All us GenXers are disconnected from the era of true greatness in society, of personal sacrifice and heroism. Despite living through the oil embaro and malaise of the 70s, I had it pretty damn easy growing up. But I had things missing in my life. Both my parents were workaholics. My dad would stay at work until well after 8PM. My mom worked on a home business, and the stress levels were often high. I'm not really trying to indict my parents here. Even if I felt that way, I'm edging close to 40. It's long past time to move on. But as I enter middle age as a single father with doom bearing down on me, I've found myself mining my childhood again for anything of value. When I was I child, I projected my universe into the world of television. The families led the life I wish I could have led. Now as a father I'm starting to think I've done a rather piss poor job of being the kind of parent I would have wanted to have. Being in a permanently catatonic state of anxiety about peak oil is not healthy. So a very large part of peak oil prep is to try to remold yourself into the person you feel you need to be in order to make it through a dystopian future that is not unlike a corny disaster-movie-of-the-week.
So I thought I'd run through the rolodex of my subconscious to size up the creators, characters, and programs that still resonate the most from my childhood.
ROD SERLING
This one is an obvious choice. How often does a Twilight Zone episode get referenced in relation to a peak oil topic or side-topic? I was raised as a strict atheist. While my parents always voted democratic and gave to the usual liberal causes, there was a general lack of guiding principle in my upbringing. The general idea was to just kind of focus on your career and coast through life without making too many waves. By and large that's what I've done, but in the back of my mind I have a very moralistic streak that has always wanted to come out. Shows like Twilight Zone provide
secular passion plays in which I could work over ideas of good and evil.
After I became peak oil aware I got back into Rod again, read a little more about him and learned to respect him even more. I regret the man never entered politics because he could probably bury anybody in a debate. These two excerpts from public speeches he gave seem just as relevant today as the late 60s:
That men die for causes does not necessarily sanctify that cause. And that men are maimed and torn to pieces every fifteen and twenty years does not immortalize or deify the act of war. Are you tough enough, young ladies and gentlemen, to try to build a world in which young men can live out their lives in fruitful pursuit of a decent, enriching consummation of both his talents and his hopes. But if survival calls for the bearing of arms—bear them, you must. As we all have.
Keep in mind only this—that province of combat is not the end—it is simply the means. And the most essential part of the challenge is for you to find another means that does not come with the killing of your fellow-man.
I think the destiny of all men is not to sit in the rubble of their own making but to reach out for an ultimate perfection which is to be had. At the moment, it is a dream. But as of the moment we clasp hands with our neighbor, we build the first span to bridge the gap between the young and the old. At this hour, it’s a wish. But we have it within our power to make it a reality. If you want to prove that God is not dead, first prove that man is alive.
I really can't think of anyone else who encapsulates my ideology so completely. If you want to know why I sometimes get in the face of doomer zealots who do nothing but flog their favorite scapegoats or wallow too much in cynical fatalism, this guy is the the reason. He was able to mete out balanced criticism of TPTB and the ends-justifies-the-means tactics of their opponents, calling for civility and a respect for human life.
Two more themes run through his work, one is a general disgust with the nature of work in modern society and a yearning for a simpler time. A world made by hand? Maybe not, but darn close.
STAR TREK
Another obvious choice here. I'm including it primarily because it is such a big part of my past. But I've become disillusioned with the techno-utopian message of Gene's. It is now more science fantasy than science fiction. That being said, the best of Trek (not including the new popcorn movie) makes you think about issues and asks you to decide what's right and what's wrong.
Unlike most Trek fans, I've actually gravitated more and more towards Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the definitive statement. The original Star Trek pilot was very cerebral, and ST:TMP is even moreso, to the unfortunate expense of character dynamics and exciting action. But V'Ger's journey towards omnipotence is not unlike Isaac Asimov's essay
The Last Question so often referenced by doomers. The question is, what is the purpose of growth for the sake of growth? Progress for progress? Where does it leave us in the end?
Ah, early Sunday morning TV. Like I said, I was raised an atheist, but I was compelled to explore moral choices. Insight was basically The Twilight Zone with the religion put back in. Nevertheless, the dogma wasn't rammed down your throat so hard that you couldn't get something out of it as an agnostic, atheist, or some other denomination. This particular episode is not really the best example of this. Most of them presented character studies of people making good and bad choices, or just being stuck teetering on the fence with an angel of god and the devil vying for them. Whether you are religious or not, we still have choices to make and hopefully we all have a functional superego. I hope to unearth more of these shows including the one that Rod Serling himself wrote.
OK, I'm going to lose a few of you here bringing this one up. But this is a sentimental favorite from way back. To say the image of domestic life it presents is idealistic would be an understatement, and yet it's hard to argue with the morals in these stories. I mean, I am not necessarily an arch conservative, but there is a reason we're churning out generations of kids who don't give a damn about responsibility or honor or anything else besides their own instant gratification. In a post-peak environment, responsibility and integrity are going to be necessities for survival. We won't be able to get by being couch potatoes who just casually surf through life anymore. I'm sorry to say that I'm spoiling my daughter so rotten she'll wind up just as bad as the rest if I don't and try to apply some traditional parenting skills.
There were several shows that I felt acted like surrogate families to me. The Brady Bunch, Happy Days, and
Little House. I know my mom hated that show, how sappy and melodramatic it was, not to mention Michael Landon's republican politics, but it was a fixture of my childhood. I grew up with the show just like Melissa Gilbert and I fed on the stories of community, family bonding, and interpersonal dynamics because I experienced very little of it in reality. Now it's kind of a running joke with the peak oil community:
that post-peak life will be a lot harsher than Little House, despite the fact that Little House featured a great deal of human trajedy. Thinking about Michael Landon was the reason I decided to write this piece. I remember when I was in college I suddenly became addicted to watching his followup show Highway to Heaven. There is something really brash and bold in 2009 to watch shows that dare to preach a message other than "anything goes" and "me, me, me". Maybe a part of me 20 years ago (time flies, sheesh) kind of yearned for a more clearly defined world of right and wrong, and interconnectedness.
I know this doesn't exactly jive with my prior posts talking about moving to places like Brattleboro that feature hippies streaking through the center of town nude. But this is all part of me trying to sort out what qualities in society and individuals are going to be most appropriate for post-peak oil life. And hell, even with peak oil removed it's about time I start to think about something a little deeper than my bank account or the latest gadget in the pipeline.
I've lived most of my life isolated. The only social life I've had has been through work. So I have no models to draw from in being an active member of a community, or that father who has just the right monologue to serve up for any childhood dilemma. I don't know what's going to work in general or what I'm even capable of. And I'm just watching the days, months, and years flip by while I do little besides stress out over doom by the keyboard and engage in flamewars on worldsend forums. So while this blog is doomstead diary, it's about so much more than shopping around for a property. If I don't really start to mold myself into something better, I'll probably be just as stressed out and miserable within my doomstead as I am now.
So I need to start with this
positive visualization and then try to apply it. Instead of always looking at the worst case and focusing on sheer survival, what kind of world would I like to see and how can I help make it happen? What kind of person would I like to be, that I would look up to if I were looking to myself through my daughter's eyes? If doom is approaching and there isn't anything I can do to stop it, then I can't coast through life anymore on a zillion excuses to put off the heavy stuff. It's put up or shut up time.
Is survival the end goal, or is a life well lived the end goal? Because I have to admit, spending 100% of my effort on preps and stressing on doom is not a life.
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