Summary: In this episode KMO concludes his conversation with Dr. Kathy McMahon of PeakOilBlues.com about common reactions to learning about the implications of Peak Oil including the pathological faux-optimism she calls "Panglossian Disorder." KMO wraps up with a look at the Singularitarian faith as reflected in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond. Quote from Navigating the Collapse of Civilization: a Spiritual Map by Carolyn Baker, Ph.D: For most Americans marinated in materialism, heads anchored firmly in the sand, never having heard the words “Peak Oil,” still driving their gas-gulping SUVs, reveling in suburban sprawl, and gullibly counting on their pensions and 401Ks to be there when they need them, the notion of civilization's collapse is ludicrous and merely the latest obsession of the lunatic fringe. For other Americans of the rapidly-vanishing middle class who are only one paycheck or one catastrophic illness away from financial oblivion—who between mortgage, car payments, monthly bills, medical expenses, gas prices, and doubling monthly credit card bills, realize that not only will they not be able to pay for their kids’ college education but that every day they are now walking over an economic tightrope across a gaping precipice with a thousand-foot drop. Those folks know in their bones the reality of collapse—they feel it, smell it, taste it, but may not yet be able to allow the words to pass from their lips. Others, such as the individuals I've named above, are the prophets and John the Baptists of our time who get in our faces and scream “Repent!” or in less biblical language: “Wake the hell up!”
