Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - mcdonalds/end of civ rant

ok, so i've biked maybe 10-12K today, and played some frisbee with my friend, and i had a meeting with the director of my grad program, which lasted an hour, and i felt, was enough 'work' for one sunny day... and tonight a couple friends came to my place and we watched some tv. lost (which i don't think is all that ****ty), law and order (no comment) and the daily show (yes)... oh and yes threw the frisbee around in my dog-****ty lawn
i was drinking. come one or so, i'm hungry, so i decide to bike to meijer (an everything giant store, somewhat less, imho, scary than walmart) to get some food. macdonalds is near. now i shun the mcd, since i read fast food nation (and i'm a guy that drinks soy milk, and doesn't eat much meat), but i was a bit drunk and hungry (i'd bought store sushi at meijer, but i hadn't eaten it yet). so i decide to bike through the drive through. thinking i'd probably get no service. none at the talkbox. so i go up to the window. the dude at the window looks like a mcdonalds guy. like a boring guy. but he says "hey i thought i saw a flashing light back there...no problem..." so i get a disgustingly wonderful cheeseburger. and we for some reason talk politics.
he says he's kinda liking bush cause he's speeding up the process of the system coming down. holy ****. he's been reading the same green anarchist **** i have been, i guess. so i say that i know, and i'm not helping it, cause i'm here on my bike not using up the fossil fuels.
anyways. bikes kick ass. but the system's got to go. in my opinion, the catalyst will be 'peak oil', i.e. end of cheap petroleum--gas, planes, plastics, fertilizers, etc, etc, etc. my profession depends on all these things. i know this.
so, in the most unexpected of places, a mcdonalds late night drive through, i got some validation that the world is realizing that civilization is dooming itself faster and faster, and that just might be a good thing.

the burger was good. sorry vegans. i love ya'll

man, i thought this was gonna be about the dude from the gorilla biscuits..

man, i thought this was gonna be about the dude from the gorilla biscuits..

me too.

mmm, cheeseburger.

to appease the bike forum gods, i swear not to say $h1t anymore and to give ten dollars to torrin's fund. but the point of this thread is the future of civilization. i think many of you are very hip to the problems we face; i want to hear directions, solutions, propositions, positions. it's relevant to bikes cause they're the most effecient means of human transportation, but my question involves more. i am a bike lover, and a bit or a techno geek, but i'm also anti-technologist, and i hate to say, that means i know eventually i have to give up my bike

gorillaz, not gorilla biscuits. del the funky homosapien, in deltron 3030
"i wanna devise a virus, to bring dire straits to your environments,
crush your corporations with a mild touch, and revert you to papyrus"

now if that's not anarcho-primitivism, i don't know what is

Let's watch the Mad Max movies.

yes mad max is cool. i realize my post is lacking in pie. i want to see where you all are at

i consider my self an anarchist, but anarcho primmies are really annoying. their constant paranoid phobias about the state listeningto every mobile call are way off. its hilarious.

anyway, dont be supprised where you will find intelligent conversation, when i have an experience like that, it always confirms my belief that we are not so doomed after all. but the next day its forgotten, and i realise we are fuked... :D cool story.

peak oil is crap

peak oil is crap

that's not very posi.

I'm about to put "Start Today" on.

If you study geology like I did then you come to realize that doom is a good thing. In fact it’s almost a law really. All things tend toward extinction. Or all things tend towards creation same difference.

Now as far as fixed gear bikes go……… well…..I don’t know.

As far as McDonalds goes……shame on you.

abuckeye99, you sound like you're in grad school for sure. i agree with jfmckenna, doom/extinction is inevitable. are you prepared for it to happen in your lifetime or are you just talk? sometimes the inevitable seems better when you know it won't affect you.

people need to stop spewing ***** from the ivory tower and start acting on ideas instead of just arguing about them.

all you did that night was help the mcdonalds corporation's stock. it is on the rise afterall.

were you even riding fixed or SS when you were standing in the drive through?

all you did that night was help the mcdonalds corporation's stock. it is on the rise afterall.Yay, this thread now has a voice of reason. I also would classify myself as an anarchist, but anarchoprimitivism+computers=hypocrite. It's like a chain smoking vegan, or someone who lamemts the state of things, then goes to McDonalds to ameliorate his or her despair. Maybe a Republican atheist can chime in to set us all straight?

My rooms a mess and I can't get dressed, gotta get up at 8 o clock...

"In the world I see -- you're stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You will wear leather clothes that last you the rest of your life. You will climb the wrist-think kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. You will see tiny figures pounding corn and laying-strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of the ruins of a superhighway."

-Tyler Durden

The post would be much better if you mentioned that you are an anarchist and on the way to get food last night you firebombed the local McDonalds :p

j/k

why is it that anarchists always talk about the fact that the system needs to go but never talk about how ****ty everything would be without it? Alright, I obviously realize that they don't think everything would be ****ty. However, I never hear them talking about what would be better, just that it would be better.

just go to Africa and live there. They're still hacking each other to death with machettes in tribal war fare. I'm sure you could get your fill of anarchoprimitivism there.

...and don't ever compare one of the greatest hardcore bands to an MTV euro pop band. there just is no comparison.

Ugh.. primitivists... That post reminded me so much of someone I know through a friend or two. Anyway, this "green anarchist" kid printed up hundreds and hundreds of fliers at Kinkos to advertise some kind of environmental meeting at his school. How much does hypocrisy go for per ream these days?

Yo its three thousand thirty,
I want yall to meet deltron zero, hero, not no small feat
its all heat in this day and age,
i rage your grave,
anything it takes to save the day
nueromancer, perfect blend of technology and magic
use my rappin so you all could see the hazards
plus entertainment where many are brainless
we cultivated the lost art of study and i brought a buddy
automator harder slayer fascinating combinations
cyber warlords are activating abominations
arm a nation with hatred we ain't with that
we high-tech archeologists searching for nicknacks
composing musical stimpacks the song
crack the motor what you think you rappin for?
I used to be a mech soldier but I didn't respect orders
I had to step forward, tell them this ain't for us
living in a post-apocalyptic world morbid and horrid
the secrets of the past they horded
now we just borded on a futuristic spacecraft
no mistakes black its our music we must take back

yo its three thousand thirty,
I want yall to meet deltron zero, and automator

"Yo sucka, you got a big mouth ... bidip bo!"

<another movie quote>

Donny: "Are those the nazis, Walter?"

Walter: "They're nihilists, Donny, nothing to be afraid of."

</another movie quote>

shot, del is the man! but seriously, folks, this our future: 42 midgets enter, one lion leaves:
Thunderdome! (http://www.newturfers.com/mwf/attach/38/355838/BBCNEWSWorldLionMutilates42MidgetsinCambodianRing-Fight.htm)

isn't it weird when you're at work still drunk from the night before? it's like a bad dream. sometimes I wonder when I'm going to grow up.

isn't it weird when you're at work still drunk from the night before? it's like a bad dream. sometimes I wonder when I'm going to grow up.
you're not going to grow up and therein lies the beauty. at least you don't do crazy ***** like me in front of people with cameras. come out with us next wednesday night ... dcc pub crawl.

While I'm not an anarchist, I definitely can't wait for oil to peak and production to drop like a rock. Discovery of new oil wells peaked in the 60s and has been dropping ever since, which means that it's pretty much inevitable.

I can't say that I'm all for anarchy, but this system of "government by and for the rich" that we've had for the past who-knows-how-many years does not work for me. You can tout democracy all you want as "by the people, for the people", but it's just not true. The only say we have is every four years when we get to vote for one or the other mulit-millionaire. Parents telling their kids they can be president if they put their mind to it is just not true, unless their family is already wealthy.

isn't it weird when you're at work still drunk from the night before? it's like a bad dream. sometimes I wonder when I'm going to grow up.

I find it weirder when I don't show up still drunk from the night before.

That could be just me.

Deep inside I know the answer...

again, peak oil is crap. oil wont be depleted soon, and the world wont come crashing down because of it. we didn't start subsurface geology until the 50s, and the recent development of 3-d seismic technology has paved ways in exploration. what about horizontal drilling? and we've just begun ultradeep water exploration. many of the mid-majors are finding huge success just redeveloping old oil fields with advanced recovery methods. furthermore, some economies have switched to natural gas. not to mention that hydrogen power is on the horizon. we did okay when we switched from burning wood as a fuel source. and then coal. you all can go stock your survival shelters... i'll be fine

again, peak oil is crap. oil wont be depleted soon, and the world wont come crashing down because of it. we didn't start subsurface geology until the 50s, and the recent development of 3-d seismic technology has paved ways in exploration. what about horizontal drilling? and we've just begun ultradeep water exploration. many of the mid-majors are finding huge success just redeveloping old oil fields with advanced recovery methods. furthermore, some economies have switched to natural gas. not to mention that hydrogen power is on the horizon. we did okay when we switched from burning wood as a fuel source. and then coal. you all can go stock your survival shelters... i'll be fine
Someone is employed in the oil industry...

again, peak oil is crap. oil wont be depleted soon, and the world wont come crashing down because of it. we didn't start subsurface geology until the 50s, and the recent development of 3-d seismic technology has paved ways in exploration. what about horizontal drilling? and we've just begun ultradeep water exploration. many of the mid-majors are finding huge success just redeveloping old oil fields with advanced recovery methods. furthermore, some economies have switched to natural gas. not to mention that hydrogen power is on the horizon. we did okay when we switched from burning wood as a fuel source. and then coal. you all can go stock your survival shelters... i'll be fine

Ok, whatever. Just look at production versus demand in the last few years. Demand is outpacing production by far. If 3-d seismic technology is so great, why haven't we found any oil fields even remotely as big as Ghawar (which is on the decline and has been for years)? Advanced recovery methods? That's just a better way to suck the bottom of the barrel dry. Look at the money that has gone into oil production over the past few years, the return on investment is nowhere near what it used to be.

I'm not arguing that oil is going to "run out" all of a sudden, I agree that there are new sources of oil such as oil sand and deep sea oil, but they are much more expensive to get at. What I'm arguing is that it will get much more expensive, which means that *everything* will get more expensive since our economy is tied so tightly to oil.

The hydrogen economy? Give me a break, unless I've missed something hydrogen doesn't give you anywhere near the amount of "energy out vs. energy in" ration that good old petroleum does.

Petroleum Geologist Colin Campbell:
http://www.geologie.tu-clausthal.de/Campbell/lecture.html
http://www.oilcrisis.com/campbell/

i'll be fine

yeah, you'll be fine with your rifle and stored meat... :rolleyes:

Peak oil isn't about the availability of oil; its about the availability of *cheap* oil. Our industrialized society cannot be sustained without an affordable form of energy.

But, you don't need me to tell you this, just google it (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ned=us&q=peak+oil&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dsearch=Search+the+Web) for chrissakes.

Ok, whatever. Just look at production versus demand in the last few years. Demand is outpacing production by far. If 3-d seismic technology is so great, why haven't we found any oil fields even remotely as big as Ghawar (which is on the decline and has been for years)? Advanced recovery methods? That's just a better way to suck the bottom of the barrel dry. Look at the money that has gone into oil production over the past few years, the return on investment is nowhere near what it used to be.

I'm not arguing that oil is going to "run out" all of a sudden, I agree that there are new sources of oil such as oil sand and deep sea oil, but they are much more expensive to get at. What I'm arguing is that it will get much more expensive, which means that *everything* will get more expensive since our economy is tied so tightly to oil.

The hydrogen economy? Give me a break, unless I've missed something hydrogen doesn't give you anywhere near the amount of "energy out vs. energy in" ration that good old petroleum does.

Petroleum Geologist Colin Campbell:
http://www.geologie.tu-clausthal.de/Campbell/lecture.html
http://www.oilcrisis.com/campbell/
the truth of the oil peak is not contingent on finding a basin larger than ghawar. sucking the barrel dry? yes, but advanced recovery methods and better modeling means our resources and reserves figure are ever increasing. when did the peak oil guys make their claims? when lava lamps were hottest new thing? BP dumped the forties field because they thought it was depleted and not economically viable...and it turned out to be a gem for apache (who bought it). everybody's making huge money right now, and there's going to be continued production in the caspian for a longg time. the economic feasibility of reserves are extremely high due to current oil prices... 2 years ago, the area in alaska was just an afterthought... and what just made headlines a few weeks ago? our economy is tied tightly to oil? yes, but others are switching to natural gas... and the natural gas economy will last a long time until we perfect hydrogen

yeah, you'll be fine with your rifle and stored meat... :rolleyes:

Peak oil isn't about the availability of oil; its about the availability of *cheap* oil. Our industrialized society cannot be sustained without an affordable form of energy.

But, you don't need me to tell you this, just google it (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ned=us&q=peak+oil&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dsearch=Search+the+Web) for chrissakes.

france is doing fine without consuming much oil. latin american and asian-pacific countries are growing less and less dependent on oil. it's not like we've never had other scares and shortages of other resources in the past :rolleyes:. but, if it's on google, it must be right!!!

france is doing fine without consuming much oil. latin american and asian-pacific countries are growing less and less dependent on oil. it's not like we've never had other scares and shortages of other resources in the past :rolleyes:. but, if it's on google, it must be right!!!


They should at least switch over to diesel at little more in North America. Almost all cars in France run of diesel and its great. Well... not great, but better than a freaking cayenne eating a litre of premium every mile.

I just think its great that when we all die we're going to turn into oil eventually. Then some new species of intelligent (read:stupid) life will be burning us up in their SUVs.

But listen up, I've gotta ask it, how can we be so cruel? My true compassion is for all living things and not just the ones that are CUTE! so i do what i cannnnn! I wanna save lives, and I gotta a plan!!!!

...Well there's no time like the present...

They should at least switch over to diesel at little more in North America. Almost all cars in France run of diesel and its great. Well... not great, but better than a freaking cayenne eating a litre of premium every mile.

I just think its great that when we all die we're going to turn into oil eventually. Then some new species of intelligent (read:stupid) life will be burning us up in their SUVs.
Yeah, diesels are badass... there are a bunch of guys here putting around town with cars converted to biodiesel. I'm going to be in the market for an electric/gas hybrid or a diesel pretty soon. if we americans didn't drive in (literally) 2-ton automobiles we wouldn't need 10 cylinders and 6 liters of displacement. I have a lot of euro friends who drive sub-2L cars... one guy thought it was a big deal when he went from a .99 to a 1.5L. last time i remember of a small motor american car was the chevy metro and that was scrapped years ago

and I like to hang out, but who doesn't...

If there was no government, wouldn't there be chaos?

Everybody running 'round, setting petrol bombs off.

My rooms a mess and I can't get dressed, gotta get up at 8 o clock...
reminds me of:

Girls don't really like me because I'm such a mess
Maybe it's cause of the way I look
Or maybe the way I dress
My room is such a pig sty. My floor has never been swept.
But I got a Fuk off attitude
and I think that's the best kept
In a fuked up world!
We're all livin in a Fuked up world!

-DM

to all:
potus, yes cheeseburgers taste good. thus my sin.
onelesscar, and others: i didn't say i was an anarchoprimitivist, less an anarchist, only that i've been reading them. otherwise thank you for the support.
jfmkenna, props, you get the point
salome, yes i'm in grad school, i know it's a win/lose proposition, and i work for the man
wasted weasel, fixed
chrispistoferson, see onelesscar. i am a hypocrite. most are.
chimpo, i don't have the balls, or explosives, yet
celephaiz, it's about the human spirit, we don't have much of it today.
fixedfiend, i'd like to, and the anarchoprimitivism lit says that the hacking has much to do with technology, just a remnant precursor to today's daisybombs. and sorry about the disco biscuits. just that del quote came to mind.
paul and pista, see onelesscar and chrispistoferson. don't claim anything, and recognize my hypocrisy. alcohol lowers ones inhibitions, and everyone knows mcdonalds is engineered to taste good.
shot, yeah. del and dan know where we are.
judah, you get the point. discovery peaked in the sixties, techno-innovations for retrieval (i hate the term production) notwithstanding. and "for the people" is such bs.
shishi, explain. thank you.
redfooj, you've demonstrated that you have no idea where the debate lies. but honestly, thank you for contributing.
judah, again, nice reply to redfooj. you get it. that encourages me.
jose R, ditto.
redfooj again, yes france is much smarter re: electricity and transport than the US, but our whole system relies on global transport and the green revolution, neither of which can be possible without plentiful hydrocarbons.
enlacalle, i'm sorry for the cows, and the fish that made my sushi. it is one of my addictions. cows are just as domesticated as we are, but at least fish get to live in the ocean.
jim-bob, yes there will be chaos.

anyways, the point of this was to open a debate, and to see where people are on this topic. the responses, in all, encourage me that people, at least those already crazy people that ride fixed gears, are mostly hip to the situation. i honestly don't see a primitive lifestyle for humans coming around as a necessity for many years, but $hit is a-brewin'. the only real prayer i have is that the future economic problems don't bring nuclear war.

i'd really like to keep this discussion open, not necessarily as the "mcdonalds/end of civ rant" thread.

ben

p.s. i remembered why the mcdonalds window guy and i started talking about the bush presidency. i write "saudi petrodollar" on my ones.

gorillaz, not gorilla biscuits. del the funky homosapien, in deltron 3030
"i wanna devise a virus, to bring dire straits to your environments,
crush your corporations with a mild touch, and revert you to papyrus"

now if that's not anarcho-primitivism, i don't know what is

actually i believe the quote is
"crush your corporations with a mild touch,
crash your whole computer system and revert you to papyrus."

If there was no government, wouldn't there be chaos?

Everybody running 'round, setting petrol bombs off.

silly boy, there wouldn't be petrol bombs because lack of petrol causes the chaos... thats what grain alcohol and rags are for... except in PA where its banned. Here we just have a very high hand-gun per capita rate to keep the peace. NRA theory in action.

made enough mistakes for this lifetime (http://www.jadetree.com/bands/artist/lifetime), here to make amends.

Next time I'll try...

redfooj again, yes france is much smarter re: electricity and transport than the US, but our whole system relies on global transport and the green revolution, neither of which can be possible without plentiful hydrocarbons.
plentiful hydrocarbons and relatively cheap oil is not coming to an end soon. but, between smoking doobs in your ewok village and showing off new piercings, you somehow became an expert in the industry with which you have no association. your type is really amusing... keep it up

yes mad max is cool. i realize my post is lacking in pie. i want to see where you all are at

couldn't you have gotten your pie with your burger at the drive thru?

plentiful hydrocarbons and relatively cheap oil is not coming to an end soon. but, between smoking doobs in your ewok village and showing off new piercings, you somehow became an expert in the industry with which you have no association. your type is really amusing... keep it up

Ahh, assumptions and condescension, the cornerstone of any online pissing match.
Wheeee....