Home > I want REAL hope: That when gas costs $46 a gallon, America will still shine...

I want REAL hope: That when gas costs $46 a gallon, America will still shine...

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 28 October 2004
5 comments

by Jane Stillwater

The future scares me. I want reassurance.

"Yes, you will always have a charge card and, yes, there will always be a mall." I get that reassurance all the time but that’s not the reassurance that I need. I’m not a fool. I know that we can’t go on spending the earth’s resources and living on peak oil forever. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER THAT.

This is the reassurance that I crave: "No matter what happens with regard to your material circumstances, your life will have purpose and meaning." That’s what I want to hear! "When peak oil runs out and our 100 years of mindless consuming catches up with us and we are living by candlelight and cooking venison over a wood fire, life will still be IMPORTANT and HOPEFUL and...." That’s it! That’s what I need!

And there is no one who is telling me that — except possibly my priest.

There are big changes coming up in our world — even as soon as in the next five years — no matter who gets elected or who gets bombed, blown up or shot. And we must start preparing for them NOW. What will life be like when the inevitable happens and we have to live more realistically?

I want to know what kind of person will I be when I am striped of all my "things". Will I still be kind and loving and good — and free?

The Indians of the high plains had nothing but what they could carry from site to site yet they were men and women of courage and meaning.

Before they were overrun by the Communist Chinese, Tibetans lived simply — even without ELECTRICITY — yet they are legendary as being one of highest civilizations ever made. Why were they so great? Because they governed their lives by one simple question which they asked themselves constantly — "If I do thus and so, will it be of the highest benefit to the most sentient beings? What can I do to help those around me?" As a result of their concern and care for others and, despite Communist propaganda to the contrary, pre-invasion Tibet, not Disneyland, was the happiest place on earth.

Pictures of a future world: Us, like mice, scurrying from war to war; vultures searching for prey.

Us, like heroes, building the most important civilization the world has ever known — constructing it on the building blocks of the glorification of all that is good within the human spirit and soul.

Pictures of a future world: What is REALLY important? In the future, will America shine? We must, like a child who finally outgrows the Terrible Twos, turn to better things. It is time for Americans to stop squabbling with the world, stop childishly playing "cowboys" and finally become adults.

"Bring it on" is no longer an option. We can no longer solve our environmental problems by killing "redskins".

Give me a future that is real. Please.

****
From Nigel: On Bush’s watch, a staggering amount of American jobs were lost. http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/politics/fourmoreyears_flash.cfm

From Me: I wrote a book many years ago, entitled "Pictures of a Future World". It was about an Indian tribe who accidentally became immortal and witnessed millenniums of man’s inhumanity to man — until Homo Sapiens managed to kill all of themselves off. When I wrote it, I had assumed that it was a novel.

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It’s time for our military to stop acting like bandits holding up the convenience stores of the world for oil.

****
Press Release: I’m still trying to rescue my daughter’s friend "Jordan" from one of those "Behavior Modification" programs out in the Utah desert. Someone else in my same postition has filed a Habeas Corpus writ to try to get another child released from one of these programs on the basis that the child is behing held in involuntary servitude in violation of the 14th Amendment. The hearing is in federal court next week. If the writ is granted, it will mean that non-guardians can have input into whether or not chidren can be carted away to boot camps by their parents with no repercussions from the community. (See Feldman v. Youth Care of Utah et al, Case No.: 2:04-CV-00933PGC)

Good Morning America is doing a segment on the Feldman case. Somebody want to do a segment on Jordan too? 100 years after adult involuntary servitude was elimintated, it’s time we eliminate child involuntary servitude as well! Oprah! 60 Mintues! Jerry! Do you hear me! Give me a call. E-mail me.

Picture the future: http://www.clowntech.com/win04/vote.htm

http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/

Forum posts

  • Hello Jane,

    Here are some reasons for hope:

    1st US Conference on “Peak Oil” and Community Solutions, Nov 12-14
    www.communitysolution.org/conf1.html

    Peak Oil Action
    www.peakoilaction.org

    A Practical Response
    www.hubbertpeak.com/whatToDo/DeindustrialAge.htm

    Oil Awareness Meetup Groups
    http://oilawareness.meetup.com

  • There won’t always be a mall, and you won’t always have a charge card. Enjoy it now. It’s all about to be flushed down the gurgler.

    Check out Jim Kunstlers, Clusterfuck Archives. You’ll find it in google.

    There isn’t much hope. Were looking at a major change in our living arrangements. The suburban dream is about to turn into a nightmare.

    steve.

  • Actually, candles are made from petroleum products and the wood will all be gone in a couple of years if we start burning it for fuel.

    Cheers,

    Charles Minus

  • In theory it’s not that difficult, just think about what’s the most important thing in your life. Most likely feelings like love/compassion will be involved with the things you really do value. Most likely that was also the case in the pre-carbon world.

    Every deep spiritual book of value, be it Nostradamus or the bible; they all talk about humanity which will experience a serious crisis, after which there will become a thousand years of men living in harmony with other human beings and their environment.

    The civilisations you mentioned, Tibetians and Indians both had religic values in harmony with mother nature. In that sense, talking to your priest for reassurance might do some good. If it’s a good priest with real understanding of life.

    Civilisation will collapse somehow sometime; We probably will see the beginning of it. It might not be that bad, what about the alternative ? A world with infinite fossil fuels with which we will do infinite more damage to mother earth? A collapse of a civilisation might not be nice, but it might not go that fast, the roman empire took about 400 years to collapse. 400 years in which people let their own lives. I don’t believe all those people were living without a meaning of life.

    I happen to life in Europe, the Netherlands to be more precise. Around 1600 we had a war, which lasted 80 years to "liberate" ourselves from the "evil" Spanish kingdom. It means, we had two generations (people didn’t live that long as we do now) of humans who accepted to be at war as "normal". Life didn’t stop. But I must admit, war then was not the same as war is now.

    Probably a lot of people will suffer, possibly you, me and a lot of others. It’s normal when you live, happiness and suffering. More frightening is the scale at which things could evolve. And indeed, the possibility of all live dissappearing from earth. Well, in that case we have noone else to blame except ourselves.

    People can die under terrifying circumstances, be it the first world war with large scale chemical warfare, the second world war with the Jews dying under non-human conditions or Vietnam with ordinary people suffering from napalm bombs etc. We have not learned from our mistakes, don’t make any illusions about that.

    We might behave like mice at some point in time, or like vultures; but don’t pay to much attention to outside appearances. Where there’s life, hopes and dreams also can be found. Wether realistic or not.

    Love and compassion is a driving force behind life itself, in that sense the only meaning of life you can trust and value is within your own heart. That was true in the pre carbon world, it’s true in our present world and it will hopefully be true in the era we are entering.

    Don’t worry to much about things that will go wrong, divert your energy to things where you can make a difference. Be it on a large scale or very close to home. It will give you more statisfaction.