Singapore Peak Oil

Jay Hanson, creator of dieoff.org, commented in his killer_ape-peak_oil yahoo group as to why a soft landing to our converging crises (peak oil, overpopulation, etc.) is impossible. He attributes it to pride and social status. Is he right? You can request to join his message group by contacting him at http://warsocialism.com/contact.html.

Will Singapore's leaders change our policies about population and economic growth when they realise that they are fundamentally wrong? Or will pride, as Jay alleged, get in the way?

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/killer_ape-peak_oil/message/7387

I finally have the big picture with respect to human nature and social organizations. In the past, I thought that a lack of training prevented social scientists from understanding how the world really works. After more than ten years of thinking about it, I now realize that social scientists are subconsciously LYING to prevent losing social status!

Fathers kill their daughters to increase social status. Almost all social organizations -- including governments -- PRIMARILY serve the fitness of the people involved in the day-to-day operations of those organizations by increasing their social status -- by increasing their fame and fortune.

The drive to increase status motivates almost all consumption in capitalist countries (e.g., faster cars, more expensive food, bigger houses, more arcane vacations, the list is literally endless). Moreover, nearly everyone LIES (albeit subconsciously) while attempting to inflate their social status.

Selfish genes guarantee that so-called "civilizations" are little more than a bunch of peacocks prancing around preening their magnificent tails. It's all about the spectacle.

A soft landing is impossible because those in positions of power can't stop lying and thereby lose face. It's that simple.

Jay
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Ps. Another impediment to a soft landing is the national security complex which works to prevent the publication of papers on EROI because they would undermine America's national political agenda:

"In 1965, RAND created a fellowship program for economics graduate students at the Universities of California, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Chicago, Columbia and Princeton, and in addition provided postdoctoral funds for those who best fitted the mold. These seven economics
departments along with MIT's, an institution long regarded by many as a branch of the Pentagon, have come to dominate economics globally to an astonishing extent." http://www.paecon.net/StrangeHistory.htm

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http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/killer_ape-peak_oil/message/7390

So, the big picture is six billion people struggling to increase their social status -- increase the size of their peacock tails -- by depleting natural resources. All organizations within a country -- all branches of government, universities, corporations, and lobbyists -- work to support the genetic drive for more status by its leading members while suppressing dissenting opinions.

The genetic drive for status is ENORMOUSLY powerful with people willing to go so far as to kill themselves (e.g., hara-kiri) and family members (Muslim Father Kills Daughter for Not Wearing Hijab). Besides being one of the most powerful, the genetic drive for status can never be satisfied:

"I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death." -- Thomas Hobbes

In other words, if your neighbor appears to increase his status beyond yours, then you must work extra harder to increase your status and get ahead of him (buy more-expensive car, bigger house, better job, etc.). We used to call is "keeping up with the Joneses".

All leading people within the national paradigm deliberately lie (most subconsciously) to further their drive to increase status. Moreover, no one is willing to lose social status ("lose face") by admitting they were fundamentally wrong all along. So not only do all organizations within a country work in concert to promote the national paradigm, all leading people are genetically-biased against telling the truth because they would lose social status. http://www.warsocialism.com/SelfDeception.pdf

When people are frustrated in their endless drive to increase fitness, they resort to violence (e.g., South Africa). The only alternative to public violence is the endless conversion of natural resources into ever-more-marvelous peacock tails.

But the laws of thermodynamics tell us that less-and-less natural resources are available for conversion into these ever-more-marvelous peacock tails. The genetic drive for more-and-more colliding with thermodynamic laws allowing less-and-less is known as the "Thermo/Gene Collision" and MUST lead to a new world war over natural resources. http://www.warsocialism.com/thermogenecollision.pdf

Any questions on the above material?

Jay