Everybody’s Fault But Mine

A clarion call, time to wake up.

In passing glances the occasional journalist points in the direction of us all, suggesting that it is not just rogue oil companies, in-bed government agencies, or an administration on auto-pilot who are responsible for the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. They suggest, perhaps a bit sheepishly, that two other culprits may be to blame here. Those two being you, and me.

But they don’t push it. It’s not part of the marketing plan.

Instead, we get finger pointing, show trials with execs taken to the C-Span woodshed, ritual firings, new policy proposals, and anger at the administration for lacking both a crystal ball and a magic wand. Deserved perhaps, but…

In what amounts to a recapitulation of President George W. Bush’s post 9-11, “…just go shopping” advice, in the wake of the Gulf Gusher, we citizens and consumers are not once asked about our role or our culpability in the economic, environmental, and resource fiasco that the oil economy has become. Instead, we’ve got our regular cast of characters, evil but necessary, to glower over while they continue to run the diabolical show. Didn’t we just play the passive chorus when the great bank heist of 2009 was perpetrated in plain sight and then we handed the thieves a second bag of cash?

Wake up time, kids.

With fossil fuels on the decline, vanishing jobs, a stacked house for a financial system, an economy deep in the toilet, and leadership unwilling to speak the hard truths of our times, its no surprise that we should assume the Durkheimian position of tribalism. “If only they hadn’t done this to us, those corporate types, those greasy politicians.”

My advice? Its a little bit of performance art I like to call Narcissus, Awake! Broadcast one hour with just a mirror on the screen of every channel on TV, of every Internet site in all the world. Gather pals, and gaze.

Until we consumers and citizens share the blame for a resource gambit so dangerous, ultimately useless, and finally catastrophic, the conversation won’t move an inch.

Until we begin participating, really participating, beyond updates on our own Facebook pages and groundbreaking tweets that we imagine will form the final connective tissue of the whole matrix of change, but really, really, really getting engaged with it all, breaking into self consciousness in a way that transcends our imagined impotency and takes on our historical moment, we will again and again simply play the victim and finger point in response, getting nowhere fast with increasing asthma and widening lard asses.

This is just the beginning, the Gulf spew nothing but a clarion call. No executive, no elected official, no government policy, no war, and no new technology will stop the inverse gusher coming our way in the form of fossil fuel decline, the potential disaster of which could make the Gulf crises look like nothing more than a big swimming pool with suntan lotion BUILT RIGHT IN!

Wakey, wakey folks. No one is doing this to you, or at least, not without your consent. It may be learned behavior, but at some point it comes down to you…and me. The first step is admitting you have a problem. I’ll take the lead here.

My name is Lindsay Curren and I am addicted to oil. Its running out and I don’t know what to do. I just know I can’t do nothing and I can’t live like I have. I have to take responsibility for myself and my family. I have to do something. I won’t live with the lies anymore. I wont stop until we are all talking honestly about peak oil and what it means for today and for the future of our country. I am powerful to change this thing, and with truth on my side, I will.

You?