By: William Jorgensen

William Jorgensen — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 12:51:06 +0000

I saw Richard Heinberg in Sydney, Australia recently and was impressed with his introductory message, though being an already well-indoctrinated “peakster” made it less informative. One of my few disturbing and notable observations was that the audience was mostly made up of academic-looking types of well-dressed and well-coifed appearance, not exactly the energetic radical gathering I’d been hoping to see. I got the impression that many of those in attendance would be most interested in their share portfolios than the survival of the species.
I certainly agree with his appraisal of the psychological effect on those who’d taken time to study the issue and the facts that surround this certain future crisis. I went through most of the trauma associated with “enlightenment”; without the denial aspect – though I did spend a lot of time looking for, and at, alternate arguments, all of which turned out to be much less factually substantial.
However, I’ve unfortunately come to the conclusion that there’s not much that can be done to “gather the masses” for an orderly powerdown. Very few people are willing to accept that the end is near, most will dismiss every fact no matter where it comes from. This is why I’ve finally joined the pessimists who feel the only chance of anyone surviving is to basically head-for-the-hills and prepare as best we can; personally, for my family, and possibly a small group of other like-minded families.
I’d like to remain positive but the evidence of mass indifference is too overwhelming. Anything that might’ve been possible by universally recognising the problem, and actually doing something about it, has become a past-tense exercise in wishful thinking. Time has run out.
I now spend my spare time watching the currency and stock markets (commodities mostly) waiting for the signals that will presage the collapse. Oil and gas pricings are only barely paid attention to; there’s so much political manipulation of oil and gas commodity news that the current prices are nearly irrelevant.
The house of cards will start to collapse in places most wouldn’t pay attention. I expect the finacial markets to register signs of demand-destructive news first, from there indicators will show up in radical currency fluctuations and then oil and gas supply instability will start an energy crunch as the petro-dollar is devalued and a downward spiral brings a total market collapse.
If you want an example of the paranoid you merely have to look at me in the last four days; I’ve been catching four hours sleep a night since the American Thanksgiving holiday watching the Forex currency trades.
I’m hoping there’s a stabilising of the US$ by Thursday so I can get back to getting enough sleep, I’m not ready for the “big crunch” just now. I’d like another couple of years to set up my bolt-hole in the boondocks. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

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By: William Jorgensen