Examples

Human Sciences (Economics), Natural Sciences and Ethics

Let's resume the discussion about 'peak oil' from the perspective of what to do when we run out of oil. The questions we'll be exploring here are these:

• If you accept that oil energy is running out fast, then how do you adjust to the new reality?
• How do you cope with the immediate chaos of not being able to rely on gas and electricity supplies and to live in a world that reverts into a state of pre-industrial order?
• How do you deal with Governments and financiers that not only led us with open eyes into economic, political and military mayhem, but will not be there for us to help when we enter into the post-oil era?
• And finally, to what extent do you want to continue to absorb yourselves in reality TV when the real world is on the edge of a crisis that could see the end of human society as we know it?

These questions are not put to you lightly. And it's crucial that at some point soon, you face up to them and answer them honestly.

Here are three clips of an interview with Michael Ruppert who neatly resumes our global oil depletion predicament:

The Global Economic Paradigm

Ruppert argues that we are hooked into a certain (debilitating) way of thinking about how money works in the economy and must tear ourselves away from it (listen closely to his theory about money). The features of this paradigm are as follows:

1. Fractional reserve banking (banks lend money to us based on its reserve requirement)

2. Compound interest (charged on mortgages, credit cards, student loans, car loans)

3. Debt-based growth (which works on the assumption of infinite growth)

Ruppert describes this economic paradigm as a 'trap' from which it is extremely difficult to extricate ourselves. So he proposes what he calls his strategy of 'disengagement', a list of things-to-do to prepare ourselves for the post-oil era.

You'll notice that he ends the interview on a really tragic note (however much he hides it in his flippant tone): 'We're all screwed; but not everyone has to go down...'