Cats in a Sack

The latest George Monbiot essay once again addresses ways out of the current energy dependence abyss.

The surplus has led us to believe in the possibility of universal peace and universal comfort, for a global population of 6 billion, or 9 or 10. If kindness and comfort are, as I suspect, the results of an energy surplus, then, as the supply contracts, we could be expected to start fighting once again like cats in a sack.

The rest of the essay describes his experience helping out a tiny settlement of like-minded British citizens that have worked out ways to meet self-sufficiency. Mentioning that "Some of the locals, mistaking the settlers for new age travellers, went beserk. There was plenty of internal strife as well." reminded me of how one of my colleagues described how wary people normally become when their turf gets invaded -- it was as if "they were strange bulldogs sniffing one another's butt".