How optimistic are you about the future?

[laura888]

Poll question: How optimistic are you about the future?

[havocmom]

1. fubar

that's my take on it

[tibbir]

2. Things get more depressing all the time.

I keep thinking we've hit a new low....and then there's another one. I feel really bad for my 20 year old son.

[AuntiBush]

12. Same here, tibbir...

Same here. You said it.

[wli]

3. it's basically an apocalypse

Fascist coup d'etat in the government (and probably numerous others around the world), peak oil, global economic collapse, runaway global warming, huge ongoing mass extinction event, and the whole nine yards. We aren't coming back from this one.

[laura888]

4. out of curiousity...

...are you doing anything to prepare for these events?

For example, have you updated your passport in anticipation of leaving the U.S.?

[wli]

6. not much

My significant other has vetoed fleeing the country, so I'm basically just waiting to get killed by DHS death squads, SCO/BRIC nuking us, or whatever Bushler is cooking up.

[The2ndWheel]

5. Hey, look at that

we share the same brain.

[wli]

7. I guess that lowers the probability of having gone nuts

But I'd rather be crazy than this be true.

Hmm, didn't Indira Singh say that?

[JanMichael]

23. I have to say that I agree that the (literal) shit will hit the fan soon.

Not dates or exact times but it'd take a whole hell of a lot to convince me otherwise.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. I'm entirely optimistic about the future. It's going to happen, no doubt.

Whether it's filled with shit is another issue altogether ;-)

[mcscajun]

9. I'm halfway between Crisis State Turquoise and Crisis State Magenta

Only with no kids, and no stockpiling.

[Deja Q]

10. Ultimately? Extermination or genocide of the human species if not worse.

Witness:

1. our population. 7 billion humans. Many of which in shoddy conditions. 350 million Americans, being abandoned by their wealthier American counterparts in the name of greed. (from jobs right down to the excessive use of gaming consoles, which helps the execs blame us for not being bright enough as their excuse for offshoring.)

2. peak oil. Oil is involved in everything from transport to fertilizer to plastic containers, the lot. Even so, the worst use of oil comes from transportation. Nixon created the federal 55mph speed limit to curb gasoline use (optimal usage is at 35mph. 65mph also uses 15% more gas than 55mph...) The limit was disbanded in the late 1990s.

3. War. Make a friend, make him an enemy, then exterminate him. It's not very Christian, but then we're only human.

4. Apart from farmers, who are a dying breed because it's more profitable to sell the land and go into another profession; the land of which, once dug up, can't exactly be readily reclaimed for growing crops... As our fields have to be propped by petrochemical fertilizers, we cannot continue to support as many lives as we currently cannot.

5. Pig flu, bird flu, LPV, oh my. New strains of diseases - not excluding those resistant to antibacterial medications we've concocted. One of these will put a kybosh on the population but there is ALWAYS a slight immunity factor; some will survive ALL of these upcoming calamities.

6. Environment upheaval. Pollution, deeper and more excessive drilling to get more oil, warming conditions in the poles causing the ice caps to melt, which in turns hurts the life forms living up there and ultimately has an effect on freshwater supplies... never mind the seemingly bizarre increase of earthquakes, tsunami, and hurricanes...

I think the neocon strategy is to use one's wealth as a litmus test for survival in the coming months/years; everyone else simply being expendable. It's not the brightest solution anyone could come up with (surely IQ would be more important?), but as neocons are known for putting human-invented money above Godly common sense, I'm not surprised.

[wli]

20. explicit genocide is pretty likely, too

There's a fair amount of active disdain for brown people, and there are a fair number in the way of the world's access to oil wells. No one really cares about Africa, and it won't really take much to wipe those countries out.

But yes, wealth is the litmus test. They're plotting to make some rather deep cuts.

[tomg]

11. I am actually very optimistic

I look at my 3 20-25 year old sons, the children of my friends, and a good percentage of the young men and women I teach, and I see their openess and their tolerance for others and their refusal to accept the Bush regime's insanity. I am not optimistic that they (or we) are going to have it easy, but I was born in 1949 and, honestly, in the sort of long run ( 56 years) - Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Gay Rights - have made strides. When I was seventeen I was on the left and I was as sexist and homophobic as they come, and I didn't even know I was (remember the old Stokley Carmichael "joke"?). There is no question that the current crop of lunatics are horrific and the litany of what they have done ( and continue to do) makes Nixon at his worst look like a small time crook, but I am optimistic that we will beat them. Actually, I am optimistic that these loons have gone so far that they might very well self destruct. Either that, or I am dead wrong and we are all fucked six ways to Sunday.

[Ksec]

13. Im really not optimistic

about the future. When profit is the be all to end all people get left behind.

If we continue the US becomes third world in twenty years.

And I used to be optimistic . Not anymore. People have already shown theyll vote against their own interests.

[LaurenG]

14. It may get worse before it gets better

I believe it will get better. Nothing lasts forever. (though it certainly feels like it sometimes).

[DS1]

15. There will be a nuclear exchange of some sort before 2010

[wli]

21. well, we saw Cheney's plans for Iran

Not a whole lot of questions on this front.

[Jamison]

16. It depends on what happens in '06 and '08.

If we can gain a good # of congressional seats and governorships in '06, and win the presidency in '08 I'll definitely feel a lot better about things. However if the neo-cons steal those elections too, I might just lose all hope for our country.

[seabeyond]

17. i think things will get worse but......we are a resilent people

why i had to post other. who knwos how bad it will get, maybe really bad. but we always have the opportunity to clean up mess and make good again

[Nevernose]

18. Bipolar

It's got the potential for greatness, and although a cynic I'm also basically an optimist. We're probably royally screwed, though, and I feel sorry for my descendants.

[peace frog]

19. Our house goes on the market next week

and there's no question it will sell quickly. All our debt will be paid off and we'll have the remaining proceeds safely tucked away. My spouse's consulting job expires by the end of the year so we're readying ourselves to be Getting The Hell Outta Dodge. Where we end up is unclear but we'll know better in a couple months. I don't feel safe here anymore, and once we're settled elsewhere we're bringing our adult kids over. "Adios muchachos!"

[volitionx]

22. Just wait 'till we run out of fucking OIL...

Then you'll see how totally FUBAR things can get. Try reading The Long Emergency, about Peak Oil, if you want to get a nice taste of the future. The author is a bit excessive, but the main points are on the money.

Here's what will happen:

1. There will be more wars for oil, but that will make things worse.

2. The government will not respond (or will respond too late) to the need for renewable energy.

3. EVERYTHING that uses oil, everything that is part of the Fossil Fuel Chain (which is everything other than raw nature) will be vastly more expensive...

4. People will starve in vastly greater numbers than they are today...

5. The whole U.S. economy will contract to about 1/5 its size, putting millions of people out of work, onto the street, because nobody will have the disposable income to keep the materialism machine running, which will in turn put companies out of work, which will put people out of work, who will then have no money to fuel the economy....see the loop?

6. People will put nearly all of their money into buying gasoline, home heating oil, food, and electricity. Every other economic sector, from entertainment, to clothing, to travel, to technology, will be DESTROYED. When you can barely scrape enough money together to heat your home, are you going to go buy a couch? Or a new watch? Or a pair of jeans? Or go impulse shopping at Wal-Mart?

[JanMichael]

24. You're correct that the contraction will be enormous.

Most everything on your supermarket shelves require cheap trucking due to large scale packing and processing for everything from cheese to crakers.

Welcome the $50 litre of milk...

[wli]

25. it appears the idea is to let those who can't afford it starve/die/etc.

i.e. plutocratic genocide