End Times a Comin'

These are surreal times we are living in. The media continues its morbid fascination with the Terri Schiavo case, while ignoring the impending collapse of civilization. Most of America is in some sort of denial. Much like poor Terri's parents cannot seem to come to grips with the fact that their daughter is in a terminal state, Americans can't seem to come to grips with the fact that the US is in a terminal state. Yes, we are way over-extended on credit; we are all living on borrowed time. Of course, it is the whole world that is in a similar sad state.

Right now, I am at a biomedical research conference up in the Mountains, and I don't know if it is the extreme elevation or what, but the sight of hundreds of intelligent people debating what is essentially trivia, depresses the hell out of me. I can't seem to get overly interested in this stuff, even if it is my career at stake. Moreover, there seems to be no polite way to bring up non-research topics, so I feel rather stifled. I have just a horrible feeling that if I mentioned anything about Peak Oil, these people would think I've gone off the deep end. So I let it slide.

What is even more odd, right now, I actally sympathize with Mike Ruppert, and I feel like it is time to move on from 9/11 and try to deal with the coming oil catastrophe. This is not a question of me wanting justice. I would LOVE, I would even pay to see a full honest investigation of 9/11 and see the planners and all the secret killers brought to justice. But the fucking corporate media/political structure in this country would frankly rather collapse than admit the truth about 9/11. To some extent, I feel like 9/11 for me has devolved into a sick game of trivia, and while I think uncovering the lies is worthwhile, what is more worthwhile is trying to figure out the best way to deal with the coming emergency.

If you think I joke or exaggerate, simply read this website, and the associated links:
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

Harrowing stuff.

The one possible hole I can find in the Peak Oil collapse scenario is the idea is that there will be a market-based panic that will drive oil prices so high that the economy will be paralyzed by not enough oil and this will lead to wide-spread economic collapse. The argument seems to be that oil traders right now don't "know" that oil production is peaking, and so are using market principles to set the price of oil. But once oil traders realize that oil has "peaked" and is a truly finite quantity, then they will panic are start trading oil at astronomical values-- which of course would set off all sorts of horrible chain-reactions leading to economic collapse and likely lead to a large "die-off" of people.

I have to think-- it is impossible to think that this wouldn't happen frankly-- that long before prices spiral literally out of control, the government would step in and enforce extreme price controls on oil trading, thus averting economic meltdown. Frankly, the government would have to do something to avert economic meltdown-- everyone's ass would be on the line. If oil prices skyrocket on the world market, I still have to think that the world's governments would agree to cap oil prices. It would either be that, or the armageddon, and I don't think even the craziest world leaders would want that.

However, just because we might might be able to avoid the MOST horrible affects of Peak Oil, doesn't mean Peak Oil won't cause horrible problems. Assuming that world governments can work together to keep oil prices at a manageable level, what I can't see avoiding is a long-term major economic depression that may kill millions or even billions of people, since so much in our world is dependent on oil, especially food production.

God knows I don't want to make excuses for the insane militarism of the US, but you gotta admit, when push comes to shove for the last bits of oil, the world's strongest military power is likely to get it.

For the longest time after 9/11, I didn't understand why the Bush administration was spending so much on the military to fight "terrorism", when the terrorists were a irregular ragtag group that really couldn't be fought effectively by a conventional military. But now I see a clear reason why the US continues to have such a huge military-- for when the oil really starts running out. And then it may be another world war.

In fact, it sort of looks like 1929 about right now. Soon will come a great depression, and then the last desperate wars over the last drops of oil.

Who knows what the world will look like after that.