Re: Hanson [and Boris's reply]

> This is silliness bordering on denial. Petroleum IS running out, as even
the
> IEA has recently acknowledged. Why do social 'scientists' like Stremlin
and
> Spectors have such trouble facing up to a well-attested and accepted fact?
> You may not want to believe Hanson but you can hardly continue this absurd
> ostrich performance in the face of expert opinion and the statements of
> international agencies tasked with dealing with the matter. Or perhaps you
> can, I dunno. Either way, it shows the utter pointlessness of even
debating
> you. I, too, shall be unsubbing.
>
> Mark Jones

But the debate isn't about whether oil is depleted or not.  Of course, we
all know it will run out sooner or later.  In the long run, we're all dead.
But neither is this a question of whether or not new technologies will be
developed once again to adapt to the scarcity.  I think capitalism has
demonstrated that it can adapt technologically rather well, though most
people are worse off, without destroying humanity.  If we make out of global
warming, I'll be convinced.

Rather, Boris's point, as I read it, is that the natural resources issue,
among others, is not a question of humans ignoring the physical world.
Rather, these issues are (1) part of the social world, created by the social
world, and (2) that the social world and its problems, including these, do
not essentially stem from our genetic structure such that we ignore the
physical world -- a grossly absurd thesis, hence the sarcastic remarks on
Hansen's superior genetics.   The last and the next oil shock(s) are
problems of the social-HISTORICAL system.  To predict the effects, trends,
and demise of our current world-system (as the transition to another
world-system(s), it is much more convincing and fruitful to study the
history of this one and not simply eliminate historical analysis, and
thereby ridiculously reduce social problems to human genetics.  (And I
thought AG Frank was taking an overly long-run view!)

In short, Boris's comments were right on target.  Hansen should read
world-systems analysis, starting with Wallerstein in my view.

Elson E. Boles
Assistant Professor, Sociology
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
elson@azu-boles.net
facbolese@usao.edu