Rationalizing Extinction

Sometimes, oppression I see

Punctures superficiality:

Overwhelming rage

No one can assuage

Helps make it O.K. with me. 

One-Shot Affair

“With coal gone, oil gone, high-grade metallic ores gone, no species however competent can make the long climb from primitive conditions to high-level technology. This is a one-shot affair. If we fail, this planetary system fails so far as intelligence is concerned. The same will be true of other planetary systems. On each of them there will be one chance, and one chance only." 

          -- Sir Fred Hoyle, "Of Men and Galaxies," 1964

Look on our works, and despair!

The resources are no longer there;

To support such advance,

There was only one chance:

This was a one-shot affair.

Monopoly Game

Stay free at the choicest doomsteads:

The oranges, yellows and reds,

Where likely the strongest

Will hold out the longest

Once the collapse really spreads.

Community Chest and Chance pick,

Distractions, the next media trick;

Railroads: a bore,

Unless someone owns four—

Then you get fucked pretty quick.

Utilities, parking, taxes—I’ve scored:

They don’t kill, can be safely ignored;

Pass go on your way

And earn weekly pay,

Working your ass round the board.

In jail you can miss turns in style

And get some relief for awhile;

Next throw of the dice,

Hope fate will be nice

To struggles that lifetimes compile.

The token you choose when you play:

Really, who are you anyway?

Go broke and death knocks,

Pieces back in the box,

Game over—extinction—m’kay?

NTE

Near Term means “about to descend,”

Extinction means “this is the end”;

I don’t mean to offend,

But please, my dear friend,

Do the math, and check out the trend. 

Classical psychoanalysis

“...When the threat to our personal well-being becomes sufficiently strong, however, the id (being primal and unconscious) tends to win out.....Can the rational processes of the ego and the inhibitory influence of the superego combine to defeat the self-centered desires of the id...?”

   -- The Neuropsychology of Climate Change

           http://www.paulchefurka.ca/COP15.html

Superego, ego, and id

Are places where secrets are hid;

But, to cut to the chase,

I think in this case,

We’ve really fucked up—yup, we did.

Game Theory for Doomers

What’s doom, in this math that’s so eerie?

A short cut for those getting weary:

We need not rehash

Johnny von Neumann and Nash,

It’s game over—and there’s your game theory. 

The Joy of Doomer Determinism

The causes to which we’re in thrall

Have effects on the cosmos—but small;

Through karma and fate

We became what we ate,

So we didn’t fuck up after all.

Denial and the Consensus Trance

“Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.”
...

"Two and two are four."

"Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five." 

— George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four

==

Part of warming denial’s drive

Is consensus trance where you contrive

To rewire your brain

From the kind of insane

Which sees four fingers instead of five. 

Near Term Extinction

I just learned about NTE—

It’s the end for both you and for me;

I’d discuss what I know,

But I really must go,

‘Cause my pants are now all soaked with pee.

Nothing Matters Anymore

It’s easier now to ignore

Deniers than ever before:

Even our futile chatter

In the end, doesn’t matter;

In the end, nothing matters anymore. 

The Word’s Getting Out

The word’s getting out on doom’s plan,

And soon there’s no more kick the can,

Ending history’s span

Soon after it began:

TS is now hitting TF.

E.g.,:

http://guymcpherson.com/2012/11/livestreamed-tonight/

We’re Fucked

We need to repeat these words when

Doom seems so beyond human ken;

It’s crazy to say it,

So we must replay it

Again and again and again. 

Jungle Morality

Changes in our reality

Cause changes in our mentality;

Jungle law is restored

When we cannot afford

The luxury of a morality.

HROEI

Life’s hard, but yet we’re more tested

Now that our energy’s crested:

Increasing crappiness

Decreases Happiness

Returned On Energy Invested.

Predation, Starvation, or Suicide

Our living depends on predation:

Without it, we end in starvation;

If those don’t look good,

The other choice would

Be to end it with self-termination.

H/T: Daniel at Nature Bats Last 

Reducing Cognitive Dissonance

When folks start to mess with your head

By talking about [insert number here] years ahead:

Dissonance goes away

As soon as you say,

“In [insert same number here] years we’ll be dead.” 

Moot

Becoming extinction astute

Means that you’ve got to uproot

Most of your mind

Because doom, you will find,

Makes everything else kind of moot.

Cooked

Global warming is how it begins:

Stuff heats up, and the populace thins;

We'll watch flesh become meat

When we can’t throw off heat

And we’re cooking inside our own skins.

Meaninglessness

Our world’s already a mess,

But as we watch doom coalesce,

We’re nevertheless

Forced to address

Ever more meaninglessness. 

Prepping Lesson

At first, I thought I would prep smarter

By buying booze bottles for barter;

But I was naive:

Now I’ve come to believe

That plan should have been a nonstarter.

I think once the doom dam has burst,

Things will quickly progress to the worst;

Not wanting to lose it,

I’ve started to use it,

And I’m drinking the good stuff first.

Guru

The guru, when asked, “What is good?”

Replied, “Carry water, chop wood!”

When neither remain,

He’ll be forced to abstain,

Unable to do what he should. 

Global Warming Ends It

Think we’re not hitting the wall?

Do the math, and you make the call;

Unless fatally cursed

By something else first,

Global warming’s the end of it all. 

On Nuclear Waste

Perhaps they were drunk, or drinking,

But somebody failed at linking

Making nuclear waste

With where should it be placed—

What the fuck were they thinking?

Ghost Story—Just in Time for Halloween!

‘Twas a dark and stormy night,

The kind that makes you feel fright,

When the earthquake hit

Where some fault plane was split

And began everybody’s plight.

Some rods, by the quake thus goaded,

Fell from where they’d been loaded:

They rumbled and tumbled

And crumbled all jumbled—

Then the whole thing exploded.

For those nearby when it struck,

The whole event didn’t suck:

No one felt sick—

Vaporization works quick—

The rest of world had less luck.

So back where this story began:

Getting scared was part of the plan;

But don’t worry your ass,

This won’t come to pass—

Unless there’s a quake in Japan. 

The Fuckit Slump

Oil’s running low at the pump,

Not due to some interim hump;

We’re ready to quit

‘Cause we don’t give a shit,

And we enter the Fuckit Slump.

Starvation hits, nobody’s plump,

Global warming beats on our rump;

When it doesn’t mean squat

That it’s getting too hot,

We’re into the Fuckit Slump.

Air wafts by a nuclear dump,

We inhale a plutonium lump;

Fresh air provides

Radionuclides

To go with the Fuckit Slump.

It’s all of us, you’re not a chump,

The boiling frog still doesn’t jump;

Let’s be succinct:

We’re going extinct,

So we’re doing the Fuckit Slump.

H/T: comrade simba, Lexicographer of Doom

OTOH

When we finally get a clue

That our way of living is through,

And we’re going to see hell,

We might just as well

Do what we’ve always wanted to. 

Why Prep?

If doom comes along step by step,

I’ll buy local or through online rep;

If doom’s really fast,

I know I won’t last—

So tell me, why do I prep? 

Doomer Craziness

People will think you’ve gone fey

When you start saying what doomers say;

They’ll see you as mad,

Which isn’t so bad

If you’ve always been sort of that way.

LATOC

LATOC was an old time saloon:

Flying bottles, piano out of tune;

Overall raucous,

A grand motley caucus

Of genius and dumbass maroon.

Fukushima

If people knew more about nukes,

They wouldn’t think doomers are kooks;

They might change their mind

When they see they’re entwined

In a future with 400 Fukes. 

Why Bother?

Why bother to sound the alarm

When nothing will save us from harm?

Do the math, you’ll conclude

That we’re totally screwed:

It’s over; we’ve all bought the farm. 

Dietary Suggestion

We’ve run out our species’ life span

Plus many more other than man,

So if there is meat

That you still like to eat,

It’s time now to eat all you can.

The Luxurious Life

I ought to be burning with shame,

But I don’t want to give up my claim

To the fabulous ride

Fossil fuels provide—

And most people feel just the same.

Sure as Shootin’

As sure as the oil has plateaued,

As sure as we’re bound for The Road,

As sure as the ending

We know is impending,

The nuclear plants will explode.

Limits

In our world of limits, we rue

Things we did and we didn’t do;

We'll feel better prepped

The more we accept

The limits inside of us too.

Hope Limited

It turns out that nowadays hope

Means within a more limited scope;

It’s good to defer

Goals which cannot occur,

And be better able to cope.

Nothing to Lose Anymore

At first, it seems pretty bizarre,

Our whole species crossing the bar;

But we’re hearing the knell,

So we might just as well

See things as they really are.

Remembering the Sixties

Advanced thinkers used to contrive

Better ways to be more alive;

Now one may enroll

For a more modest goal:

Trying to merely survive. 

Doomer in the City

I’m a doomer, and live in a city;

In collapse, this locale won’t be pretty,

But there’s food at the store,

For awhile there’ll be more—

It’s all good, I’m not asking for pity.

I’m old, and useless for work,

And sometimes I’m kind of a jerk,

So I don’t plan to grieve

If I’m taking my leave

Before the whole world goes berserk.

When things really go down the drain,

There’ll be pain, and not much to gain;

When I’m not sniffing glue,

Seeing Fucko Bazzoo

Is a thought I don’t entertain.

I don’t have the doomstead I should—

If I had more resources, I would;

But so far I don’t,

And it looks like I won’t,

So I’m staying, and calling it good. 

Down and Out

It’s very scary to see:

The closer that doom comes to be,

The folks in the news

With desperate views

Are looking more just like me. 

Kick the Can

I’m for kicking the can down the road

More than vanishing down the commode;

Though not TPTB,

It’s still better for me

If the whole world doesn't explode.

Peeling the Onion

http://guymcpherson.com/2012/08/what-are-we-fighting-for/

“I surrender. Much to my chagrin,

This fight is one I cannot win;

My awakening’s new:

We’re really all through.”

“Now vee may perhaps to begin?”

H/T: Philip Roth

Preps: How Much Is Enough?

When I found out we’re really in Dutch,

I stocked up on tuna and such;

But now that I know

How fast things can go,

I don’t think I’ll need all that much. 

Reframing

There’s plenty of cause to feel glum, 

So maybe reframing helps some: 

Yes, things are decaying, 

But hey, I’m just saying, 

They’re better than what’s still to come.

Waiting for Doom

Waiting for horror to start

Is a drag on the mind and the heart;

When collapse comes about,

We’re going to find out

The wait was the easiest part.

Cliff

We’re over the cliff, we know;

Will the fall be fast or slow?

We might fly through the breeze

Like Thelma and Louise,

Or, Homer-like, bounce: D’oh! D’oh! D’oh!

Crazy or Not, Here We Come

Extinction’s not hard to explain,

But it hasn’t convinced my whole brain:

I’m persuaded it’s true

That our end is in view,

But it still seems completely insane.

No Trace Left Behind

Great works of art, once we’re through,

Will soon disappear from view;

Our creations so clever,

All lost forever—

And everything else we did too.

Depressed? How Unexpected!

At times, doom will make one dejected,

So while you are feeling affected,

Recall Kubler-Ross

Said, when dealing with loss,

Depression should be expected.

Entitled

Some folks think they’ll stay alive

Due to social position or drive;

They’ll sure be upset

When they finally get

That nobody’s going to survive. 

Bottleneck

Nobody’s making it through

The bottleneck we’re coming to;

Extinction’s forever:

The human endeavor

Is over, whatever you do. 

Kubler-Ross Depression Redux

Eventually one can’t ignore

How bad is the shit that’s in store;

It’s never much fun,

But it’s got to be done:

I’m back again working Stage 4. 

Save the World?

Save the world? Naw, might as well quit:

It’s over, we ain’t savin’ shit;

Instead, let’s reflect

On the places we’ve trekked,

And start writing up our obit. 

It’s Over

You can wipe that frown from your brow,

We got here, though no one knows how;

Whatever you do,

We’re not going to pull through,

So relax: it’s all over now. 

Blame Game

Blame is a mental invention

Which justifies cruel intention;

Due to guilt removal,

There’s more self-approval

And less psychological tension.

“Senseless” Killing

“Is there a difference in the brains...?”

http://conflicteddoomer.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/another-senseless-killing-spree/

Neural pathways inside our head

Come from genes and the way we are bred,

But we won’t understand

How our actions are planned

Before we all wind up dead. 

Plenty of Hate

“...the undercurrents of hatred thrumming just below the surface are likely to explode out into the open and threaten to consume us all.”

http://billhicksisdead.blogspot.com/2012/07/hate-lies-waiting.html

We’ll run out of food for our plate,

And places where heat’s not too great,

We’ll run out of debate

When it’s clearly too late,

But we’re not going to run out of hate.

Method in the Madness

Guy McPherson asks, “Is it possible for a scientist to die from a broken heart?”

http://guymcpherson.com/2012/07/global-madness/

Anyone’s heart can go bust

In a world that’s unfair and unjust,

But with science we see

The way things have to be,

And how they proceed as they must.

Faith vs. Reason

We evolved from bestiality

Without formal logic mentality,

So our likely response

To reverse Renaissance

Will be faith trumping rationality. 

Normal Baseline Mind

Evolution has come to prescribe

Human life in a small, simple tribe,

So it doesn’t improve

When the mind tries to groove

To a complex industrial vibe. 

Crazy Talk

When telling folks how things have changed

Results in your feeling estranged,

You’re being observant:

Though you think you’re fervent,

They think you’re completely deranged.

Anticipatory or Preparatory Grief

Our preps include psychic numbing,

A kind of emotion down-dumbing;

We use it as pre-

PTSD

And we hope helps deal with what’s coming.

Doomer Forums Can Help

A doom forum’s good for your brain:

When you’re freaking, it helps you maintain;

Regular attendance

Can lead to dependence,

But at least you won’t go insane.

A Couple of Weeks?

“Mysterious bubbles are rising up out of an Assumption Parish bayou....Boudreaux has taken samples of the bubbles and sent them off for testing. Those samples are expected back in the next couple of weeks.”

http://www.wafb.com/story/18910913/assumption-parish-mysterious-bubbles-in-bayou

H/T: Kathy Cassandra

Some lab tests by which one discerns

Basic nature, a good doomer learns;

A quick test for gas

From sea, tap or ass:

Light a match, and see if it burns.

It Will Hit Them First

“it will hit ‘those other people’ first”

http://conflicteddoomer.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/hot/

At best, we can postpone the dread,

But no one escapes what's ahead:

Too little to eat,

Radiation and heat,

Until finally everyone’s dead.

Distraction

KC says: "...Mindless activity while we rush ever onward to the edge."

http://benjaminthedonkey-limericksofdoom.blogspot.com/2012/06/on-todays-supreme-court-decision-and.html#comment-form

Seeking complete satisfaction

Is normal human reaction;

But since we’re so fucked,

Instead we construct

Lifestyles lost in distraction.

On Today’s Supreme Court Decision and Most Everything Else

We’re going to go over the cliff,

It’s a question of when and not if;

Little bends in the trends

Don’t change how it ends,

So I ask myself: what’s the diff?

Hospice

Global Climate Change Will Increase Anxiety, Fear and Depression

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/Media-Center/News-by-Topic/Global-Warming/2012/03-22-12-Global-Climate-Change-Will-Increase-Anxiety-Fear-and-Depression.aspx
H/T: dohboi

As people become doom aware,

Psychological help for despair

Should try to provide

A quick self-care guide

For hospice type terminal care.

Kubler-Ross’s “Five Stages of Grief”

Provides framework that’s simple and brief;

As far as I see,

Acceptance will be

As good as it gets for relief. 

Bargaining—A Necessary Stage

Bargaining with Statistics

By tweaking degrees and percent,

Facts no longer mean what they meant;

Gigathis, gigathat:

We'll never go splat,

And gone is my discontent.

Bargaining by Gut

I’m no dumbass, I’m just not book smart,

And to me, extinction’s like art:

I know what I like,

So don’t mess with my psych;

Global warming? Don’t even start.

Peak Oil vs. Global Warming

Peak Oil seems like hitting the wall,

But it’s only a part of our fall:

Peak oil’s the cessation

Of civilization;

Global warming’s the end of it all. 

Kubler-Ross: An Ongoing Process

We’re Done

http://guymcpherson.com/2012/06/were-done/

Every time I run across

Some more news about doomer loss,

I don’t feel lots worse,

I just reimmerse

Myself in my Kubler-Ross. 

Disengaging

It's the end of Homo sapiens' age,
So how will we disengage:
Recognizing the trend
And accepting the end,
Or stuck in the bargaining stage? 

Writing My Way to Acceptance

"There is no way to save the world, or even any individual person who remains stubbornly in denial. I've decided that it is time to just accept that fact and move on."

http://billhicksisdead.blogspot.com/2012/06/taking-break.html

Writing is mostly my way

Of coming to terms with dismay,

So the more I accept

And get mentally prepped,
The less, it seems, I’ve got to say. 

Different Realities

When changing from what’s called normality

To more of a doomer mentality,

There’s a way to explain

Why you might feel insane:

Each view is a different reality.

Dinosaurs

“We are all dinosaurs now”

http://guymcpherson.com/2012/06/we-are-all-dinosaurs-now/

We are what most creatures dread:
The Animal Kingdom head;
Still, it’s time to say ciao,
‘Cause we’re dinosaurs now,
And like them, we’re already dead. 

Nobody Cares

We face such a serious affair,

There ought to be widespread despair;

But folks don’t prepare:

They remain unaware,

And nobody seems to care.

Missing Medications

Some folks will miss their narcotics,

Others, sedative-hypnotics;

What will more widely bite:

Folks dropping dead left and right

Without any antibiotics.

Radiation Evacuation

Despite some large movement rants

For escaping nuclear plants,

There’s no place to go;

Evacuation, though,

Might take place right in our pants.

The New Cannibals

Face eating without permission

Is not due to malnutrition;

It’s a drug aberration,

Not reactivation

Of normal cannibal tradition.

Cannibal incivility

Is currently drugged instability;

A shortage of food

Will change how it’s viewed,

And give it more respectability.

Coming Soon: The Big One in Fuku

Japan’s quake will make us subdued,

On the TV our eyes will be glued;

From watching the mess,

We’ll be able to guess

In how many hours we’re screwed.

Fuku’s like the sword of Damocles:

We’re so freaked, that Jeeze, we can’t find our knees;

Sooner or later,

That area will crater,

And then we’ll all die by slow degrees.

Someday, Fuku will shake,

Spent fuel will suddenly bake,

We’ll all die on the spot,

Or else, maybe not;

Until then, we wait for the quake.

The Ballad of SFP4

In old Fukushima, Japan

The shit finally hit the fan;

A spent fuel pool

Which they tried to keep cool

Was sketchy, is how it began.

No one was worried at all

That the rods had no ceiling or wall;

The danger was greater

That sooner or later

The whole thing was going to fall.

At last, folks couldn’t ignore

What had been lying in store:

Then a quake came along

Sufficiently strong

To topple SFP4.

Collapse and worldwide privation

Resulted in upkeep cessation;

Rods elsewhere suspended,

Also untended,

Let loose lots more radiation.

Sixth extinction’s not fully explained

By the multiple rads that reigned;

As at Chernobyl,

Warming gone global

Finished off most of what life remained.

The UN on Radiation: No Worries

"Studies indicate minimal health risks from radiation in the aftermath of Japan's nuclear disaster."

http://www.nature.com/news/fukushima-s-doses-tallied-1.10686

H/T: Satori at Silco

Radiation helps make you strong,

It won’t hurt or do anything wrong;

UN health groups agree

That there’s nothing to see—

That is all. Now please move along.

“Few people will develop cancer as a consequence of being exposed to ... Fukushima .... based on two ... independent assessments.... by a subcommittee of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR)....[and] the World Health Organization (WHO)”  *

UN health experts agree,

And they give it their guarantee;

Based on separate sources,

The UN endorses:

It’s good for both you and for me.

“Experts agree that there is unlikely to be a detectable rise in thyroid cancer or leukaemia, the two cancers most likely to result from the accident. “There may be some increase in cancer risk that may not be detectable statistically,” says Kiyohiko Mabuchi, who heads Chernobyl studies at the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland.”

When problems tend to go global,

State scientists may go ignoble:

Epidemiology

Downplays pathology,

Pretty much like at Chernobyl.

“People are “utterly fearful and deeply angry. There’s nobody that they trust any more for information....People want to know whether what we say is true.”

Well, there’s a big fucking surprise!

So far there’s been nothing but lies;

It’s not easy deceiving

Those set on believing

What they see with their own lying eyes.

 “In the year since the accident, the plant has been stabilized, and radioactive emissions have largely stopped.”

At first, it seemed like we'd flop,

But of course we got it to stop;

Questions on cancer?

You’ll be fine, there’s your answer—

It’s fixed, so go out and shop.

==

*    “WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system.”

http://www.who.int/about/en/