"Why is it so difficult to alert people to the dangers of peak oil?"
"Human nature is much more difficult to understand than energy laws for two main reasons: it's not taught, and we are genetically biased against self-knowledge. In other words, teaching human nature to someone is something like teaching a dog not to bark dieoff.com .
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Brains are mostly hardwired by age 25. By middle age, people may need two or three years of hard work to understand something completely new (grow the brain hardware required to think the thought).
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Contrary to the received wisdom, people do not think and then act. They act and then rationalize. New data from the environment is routinely plugged into existing mental hardware (like entering a number into a spreadsheet), which is then followed by an appropriate thought. Since people have no wiring for "peak in oil and gas production", news of the present energy crisis cannot generate the appropriate thought. Only prolonged reflection can grow the required mental hardware to place this critical piece of news in perspective. Unfortunately, only a few people can invest the thousands-and-thousands of hours necessary to see both the energy and evolutionary aspects of the human condition clearly."
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Yea, the 'hydrogen economy' is a sham. Just another distraction to keep the sheeple complacent, ala Michael Jackson, Terri Shiavo, Martha Stewart, Scott Peterson, and the rest of the garbage the MSM force feeds us.
The reason the lie persists among intelligent people is because people are driven by the need for peer approval and the dread of being ridiculed.
It is much easier to knock down straw men than to raise issues that violently challenge someone's core beliefs and identity.
For example, liberals feel they can gain ground by pushing socially "safe" issues - such as global warming awareness, and the injustice of the Iraq war. They form what's called the "loyal opposition" - they believe they're opposing Bush's maniacal war agenda, but they loyally avoid any subjects which might cause the whole deck of cards to come crashing down.
As soon as you mention that 9/11 was a hoax and the entire "war on terror" is bogus, a fascinating thing happens: the person's mental faculties are temporarily stunned, like you hit them in the face with a brick (their brain wasn't wired to think the thought). Confusion sets in ("is this a joke?") but is only temporary. Sensing threat, their psychological defense mechanisms kick in, and they do what any animal does when it's scared: bark as loud as they can. They immediately deride the informer as nuts, delusional, and/or easily impressionable. "I bet this guy believes in UFO's, too!". After killing the messenger and assuring themselves that this is just too crazy to be true ("no way - that would mean my whole life is a lie!"), the rationalization is complete. It happens the same way with almost anyone.
Message 20945011
'Technology' is not a substitute for energy. Currently, we derive 0.00% of our energy from fusion. I would propose slashing our defense budget by 90% and using the energy/resources to fund a manhattan style project to develop alternatives (wind seems the most promising), retrofit as much essential infrastructure as possible, localize our communities and build lifeboats.
"Subconsciously, everyone knows."
Most people consciously know that the country is heading in a bad direction, but they rationalize and avoid reality by absorbing themselves with sports/primetime TV. As long as they have food on their plates, clothes on their back, and a roof over their heads, they see no reason to lose sleep over it.
Jesse |
