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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] oil was:Political
  • Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:26:39 EST


> Okay, so I am still not sure where this is going...
>
>
> James, you are using too fancy of words for me...I might have gone to
> Emory like you, but I'm getting old and I've been dumbed down...
> What exactly do you mean by cornucopian mind?
> Fruity ideas??
>

Sorry, it's an odd head space I occupy of late and I'm not always aware that
everyone isn't fluent in doom-speak.

A cornucopian is one who cannot accept that the basis of our society (that
is, oil and energy) are finite and so thinks that there just HAS to be a
forever source somewhere, somehow. The idea that you could mine all the oil
out of
the ground and then have nothing with which to replace it is just not
acceptable and is not to be entertained. We *always* find a way, we
*always* find a
solution. After all, we put a man on the moon, by God! The cornucopian
thinks that the source of our energy intensive society is like a great Horn
of
Plenty (Cornucopia) and there's no reason to think that we are burning a
finite
candle at both ends.

Where this is leading is that faced with the notion of moving past Peak Oil
and into the post oil world (post CHEAP oil world) the cornucopian will say,
Oh, that's why we need more technology, all we need is more techology and we
can get more and more and more oil out of the ground. Or we need do research
to
come up with a car that gets 200 mpg.

Often the cornucopian muses: I bet that have a car like that, I bet they
could build a car like that. Sure, when oil gets short enough they will
reveal
all along that they can make a car that gets 500 mpg.

In order to harbor notions like this, the cornucopian has to become willfully
ignorant of physics.

For someone who understands that our transportation and energy intensive
culture is rapidly using up a one-time finite resource and who says that we
will
be in severe oil crisis in three years .... and then is reminded that
technology might improve the rate of oil extraction or gas mileage .... the
reply is,
"Fine ... five years then."




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