Reply #5: In a general sense, instability is just another word for change.

[GliderGuider]

Most of our perceptions of order and predictability are illusions. Even knowing that, though, doesn't keep us from becoming attached to the idea of order - and then suffering when the illusion is revealed.

Nobody with half a brain would expect the world to hit peak oil and not be affected, but we're still shocked and appalled when oil prices begin to gyrate and gasoline and food prices start to climb.

I think a lot of us have a feeling of "What the hell just happened?" regarding the events of late 2008. We've had housing bubbles before, we've had venal bankers since the moneychangers in the temple (or longer), we've had crop failures before - but there seems to be a spreading sense that this time it was different. Of course, when one hears hoofbeats, the smart money bets on horses rather than zebras. But for those watching the changes at the resource level - the oil supply plateau, the natural gas fracking, the ocean fish depletion, the fresh water shortages, the plummeting concentrations of metals in a dozen different ores - there is a sense that Meadows et al were probably right back in 1971. There are limits to growth, and it's reasonable to expect loud crunching noises as they start to kick in.