Thursday, June 17, 2010

Op Ed

I just read an op ed piece that really slammed Obama for linking the oil spill to our dependence on oil.
It seems that people are taking offense to being told to change our energy habits. But the strategy is interesting because it is so childish. They contend that talking about the future when oil is still spilling is ignoring the present crisis. And also to "exploit the crisis" to address energy habits is bad. This is an impregnable defense mechanism and proof that oil propaganda has been doing their job. D.C. think tanks funded by Shell and Exxon pay smart people to create these arguments and they earned their money. Propaganda is the strongest force in America right now. I'll bet a think tank kid wrote that original op ed piece. It reads like a speechwriter's hand is behind it.

Anyway, it's an impossible task to change the mind of someone with cyclical thinking (I should know) but I'm never one to back down from a challenge. I doubt the blogger will post my comment so here it is. What do you think? I didn't see Obama's speech or read the whole op ed piece but did I really need to?


"300 million people can't all plug the hole in the well so I think it's a fair answer to the question of "What can we do?"

We can't afford not to have renewable energy. Coal and nuclear and oil only make economic sense when environmental costs are kept off the books. Anyone who tells you different probably worked for Enron.

The strategy of expecting 300 million people to all concentrate on plugging a hole in a broken oil well is not valid but it's a very good smoke screen. Like someone living in Kansas should just sit in their house and worry about the marsh of Louisiana?? Or Obama is living in denial by looking to the future when the oil well is capped and everyone goes back to driving 40 miles to save $10 on their grocery bill? Please think about the big picture.

The shock doctrine works both ways: when people are most disoriented and fearful is when propaganda has an opportunity to be assimilated. In this case, instead of linking Iraq to terrorism, the oil well is being linked to our oil addiction. Is that such a stretch?

There's been a 100 year long energy propaganda war in America and maybe the tide is turning. Don't believe me or Obama but do some independent research and do it fast."

4 comments:

donno said...

there's an old inspiring image of gutenburg's printing press with a banner that reads "the tyrant's foe, the people's friend".
i don't know the origins of the image, but i love it and the sentiment takes my breath away. i would love to put it on a shirt.

if it weren't a load of shit.

Lyle said...

Not surprised at all that you would like that image, donno, it looks like something you would draw.

Oggy Bleacher said...

I had a vision of one at work:

A modern teenager (ear rings, lip rings, etc.) is standing shyly (hands in pocket) at the entrance of the living room where his or her parents (modern parents reading paper and texting on phone)

Caption:
"Mom, Dad, I want to talk to you about renewable energy."

Like, flipping the whole "drugs and alcohol and sex" talk on it's head. See? Let the kids take charge over their '60s era parents. Empowerment of youth. That's a good theme. Get on it you artists.

donno said...

it could be flipped around to read,

"the tyrant's friend, the people's foe."

i'm doing it.

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Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.