The Politics of Peak Oil and Fascism

[chlamor]

The Politics of Peak Oil and Fascism

by Roland Watson

Though attended by a large number, the "Peak Oil UK" conference organised by Depletion Scotland on the 25th April had a familiar look to it. On view were representatives from the media, environmental groups and oil-related academia as well as concerned individuals such as myself. Also, the sight of Colin Campbell and Matt Simmons as speakers and even Mike Ruppert in the audience gave it all a kind of kindred feel to it all.

However, one individual stood out a mile and in complete contrast to these groups and that was Nick Griffin, chairman of the British National Party. For non-British readers, a description of the BNP is in order. Being a far right wing party, they are somewhat similar to Jean Marie Le Pen's National Front party of France which has enjoyed recent electoral successes. However, since immigration is not such a hot issue in Britain as it is in France, the BNP's electoral successes are confined to local government elections. No BNP member sits as an MP in the House of Commons and this is unlikely to in the current political-economic climate.

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However, it is the transition to this more simple lifestyle that worries me. It is how human nature reacts to his fellow man when resources become scarcer and the blame game begins. The BNP are no doubt familiar with Adolf Hitler. Indeed, many in their ranks idolise him and regard the Holocaust as a lie. What the BNP are aware of is that economic paradigm shifts lead to political paradigm shifts. Thanks to the short-sightedness of the Versailles Treaty after the First World War, Germany was put under such duress for reparations that hyperinflation and economic collapse ensued and drove desperate people to desperate measures. They had a choice between the two extremes of socialism - the Communists or the Nazis (National Socialists). Hitler won and rose to power as the paradigm shift of hyperinflation had its devastating way.

Hitler blamed the Jewish Bankers for Germany's predicament and also preached a gospel of Aryan supremacy over other races. Why did the German people swallow this and vote the Nazis into power? Because as history has shown over and over again, hardship brings out the worst in us as well as the best. When resources become scarce, certain numbers of people psychologically withdraw into their perceived peer groups and automatically distance other groups. In such circumstances, if they think they lack life's necessities at the expense of another group, prejudice and bias will ensue. The instinct to survive as an individual and a group predominates. It becomes survival of the fittest and if the majority group regards itself as the fittest then bloody persecution arises.

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