"President Bush has talked a lot about making the U.S. energy independent. But on Dec. 26, 2007, he signed into law a bill that would prevent development of a U.S. oil resource more than seven times larger than the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia."
Shale oil exploration is thwarted, oil refineries are thwarted, indeed all the most promising projects toward efficient energy production are stymied through US government policy, while taxpayer money is tossed away at politically favored and practically feckless projects such as ethanol fuel and wind power.
As Edmund Contoski describes in his latest column, establishing policies conducive to truly competitive US energy production could insure supply, and bring the nation far closer to "energy independence," while at the same time making clear the benefits of trading intelligently in a world that is naturally interdependent with regard to energy sources and production. We link at the bottom of this page to Edmund Contoski’s latest column.
Solutions stare us in the face. The energy "crisis" is an illusion. The real problem is bad policy based on an outlook of catastrophism. Such false perspective is truly a plague of our times. Today we seem to feel the urge to believe that we are ever on the edge of catastrophes: “epidemics” that exist only on computers (that about smoking is just one of the many), “man-made” global warming, and exhaustion of natural resources.
The “impending catastrophes” are illusory. The hysteria is real. It is a collective mental disease that transcends national boundaries and cultures. It appeals to our inner selves, to that infantile part of us that feels “important” when it pushes a panic button.
Contoski shows clearly that there is no such a thing as the “energy crisis.” There never was one and, once you are through reading this piece, you will realize that there need never be one for thousands of years! Yet not only do we push the panic buttons, we also are “smart” enough to set the stage in such as way that there is no possible resolution to the artificial problems we create — except the capricious and often nihilistic one that we chose even before inventing the problem!
The scare’s the thing. Practical solutions must be shunned. The bogeymen must proliferate. Are the current known resources of shale oil going to be sufficient for the next 40,000 years at the current rate of consumption? Damn! That eliminates a big scary one! What are we going to do? Ah! We know! God bless junk science … those are hydrocarbons! Greenhouse gases! Global warming! Alarm! Alarm! Let’s get rid of cars and industries!
What can one say to this? The big light bulb in the sky — not mankind — is responsible for global warming, and relative warming and cooling is a natural and recurring cycle, as (real) science has fully demonstrated. What then is the response? Who are you? Who PAYS you for such blasphemy? Here, let’s count beans: I have 200 junk scientists with appropriate ideology who say that it is Man. How many have you got? … Never mind, we don’t recognize their credentials anyway because they lack the right ideology.
They cannot hear reason. They have political parties to feed, and immense bureaucracies that exist to destroy industries in the name of “health, safety and environment." There is a huge subeconomy which exists to get rid of dirty capitalists who kill people and species out of inborn rottenness. They must fear and hate the evil ones. They must have ever more bogeymen to kill. They must point fingers of blame, more every day, and naturally, where has this led them? There is a species that must die, and that’s US, say the nihilists (stored link).
The self-loathing American has become the model for the world. Tell the hysterics to go to Hell. Don’t go with them. Smile, because there are no “lifestyle epidemics," there is no “man-made” global warming, we need not panic, we may take joy in life.
The only real catastrophe is the hysteria and the solution is straightforward. The Health and Safety cult must be dethroned and humiliated. Make this goal your personal business, join others in the fight, and all the while, keep living.
Get hold of a 1959 Cadillac convertible without safety belts or catalytic converters, light up a cigarette and drive freely to the pub after stopping at a burger joint. You have one life. Enjoy it now. Failing to do so is a crime. You don’t get a second chance. Have fun. The world won’t come to an end.
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