My kids (early 20s) now know way more about Peak Oil than they would like ...
Reactions?
- One lad is now a car fan ... "I might as well have my fun now before fuel gets too expensive"
- One doesn't really think about it
- Another is already "green" and so PO is neither here nor there
- Another understands what is happening but is simply hasn't got any idea of what to do, and so is simply following a Business As Usual career path
I recently met an elderly oil industry pundit who said that his only key action is to force his young relatives to avoid careers in high energy industries. He reckons that this is the only realistic way of protecting the young people in his family - at least to some degree.
What do you tell your kids? Do you get anywhere?
Our children ....
Moderator: Peak Moderation
I really do feel sorry for our kids who in my opinion are going to be right in the firing line for a huge turn towards the unexpected.
The whole of the education system is currently set up to give them totally the wrong perspective both of themselves and the society in which they are migrating towards at school leaving age. Social codes have been screwed so that now kids feel their rights are pretty much assured, rights to say what they want, have what they want and do what they want. Simply no question.
When the truth unravels and the young generation realises life isn't like Holyoaks but more like the worst bits of The Apprentice there will be alot of tears.
I want to encourage my kids to enjoy today whilst learning small things about how to live a lifestyle with less material expectations, more self disipline, a good level of fitness, plenty of social inter-reation whilst learning some skills that may be useful in the future (although gardening is the only one I have managed at all yet).
I have only sort of hinted about what might be round the corner for them, mainly because I haven't the heart to worry them when I can't see real solutions.
The whole of the education system is currently set up to give them totally the wrong perspective both of themselves and the society in which they are migrating towards at school leaving age. Social codes have been screwed so that now kids feel their rights are pretty much assured, rights to say what they want, have what they want and do what they want. Simply no question.
When the truth unravels and the young generation realises life isn't like Holyoaks but more like the worst bits of The Apprentice there will be alot of tears.
I want to encourage my kids to enjoy today whilst learning small things about how to live a lifestyle with less material expectations, more self disipline, a good level of fitness, plenty of social inter-reation whilst learning some skills that may be useful in the future (although gardening is the only one I have managed at all yet).
I have only sort of hinted about what might be round the corner for them, mainly because I haven't the heart to worry them when I can't see real solutions.
My kids are 3 and 4 years old. So far their approach to energy hasn't
got much beyond wizz bang faster more!
I think they will be fortunate, in that they are young enough to avoid
the current 'have it all' indoctrination that the system provides. I am
already trying to explain that 'No, we don't need the lights on. It is
not dark. Electricity comes from a power station, which is like a
giant battery. If we use up all the electricity there won't be any left,
for us or anybody else'.
A bit of a simplification, but near enough for now.
got much beyond wizz bang faster more!
I think they will be fortunate, in that they are young enough to avoid
the current 'have it all' indoctrination that the system provides. I am
already trying to explain that 'No, we don't need the lights on. It is
not dark. Electricity comes from a power station, which is like a
giant battery. If we use up all the electricity there won't be any left,
for us or anybody else'.
A bit of a simplification, but near enough for now.
Debt, debt, debt. We are all actually in it together.
Last year I helped to materialise over ?200,000 worth of debt for other people, just in the mortgages they took out for home improvements we did and that doesn't take into account the debt created to expand B and Q, tile shops etc etc which funds jobs for folks (like you and I).
If you have a job you are creating debt whether you like it or not, either from the company you work for or the companies or people who they supply.
No matter what you do or don't do, sit on the dole, draw a personal pension, work for a charity, be self employed, it doesn't matter, you will still be helping to churn out debt. Our society is based on it and needs it to get money into the system.
Take debt personally but also realise that debt is personal, local, governmental and global. It affects every single one of us, from the minute we are born to the moment we die.
Last year I helped to materialise over ?200,000 worth of debt for other people, just in the mortgages they took out for home improvements we did and that doesn't take into account the debt created to expand B and Q, tile shops etc etc which funds jobs for folks (like you and I).
If you have a job you are creating debt whether you like it or not, either from the company you work for or the companies or people who they supply.
No matter what you do or don't do, sit on the dole, draw a personal pension, work for a charity, be self employed, it doesn't matter, you will still be helping to churn out debt. Our society is based on it and needs it to get money into the system.
Take debt personally but also realise that debt is personal, local, governmental and global. It affects every single one of us, from the minute we are born to the moment we die.
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Greenbeast
- Posts: 21
- Joined: 07 Mar 2007, 18:45
Debt is anti-money.
When money and debt collide, they mutually annihilate.
When money and debt collide, they mutually annihilate.
Andy Hunt
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
Eternal Sunshine wrote: I wouldn't want to worry you with the truth.
Re: Our children ....
So there's no difference between kids with PO aware parents and everyone else then?!Vortex wrote: - One lad is now a car fan ... "I might as well have my fun now before fuel gets too expensive"
- One doesn't really think about it
- Another is already "green" and so PO is neither here nor there
- Another understands what is happening but is simply hasn't got any idea of what to do, and so is simply following a Business As Usual career path
I've been wondering what it is that differentiates those who "react" to peak oil and those who don't. It's not necessarily anything to do with exposure to enough good quality information. Most of the people I've tried to "enlighten" understand and accept the concepts but simply don't want to spend their time thinking about how bleak things might be in the future - call it "denial" or "living for the moment" or whatever.
I dunno, perhaps we should be asking "Why are we so worked up about PO?"
I for one wish I could occasionally take my PO-tinted specs off.
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kenneal - lagger
- Site Admin
- Posts: 14290
- Joined: 20 Sep 2006, 02:35
- Location: Newbury, Berkshire
- Contact:
I'm sure I saw this video here first but I'll post it again as some may not have seen it. Money As Debt, a very good explanation -
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... ey+as+debt
One of my daughters, coming up 28, lives with us on the small holding with her husband and is very into gardening for food but doesn't want to know about PO. She is doing the right things to mitigate the consequences though. She has some debt but not a lot compared to the other, younger, daughter, who has just taken out a mortgage, with her boyfriend, of over ?100k, this on top of her student loan, to buy a one bedroom house locally. She is not into things green and doesn't know about PO.
When TSHTF, though, there will be space for both of them here, assuming their house is repossessed, should they want it. I don't think things will go wrong so quickly that we can't ramp up food production for another couple. I think we could also knock up another house quite quickly from earth, timber and straw bales, all available locally, at virtually no cost. The signs of collapse will be obvious to us before the general populous, so the bits we have to buy will not be too expensive.
I expect Vortex would do the same and the Peplers, on their piece of woodland.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... ey+as+debt
One of my daughters, coming up 28, lives with us on the small holding with her husband and is very into gardening for food but doesn't want to know about PO. She is doing the right things to mitigate the consequences though. She has some debt but not a lot compared to the other, younger, daughter, who has just taken out a mortgage, with her boyfriend, of over ?100k, this on top of her student loan, to buy a one bedroom house locally. She is not into things green and doesn't know about PO.
When TSHTF, though, there will be space for both of them here, assuming their house is repossessed, should they want it. I don't think things will go wrong so quickly that we can't ramp up food production for another couple. I think we could also knock up another house quite quickly from earth, timber and straw bales, all available locally, at virtually no cost. The signs of collapse will be obvious to us before the general populous, so the bits we have to buy will not be too expensive.
I expect Vortex would do the same and the Peplers, on their piece of woodland.
Good point . . . there's always interest to be paid on debt of course.GD wrote:They can't be: matter and antimatter exist in equal proportions. Debt is always greater than the money available to pay it off.
Very Satanic. The eternal debt which can never be paid off . . . mwahahahaha
Andy Hunt
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
Eternal Sunshine wrote: I wouldn't want to worry you with the truth.
If that were the case there would be no Earth, no stars, no us, no nothing. There was enough matter left after the matter-antimatter annihilation to create everything in the universe.GD wrote:They can't be: matter and antimatter exist in equal proportions. Debt is always greater than the money available to pay it off.
This morning, prompted by this thread, I made my first gigantic step towards some sort of attempt to properly preparing my kids for "what might happen next?!@* 
" (oh dear).
On the way to school (in the car
) the conversation turned towards where Maddie might be!!!! My daugher (aged 12) asked whether I thought Maddie was still alive or not (for those without access to the media, Maddie is an English girl who dissapeared from a hotel room a week or so ago whilst her family were holidaying in Portugal - since which time there has been a massive media and internet coverage of her and her families plight). So, in stead of the usual light hearted reply I attempted to give a more informed and personal insight.
I said that it was quite likely that Maddie had dissapeared and would never be found. It was possible that she had either been killed or that she had been taken and wouldn't be found for a long time. I said that it was a terrible thing that had happened especially if she had been killed. I then went on to say that despite this sad possibility that the media coverage of her dissapearance was way out of proportion of what was happening in the world on a daily basis.
Children die every day even here in the UK, because of road and other accidents or diseases like cancer, heart failure, the act of birth itself, and infections of all different types. For every one of those deaths that occur there are relatives and friends whose lives are permanently changed and whose deaths go unnoticed by the general public. This is very sad.
There is much sadness when a child so young goes missing. However, one of the ironies of the current media coverage is that it encourages people to believe that having a child killed by being taken away from its parents is likely when in fact the majority of children that die do so from disease or accident. What is even worse is that the majority of children that suffer abuse do so from the hands of the people with whom they put their trust i.e either their paretnts, a relative or those entrusted to care for them.
I said that we should question what we hear on the news and try and validate what we hear with what we see and have experienced for ourselves.
My daughter thought for a moment and replied "OK".
" (oh dear).On the way to school (in the car
) the conversation turned towards where Maddie might be!!!! My daugher (aged 12) asked whether I thought Maddie was still alive or not (for those without access to the media, Maddie is an English girl who dissapeared from a hotel room a week or so ago whilst her family were holidaying in Portugal - since which time there has been a massive media and internet coverage of her and her families plight). So, in stead of the usual light hearted reply I attempted to give a more informed and personal insight. I said that it was quite likely that Maddie had dissapeared and would never be found. It was possible that she had either been killed or that she had been taken and wouldn't be found for a long time. I said that it was a terrible thing that had happened especially if she had been killed. I then went on to say that despite this sad possibility that the media coverage of her dissapearance was way out of proportion of what was happening in the world on a daily basis.
Children die every day even here in the UK, because of road and other accidents or diseases like cancer, heart failure, the act of birth itself, and infections of all different types. For every one of those deaths that occur there are relatives and friends whose lives are permanently changed and whose deaths go unnoticed by the general public. This is very sad.
There is much sadness when a child so young goes missing. However, one of the ironies of the current media coverage is that it encourages people to believe that having a child killed by being taken away from its parents is likely when in fact the majority of children that die do so from disease or accident. What is even worse is that the majority of children that suffer abuse do so from the hands of the people with whom they put their trust i.e either their paretnts, a relative or those entrusted to care for them.
I said that we should question what we hear on the news and try and validate what we hear with what we see and have experienced for ourselves.
My daughter thought for a moment and replied "OK".