Direction, Misdirection, How you should feel, how you shouldn't...

It has been a while since I carried on in one of my 'opinion' based threads. It seems that everyone in our community, while not necessarily agreeing with one another, has a consistent acceptance of both fact and spin in this event which will define a generation, perhaps more so than the 9/11 attacks, and the war on terrorism.

The effects of the events at hand are felt far beyond the pale of the political or social sensibilities we cling to, and have in fact, impacted the very vehicle which we live upon.

And yet, I am both weary and leery of the constant urging of people and organizations declaring quite authoritatively, how we should "feel" about this, what this "means," and what 'should' come of it all. As if, it were somehow taken for granted that without the external input, we are incapable of comprehending the whole.

We have been repeatedly told (ironically) that this is nothing but a triviality, the end of the world, human error, human evil, corporate negligence, corporate greed, a function of commerce, a defect of society, much ado about nothing, a cataclysm unmatched in human history.

Today I watched as television talking heads giggled about how, in the scheme of things, the raw material lost could power American cars for four minutes on an average day. How the recovery operation is still on track. I heard countless echoes of the president's speech assuring us that BP will pay for this. And that in the final analysis this is all our own fault for relying on oil as a fuel source. The media seemed to want me to feel reassured. The president wanted me to feel reassured. It was like a psychic tranquilizer being pumped into the airwaves, that we might 'relax' over the situation and let someone else deal with it.

But then I can't help but be aggravated by the idea that we are somehow to engage in the mental gymnastics of finding fault in ourselves, as people, because we consume oil.

The energy industries in place have been coddled, supported, bailed out, propped up, and foisted upon the world by the same governments who are projecting that YOU and I are responsible for the 'bigger picture.' Exactly where are our alternatives to oil consumption now? Where were they in the 1970's when the first fake shortage was used as an excuse to increase the Energy cartels revenue stream? In what manner were we supposed to 'reduce' our consumption of the only fuel made available to us? Or was every person on the planet to develop new technology on their own?

Yes we are wasteful - humans have ALWAYS been wasteful, because we innovate, we depart from the animalistic minimalism that is savagery and survivalism, humans are more than animals in that we are not content to eat, sleep, and reproduce. Humans are industrious and inventive, with that activity comes waste - because we don't know every damn thing there is to know.

Of course we must work to minimize wastefulness, to increase efficiency, to promote a harmonious and sustainable relationship with the environment that supports us. But we have been polluting rivers, our air, and our land EVERYWHERE we have ever gone..... Look at the lunar landing site... they threw crap around and left it all scattered about like some rude tourists... even on the moon we have left waste.

Oil is the single most availed of resource we have that has to be forcefully extracted and processed for our use. Profiteering corporate cartels and cabals have seized a choke hold on its extraction, distribution, and processing - not only with the consent of the governments of the world, but with THEIR encouragement - simply because governments have a stake in the revenue stream.

Now world leaders are using this catastrophe to invoke the 'shame' factor on the people, as if we hadn't been warning them about this eventuality for the last 50 years or so. World leaders remind us of the tragic dependence on oil, as if we hadn't been conditioned as consumer to depend upon it by the very corporations under whom they themselves benefit from fosterage.

If we go back to the body of media that exists prior to this date, in what way haven't we been told and repeatedly urged to consume, consume now, and consume often? If we return to the actions and initiatives of the governments in place, where do we see the never-ending struggle they have undertaken to remove this dependence on oil from the equation?

Closer examination shows us that it is NOT our cars that are the problem. It's PLASTICS, oil-based synthesized drugs, the rejection of natural textiles, food stuffs, medicines, and the ubiquitous chemicals which are offered to the people to help them stay 'civilized' that tipped the scale. It's the ozone-killing additives, the heavy toxin-laced 'personal' products, the carpets, the paints, the Formica, that crossed the line.

And yet, my president blames me and my kind, the ones who have to travel 25-miles to work with no public conveyance available (because it is not profitable enough to support) as the 'cause' of the dependence on 'bad' fossil fuel.

For the last 40 years we have been told that we need to get away from internal combustion engines for power; how has the government responded to that realization? - they haven't. Instead they then - and now - blame us, for 'depending' on it - as if WE had a choice.

For decades the government and regulatory agencies have ensured that "greener" options were priced out of realistic range for any average consumer. Still to this day, we are told the bold-faced LIE that it's too expensive to go solar. And that is a LIE. It is NOT now nor has it ever been TOO EXPENSIVE to go solar; it has been and remains the prerogative of the industry to demand sinful profit from the venture. They have made the cost exceed the value to the point of our dependence on oil. Can anyone imagine why that might be?

Now, in light of this Deepwater debacle, the politicians have once again begun to execute their benefactor’s bidding; expressing the need to make consumption more expensive – to de-incentivize the use of some resources, in theory ‘motivating’ the consumer to go to alternative resources; all of which are neither less expensive, nor ‘incentivized’ in any way other than for the corporate citizenry.

Interestingly, this ‘spill’ has been presented to us as a bed of lies. From the onset, we were never told about the reality of the situation, and we seem to accept that this is ‘the way it is.’ That BP doesn’t know the magnitude of the well’s output…. Even thought they are intently focused on ‘capturing’ the oil, and NOT capping the well. We were lied to by nearly every single public face we have been granted access to. What is it about this event that threatens some secret? That there is now, and always has been, enough oil to last us for centuries? Most people suspected as much. That burning oil is bad for the environment and our health? They knew that from the start. That corporate enterprise is valued more greatly by our political machinery than the mandate to serve the country’s interests? What a shock.

Now people are so shaken by the potential effects of this tragic event that they are missing the uniquely incongruent execution of the efforts to make it right. BP hasn’t ever told us exactly what they did and why, they haven’t told us what effect the two ‘relief’ wells will have… aside from their hopes it will enable them to ‘capture’ more of the leakage. They have proclaimed a goal to capture 90% of the spillage, without telling us what number they are considering constitutes spillage; 90% of their estimate of the leak is far less than 90% of what we suspect it to really be. BP has not yet commented (nor has our government) of the new footage showing oil leaking from cracks in the ocean floor near the well. I am anticipating their assurance that this is ‘natural’ and not related to the well itself. It begs the question of OTHER wells around the world, and what they consider ‘natural.’

Apparently, BP has refused assistance from any organization that has submersibles capable of reaching the depths of the well… they rejected offers from the likes of the Woodhole Institute, and even Cameron’s private submarine fleet, in fact; it’s like they don’t want anyone going down there. Again, I wonder why.

We have no clear reports of the dispersants they are continuously adding to the mix. The government has ‘avoided’ the question of its toxicity and to what degree it complicates the goal of getting this oil OUT of the ecosystem. We do know the matter is subject to political theater, and what effect it has seems a subject they do not wish to investigate openly.

Few outlets even discuss the far more voluminous methane that is further complicating the impact this event will have on us all. No one seems willing to clarify whether when they talk of spillage they are including that variable in the equation, or the chemical’s effect on the water’s salt-bearing capacity, and how that might affect currents also seems, not worthy of discussion.

Halliburton’s coincidental purchase of the oil-spill clean-up specialists eight days before the explosion, their direct participation in the concrete pouring, all seem to have been declared ‘unrelated’ to the event, and even BP remains silent about to whom the clean-up contract will go. Goldman Sachs prescience about divesting themselves of BP ownership one day prior to the event is also ‘unrelated’ or so it seems by the intensity of the questioning it has received in the MSM.

And now a politically appointed Czar will be in charge of this event… as if this person had ANY experience whatsoever in such matters. We find ourselves told that people like the Coast Guard Admiral was somehow an heroic expert in these matters, rather than a desk-bound bureaucrat of a Department of Transportation branch of maritime law enforcement.

I find it difficult to find any ray of continuous truth and honesty in this event, and in that regard, this is much like the sad events of 9/11. Where there are secrets there is malfeasance, my instincts tell me.

It seems that there is too much at play in this scenario for it to be rationalized away as ‘that’s what you get for depending on oil.’

Each chapter of this story has far too much room for doubt, far too many revisions, and far too much taken for granted.

It is not OUR fault. We did not require that the nation be exposed to such catastrophic risk, we did not endorse a plan to disperse the millions of gallons of oil into the ocean itself using high-priced toxins, we did not forbid independent scientists and specialists from going to the scene of the crisis to investigate and report. We did not ask BP to “Drill baby drill. And damn the potential consequences.”

However, the government, manned by political appointees, and cronies from the corporate world, did encourage the enterprise, the MSM did participate willingly in ‘selling’ the oil-consuming paradigm to the people, and the energy cartel itself ensured that the need would never dissipate while profits could be made. Yet the political leadership wants us to believe this is our fault.

On the heels of this event look for new ways to extract wealth from what remains of the middle-class; because the poor don’t have it to give, and the rich, well, it’s their club (and we ain’t in it.)

If there were ever an example of why CORPORATIONS MUST NEVER BE CONSIDERED CITIZENS BUT CHARTERED ORGANIZATIONS and POLITICIANS MUST ALWAYS BE CONSIDERED SERVANTS – NOT LEADERS – this is it. This is the clarion call for reform of corporate existence, and it will go unheeded by the corporate government. I suppose that much is to be expected.

[edit on 16-6-2010 by Maxmars]

reply to post by Maxmars


Excellent post! I agree completely! Thanks for taking the time to post your opinion. WE need more of that.

I watched the president last night, and several times, I said to myself, "Hmmm... isn't that just what the public needs to hear to be reassured"? It's like a condescending, placating sort of security blanket being spread over the people of the nation. Except it's prickly and scratchy to me and provides NO comfort whatsoever to me.

I'm tired of being told how to feel. And I refuse to accept it any longer. Problem is so many people in this country are placated by the words of a man for whom I have lost nearly all respect... I know he doesn't have the power to fix this, but he is not on our side. That much is clear to me.

The truth is that some people DID shout "Drill, baby, drill and damn the consequences", but that's because they believed there would be none. They were ignorant. They were led to believe by a government and propaganda that they trusted.

Excellent post OP. Couldn't have hoped to have said it better myself.

Sadly it becomes more apparent to me, day by day, that we are not citizens of a free nation, but more like commodities to be traded and used as the corporations and power players see fit. We are born into slavery (income tax), and work our entire lives in the "pursuit of happiness" (aka, entitlements to the shareholders) without many of us knowing the wiser.

I understand now why we could never have a 'flat tax' or only a sales tax. Why we have to pay property tax, even on land that has belonged to some of our families before the goverment existed.

We are easily swayed, quick to judgement without rational thought, and apathetic to a fault.

Perhaps a revolution is called for. I certainly hope not, but how much farther can things go before "1984" looks more like yesterday than the near future???

How should we feel?

Hey, accidents happen, can't really get upset over an accident. So not angry about that. BP's attitude towards the spill and clean up? Now that's left something to be desired...not terribly impressed so far.

But Mr. Obama's public vow to make BP pay...oooooh, aaaahhh, wowser's, I'm so damned impressed. How about, instead of making scape goats, we plug the damned leak? Hmmmm?

I'm thoroughly disgusted by all sides in this fiasco. BP's intransigence and obfuscation... The govt. bluster and absolute lack of anything concrete in the way of action...

I'm no expert in this field. But this can't possibly be the first blow out of this sort to ever occur... Surely some one, some where, has done the work and planning it takes to fix this.

People need to shut the hell up, and start working together on this while the Gulf still has living bio mass.

Disgust and, yes, anger at everyone involved.

Thank you for the feedback and kind words.

I have been grinding my teeth over this for a while and every time someone asks me for my opinion on the subject, I inform them - "You haven't got enough time for me to tell you what I think about it."

[edit on 16-6-2010 by Maxmars]

Originally posted by Maxmars
we are wasteful - humans have ALWAYS been wasteful, because we innovate, we depart from the animalistic minimalism that is savagery and survivalism, humans are more than animals in that we are not content to eat, sleep, and reproduce. Humans are industrious and inventive, with that activity comes waste - because we don't know every damn thing there is to know.

Of course we must work to minimize wastefulness, to increase efficiency, to promote a harmonious and sustainable relationship with the environment that supports us. But we have been polluting rivers, our air, and our land EVERYWHERE we have ever gone..... Look at the lunar landing site... they threw crap around and left it all scattered about like some rude tourists... even on the moon we have left waste.

Brief story…

I once had the privilege of visiting a “primitive” tribe of folks on a remote island in Indonesia. ..they weren’t really “primitive”…just very different, but that is a different story.

Regardless, we brought certain food items with us to help engender good will, but we were told not to give them anything in a wrapper…ie: Granola bar less wrapper, Lemonade poured from the bottle, but to take the plastic bottle with us back to the boat etc.

Why? Because these people, like they had for a thousand years, simply threw their garbage in the forest…but for a thousand years that garbage was a hollowed gourd as a cup, a broken arrow made of wood, a torn basket woven of leaves….all things nature could easily consume and return to the system.

When tourists started to give them plastic bottles and tin cans, Candy and wrappers, they again did what they had done for a thousand years and tossed their “garbage” into the forest and suddenly a garbage dump appeared and they didn’t understand why.

They simply didn’t get it…Garbage that didn't return to nature didn't make sense to them. Their garbage was not garbage at all, but seamlessly part of the natural system.

I am not naive or utopian. I know we can’t live like those people, but can’t we can start to try and think like them…just a little?

Because as far as I can see we are no more sophisticated then those tribes...Maybe less so..we are still tossing our cleverly engineered "waste" at the edge of the village and wondering why nature won't claim it.

Just my 2 cents.