Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Billion-Barrel-Per-Day Question

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Billion-Barrel-Per-Day Question

Click here to access article by Alexander Wöstmann from Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections.

It's surprising to run across a website like this which appears to be serving those connected with the oil and gas industry. Take this article for example. It starts off by looking into the increasing price of oil over the past few years when oil supply has been fairly abundant, and concludes that speculation and manipulation are driving the price up in spite of Wall Street explanations to the contrary. Well, that is not an earthshaking observation. What grabbed my attention was what followed this conclusion. He writes:

It would be easy to leave it at that and just conclude that we (the ‘normal’ people) are being lied to and our money is being stolen by overcharging in combination with scare stories about how either supply is being disrupted, or how some countries are consuming so much.

But it is too easy to just look at the surface and then conclude that everything is rotten or manipulated and just continue our day.

He then launches into a broad-scale attack on what I regard as the current state of capitalist controlled societies, but he never mentions the system. This is quite common among critics of the current social-economic arrangements, and one can never be sure if they are intentionally engaging in self-censorship for fear of reprisals from agents of the capitalist class or that they have been thoroughly brainwashed into thinking that there is no alternative (TINA). He only goes as far as mentioning "the system" or the "economic system". In any case, he makes some very cogent observations about the present dismal state of capitalist societies.

Read his article to see how he weaves his observations into the final fabric of this conclusion:

In the end it will be the rising consciousness of the people that realize they do not want to be sheeple (sheep people) anymore and will start to build up the ways that are natural to the human, the planet and the times.

...As the old and massive structure will ever more break up, and the planet is going through a period of rapid change, there will be those that will seek to live in a more natural and respectful way, and there will be those that will practice agriculture in a humane and natural way, and there will be those that will promote education that enhances the unique individual features and qualities in the person, preparing the younger lives to live, not just to be productive....