Dear Reader, you are responsible for the oil wars

Every person who reads this is responsible for the oil way in some way. Just logging on and using electricity, regardless of the source, is contributing.

I am so tired of hearing people complain when our governments are doing it all for us.

I am no saint. I live 50.2 miles from work, one way. I make that trip 6 days a week in my 4,500lb. SUV usually alone.

They do these things for me. They do them for you too.

I am responsible. You are responsible too.

They do it so we can drive instead of walk. They do it so we can cook on a stove instead of over a fire.

They do it for us. Every time we get into a car, bus, or train we ask them to.

I keep my guilt with me; the blood stays on my hand. I don’t blame "them" so I can sleep better at night.

So it is up to you. What are you going to do to change it? Probably nothing so long as no one blames you directly, so long as you can come on ATS and wash your hands by blaming "them".

Just don’t ever forget that they do it because you ask them to.

I think you're over-simplifying it. Yes, we demand oil, but we also demand that our government vigorously try to find new and better ways for us to live. If they want to make money off of that, then fine, just do it!!! Advancement in energy and fuel is paramount. It's the life or death of our civilization.

Peace

I agree Dr. Love, my husband and I gave up our SUVs back in the 90s and gas was not an issue then.

Our corporate ridden government are the ones to blame for the lack of incentives to pursue other types of energy resources more vigorously.

But let's not forget that we are an oil producing country also.

I find it sooooo interesting and confounding that the people out there screaming: "NO War for Oil!!", love to text each other on their cell-phones, mass e-mail, etc.
Where do they think these refinements come from? Where do they think they that obtain the luxury of having such a society that allows them to do what they do ( instead of being stuck behind a plow) ?
Like it or not, oil is the blood of our society. Drain the blood and the body dies. They can't have it both ways. I am not trying to justify any means to obtain the oil, just admitting that I enjoy and relish the benefits. Those that say otherwise are simply hypocrites and products of a spoiled and self-absorbed philosphy.

[edit on 15-8-2007 by passenger]

Wait a minute you expect me to believe the government is not getting anything
out of this war? Have you checked the gas prices?
Prices were lower before the war, so how did the gas end up higher then before? Instead of the government causing a war why can't they use the money
that funds the US troops in Iraq to find a new energy source?

I am sorry but that is a load of crap...

We use what we have to use. There isn't much of a choice

It was decided a hundred years ago, by car makers and oil tycoons, that cars would run on oil. This is because they saw that oil would create the most profits for them. So they paid no attention to the effect on the car buyer and the environment. We can not be blamed for that.

If companies made more money on electric hybrid cars don't you think we would be driving those? The only reason we 'Need' oil so bad now is to keep the rich slobs richer.

Oil also at the same time allows for something to be held over the heads of those that don't control it. It can be use to keep people in line. Hold people back.

Yes, you can chose not to use things that are unhealthy for the environment and waste oil. However, that is a personal choice now. It was not giving to people for the previous hundred years.

I guess what I am trying to say is...We do what we have to do to get by with the means we have to do it. Those means were not decided by us, had they been dont you think back then, a hundred years ago, we would have chosen the safer, more environmental safe and less oil wasting way to live out or lives.

I see where your coming from but if you think about it, it makes no sense. These were decisions made for use that we now have to live with.

The plain fact is that we've become addicted to oil. It's no different than becoming addicted to drugs except for one thing, there's always someone out there trying to make a drug that gives you a better, cheaper high. I know it's a bad comparison, but it's fact.

Politics are getting in the way of advancement, not the average Joe.

Peace

Originally posted by Dr Love
The plain fact is that we've become addicted to oil.

Politics are getting in the way of advancement, not the average Joe.

Peace

Yes, we have become addicted to oil, but we the Average Joe didn't go looking for it. We would have been fine with something else. We have become addicted by something pushed on us by the shady drug dealer standing outside of a school(Government).

Your right, it's either you do it or get beat up!
That is how we got addicted to the oil, if the government would spend money
they use in wars we would probably have the technology to travel through space.
But nope, we have to fight each other so we can expand our opinions to
countries that can care less about what we do.

Originally posted by Dr Love
The plain fact is that we've become addicted to oil... I know it's a bad comparison, but it's fact.

Politics are getting in the way of advancement, not the average Joe.

Close but not quite right.
Do you, as an "Average Joe" want to give up the computer you just used, the electricity that lit the room, the food you just ate, the transportation you used to work to earn it?
It's not an addiction any more than oxygen is (at this point). If we remove it (oil) everything gets thrown back a century. Can you, or anyone else, honestly admit that you can't live without it? I know I can't and I know that most that say they can are fooling themselves.

[edit on 15-8-2007 by passenger]

[edit on 15-8-2007 by passenger]

Originally posted by digitalassassin

Yes, we have become addicted to oil, but we the Average Joe didn't go looking for it.

You are unto something here, you are right BTW, we got what has been pushed to us by the people that control our nation.

The corporate agenda is not to make people happy but to make people addicted of what they offer for profits , regardless if is good for us or not.

Look the addiction to Chinese goods, has somebody actually stop to think when we stop been shoved Japanese made goods for Chinese?

We get what is offered to us because is nothing else.

I for one find the OP's sentiment akin to that of defeatism. So we are so simply surrender to the fact that our government, that happens to be run currently by an oil dynasty, is going to tear the globe apart looking for oil?

I find that lacking and irresponsible.

I do say personally say NO WAR FOR OIL because it is not about the oil, it is about the PERCEIVED VALUE of the oil. As long as the production remains Slightly slower than the global demand, and as long as there is the PERCEIVED notion that oil is finite and that there is the PERCEIVED notion that there are currently NO other alternatives then there will be this addiction to oil. Period.

Don't impose the idea on me that somehow I condone this. Speak for yourself.

passenger

I'm really not arguing against what you say, the fact is nothing short of a revolution to overthrow corporate government is going to save us. Are we currently FUBAR and most likely in the future FUBAR, absolutely, but my argument was hypothetical and utopian in nature. Yes, we've made this bed and now we have to lay in it.

Peace

Originally posted by Dr Love
but my argument was hypothetical and utopian in nature. Yes, we've made this bed and now we have to lay in it.

I applaud you in this admission, it says a lot about your character.
In my own confession, I must agree that you are not really wrong at all- it's just a matter of semantics.
My point is that at some time an addiction becomes a necessity. That is, for example, at one point in human evolution, our forebearers could probably synthesize vitamin-C from their enviroment (as most mammals can). However, somewhere along the line, humans lost that capability, making ingestion of external source vitamin-C a must for survivial. I believe our society, if viewed as an entity, now needs oil in the same manner. It cannot survive without it- we will DIE without it. Most addictions do not result in death if a retraction of the addictive substance occurs.

I for one have no addiction to oil. I will be very happy when the well runs dry and the gas stations close up shop. I was born into this society, and have learned from this society how to behave. I believe our current administration at the white house calls it "assimilation". I do have the choice to leave or to quit using oil. but why? Tell me the world body doesn't have access to alternate fuel sources. Tell me that we can't build a road out of tires and make it last one hundred years. Tell me that money is really worth something and not just little digits in a computer that allow those who can't do for themselves to have power. I can hardly believe that some of us are so brain washed that we cant see or can't accept the truth. It's called sheeplism and it's worse than Mcdonalds and a lot worse than lead paint. I think democrats and people with a defeatist and victimized attitude need to get off the meds. and actually do something. Vote Ron Paul and don't let people convince you that he doesn't have a chance and that you should just vote Hillary. Think for yourself, and look around at what actual Americans are doing. Question the system and don't believe that you are the cause. You are the cure!

Originally posted by popeye0314
I for one have no addiction to oil. I will be very happy when the well runs dry and the gas stations close up shop. I was born into this society, and have learned from this society how to behave... I do have the choice to leave or to quit using oil. but why? don't believe that you are the cause. You are the cure!

You illustrate my point better than I ever could have.
What did you use to post this comment? A petroleum based product, manufactured with petroleum based energy (and/or derivatives) delivered by a petroleum based conveyance, transported to you home in a petroleum based vehicle, powered by a (most likely) petroleum based energy source, ad nauseam.

Can you really, honestly believe that you can survive without all the accoutrements that modern oil-based society has given you? You haven't given any indication that you can other than majestic statements of intention.

[edit on 15-8-2007 by passenger]

Originally posted by digitalassassin
I am sorry but that is a load of crap...

We use what we have to use. There isn't much of a choice

Sure there is.

You can kill your own food, cook it over wood you cut, never step foot in an automobile again. Don’t ever buy anything manufactured.

Would that be easy? No.

Is that just a little ridiculous to ask of modern men? Of course it is!

HOWEVER, that doesn’t rid you of your guilt. You could live an oil free life if you wanted to. There were cities with hundreds of thousands of people before the motor age.

Would all 8 or so billion of us survive if oil supplies dried up over night? Nope. Not even half of us would.

But let’s be truthful people, if just to ourselves. We don’t need to drive to live. We don’t need our hamburgers driven to us either. You don’t need hair dryers, microwave ovens, T.V., the internet, manufactured homes, or slurpies.

You don’t NEED anything you don’t already have.

You just want those things. Sorry if this is hard for some of you. My Daddy told me the difference between a NEED and a WANT. Sorry if yours didnt.

Someone here made a comment about our PERCIEVED oil shortage. I think this is key. We have plenty, it is renewable. The Earth makes and we can replicate that in a lab. Just like a diamond. But that’s not the point, just a possible solution.

However, if one considers the ramifications of overturning the system one may come to the conclusion that we are indeed stuck. If we all stop using the oil our society will collapse, just like some of you pointed out. The same could happen with the revelation that oil is renewable and you have been lied to.

HOWEVER, no society can last forever. Were the (insert your society) any less of a society before oil?

Were the Chinese and the British a different society 300 years ago?


[edit on 15-8-2007 by cavscout]

Passenger - What were we talking about?

As far as I know a lot of people made it in this world for a long time with out modern petro-products. Are you saying that we should quit using oil and oil based products? Or are you saying that we can't?


I drink iced tea everday, but I can live on plain water just as easy. My job tells me if I dont drive then I am fired. It's not like I just feel the need to drive 200 miles a day in a v-8 truck.

I actually hate this computerization phase we are going through, but I am sure if I was born in pre-historic times I would hate the man eating lizards just as much.

You can kill your own food, cook it over wood you cut, never step foot in an automobile again. Don’t ever buy anything manufactured.

You don’t NEED anything you don’t already have.

So DO IT!
Don't lecture us. Show us how it's done! Go back to nature! Stop talking and start doing! Stop posting here and go live in the woods. Set an example like Jesus or Buddah or Ghandi and live the life you talk about. Let us see you do it and decide for ourselves if it's worth doing. If it's so great to live this way show us by your happiness in living like that, instead of proseltyzing about the wonders of it and doing something else.

So then by your logic, you should feel guilty every time someone gets murdered. You should feel guilty every time someone has their feelings hurt by getting flipped the bird.

This is taking guilt by association a BIT far, no?

Oh, and according to your logic, a lot of people just had their feelings hurt *.

*see above for reason why people got their feelings hurt


[edit on 15-8-2007 by TruthWithin]