Are we scary?

RGR · Post by **RGR** » 25 Feb 2009, 23:20

[quote="Andy Hunt"]

RGR · Post by **RGR** » 25 Feb 2009, 23:27

[quote="foodinistar"]

Yves75 · Post by **Yves75** » 25 Feb 2009, 23:33

About the "nutters at latoc", besides PS I browse a bit latoc, the forum at peakoil.com and oleocene (french one), and somehow I find latoc getting less on the nutter side as time goes by, whereas the peakoil.com one is getting more (but maybe nutter is not the right term, something like panicking would be more accurate).

eatyourveg · Post by **eatyourveg** » 26 Feb 2009, 00:40

Hi RGR.

You do realise don't you that the world be live in now is not
the same one that we lived in 12 months ago?, and I wouldn't care to predict what it will be like in 12 months.
Your arguments might be thought not in keeping with what is happening. I would argue that whether PO has existed, does exist or will exist is not the point.
The point is that those who subscribe to PO, have thought about what it means and how to prepare for an uncertain future.
It turns out that the preparations that have been made by PO aware people continue to suit current conditions very well, and perhaps most importantly, they are as well mentally prepared as can be - unlike the majority of the population who are going to have to undergo painful transitions that as far as they are concerned came straight out of a blue sky.

RGR · Post by **RGR** » 26 Feb 2009, 00:46

[quote="eatyourveg"]

eatyourveg · Post by **eatyourveg** » 26 Feb 2009, 00:50

What I think RGR is that you do not realise the sheer scale of what is coming down. This is about considerably more than some people making poor financial decisions.
If you are under the impression that that there is recovery from where we are headed to where we were, you missed out a couple whilst joining the dots.

Bandidoz · Post by **Bandidoz** » 26 Feb 2009, 02:20

maryb wrote:I tend to read most days but rarely post. The tone is much more bad tempered than when I first started reading. It's quite depressing because there was a much stronger sense of purpose a year or so ago.

A lot of you say that you look forward to living in more sustainable ways with a 'real' sense of community - but the overall impression from the site these days is that you round on anyone who challenges the consensus then congratulate yourselves for your tolerance in not banning them. It doesn't fill me with optimism for the success of these new post oil communities

I think there has been an influx of people who haven't yet learned to not behave in a defensive manner, and it leads to frustratingly entrenched arguments that go round in circles. Although every conversation is an opportunity to learn, sometimes people just need to avoid taking the bait from curt remarks.

At the end of the day, we shouldn't lose sight that this is just an internet forum, opinions are opinions (not "facts"), and there are better things to do than taking it too seriously and arguing a toss. Having the last word doesn't attract sex appeal here.

RGR · Post by **RGR** » 26 Feb 2009, 02:21

[quote="eatyourveg"]

2 As and a B · Post by **2 As and a B** » 26 Feb 2009, 06:20

RGR wrote:Start with one of the basics which even amateurs should be able to work through.

http://books.google.com/books?id=lFEt4D ... &ct=result

Thank you RGR.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 26 Feb 2009, 10:14

This thread points up exactly why I think the site's got away from what I believed (whether rightly or wrongly) its original aim, that of helping people empower themselves.

Fifthcolumn, it's good to see you back.

Nicko · Post by **Nicko** » 26 Feb 2009, 12:37

I get more than a little fustrated that posters on this site overlook the global perspective.
People seem very focused on what might happen to them in the future rather than what is already happening to people throughout the developing world right now.

I don't think this has changed since I joined the forum - it has always felt a little cold and clinical - and why not have a place where people who enjoy a good discussion can spend their time composing elequant retorts and skillfully worded arguments, it kills a bit of time and stimulates the mind.
I think my lunch has digested now, I shall get on with preparing those vegetable beds.

Nicko

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 26 Feb 2009, 12:49

Nicko wrote:I get more than a little fustrated that posters on this site overlook the global perspective.
People seem very focused on what might happen to them in the future rather than what is already happening to people throughout the developing world right now.

I don't think this has changed since I joined the forum - it has always felt a little cold and clinical - and why not have a place where people who enjoy a good discussion can spend their time composing elequant retorts and skillfully worded arguments, it kills a bit of time and stimulates the mind.
I think my lunch has digested now, I shall get on with preparing those vegetable beds.

Nicko

I don't think that's fair. I think the posters here are far more aware of conditions in the developing and third world than the general public in this country. However, PO is leading to the reversal of globalisation.

The was little we could do about corporate appropriation of the third world's wealth whilst the world economy was expanding, beyond peaceful protest, and that movement died on 11/09/2001. Now that the world economy is contracting, it is becoming a race back to the bottom. Dimity Orlov puts it best - the best way to subvert the state is simply to remove yourself from it as much as possible. Have no income or debts, minimise money transactions, be self reliant. We cannot give back the resources we have taken and already consumed, and there is little we can teach the third world when it comes to self-reliance.

So we do sound a bit parochial, but that is the future.

happychicken · Post by **happychicken** » 26 Feb 2009, 13:01

If you think this website is scary you should try peakoil.com which was the first peak oil forum I discovered. Now that place is scary

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 26 Feb 2009, 13:40

If you want scary try dieoff.org

Name says it all...

Adam1 · Post by **Adam1** » 26 Feb 2009, 14:13

Andy Hunt wrote:So what's going on? And is there anything which can be done? Or is it simply a scary forum now because it is a scary subject to discuss?

Answers on a postcard . . .

I don't think there is anything that we can (or should) do, in that this is an open, public space.

I can see that PS could be scary to PO newcomers - it was to me when I first started lurking in autumn 2005 (

) - but I think that is mainly because the conversations here assume that the reader accepts and understands the basic concepts of PO. As you say, because times are harder now and the general mood in wider society and in the mass media is quite doomerish, it might indirectly (and unintentionally) lend a certain weight to PO ideas, and so make this place scarier.

PowerSwitch

Are we scary?

Re: Are we scary?

Re: Are we scary?