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81 comments on Avoiding Harmful Solutions (to Our Climate and Energy Problems)
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I blame it on the income tax code and it's ridiculous complexity. Everyone ends up at the mercy of Those Who Know The Loopholes.
Just as people are reluctant to visit the idea that our cheap energy illusion is about to end, they are equally reluctant to consider that the tax code and the patent system are both designed to accelerate the wasting of resources for no sustainable purpose.
They do, however, serve well to maintain control over knowledge and money.
"Do not let them eat from the tree of knowledge.."
Where have we heard that before?
Yes, these are some weak tongue-in-cheek links, but when philosophizing about where we should go from here, everything should be questioned for it's direct and indirect consequences.
Hi Anti-grav:
You & I probably part ways when it comes to understanding the concepts of "blame" or "patent law".
Let's not go there because it takes us way off topic from the basic issues of Peak Oil and evolving our society into one that can react positively to the problem rather than one which insists on building more Moa heads and chopping down more trees.
I don't "blame" Accountants or IRS agents or "Those Who Know Loopholes" because for the most part, they are just unthinking cogs in the machinery.
Accountants do what they do because they were brainwashing in so-called Business-as-usual School (GAAP) into accepting the status quo as the "normal". Ditto for IRS agents who were trained in doing the Master's biddings and lawyers who were trained in doing the Master's biddings.
No different than "janitors" who are expected to clean up the mess and make life conveniently convenient for those in power.
(BTW, over the weekend I saw this new George Clooney movie, Michael Clayton which takes an unnerving look at lawyers, ethics and becoming the person who no longer fits into the convenient pigeon holes.
It's not a movie for everyone. It may appeal to Peak Oilers who see themselves as no longer fitting in with conventional thinking. If you're the kind of person who enjoys critical thinking and asking yourself, what would I do in his shoes, then the movie is an interesting frolic into those kinds of things.)
I don't blame them personally, either. I blame the Blind Faith in systems and procedures which created the prevalence of them. Keeping track of money/things is important. Using the tracking system to decide the value of a person's potential is wrong. Life is abstract, yet we allow people with things like laws and dollars to decide that abstractions aren't important enough to consider in decision making processes.
The people who perform these functions are just as much to blame as those of us who let them and pay them.
In the abstract sense, you cannot go 'off topic' when it comes to peak oil because peak oil represents Peak Humanity at this point, and we have to consider all the things we do that have brought us to a precarious peak, rather than a stable sustainability.
Today's IRS agent is tomorrow's IRS director. Today's new trinket application is tomorrow's landfill fodder.
Kunstler says, "It's All Good."
I say, "It's All Peaked."
From what you said about "Michael Clayton", you will probably like the book "The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The more we read the news, the less we know.
Another quote for the day!!!
If we are talking about population levels, then I agree, PO does represent peak human population because we need the energy and fertilizers to continue defying the gravity of Malthus's inescapable logic.
(I get so frustrated when people I know laugh and assert that Malthus was wrong. That's like them laughing at Newton and saying rocks can be thrown to infinite heights --and before you object consider friction from the atmosphere-- a rock is not a rocket.)
As for Black Swan --have seen interviews with Taleb but not sure if the book will have any greater insights beyond what he has discussed publicly. Certainly for most of humanity, PO will be a Black Swan.