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Gold/Mining/Energy : PEAK OIL - The New Y2K or The Beginning of the Real End? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sidney Reilly who wrote (650)	5/31/2005 11:02:12 AM
From: Mahatmabenfoo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1183

Ray Bradbury explained peak oil, and the end of the world, and why no one DOES anything. > The financial elite have to destroy this financial system before they can replace it with their new system. I don't buy it. We are well on our way to a cashless electronic economy -- when you consider debit cards, and highway "easy passes" and credit cards. Inter-bank transfers have been electronic for decades, and we abandoned using gold and silver decades ago. In our incremental movement to being purely cashless, the main barrier is technology, which is making steady progress. We sure don't need a monster plot that risks industrial civilization just to abandon paper money. The problem I have with peak oil is: 1. It is 100% believable; and 2. It risks utter chaos -- and chaos is bad for everyone, especially for the tidy world of those that might own banks or hatch 50 year plots. No one benefits, or can be sure to benefit, which is a bad risk to those who already have billions and the means of production. In a world that has never been more stuffed with futurists and with tools for planning the future, the idea that the government, universities and corporations could just forget Hubbert curve and the 1970's verification of it seems inconceivable. So it's understandable why conspiracies flourish. But our fellow citizens don't "get this," so why should our leaders be any smarter? I prefer to think GWB is an idiot, than the leader or even the figurehead of a supercompetent group of evil long range planners. I am naive, or are the conspiracists people who can't handle that the fundamental chaos of the world. To my way of thinking, conspiracy theory is optimism. The idea NO ONE is in control is the real terror. We'll never know. There's a great Ray Bradbury short story from the 1950's (I can't remember the name) about a night everyone knows it's the end of the world, but no one discusses it. They follow their ordinary routines: go to work, come home, have dinner. The wash and put away the dishes. The reason the world is coming to an end is never mentioned. Only later in bed does the subject even come up. "This is the end of the world, isn't it?" "Of course." "Do you think there's any chance....?" "You know the answer to that." "Good-night." "Good-night." The reader wonders if everyone isn't just a bit crazy, sure to wake up fine the next day. I'm not sure about the rest of the story (I haven't read it in 40 years) but I'm pretty sure it ends like this: "Outside in the city, one by one, the lights started to go out." I never knew what that story was about until now. Writers: they always figure this stuff out first. - Charles