five stages of grief

FIVE STAGES OF GRIEF



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Thank you, Idaho Homesteader, for the article idea. The Five Stages Of Grief as it pertains to civilization collapse has been done elsewhere many times, but their take on it is dull and boring, so let’s spice this enchilada up a bit with some wasabi. The Five Stages Of Grief was first written about by a psycho-babbler who was desperate to create a name for themselves professionally. You know how these things go. Someone, oh, say an economist goes through half their life living in an ivy tower, the epitome of Vast Encyclopedic Knowledge Of The Ages Egghead Professor Who Doesn’t Know Jack Spit About Reality. Then, one day something happens like they trip and fall and hit their head and they think Baby Jesus himself descended down from On High and delivered an epiphany. They write a 1500 page paper on how people act in their own self interests and win a Nobel Prize for it ( that part I’m not making up- well, the paper length part, but not the subject winning the Nobel ). This is how far the mighty have fallen. We are so desperate to employ far too many over-educated idiots that we award them for brilliant flashes of common sense. I think if the Dynamite King were alive today he would try to blow up all those flaming mouth breathing jerk wads on the award committee. Anyway, a person of minimal formal education and maximum street smarts would describe grief acceptance in this way. Crap happens, people learn how to deal with it, life goes on. But that is too simple. That ain’t going to pay for Professor Egghead’s Saab, his McMansion and his yearly Bermuda vacations. So they come up with this kind of crap. First there comes denial. This can’t be happening. Then anger. How dare this happen to me. Then bargaining. Well, Ill accept this crap is happening, but I want to split the difference. Then depression. Crap, they won’t bargain. Finally, acceptance. Crap! Fine! I’ll just deal with it you bastards!

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Here is the Peak Oil, Peak Money, Overpopulation scenario plaid out by most folks. Why, this simply can’t be happening. We have a gabizillion barrels of frac oil in the Rocky Mountains. All we have to do is transport a thousand barrels of water per barrel of oil from a thousand miles away, pipe in natural gas to heat the rock from five hundred miles away, pump the finished product to market, and then we get a whole 1.5 to 1 energy return on energy investment. Why, we’ll be energy independent forever!!! That is called denial. Next, they learn that ten trillion dollars invested in this project will need more metal ore than is available globally, and that NASA has no plans to mine the asteroid belt to get more. This really pisses people off, because they just know that if Obammy wasn’t President, there would be no shortage of resources EVER, no matter how much we used or how big the population became. That was anger. Next, people start to bargain. Fine, they say. I’ll admit that oil will run out in five hundred years, so I’ll pack a bug-out bag and buy three AR-15’s and a case of MRE’s. See? I got prepared, so nothing bad can happen now. Once they realize that this won’t feed them over a week they get all depressed and weepy. Why, oh why!? Why must the American people live within the natural constraints all others through history have. But, aren’t we much more special?

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Finally, they accept that the end is nigh and they will all die if they don’t prepare. So they go on down to Wal-Mart to buy rice and beans and some ammo. At which time they encounter a riot of likeminded unprepared citizens, are trampled and shot, and are dead. Dumbass. You don’t have the luxury of wallowing through five stages of grief that western civilization is collapsing. Go through a minimal amount of pain for a few months, bite the bullet and spend some spare change, and get your as ready. We’ve talked about the truck load of grain spilled in the meadow ( not my example- I think it was Greer ). Suddenly, for the first time in history, a huge food surplus. Wildlife eats and multiples. Suddenly, the grain is gone and the huge population starts to die off. We are that group of overfed wildlife. And the only thing that will save us is if another truck spills more grain ( I’ll spell it out in case you don’t get it. We can’t discover another two trillion barrels of oil ). This crap is simple. Collapse WILL happen. Only the timing is unknown. Get prepare yesterday. If you die before civilization does, give the crap to your kids. It won’t go to waste. All you boneheads trying to bargain with the laws of physics are just wasting time. And at the same time, learn to relax. You take yourself quite seriously. But nobody else does, sorry to break it to you, buddy. So stop thinking so highly of yourself, have a bit of damn fun, and enjoy life.

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Sorry, about ten percent shorter today. I was running late for lunch and you get a condensed article.

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