Peak as a religion is designed as a belief system so that this group of geologic incompetents (with human hater tendencies) can construct a nice, personally customized Rapture scenario for themselves. It has nothing to do with either the reality of resource depletion in general, or peak oil in particular.
It's basic statistics. If the human population continues to grow at this unnaturally rapid pace and continues to rely on finite resources, which our whole way of life depends on, disaster will strike.
Look how rapidly our species grew after the industrial revolution and especially in the 20th century. It's ridiculous to think that cheap petroleum will last much longer at this pace of growth. The current (and future) amount of worldwide petrol consumption is unsustainable.
It is an interesting plot. Will goodness overcome the chaos? Who are the heroes and villains? American exceptional-ism vs the teeming hoards...
As this narrative unfolds is there a happy ending? Must there be an ending? No? Revolutionary!!
As it turns out we are all playing the same game. All our enemies were obscured by window dressing. Commies did in fact love their children ...some less than others..like the Chinese that loved their sons more than daughters so they compromised in their inscrutable way by limiting both saving themselves and probably the world from overpopulation by an extreme example of discipline no other country is capable of.
As the story presses on that's still not good enough because we are still the guys in possession of the white hats having taken the high ground in WWII. Exceptional-ism is still our inheritance. There would be no world worth having if the Japs and Germans had won.
I for one welcome the Chinese example of population control and having them spread their culture of necessity by way of commerce to other third world countries is far from a bad thing. Herding cats is apparently what they do best.
So why should we get the cheap gasoline and the endless choices of SUV's to waste it?
Because as Hollywood points out so well at the ticket booth...everyone regardless of ethnicity loves a hero and we don't care what it costs to keep our heroes happy. Surprise surprise...we are the heroes. It wasn't Henry Kaiser that won the day with the Liberty Ships working alone. It was the Americans that built them. We do not owe anybody anything. They still ALL owe us. Without us this world would truly already be the shithole everyone whines about.
Should we grow up and stop riding the hero card? No. We are still useful as the guiding beacon of humanity. Indulge us.