It’s a Conspiracy!
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed a lot of letters to the editor in the Daily Local News have focused on gasoline and fuel oil prices, and rightfully so. The price increases put a lot of stress on our residents, especially at a time like Christmas, when everyone’s budget seems to be at its tightest. Even though it is a serious matter, I do revel in the conspiracy theories that pop-up around the subject. They tend to add a little bit of levity to an otherwise dim discussion, and the more outlandish they are, the better.
The best are the ideas that automobile manufacturers and oil companies are colluding to buy up patents on tires that last forever, cars that get hundreds of miles to the gallon, etc. Don’t you think this would have been exposed by now in our media driven society? Even so, there may be a grain of truth in there. Just consider the amazing technological advances we’ve had in the last twenty years: MP3 players that can hold my entire CD collection, cars that park themselves and GPS based smart munitions that can take out a terrorist sitting on a crapper in Afghanistan. All of this and you’re telling me we don’t have a viable hydrogen fueled car on the market?
Now, I know it is very hypocritical for someone who drives a dinosaur, or to steal a line from Jesse Ventura in the movie Predator, “…a sexual tyrannosaurus,” that has no emissions controls and gets about ten miles to the gallon to stand on a soap box and preach. Sometimes, I think I’m only second to a Chinese toy factory in my negative environmental impact. Even so, I feel I need to add my $3.05.
We’re in this mess because of our choices, and the choices of previous generations of Americans. It would be easy to be an armchair quarterback and condemn our predecessors, but that’s not going to arrive at any kind of solution, and remember that they were reasonable choices when they were made. We’re paying for our reliance on the automobile and our failure to develop an adequate public transportation system.
Note to politicians: Build it, make it affordable and convenient, and we will use it. It will be painful at first, but if we want to have a bright future, we need to plan for it.
“Desperate and ravenous, so weak and powerless over you.” –from the song “Weak and Powerless” written and performed by A Perfect Circle.
The best are the ideas that automobile manufacturers and oil companies are colluding to buy up patents on tires that last forever, cars that get hundreds of miles to the gallon, etc. Don’t you think this would have been exposed by now in our media driven society? Even so, there may be a grain of truth in there. Just consider the amazing technological advances we’ve had in the last twenty years: MP3 players that can hold my entire CD collection, cars that park themselves and GPS based smart munitions that can take out a terrorist sitting on a crapper in Afghanistan. All of this and you’re telling me we don’t have a viable hydrogen fueled car on the market?
Now, I know it is very hypocritical for someone who drives a dinosaur, or to steal a line from Jesse Ventura in the movie Predator, “…a sexual tyrannosaurus,” that has no emissions controls and gets about ten miles to the gallon to stand on a soap box and preach. Sometimes, I think I’m only second to a Chinese toy factory in my negative environmental impact. Even so, I feel I need to add my $3.05.
We’re in this mess because of our choices, and the choices of previous generations of Americans. It would be easy to be an armchair quarterback and condemn our predecessors, but that’s not going to arrive at any kind of solution, and remember that they were reasonable choices when they were made. We’re paying for our reliance on the automobile and our failure to develop an adequate public transportation system.
Note to politicians: Build it, make it affordable and convenient, and we will use it. It will be painful at first, but if we want to have a bright future, we need to plan for it.
“Desperate and ravenous, so weak and powerless over you.” –from the song “Weak and Powerless” written and performed by A Perfect Circle.
posted by TGB at
9:52 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home