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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Shaking the grid
  • Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:28:15 EST


> >And some people apparently can't accept their own beliefs

In this context I find Don's comment quite appropriate and illustrative.
On other fora there has been discussion of the realities of peak oil, and
even peak uranium. On this forum and others there have been halluciantions
of
supplying a house's electric needs on a trickle of water in a drainage
ditch. Someone (here) once proposed attaching generators to the wheels of a
car
to make use of all that wasted motion and I even knew one otherwise sane and
reasonable person actually plan on rigging up a wind generator in the back
of his pickup truck so he could generate electricity while he was driving.

At first I thought all these things were from ignorance of the mechanics.
But I've decided not. This list, for example, has few people who cannot
understand the physics and mechanics of electic power. Oh, they may not be
able to convert kilocalories to horsepower to kilowatt hours in their heads,
but once the math is explained, I think there are few people here who cannot
follow it.

Rather it's the inabiltiy and unwillingness to think the unthinkable. We
are convinced beyond all reason and evidence to the contrary that there must
be, just MUST be, that free lunch out there. We are willing to set aside
everything we know of math and physics and put our fingers in our ears and
shout "la, la, la" to keep from hearing any explanation that you can't tap
into
the gutter downspout or attach a generator to the rocking chair and make a
significant (or even perceptible) difference in your dependence on the grid.

In fact, the prospects of, for example, there being no more oil is so
horrifying that most people could deal with proof that their spouse was
cheating
on them, their child had died, or that there is no god better than they
could deal with proof that oil reserves are declining.

So I find Don's saying 'no god' and 'no free lunch' in the same breath to
be spot on. Given the choice between the two, most people would gladly
become athiests and fill their tanks one more time.


James</HTML>




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