"We were going to clean it up, weren't we? We put it off and put it off like kids promising to clean their room. Then we went away, leaving our evil to live after us... One thing I never understood about the law: if you dumped arsenic into Granny's tea you'd be put away for murder; if you poisoned a whole country with some cavalier industrial process, the worst you could expect was a paltry fine." David from Ronald Wright's "A Scientific Romance"
RECENTLY I caught the six o'clock on a news station out of the States regarding the vandalism of some billboards advertising for BP Oil. What was shown was a few lines from a spray bomb across the corporate logo, while the audio response of a regular citizen played over top. This man was disgusted with BP's "appalling lack of responsibility" and was right in the middle of touting the evils of the oil industry when we finally got to see him. He continued in his outrage as the camera, panning out from the furrow of his brow and flush of his angry cheeks, widened to reveal his bright, save-the-planet-green, t-shirt. Leaning against his vehicle, he was pumping gas. Into his Hummer.
I don't think that the ramifications of the BP oil spill disaster can be calculated yet. We're looking at the destruction of an ecosystem with very broad environmental impact (the oil suffocating ducks we've all seen on TV are only a sample). Many industries, including Fishing, along the coast will suffer indefinitely. People are out of work. What has been a way of life for families for generations won't be a viable way of living anymore. Skill sets and traditions, family structures, house payments, vehicles, food, clothing etc... are shaken and some of these things will be lost to the people forever. Tourism will suffer, and in an already recovering economy, those dollars will be sorely missed.
So down with BP! Boycott that money-hungry, greedy, capitalistic oil-company! Don't support their business. They should pay for what they've done, right? "We want justice!" says our Hummer driving, urban dwelling friend. And we have to agree, don't we? Right?
Well, guess what? It doesn't matter what oil company we're talking about here friends, whether it's BP or Imperial or whoever, their market works on supply and demand. They are simply harvesting to meet the need. Our needs. The truth is that no one asked whether or not there was a disaster plan before this happened. No one cared.
Down the street, the Jones family has the latest and greatest stuff. And they keep on getting more and more stuff, and so does everyone else on the block because... well we have to keep-up. And lots of stuff is cool. Especially cool stuff. The Jones family works hard, no question about that. Long hours, and stressful jobs. They deserve all they get. They have earned it. Or so we tell ourselves.
Do you know who is really responsible for the BP mess? That guy. That smug, moralistic, jumping-on-the-band-wagon, yuppie that lives in some city somewhere and DRIVES A DAMN SUV. That man that was so very angry that BP was irresponsible enough to let this happen.
And you know who "that guy" is, don't you?
He's me. He's you. He is us every time we don't think about what all this "stuff" means. All of the "things" we fill our houses with, that we sit on or watch, that we drive, or throw out, all of these things represent not just the Jones' hard earned money, they represent raw materials shaped and formed by human hands, processed and made possible by our friendly neighborhood oil company.
The BP oil spill is tragic and sickening. Really, they should have had a plan. But what is reflected in this situation is a "civilization" that has allowed themselves to be first and foremost Consumers. This is our fault. Yours and mine, with our Hummers, and our iPods, and our shopping. The oil industry is merely responding to our "need", which has felt good all these years. But we're paying for it, and have been for sometime. Socially, relationally, environmentally, and in so many other ways, we are in a deficit. Economy isn't the only struggling system, and it is certainly not the most important one either (though you'd never know it from how we handle our lives).
We get to choose. And that is my solution: that we choose not to allow ourselves the label of "consumer" anymore, that we become active participants in our lives instead. Then we'll stop believing that it's acceptable to borrow from future generations because we just need more. And poor BP won't have to work so hard to keep up with us.
