Peak Signs

10:05 am - Thu, Oct 4, 2012

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The Presidential Debate: A Dismal Failure

Ahh, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney…don’t they look dapper in their officially sanctioned uniforms of the Corporate State.

The debate was unfortunately yet another failure to come to grips with reality.

Not once during the debate did either Romney or Obama address the following:

• Nearly 7 years of declining convetional crude oil production and anemic growth of total liquid fuels production. And no honest debate about how that meaningfully affects economic growth.
• Not one mention about accelerating Climate Change.
• No mention of the prevalent fraud that occurred on Wall Street during the past decade (and longer) or what either would do in the next term to restore the rule of law to the world of high finance. 

Instead we heard a whole bunch of hoopla about how both would do things slightly differently to achieve the same result, get back on the path to infinite growth on a finite planet. Grow Baby Grow!

There is no critical discussion or thought about continued economic growth.  Is it affordable any longer?  Is it feasible?  Is it beneficial to society any longer? (Was it ever?)  Is it even possible any longer in the face of growing resource scarcity and increasing uncertainty over the future due to climate change?

Nope. No discussion by any one remotely in the “mainstream” of American society, including the mainstream intellectuals.

Instead the red, white and blue sheep of America flock to their favorite social media website and spew childish one liners like “Wow, Romney is putting the beat down on Obama!” and vice versa; while deluding themselves that such actions demonstrate that they are active and informed citizens in a real democracy.

Just remember America, as our military empire continues to collapse (yes it is an empire) and the economy continues to slide into oblivion as a result, it has nothing to do with the following:

• The God King Jesus Christ punishing the nation for not stoning gays and lesbians or persecuting poor people for being lazy.
• Creeping Sharia law over-regulating the paragons of capitalism on Wall Street.
• Bizarro Socialism
• The environmentalists keeping us from drilling our way to energy independence
• Or any other made up fantasy delusion

It will be primarily because you, the American Citizen, continue to ignore the signals that reality is sending you. The longer you indulge in denial and delusion the worse your situation will become.  The signals that reality is sending include, that your way of life is unsustainable on a finite resource base and that the global industrial experiment is coming to an end due to resource constraints. 

If you read the signals correctly and react accordingly there is a chance that you could secure for yourself and your posterity some semblance of civilized life, albeit at a much lower level of energy and resource intensity. 

If not, then the great American experiment will go down the drain of history.