Fan Speed and Shit Velocity

Things are proceeding. Folks everywhere are trying to find solutions that will work for them. Some of the solutions will work. Most probably won't.

What always shocks me is how folks seem to look at secondary phenomenon and treat them as causal. I have a tendency of looking at things as an energy flow equation. The reason that we are seeing dropping car production, loss of jobs, increased prices, etc., etc., etc., is that some of the smart guys at the top have realized that we are at the end of our rope with increasing energy inputs and the resulting "economic growth".

No one seems to want to mention this uncomfortable little tidbit. The big boys at the top want to cash out in orderly fashion. So them standing up and saying "all is fucked, we are skedaddling" would significantly cut into their ability to cut and run. The carmakers and the banks have been riding the orgy of consumption and are loathe to part with the continuation of their ill gotten gains. The lumpen still love their cars. The liberals still need increases in energy flow to fund their efforts to save the world.

But the oil is running out. Saudi production is down, Mexico production is down, China production is down, US production is down. We are at the crest of the wave, and the production ain't a comin' back.

So all of the epiphenomenon that we are obsessing about are going to keep creeping toward us, as surely as the lava flows from a Filipino volcano. Can we stop the changes. No. Can we live just dandy under the new lower-energy regime? The results from Europe and other developed countries would say yes.

So we have to change. As good Americans, we will go kicking and screaming and bitching about how our "rights" have been violated.

Such is life.