RE: LIMITS TO BRAINS

-----Original Message-----
Behalf Of Boris Stremlin

>You know, a little reading in the social sciences may clue you in as to
>what students of the "social world" actually think about the
>interrelations between the two spheres.   It really beats relying on

The only enlightened sociologist that I have read is William Catton.  But I
have spent the last few years trying to understand neoclassical economic
theory, and am the first to admit that I am not up on cutting-edge
sociology.

Please don't keep me in the dark Boris!  What do sociologists think about
the relationship between "net energy" (or EROI ratios) and society?

(In case you forgot Boris, even sociologists had to stand in line.)

Jay -- www.dieoff.org
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                          TIME
                     January 14, 1974
   It looked like a hand grenade, so the Albany, N.Y., station
operator played it safe and assumed that it was a hand grenade.
He gave the man who was toting it all the gas he wanted.
Attendants  elsewhere last week faced curses and threats of
violence, sometimes  backed by suspicious bulges in the pockets
of jackets. When a huge  bear of a man warned a Springfield,
Mass., dealer, "You are going to  give me gas or I will kill
you," the dealer squeezed his parched pumps to find some.
"Better a live coward than a dead hero," he said.

   Such incidents were not exactly common last week, but they
occurred often enough, especially in the Northeast, to indicate
an  outbreak of a kind of gasoline madness. The New Year's
weekend was the  first time that many drivers became really
desperate for gas. Many  stations ran out of their monthly
allotments as the weekend started  and closed until they could
get new deliveries after the holiday.  Those that stayed open
backed up long lines of drivers whose tempers sometimes
exploded -- especially if they found the pumps dry when they
finally got to them.

   The gas shortage is sparking other types of deviant behavior.
Flouting of the law is on the rise. In New York City, two
gasoline  tanks trucks, each loaded with 3,000 gallons, were
hijacked within a week. Price gouging by station owners has
become distressingly common.  Miamians complain of having to pay
$1 a gallon or being charged a $2 "service fee" before a station
attendant will wait on them.

   At best, many gas station owners and attendants have become
unapproachable to strangers; they will wait only on longtime
customers. Some issue window stickers to the regulars; others
sell by appointment only. Oregon Governor Tom McCall last week
rolled into a  Union 76 station only to be told by the manager:
"Sorry, Governor, we're only selling to our regular customers."
So the Governor meekly drove to the end of the line at a nearby
station that was taking all comers.