Bugging out Just Before TSHTF

"The Oil Drum" (TOD) has decided
to cork its barrel and go into
On the Beach mode
just before the proverbial occurrence of TSHTF

Long time contributors say their good byes


here ... (Cassandra),
here ...(Robert Rapier),
here ... (Black_Dog),
here ... (h2),
here ... (peak oil),
here ... (A. Mckay),
here ... (S. Maley),
here ... (Daily Kos),
here ... (oldfarmermac),
here ... (Ghung)
here ... (Desdemona Despair)
here ... (Ariane),
here ... (Big Gav),
here ... (George Mobus: DoomDiner)

here ..., and
here ... ((google)),

Suggestions for alternate sites:
(0) NEW! "THE" Planet Beat
(1) Energy Trends (expert columns)
(2) Resilience
(3) Boiled Frog Not
(4) Decline of Empire
(5) Peak Oil recent You-Tubes
(6) ASPO PO sites list
(7) ASPO PO News sites
(8) ...

(x) (google search) ...

Physics-"free minds" afloat in their Reality-"free markets" Gloat over demise of the Neo-Malthusian peakists

Concerns Send Oil Prices Soaring
Suddenly it just happened:

One Nation, Under-Scienced

In the Northern hemisphere, "summer"
and its associated "warm times"
comes when Earth is farthest from the Sun.

That's the science.

But them who loathe Obama march to a different truth:

CO2 has nothing to do with perceptions of anomalous climate change. The true demon here is orbital precession ... Right now, the closest point in the orbit toward the Sun takes place right after Northern Hemisphere winter solstice. That means more land is exposed to the Sun at its closest. Hence, more to warm. ... AGW is the hoax of the century

--Boehner says Obama climate change plan is ‘absolutely crazy’

One Nation, Under Surveillance, with Liberty & Justice for Them Who Can Afford It

Seeing oneself as not at the edge of the not-there cliff

Can't one have "Civilized Debate"?

What is wrong with those "others"?

How can they refuse "civilized" debate?

Indeed "one" oft wonders what in God's forsaken heaven possibly could be churning within the minds of those "others".
Especially where those others are of the non-XYZ mindset.

Here "XYZ", if you so mind,
represents "conservative"
or "liberal" or
some other such well defined
and trust-able circle of pigeon-holing.


As it so happens (click on image at right to see video)
"conservative" thinker Melanie Phillips
has shared with us her views of "one's"
place in the Universe.

One is forced you see, to live in a world
most unfortunately delineated as between the clearly rational (those who know how to engage in truth-seeking and "civilized" debate) and the "others", those who hang their hats on an "-ism", Environmentalism for example, but are not able to debate the objective facts.

Consider "Climate Change". It is a buggers' con-trick.
Surely and indeed.
All those "bio-feedbacks" in the climate will set things right
This is an "objective truth" (according to Ms. Phillips)

It is "lonely" at the top according to Ms. Phillips, to be the only journalist at her news organization still telling the "truth" in a world turned upside down.
It is lonely to be stuck there surrounded by the distortional consensus fabricated in secret cabal by the others (the Climate-Gaters), including by the gullible and unfortunately "liberal" journalists.
But be brave oh rational one. For you are not lonely among the majority of "Middle Britain", within the group that is grounded in true "reality".

Cliff?
What cliff?
I (speaking as Ms. Phillips or other conservatives) see no cliff.
But surely if there was one, "we" would see it and do the sensible thing ...

Dumbo's Feather, Inception and Collapse

"Inception" is a movie about dreams within dreams.

In Inception, a token totem spins and spins and
seems always on the edge of falling over.
What does it mean?
More importantly, in the end, the main character (Cobb) no longer hold's on to that totem.
What does that mean?

Has he let go?

"Dumbo" is a movie about a cartoon baby elephant endowed with an X-Men like mutational power which allows him to convert his flesh and blood ear flaps (used for cooling) into airplane wings (airfoils) of sufficient lift power to overcome gravity's pull on his elephant's body.

"The Feather" which Dumbo grasps

is an example of yet another held-onto totem
that has been the subject of extended focus.
What does it represent?


Before answering though ...
A first question is whether we are allowed
in a first place to ask questions or is the mere asking ...
of questions taboo? (Forbidden, Blasphemy?)

Let's assume yes ... we are allowed to ask

And then to investigate possible answers ....

In one sense, "Dumbo's Feather" represents a dream (psycho-suggestive powers) within a dream (of fly-capable elephants) within yet another dream (that of a cartoon world reflecting our reality) just as in the movie "Inception" the ploy is that of getting an audience to suspend its disbelief mechanisms to the point that they allow the movie to implant in their minds an acceptance of unreality becoming reality (of dreams seeming to come true). The notion to be grasped is that a "symbol", a "token" such as a mere feather (Dumbo's feather) can overcome the "psychological barriers" which are the only things holding us back from our "true potential" --for example, the potential of a gravity bound body (i.e. an elephant's body) to otherwise take off and fly to unlimited heights

--If only we believe hard enough. (When you wish upon a star ...)


Let's think real hard.

Where else have we been asked to hold on to tokens of belief and wish hard enough for our dreams (American dreams), for our "true potentials", to come true or to wish that those above us (our job-creationist leaders) will come to our rescue? To the rescue of Greece? To the rescue of Cyprus?

Where else have we been told
that belief alone (high self-esteem) will make us soar?


Where have we also been told ...

YES WE CAN ?  That all we need is "ingenuity"?

What manner of MAGIC FEATHER is used in each such situation?

At what points in our lives did we each mutate into being a Dumbo?


(jump forward to Table of Contents)

Run the gauntlet boy and you will be a "champ".

Peak Sapience, The Dumb-beats

Forget Peak Oil and the "Drumbeats"

We are reaching for new heights in "sound" logic used by humans --call it the 'dumb-beats'.

This is an investigatory area of unlimited scope.

Big within the taxonomical mapping of dumb-beats is the part covering our notions of "money", "debt" and "value".

How Dumbo can we be?

No number is too small.

Dare we think in the Trillions?
As in dollars?
Sure. Why not?
How about quadrillions? Only a few more zeroes!

The faster we flap (our ears,
or our mouths,
or our 'financial' and 'fiscal' neurons, etc.),
the higher we go.
Wee. This is fun!

The Wiley Coyote moment
is far away in an unfathomable future

What goes up must ....
surely keep going up.

The trend lines say so.
Trend lines never lie.
They just "inflect" every so often.

Oh no! The magic feather. The magic feather. It's disappeared. It was a mirage.

Winning is Losing, Victory is Defeat

Right? It sounds like something straight out of Orwell's "1984". Pure Double-speak.
But is it? Not so fast.
There may be truth in them there title words.

Some say, Win at "all costs".
What if "all costs" ultimately means sure-fire defeat?

A few examples
below ...

Consider the victory parade of an infectious disease (e.g. the Ebola virus).
If it wins too fast, it loses.
Because the host dies too fast.
Because the host does not then aid in proliferation of the disease.
"Total" and swift victory actually becomes defeat.

The same can apply to human endeavors ...

Consider the Industrial Age ... (the Industrial Revolution)
Yes it has "globalized" itself (taken over, infected the world)

It's victory is near total and unquestioned

And yet,we (the
victorious viral species)
begin to have a
worrisome feeling
among our ranks
that our Big Win
may be the harbinger of
Collapse (the Big Lose)

Consider sports ...
and winning at all costs

The short term gain is
... crossing the man-made
and thus artificial
"finish" line

But getting there on unsustainable
steroids?
Is that truly a "win"?

For whom?