peak oil

here's a very typical human mistake: thinking that reality is going to make your argument for you, and force your opponents to agree. so, as oil prices collapse, one might recall the idea of 'peak oil', in which environmentalists proved with data that a fossil fuel economy would definitely implode by 1993 or whatever it was. the reason to be suspicious even of the numbers was that the people who put this forward desperately wished for the collapse of the fossil fuel economy and were in the typical human state of extreme credulity with regard to anything that would confirm their worldview, and also totaly committed to a propaganda presentation of it to everyone else. i have to say that the whole climate change thing reeks of this. naomi klein wishes for nothing as much as the collapse of the capitalist order. so far, so good. but i think people infer facts from commitments like that, which is not so good. it's like people are trying to enlist nature or god to make their point for them and force their opponents into agreement. pretty soon you're wishing for the apocalypse. pretty soon you're providing data proving it nigh. usually you don't live long enough to really be forced to withdraw your claims, so you just sort of peter out as reality refuses to take the shape of your disastrous wishes.