I don't even talk to people I take the train with every morning.

You'd feel right at home in Sweden. People who talk to strangers on the train (or really at all) are considered drunks, addicts, terrorists or Americans. :)

Or maybe we all just subconsciously associate long lines with the Great Depression and Communist Russia, so we avoid them, knowing there can be no happiness at the other end.

That's really funny, I guess it's a cultural thing. Here people are comforted by lines as it somehow tells people they are treated equally. Line cutters are obviously seen as the scum of the earth. If you really want to piss off a Swede, cut the line in front of him. He might not do anything than give his friends an angry look and mumble something, but he'll be pissed alright.

We don't have very much GOTV either. With an election participation of 75-85 % it's not really needed, and quite frankly, do we really want the last 20 % in the talent reserve to actually vote?

One local GOTV tradition, or rather party information thing is that all the parties put little houses on the main square in every town which they man with party members who can talk to voters, and the politicos also get the chance to hang wtih politicos from other parties.

   

This is what th huts look like.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.