The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking. –Albert Einstein
Good morning, Gentle Reader. This will be my last entry for this topic at this time.
Foreign fossil fuel. This is perhaps our Nation’s greatest dependency. What does this mean? Among a number of meanings, it means that we are trapped into being interested and involved in the parts of the world where fossil fuels are produced, whether it’s Venezuela or Russia or the Middle East.
No responsible President will walk away from this entrapment. It is easy to say – or to write – that we should not be involved in those places, but we are involved in those places. Our entire economy depends on the oil coming out of, for instance, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia – a country that holds and supports the Wahabist ideology. This is the ideology that is embraced by Al Qaeda – the dollars we pay for oil are the dollars that support Al Qaeda. If we want to cut off a major source of funding for Al Qaeda, we would go after the Wahabists in Saudi Arabia.
This, of course, we won’t do – this, of course we can’t do. Why? Because a quarter of the gasoline we use is produced by the Saudis. We need the Saudis, so never mind Al Qaeda.
Neither can we walk away from Iraq because they are also a big producer of the oil we need. Now, Iran presents another challenge because they also control vast amounts of oil reserves.
Instead of asking this question: Should we really be buying our oil from these countries? We ask: Where will get the oil to drive our cars? This second question is the key question for us. We need our cars. Driving our cars means we are committed to a foreign policy that is interventionist, whether it’s for military or state-building purposes, or to support leaders who are known to be human rights abusers.
Now, we are not evil people. We are, however, thinking as Consumers; we are not thinking as Citizens. We are thinking that markets are the solution (we are told this over and over and over again almost every day – in fact, when one challenges the markets one is deemed to be ‘Un-American.’ After 9/11 President Bush told us to go to the malls and shop. After the recession of 2008 President Obama told us to go to the malls and shop).
As Consumers we opt out of making public choices – choices that would provide us the opportunity to actually co-create the framework in which we live. This framework would enable us to say no to carbon emissions, to say no to an oil-dependent economy.
Instead, we say that our elected officials are ‘stupid’ and they don’t value (think: accept) ‘science.’ The reality is that in a market economy the logic of Consumers trumps (pun intended) the logic of Citizens. Politicians are smart, they know that if they are going to be elected then they must win over, not the Citizen, but the Consumer (it appears that our politicians are committed to the Consumer – privatization and not to the Citizen – the Public Good and this makes sense, for it is the Consumer, not the Citizen that will elect them).
As Consumers, we Americans are correct in believing that fossil fuel is good, that cars are good. Of course cars are good. There is little good public transportation in our country. How are we going to get around if we don’t have a car?
Well, Gentle Reader, this is the situation you and I (WE) are mired in. We will be mired in this muck for the foreseeable future.
YET, the very political issue we must deal with centers around our choice: To continue to be Consumers or to become the Citizens that we are called to become. As always in our history, We The People will have to decide. We The People will decide. Thus far, We The People have decided that it is better for us to be Consumers than it is for us to be Citizens.
Excuse me, I must sign off for now. I have to go to the gas station and fill up my gas tank.
One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised. –Chinua Achabe (Nigerian Poet)
Searcher-Seeker 