[Marxism] re. Peak Oil

[Rod Holt <rholt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Listening to Richard Heinberg is not a good start toward understanding
anything. If you read "Powerdown," the sequel to "The Party's Over,"
that should scare you to death. Heinberg and his fellow Post-Carbonites
are dangerous. Listen to him: "The only hope of changing US policy is
thus to bring so much pressure to bear on the system that the neocons
become vulnerable to some sort of palace coup. The subsequent
installation of an internationalist regime would not be a solution to
the world's problems or to America's, but it would constitute a
necessary step in the path toward Plan Powerdown." (The Petroleum
Plateau, May,2003) And for Heinberg, it won't be the working class who
manage this "palace coup." He says, "... there is currently no power
base in American society that appears capable of successfully
challenging the Plan-War neocons."

Plan Powerdown is his proposal that allows the world to support only
1/4th of its current 6 billion; those who take control of the advanced
civilizations will defend their privileges against all comers. Cities
will be broken up into "sustainable communities." ...and on and on. We
will be growing our own vegitables. Walking to work amidst the flowers,
birds and bees. Etc. A strange concoction of utopianism and
ruthlessness. The whole thing reminds me of the Bomb Shelter mentality
of the early 1950s except that we are to  be in the bomb shelter forever.

--rh

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