Doomer Hope

People naturally associate "doomers" as straight up haters who don't want to see anything good happen. I disagree. Doomers, such as myself, don't want to see bad things happen but get their doomer attitude from being completely honest about the perilous situation that lies ahead. They do have hope but tend not to look at things with doe-eyed optimism when they know a giant pain tsunami is on the way.

Need an example. Check out James H. Kunstler's weekly blog today for a true Defcon 1 Doomer's call for hope:

Perhaps it's time to redefine "hope" in the greater social sense of the word. To me, hope is not synonymous with "wishes fulfilled." In fact, hope should not be about wishing at all. Hope should be based on confidence that the individual or group is reliably competent enough to meet the challenges that circumstances present. Hope is justified when people demonstrate to themselves that they can behave ably and bravely. Hope is not really possible in the face of patent untruthfulness. It is derived from a clear-eyed and courageous view of what is really going on. I don't think that defines any of the behavior in the United States these days. We've become a self-jiving nation intent on playing shell games, running Ponzi schemes, and working Polish blanket tricks on ourselves.

Doomers don't wish there to be money trees that solve all our problems. They don't fetish over technological wunder-projekts that will defy physics. Doomer Hope means having the power to let go of fantasy and make hard-nosed decisions on what needs to get done to get through the challenges that are coming.

Don't mistake this for some populist homage to hard working pipefitters who want their kids to grow up to be yuppie marketing managers so they don't have to break their backs molding pipe all day. Doomer Hope is letting go, getting back to work and enjoying the small gains achieved with much sacrifice as it has been through human existence before cheap energy.