Going Nowhere Fast

The oil industry is in a state of incredible volatility right now with last month's high price of crude suddenly crashing. Record amounts are being produced by the 'majors' USA, Saudi Arabia and Russia with other OPEC partners also going great guns. What's goin on? Geo-political intrigue? Drunken speculators, total chaos, a sign of America's new-found greatness? Who the fuck knows. I thought we were supposed to be running out of oil but they are pumping it as fast as they can. Whatever.

Speaking of crude, Bill McKibben ( can't help it, more Bill Bashing) has a piece in the NY Review of Books where he re-states the standard, worn-out claim that the climate crisis can be traced back to "the power of the fossil fuel industry". And then he ironically goes on to say "we need a major shift in our thinking". This is his idea of a "major shift": turn to "civil society" to "pressure" the policy makers. Whoa! So outside of the box! And so "in an era when politics seems at least temporarily broken" he imagines a "Green New Deal". I suspect this looks a lot like Norway with solar panels, a return to Keynesian "common sense" and a touch of RE-distribution.

But let's not get too nostalgic for a past that never was; the New Deal didn't end the depression (that took war) and it depended on a top-down command and control process, your basic Leviathan, with minimal popular participation. It also saved capitalism from some revolutionary forces which were building real steam. It was "social containment to avoid 'a world transformed'". Which fits into Mc Kibben's agenda as well.

Liberals continue to believe "policy makers", to "provide incentives", thereby managing a transition without a lot of upheaval and turmoil. That ain't how it works. It's a con that they get taken on over and over due to willful blindness and a lack of imagination and desire. Remember: don't be afraid to want what you truly desire.