Peak Oil Roundup, Redux

Since the concept is now on everybody's mind (well, maybe not quite yet, but soon), it's worthwhile to pick through the various outlets and see what's been happening. First off, if you, like Chaos, have become annoyed (or maybe just puzzled) by the constant chantings of Faux News types that the only thing standing in the way of the US becoming oil-independent and driving down those pesky gas prices is the "wacko-environmentalists" who prevent Alaska and off-shore drilling, read this to clarify the fact that there just isn't oil out there in sufficient quantities to make any difference (long and somewhat technical article, but has the virtue of being true).

Next off, in an interesting development, our friend James Howard Kunstler, fresh off completion of his newest (an entertaining work of fiction, entitled World Made By Hand), is featured in an editorial in, of all place, the Washington Post. The point here is not the content of the piece, since Kunstler repeats what most of us have read weekly on his blog, but the fact that it appears in a national newspaper in its unvarnished bluntness. Is the US public finally ready to hear some unpleasant facts? Doubtful, but interesting nonetheless to watch the tone of the discourse change so quickly.

In more doomer news, truckers are going out of business at an alarming rate, and car loans are not much available anymore, adding to the auto industry's woes (which are already considerable). This in addition to the continual downward spiral of the airline industry, which last week decided to add yet another level of annoying surcharges and inconvenience to the passenger experience, clearly aimed at driving more and more people to forsake air travel completely. Chaos should probably have listed more examples of this trend, but it seems too obvious and common to belabor.

A Monday Morning Rant

From the mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, of all places (you'd better believe this is truly a voice in the wilderness...), comes this very fine rant on the current political situation. It covers all the bases, in Chaos' opinion, starting with the screaming disaster that the current administration has wreaked upon the nation and the world, but also mentions a topic near and dear to Chaos' heart, that the politicians elected in a semi-free country are an accurate reflection of the public who "elected" them. Thus, George W. Bush is truly owned by the American public. (If not, of course, he'd not remain in office: there are mechanisms to accomplish this...). Chaos can simulaneously hold two somewhat opposing positions at the same time: that the current US president is perhaps the worst in history, and that a change in leadership would not change the current situation in significant ways. On the subject of rants, please consider our friend James Howard Kunstler's weekly one at his blogsite....you might disagree, but the man always has something to say, and in proper rabble-rousing fashion.

Straight Talk About Gambling: James Howard Kunstler

This man, author of The Long Emergency (a fine and chilling introduction to a few of the issues discussed here), has a weekly blogpost/commentary on the passing scene. His latest is exceptional and not the sort of stuff you're likely to hear in the happy-talk media. Excerpt:

"The current mania to expand legalized gambling around the country is a clear symptom of how desperate and crazy this society has become. In a culture where anything goes and nothing matters, it is perhaps hard for the public to understand what's wrong with it. The gambling "industry" itself has very successfully masked its pernicious nature by putting across the idea that it is just another form of innocent "entertainment," on a par with pro sports, theme parkery, and Hollywood. In fact, gambling, or "gaming," as it cynically calls itself, has hijacked elements of all these other activities to conceal its main business, which is the systematic hosing of those who can least afford to be hosed.
What's wrong with state-sponsored gambling is simple: it promotes the idea -- inconsistent with the realities of the universe -- that it's possible to get something for nothing. It is unhealthy to an extreme for a society to make this idea normal because it defeats another idea that a society absolutely depends on for survival -- namely that earnest effort matters. It conditions the public to magical thinking -- a characteristic of children-- and disables their ability to function as adults. The expansion of gambling is especially tragic at a time when this society faces epochal economic problems that threaten its existence, and by this I mean the permanent global energy crisis that will require us to reorganize virtually all the crucial activities of daily life. This is a time when the nation can least afford to disable adult thinking and earnest effort." (emphasis Chaos')
Chaos has often thought that the nature of the issues rapidly approaching demands the absolute best thinking, and most assuredly not the dysfunctional business as usual approach. Corrollary: irrational, magical thinking crowds out rational responses. In light of these premises, now view the culture of the US as it really is: celebrity-obsessed, crazily religious, media-saturated, and optimistic without basis. Shiver, readers.

Two Hits By Our Favorite Dystopian Writers

James Howard Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation, a weekly commentary on subjects covered in The Long Emergency (Peak Oil and the collapse of American suburbia), has a screamingly funny analysis on the modern male modes of apparel.

Joe Bageant, chronicler of the spiraling cultural downshift of the US and expat resident of Belize, discovers the destructive power of human overpopulation in this typically eloquent essay, posted on The Oil Drum poster Cid Yama's interesting blog.