RootsRain

Had enough of Beowulf in silly forms? Here’s a refreshingly accurate and engaging version.

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Okay, so $4 per gallon is an absolute crime to be paying at the pump. I know. Some bad points:

1. There’s lots of oil out there for us to tap. But we’re not doing it. Which makes us stuck in this situation.
2. Using my precise, scientific method of making up statistics, there are 95% too many oil speculators (read: irresponsible gamblers) having fun driving up the world’s oil futures.
3. Since gas prices and food prices are inextricably linked (because who the heck eats locally-grown food?), and since food and ethanol prices are inextricably linked (remember, you get ethanol from corn, sugar cane… starchy/sugary foods like that?), the wondrous Iowa gas alternative will always be the same price as the ball-and-chain Middle Eastern variety.
4. Gas is now unbelievably expensive in third world countries.
5. Food is now unbelievably expensive in third world countries. Remember that food is brought to them almost entirely by petrol-fueled ships. And since even the corn grown in their own land is being shipped out as ethanol, it drives food prices even higher.

But let’s look on the bright side for a minute.

In my horribly American-centered world, I’m stepping back and seeing that at least Americans have been increasingly interested in renewable energy. They’re actually starting to think SUVs maybe aren’t so great and that maybe a hybrid would be sexy. I’ve been wondering for years when this would happen. I kept thinking “Nothing moves unless the market moves it… So unless hybrids are bought in massive numbers, they’ll be an unattractive, expensive option. But they’ll never be bought in large numbers until they become an attractive, inexpensive option.”

Of course, there’s a problem with that reasoning. I forgot to include gas. Drive up the price of gas enough, and people are willing to take the hit on the front end to buy an ugly, expensive vehicle if they can save on gas later. Voila. $4 a gallon is the tipping point. Hybrids/Flex Fuel vehicles are everywhere.

Add to all this the recent Wall Street woes, and you have a pretty significant recipe for Americans paying more attention to how they spend their money. It’s possible that the days are gone when people just bought whatever was advertised and paid for it with credit. Joe Six Pack might actually restrain himself when thinking about driving, shopping, spending…

And once he’s learned to stop and breathe before he spends, he might also consider where some of the gas problems have come from. Like, say, the fact that China and India are being brought onto the gas grid. And they’re making our oil consumption look like a tea party. So there’s no way out of this. If everyone wants oil in the quantities they’ve been wanting it, it’s not going to last. We’ve got to look for other options.

And before you know it, you’ve got Americans thinking like global ecological citizens.

I know that the current economic crisis is affecting some people in really horrible ways… and I don’t doubt there’s a strong element of divine judgment in all this… But I do find an increased awareness of the social, economic, and ecological implications of our actions a cause for some rejoicing. In the middle of a recession, America just might find the time to stop being the single-seat sports car with “the engine that drives the world’s economy” and learn to be a stable mini-van. Not so sexy, but far more helpful.

Hovering over nearly everything I have written is the question of how a human economy might be conducted with reverence, and therefore with due respect and kindness toward everything involved. This, if it ever happens, will be the maturation of American culture.

Wendell Berry