A Preview to Chapter 20 (or, Navigating a Martenson Report)

Monday, October 6, 2008

My belief is that massive, unprecedented change is coming.

No, I believe that it is already underway. When the dust settles in one, five, or twenty years, the economic landscape will be utterly changed.

Another belief I hold is that by taking steps now, both small and large, you can significantly minimize disruptions in your life that so many others will experience. While we will all end up in the same place in twenty years, I want your path to be as gentle as possible. By undergoing voluntary change, you will have more opportunities to shape your path than those who find change involuntarily forced on them. Where others will someday reach a cliff face that needs to be scaled all at once, my goal is to walk with you up the side trail. Each Martenson Report is designed to reinforce the lessons of the Crash Course, with my goal being to help you navigate the changes ahead.

Beliefs

It all begins with beliefs. I created the Crash Course to provide all the intellectual evidence anyone could possibly need, laid out like an air-tight prosecution with the following conclusion: The next twenty years will be unlike the last twenty years. But if your underlying beliefs are in opposition to this message, you may find yourself taking no actions at all. Examples of such beliefs might be:

1. “Technology will arise that will blunt or maybe even reverse the impact of Peak Oil”. If this is one of your core beliefs, then it won’t really matter how well I lay out the case that Peak Oil is not only real, but frighteningly near. So you won’t take any actions. You’ll continue to live at drivable distances from where you work and play, and you won’t bother to bolster your food security or maneuver your portfolio holdings away from exposed industries and companies or do anything else.
2. “This is just a normal recession – we’ve faced them before, and they don’t last that long.” If you hold this belief, then you are open to the typical broker’s suggestion that the best strategy is to “buy and hold for the long-term.” You might also be tempted to tune out all the current market information as “noise” that provides no value to your understanding and is probably harmful in its potential to alter your outlook.