The flight has been delayed so I thought I would add some thoughts I had during the week.
First, while I was driving to work this week I passed a convoy of Army tank trucks filled presumably with gasoline coming from the Cleveland Terminals. They were traveling west on 70. So the destination may have been south to help out the Katrina storm victims. I went back to thinking of a movie that was done in the mid 80s with Emilio Estevez, I believe [need to verify this] where they went to these banks that held the mortgages for the farms in the state the movie was being made. He decided as an act of civil disobedience to blow up or burn down those banks. This was when interest rates were so high on farmers. So, I had this vision of anarchy. Contractors were driving these trucks, so to add to the cost of the fuel they were delivering. It irritated me to say the least. My impulse was to dream of being some kind of militia and jumping the tankers and overtaking the vehicles. Having some rouge terminal and Robin Hooding of the gasoline.
What occurs to me is not the thought, its typical if you consider the pop culture that I was exposed to, but really why people are taking so much of this so lightly. I’ve often thought of going to the truck stop where I live and holding a sign, with irony totally applied saying, “Isn’t worth it?” To commandeer the principles of the big lie, one needs to take to the notion of irony. For example, I love the Beatles so I may use them from time to time, but “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” when Paul sings, “she could steal but she could not rob”. Yes the meaning is obvious, but the irony is more important. If you figure that into the day to day semblance of our contours you see that we can steal, but we cannot rob. Typical, how often as a species we feel alright about taking advantage or being taken advantage as we still gasp that people will gas and go on a regular nature and find it appropriate to say that having ones license revoked is fair punishment. I find that dangerous, as dangerous as advocating an anachronistic application to serve the “so called” shortage of supply of gasoline. Am I a bad man or do I perceive a lodged piece of candy in the societal throat? To take that even further, why is the supply so dangerous low? We are told it is because of our SUVs, the war on terrorism and the Chinaman. But does it have to do with the siphoning of supply that the in-kind program run by the Strategic Oil Preserves? Does it have to do with the reduction of refining? What has caused the reduction in refiners? Was it my dear old friend Exxon-Mobil, the largest gas conglomerate that has had nearly 80% profits? Didn’t they bulk up supplies before this all happened?
Let’s change the scenario for a minute. Pick any type of freeloader that you know, draw a little parallel with it; I believe you will start to catch the drift. I find it an important thing to think about. I find it difficult that as a culture we contain this behavior as well as condone it. Our rebellion on these circumstances is worn out because we believe we are doing it for a greater cause. We are not necessarily called to sacrifice, it is implied, and on our backs will this country succeed, with our financing we will assure the private sector to continue. To the youth we are training; shouldn’t something be done? Shouldn’t someone be asking these questions with vigor and fortitude? Should it just be me or do we as a democratic whole bear some responsibility to hold all those accountable? I will start out asking these questions to see if anyone would like to respond with solutions.
But let’s look at these two questions. Why should contractors be driving those vehicles and not the already paid personal that we paid for their training? What do we consider advantageous of ourselves?
First, while I was driving to work this week I passed a convoy of Army tank trucks filled presumably with gasoline coming from the Cleveland Terminals. They were traveling west on 70. So the destination may have been south to help out the Katrina storm victims. I went back to thinking of a movie that was done in the mid 80s with Emilio Estevez, I believe [need to verify this] where they went to these banks that held the mortgages for the farms in the state the movie was being made. He decided as an act of civil disobedience to blow up or burn down those banks. This was when interest rates were so high on farmers. So, I had this vision of anarchy. Contractors were driving these trucks, so to add to the cost of the fuel they were delivering. It irritated me to say the least. My impulse was to dream of being some kind of militia and jumping the tankers and overtaking the vehicles. Having some rouge terminal and Robin Hooding of the gasoline.
What occurs to me is not the thought, its typical if you consider the pop culture that I was exposed to, but really why people are taking so much of this so lightly. I’ve often thought of going to the truck stop where I live and holding a sign, with irony totally applied saying, “Isn’t worth it?” To commandeer the principles of the big lie, one needs to take to the notion of irony. For example, I love the Beatles so I may use them from time to time, but “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” when Paul sings, “she could steal but she could not rob”. Yes the meaning is obvious, but the irony is more important. If you figure that into the day to day semblance of our contours you see that we can steal, but we cannot rob. Typical, how often as a species we feel alright about taking advantage or being taken advantage as we still gasp that people will gas and go on a regular nature and find it appropriate to say that having ones license revoked is fair punishment. I find that dangerous, as dangerous as advocating an anachronistic application to serve the “so called” shortage of supply of gasoline. Am I a bad man or do I perceive a lodged piece of candy in the societal throat? To take that even further, why is the supply so dangerous low? We are told it is because of our SUVs, the war on terrorism and the Chinaman. But does it have to do with the siphoning of supply that the in-kind program run by the Strategic Oil Preserves? Does it have to do with the reduction of refining? What has caused the reduction in refiners? Was it my dear old friend Exxon-Mobil, the largest gas conglomerate that has had nearly 80% profits? Didn’t they bulk up supplies before this all happened?
Let’s change the scenario for a minute. Pick any type of freeloader that you know, draw a little parallel with it; I believe you will start to catch the drift. I find it an important thing to think about. I find it difficult that as a culture we contain this behavior as well as condone it. Our rebellion on these circumstances is worn out because we believe we are doing it for a greater cause. We are not necessarily called to sacrifice, it is implied, and on our backs will this country succeed, with our financing we will assure the private sector to continue. To the youth we are training; shouldn’t something be done? Shouldn’t someone be asking these questions with vigor and fortitude? Should it just be me or do we as a democratic whole bear some responsibility to hold all those accountable? I will start out asking these questions to see if anyone would like to respond with solutions.
But let’s look at these two questions. Why should contractors be driving those vehicles and not the already paid personal that we paid for their training? What do we consider advantageous of ourselves?
posted by Sisyphus at 8:37 AM
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