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Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:02 pm
by utrix
The large middle class of the U.S. depends entirely on cheap petroleum and natural gas for its existence. Petroleum powers cars, but more importantly, it powers food and product transport trucks, it goes into most plastics, it fertilizes crops and purifies water. It's necessary for construction, demolition, manufacturing and some home electricity. Natural gas heats homes and provides the rest of home electrical power. Natural gas is already depleting past the point of no return, and petroleum has just begun a downward spiral into ever decreasing supply and increasing demand.

When demand for oil outstretches the supply by far enough, America's middle class will collapse. There will be the shockingly wealthy and the shockingly poor. Only then, the poor will make up around 85% of the nation. The streets of every city and town will become crime ridden slums where grown men kill each other for loaves of bread and bottles of water to give to their families. The wealthy will retreat somewhere, most likely all to one place but possibly to a few different communities, which will have huge walls around them and high-tech security systems to protect them from the starving, angry masses.

Joining the army will be seen as treachery by most of the outsiders, but it will also be one of the only options which promises food and shelter, at least until you die. Most likely the draft will be reinstated anyway, though the conditions of the streets will probably turn the draft into armored vans which abduct anyone who looks healthy enough to fight. Wars will be fought all over the world to take control of dwindling petroleum reserves in order to keep up the enormous oil habit of the surviving (and mostly unscathed) upper classes. the prison industrial complex will grow until it houses most of the American populus, and will consist of factories or work camps only a bit more humane than the izan extermination camps of yesteryear. Any kind of an internal resistance is unlikely to be very effective, though simply surviving under the radar will be a fairly common phenomenon.

The future does not look good.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:06 pm
by kion
Ripe for a Hollywood movie about it!

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:10 pm
by viceroy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil

Look at what Brazil is doing with sugar based gas. Shame it will be ignored here in the States....

BECAUSE YOU CAN"T MAKE ENOUGHT MONEY OFF OF IT!

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:11 pm
by marsyas
Alex bk-bk wrote:doesnt that alias track have vocals by thingy from notwist on it?
but yeah intrumental music can defintly be political no quesation there. it just takes a craftsman. and i can't see the agendas of dance and politic combining easily
no...only snippets of samples...new broadcasts and whatnot

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:12 pm
by marsyas
Spaceboy wrote:Hold-up, I work for an american firm, i never made this out to be an america-bashing thread...its funny how it turns out like that
not funny, its so easy to point fingers these days.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:13 pm
by seckle
KION wrote:Ripe for a Hollywood movie about it!
go rent syriana.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:14 pm
by natter
[quote="Spaceboy"]also fact of the matter is: oil is a finite resource...nuclear power is pretty much the most effective replacement..."


Uranium is a finite resource too. Current known reserves around 30 years.


We just gotta get by with less of everything. Except peace and love.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:17 pm
by viceroy
Natter wrote:We just gotta get by with less of everything. Except peace and love.
and herb, computers, records.....

:lol:

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:21 pm
by spaceboy
seckle wrote:
KION wrote:Ripe for a Hollywood movie about it!
go rent syriana.
damn right god that film is the bollux.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:22 pm
by seckle
some things i think about all the time vis a vis politics...
1. nothing is sacred anymore. our cultural rituals are losing their importance.
2. bombing for democracy
3. the decline of socialism due to globalization
4. the rise of fanaticism
5. the erosion of the middle class all over the globe.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:26 pm
by spaceboy
what about condi's gym workout programme? i heard she aired it on tv

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:37 pm
by nelwin
I think that the majority of people are overreacting, were not going to run out of natural resources...when one resource becomes short and there is no further chance of it to be produced, we will move forward to another...man creates or discovers sources much faster than we can use them up. Think back to the resource used for fuel in the 1800's, whale blubber. When it started to run out, people panicked, until the first oil well was drilled.

Think back 30 years and try to imagine the public's view of the future. Most people at that time felt that the planet was overpopulated and would soon run out of resources.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:45 pm
by marsyas
seckle wrote:some things i think about all the time vis a vis politics...
1. nothing is sacred anymore. our cultural rituals are losing their importance.
2. bombing for democracy
3. the decline of socialism due to globalization
4. the rise of fanaticism
5. the erosion of the middle class all over the globe.
listen to this:

http://www.dilatorylife.com/Other/Speech_to_Music.mp3

i cut this for a mix i did a while back.
just listening to him speak, gives me goosebumps.

it is 35 years old, but he really talks about things that where problems then and are still problems now.the media bit, the bit about us being only 6% of the population....anyways.

just thought i would post that up.

Nuclear is already becoming the way forward whether we like it or not.
has anyone else seen the documentary indian point?
there is a nuclear power station about 25 miles from NYC, the terrorists flew right over it...if they would have hit a spent fuel pool or done any damage.there would have been millions dead.
NYC may have been uninhabitable right now, like churnoble.
i agree nuclear power is "an" answer, but it could be a huge target sign as well.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:57 pm
by viceroy
Marsyas wrote:
seckle wrote:some things i think about all the time vis a vis politics...
1. nothing is sacred anymore. our cultural rituals are losing their importance.
2. bombing for democracy
3. the decline of socialism due to globalization
4. the rise of fanaticism
5. the erosion of the middle class all over the globe.
listen to this:

http://www.dilatorylife.com/Other/Speech_to_Music.mp3

i cut this for a mix i did a while back.
just listening to him speak, gives me goosebumps.

it is 35 years old, but he really talks about things that where problems then and are still problems now.the media bit, the bit about us being only 6% of the population....anyways.

just thought i would post that up.
There is a song called by The Living Fields that goes along the same lines. Really beautiful strings and drums under speach clips from many great minds.

Gives me goosebumbs actually.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:48 pm
by adruu
Anyone read The Prize by Daniel Yergin? Massive book, so I dont know if anyone outside of a student's schedule can really do the whole thing.

i'm saying we should nationalize...make the beast more transparent and use the profits for education and health care.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:52 pm
by ramadanman
fuck the politics, this is a music forum.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:03 pm
by rickyricardo
seckle wrote:some things i think about all the time vis a vis politics...
1. nothing is sacred anymore. our cultural rituals are losing their importance.
In many ways, 'culture' in most industrialized nations is segmenting along individualized lines. Rather than looking for (or receiving) validation from society at large, increasingly we turn to ourselves and seek enrichment for our "inner-lives"....generally through mediated consumption. Rituals don't have a place in a society where nothing is shared anymore.
2. bombing for democracy
Who's being bombed for democracy? :wink:
3. the decline of socialism due to globalization
I'm not sure that the two have to be mutually exclusive. It would seem to me that the grandest form of socialism would be one that emphasized all of humanity as being a cooperative international community rather than retreating back into tribalism or (even worse) nationalism.

4. the rise of fanaticism
That actually ties back to the first point. I believe that fanatics and fundamentalists become that way when they feel as if their culture/rituals/way of life is under attack. That wary gaze on the "dismantling of culture" has driven a range of ideologues and movements....from Leo Strauss and American conservatives, to Sayyed Qutb and modern-day muslim extremists. One thing to be said about fanatics is that their reasonings for going down that path should be studied and observed with the same amount of passion as we put into decrying their methods.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:05 pm
by rickyricardo
ramadanman wrote:fuck the politics, this is a music forum.
all politics are local.

all music is political :wink:

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:26 pm
by spaceboy
ramadanman wrote:fuck the politics, this is a music forum.

with a name like yours mate, you'd get arms house in certain parts of LON.......

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 12:54 am
by seckle
RickyRicardo wrote:
seckle wrote:

4. the rise of fanaticism
RickyRicardo wrote: One thing to be said about fanatics is that their reasonings for going down that path should be studied and observed with the same amount of passion as we put into decrying their methods.
excellent point. i absolutely agree with you on this. it's essential for all of us, especially those of us between 20 to 40, to understand other belief systems no matter how extreme and how far they may be from our own. as mass media becomes more biased and dictatorial, the truths become more grey and harder to establish. i wish more people in our generation would understand this, and not just digest everything being presented on the 11pm news. seeing issues from both sides is the only way forward.
seckle wrote: 2. bombing for democracy
RickyRicardo wrote:Who's being bombed for democracy? :wink:
sorry. should've been more specific. bombing other countries using democracy as a smokescreen to lay the groundwork for stealing oil.