Oil and Evil: Is it Evil’s Root?

People like to say that money is the root of all evil, but I’m starting to think that oil might be the real root of all evil.

Consider what oil makes possible. First of oil is toxic. Any animal that has the misfortune of having to ingest it or respirate it into their bodies will get sick and die. Plants covered in oil will also suffocate and die. Oil is pure poison.

Then there is the universe of stuff made by oil. From nylons to plastic bags to the computer keyboard I’m typing on, it’s all resists natural degradation and it’s all made of oil byproducts. Oil, because it’s cheap, makes lots of stuff cheap in turn. Oil makes this world of crap possible.

Oil is the legacy of plants and animals that lived on this earth over 100 million years ago. When we suck it out of the earth we are literally robbing their graves.

As part of the living earth, oil poses little to no problems. It’s just part of the earth’s incredible re-cycling process. Life comes from inorganic products originally and returns to an inorganic substance over time. And eventually, new organic compounds will emerge from their inorganic roots. It all works perfectly.

Then man with all of his knowing and cunning intelligence steps in. His knowing is unique to his species. Like every other plant and animal, man exploits the world. But man is really quite unique, because his intelligence opens up avenues of exploitation that are more varied and aggressive than any other living thing. As a result we over exploit the environment and wind up being a world-wide killing machine.

Intelligence also endows us with another, much less used property; the ability to see and understand the consequences of our actions. We can clearly see that we are merrily and enthusiastically killing the planet. It is also evident that the energy that goes into killing it is many times greater than the energy invested in conserving it. We are truly natural born killers. And that’s just the way it is.

It might make us feel better to blame the giant oil companies, but they are just doing what we really want them to do. Sure they make mistakes – sure they take short-cuts – sure they try to leverage their advantage – but who doesn’t do all of that in their own life. They are just people – no different from you and me. We’re all in this dance together. This just happens to be the tune we’re dancing to right now. Don’t worry the big DJ of the universe will change the song, but until then … well, until then … we’ll just keep on dancin’

In fact, it’s not oil that is evil. Oil is just perfect. It does what it does. Even our rapaciousness is not evil, for evil is just a concept, quite empty of content. We do what we do … until we don’t.

What we are truly witnessing is life greatly tilted in the direction of human beings. As it is with everything else, this phase is only a temporary one. The more the planet tilts, the more drastic will be the inevitable “correction”. So keep on drilling, keep on killing. It’s just what we human beings do. We’re very, very good at it. Like everything else it has its advantages, but it also casts a very dark and dense shadow. Wait till that shadow finally sees the light of day. Nothing stops the light – not even human beings.