-polluting, eco-friendly, simple, safe, inexpensive and unlimited/inexhaustible new source of energy. Then even the poorest people on the planet could have gigantic SUVs, air-conditioning and 200+ Satellite TV channels. :woohoo:

In another, ideally, we'd all cut back; live simpler lives and be more in accord with the environment/nature...

Yet, the harsh truth is... If we want to keep our planet healthy--including nature... we need a drastic reduction in our current energy usage. Not just for the obvious environmental reasons either, but for the fact that having such abundant energy has allow the human population to grow out of control--to levels far beyond what the environment and nature can support-while-simultaneously-providing for wildlife (non-human/non-domesticated plants/animals of all types and varieties). We might be able to keep that many humans alive and even comfortable while cutting back enough not to destroy the entire planet--but even our current population levels--heck, even a couple of billion fewer of us--means increased or, at least continued exploitation and destruction of habitat (even assuming we find more eco-friendly technologies and lifestyles). If we want the rest of the life on Earth to live and thrive; we need to at least develope eco-sustainable lifestyles and energy usage, but a real reduction in population would be best for all (though it would mean fewer children over several generations to produce the reduction--or something catastrophic such as a killer avian-flu pandemic (ouch; rapid population reduction would hurt)).

As usual, though, for most people the world over, if they themselves (and immediate families) have enough--have the lifestyles they've either come to take for granted or the lifestyles they've come to dream of (having seen how the other half lives), then they simply don't care enough to worry about the environment or the rest of nature. The environmentally responsible really are a minority; and I don't see how the kind of lifestyle changes that would be required--as a minimum--would ever be accepted by the selfish majority. I feel, somehow it's possible--but I don't have a clue how. Especially since almost everyone would have to agree to give up their luxuries--at the same time; nobody** wants to feel like they're giving up more than others.

Welcome to the human race; the illusion of civilization where really, everyone's** in it for themselves. Oh... I'm just jaded. Nevermind.

**again, not everyone, but the majority anyway.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. Read the article. Do it now.

Read the article.

For all his "faults", Mike Ruppert has been on the right course nearly all the time. He is, again, and this time he has illustrated The Big Picture in an unforgettable way.

Read it. Just read it.

The entire world is beginning to change. Soon enough, no one will be unaffected by that change. Realize it now, or face a terrifying descent into a personal hell born of fear and despair.

Fortune favors the prepared mind. Prepare your mind. Read Ruppert's article.

--p!

[megatherium]

3. Who is Michael C. Ruppert? I read his web site, it comes across as Y2K

paranoia. He advises buying gold, he says people should live in homogeneous communities with people like themselves (because the US is about to collapse just as the USSR collapsed, and only local economies will function). What are Ruppert's credentials or background?

[valerief]

4. You'll pull my SUV steering wheel from my dead, cold hands.

:sarcasm:

[depakid]

5. Amerca will have to go through collapse

to change.

That's unfortunate- but it's pretty well inevitable. Along with all the bushbots and the sheeple- you've got 2 generations of kids who grew up on far right propaganda & eductional divestment. Nothing other than serious economic hardship is going to change the way they think about what they're "entitled to."

[Delphinus]

6. What I found interesting was:

"• But to assume that the current high prices are solely caused by the MTBE/Ethanol switchover is to miss the fact that Britain is now experiencing it’s highest-ever gasoline prices averaging more than $8 per gallon or that Japan—according to the news agency Chugoku—has now reached it’s highest-ever price for diesel fuel at almost $4.00 per gallon. These countries do not have MTBE rules to be concerned with. Peak Oil is here."

I haven't seen this talked about.

[Dead_Parrot]

7. In the UK's case...

gas is taxed at something like 300%, so whilst it's expensive enough to make your toes curl, people are sort of used to it. I don't what the taxation scheme is in Japan, but it might be something similar.

[phantom power]

8. What's a paradigm?

[Dogmudgeon]

10. "Paradigm" is Greek for "Pattern"

The word entered popular speech as a result of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which coined the phrase "paradigm shift". Since the phrase is so frequently used incorrectly, the book is worth reading. It's also fairly accessible to the lay reader.

Wikipedia, as usual, has an excellent article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm

--p!

[BeFree]

9. Cheap Oil Based Life Paradigm

Pair - a' - dime. The paradigm is what your idea was/is about something before you realize the reality about that idea.
(learned that by reading the link in the op!)

The paradigm in this case being the idea that this 'Cheap Oil Based' life will continue, forever. That's the paradigm, it's what we all thought, it's what we were all taught.

That is the enemy. The reality is that this 'COB' life will end, possibly soon, at least sooner than what we have been lead to believe.

Getting past the idea that Cheap Oil will be forever is the hardest part. And scary as all get out, too.