Saturday, July 19, 2008

Keeping my outlook balanced....

I've stumbled across a few sites with good discussions about NOT panicking, and not preparing for the absolute worse. Yes, I like blog posts like that because... I don't want to have to freak out, or for the world to be turning into something worth freakin' out over!

Anyhoo....In response to the current financial catastrophes, the blog Simple Dollar says Why I’m Not Panicking - And You Shouldn’t, Either.

The two subheads that resonated with me best:

* One: Panics happen every few years
* Two: The talking heads shouting “PANIC!” make money from “PANIC!”

Another good reasoned (perhaps woman-centric!) discussion from Crunchy Chicken: Peak Oil - instinctual reactions

She suggests -- and admittedly hyper-generalizes -- that men and women approach the idea of a panic differently. Men want to break out the guns, build big walls, get ready to protect the women and children. Women stock up on foodstuffs and plan sewing projects.

She gives good advice:

I do think it's important to see where people are coming from, what their motivations are, conscious or otherwise and take that into consideration when reading someone else's predictions. It's all a crapshoot as far as the future goes, but it helps to process the unknown when looked at this way.


From the comment sections on that Crunchy Chicken post, I came across this:

Peak Oil Debunked

This is not one of the rightwing idiot Peak Oil naysayers. This guy admits that oil is finite and there are potential problems ahead. But he's not willing to be a "doomer" as he describes it. Not sure yet what I think of all of his points, but like Simple Dollar above... I do tend to be suspicious about people's motives when they yell PANIC. Any of us who went through the Y2K baloney less than a decade ago should remember this.

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