Out of the shadows
I promise I’m going to get to some practical, non-philosophical stuff next time. But for now, a few more musings…
Sometimes I’m a little hesitant to talk to people about peak oil. A lot of people don’t want to hear about it or think about it.
But I realized something recently. We don’t need to invoke peak oil, or climate change, or anything else. We just need to talk to people about the changes we’re making. At this point, it seems almost everybody wants change. They just don’t know how to accomplish it. But they are ready. Presidential and Congressional approval ratings are at record lows. Food and gasoline and healthcare are climbing daily. People are turning away from processed foods and produce shipped in from other hemispheres. The powers that be have lost our collective trust.
Even if people don’t know Peak Oil by name, even if they don’t want to think about what’s going wrong, or what could go wrong, we all seem to know it’s time to change course. I don’t believe we’re talking about small percentages either. As David Korten once pointed out, “Polling data make clear that the vast major of Americans embrace life values. They want a healthy environment, peace, economic justice and security for all, freedom, and democracy.”
I don’t think anybody believes the politicians are going to take care of it. And corporations certainly have little interest in a real cultural shift. Which leaves us. All of us.
To quote Korten once more:
We are not representatives of an alternative fringe minority. We are the cutting edge of a national supermajority and it is appropriate for us to speak with a clear and confident voice.
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