[TheForge] crude oil (more OT)

[Justin Fellenz]

Nah. Give everyone an SUV. Keep all the ford plants open and humming, support the unions, borrow the money like we do  for the "War." We're gonna run out of both oil and our ability to pay the debt, not just in terms of money in the bank but in terms of productive capacity, having shipped it all overseas. I think we've already run out of the ability to dig in, sacrifice, and persevere in the name of our community because the values that underpin that community have been undercut by Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and perhaps both the right and the left in the name of a tiny bit of leverage. While it's true that we are free in this country to take make our own choices and dissent if we wish, Our Leaders, both political and industrial, have arranged it such that the options are meaningless. Republican or democrat, you still get the same public-relations weasels whispering in the ears of the men who had to sell their souls to the System to get into "Power." Anybody who's ever worked among
 bureaucrats knows that the one who keeps his head down best, wins. So many people protested this war, and yet we're still killing kids every day...does anybody know what the mission du jour is? What will it (appear to) be when we go into Iran? Does it matter whether it makes sense to us? All our kids are supposed to go the same lousy schools so that they can learn from the other kids that happiness is a new game-boy, and how to survive in a system that exists for those outside of it, not for those inside it--in other words, how to be good corporate citizens. So much for political dissent. And personal freedom: what does individuality mean when you can "express" it by buying one or another kind of suppository-shaped cars? All you can do is express your earning potential. If you express much real individuality--say by refusing to use revolving credit, or not buying baby formula because your wife can breastfeed, or farming with horses in the name of self-sufficiency--and you're
 articulate and able to function in the regular world. you're a joke that nobody gets or a threatening radical, depending on who you're talking to.
   
  Ever try to sue someone in civil court for a wrong that stole time or comfort or health from you? The first thing any lawyer will ask is how much money did you lose. I hear about all these cases where pain and suffering gets compensated. Not in my experience. If it's not a dollar figure, it doesn't count. And that's where it all ends. Money is power and the whole system is an illusion in which we, as much as we bitch, are complicit--we buy the idea that buying power is freedom. It is, in a way, and I'm certainly not denying that here in the first world we have it better than ever before in history. But I don't trust it, and it's certainly not free, and I don't mean in the sense that we need to sacrifice a few thousand kids every few years for our sin of overindulgence and lack of observance. We're weak as a country, despite our military, and we believe because we've been sold the idea that we have a right to be weak and that nobody can ever take that away from us. Somewhere along
 the way we didn't notice that the water our little froggy butts are in was getting hotter. Now it's too late.
   
  I hate waiting. I think we should just get on with it.
   
  JRF 

Demon Buddha <osan at netlabs.net> wrote:
  

terry l. ridder wrote:
> hello;
> 
> comments intermixed below.
> 
> On Sat, 4 Feb 2006, Demon Buddha wrote:
> 
>>
>>
>> terry l. ridder wrote:
>>
>>> hello;
>>>
>>> what really needs to be done is ban the automobile. it is total and
>>> utter insanity that hundreds of thousands of workers commute to and from
>>> work by themselves in such a resource hungry mode of transportation.
>>
>>
>> On what legal premise would you base such a ban?
>>
> i can think of several.
> the war powers act.

Huh? I would call that a stretch. We're not at war, rodent-president 
claims to the contrary notwithstanding.

> rationing of vital resources.

According to whose standard? That's a sticky wicket you propose.

> national security.

They archetype of baloney government claims. It's right up there with 
emminent domain.
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