My thoughts on oil

I've been asked a lot lately what I think about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and about what I think of oil in general. I hear a lot of talk about people being hypocrites because they speak of wanting to stop suckling at the teat of the great oil mother while at the same time using products that are at least manufactured using the energy off of oil. This is what I have to say on the subject:

There is honestly no way to live completely petroleum free. We can thank the assholes who own the lions share of the production base...what better way to have job security than building (and supporting with a LOT of funding) a system that NEEDS your product. Any headway on renewable energy has been cut off. We could be living entirely on alternative energy sources but a LOT of people would suddenly be broke. Since wealthy people hate giving up the lifestyle, here we are. Oil is a drug and we are all addicted to it. It would be nice to just drop off of the grid but that isn't going to happen because everything uses petroleum at some point...there is always living in the woods in a cave and wiping ones ass with a leaf but I'm sure someone would take exception to that eventually because you'd be trespassing on someones property...then it is off to jail and back into the arms of sweet sweet consumption. Society is win.

We have been groomed to NEED oil...and no one bothered to take exception to it when something could have been done. Now we are reaping what we have sown through decades of inaction. Now all the action in the world short of a violent revolution or a catastrophe is going to change things. Violent revolutions use oil though (and waste a lot of other resources on top of it all) and we are getting closer to a catastrophe each and every day. When all the oil is gone...then people are going to have to think of something else. It makes me sad that the oil is going to last way past my great grandchildren. I would hope though that as the old oil barons die, new ideas will start to prevail over greed and the status quo.