Kunstler Time

James Howard Kunstler is often branded as one the "doomers" of peak oil. I tend to think of him more as a realist. He makes two points this week that I'd like to highlight:

It brings back the question, which has loomed dimly at the margins of America's collective consciousness, as to whether we can get through the long emergency ahead without going through a wringer of domestic political convulsion. At this rate, sooner or later, anything identified with wealth could become a target for the wrath of the unemployed and foreclosed. The first rock that flies through an East Hampton window, or the first firebomb tossed into the lobby of Goldman Sachs Manhattan headquarters could ignite a chain of events that shoves all economic policy out of the political arena and quickly divides everyone at the center of power into armies out for blood.

I'm not to sure how this would play out. American is more terror alert and most city scrapers have major deterrents to these kind of acts. On top of that, with all that has gone on already in the country, from stolen elections, failed federal agencies, and stimulus outrage, why has it not happened already? My opinion is that we are too docile, in love with our gadgets and whiz bang movie openings. I think it will take a food and/or gas shortage to make this a reality. When you can't go anywhere or can't feed yourself, people will get a bit desperate.

Also, just a message to all the young dudes (and women):

It would mean different ways-of-life for a lot of people -- for instance, young adults who had expected lifetime employment as corporate executives but who, instead, find themselves ten years from now working at farming. We have an awful lot to get real about.

Yes, get real about it. We need more farmers and this is not negotiable.