So this happened today. My retarded broke ass just went and bought a rig. Came into the yard and there was a brand new automatic Volvo waiting for me. A deal had been struck to trade in all the Pete's, and the entire fleet is now automatic. I'm really nervous about driving an auto in the mountains so I asked my boss what it would take to stay in a Pete for the winter. His response..."buy it". Then he offered me a deal too good to pass up on the pick of the bunch, and I did just that. Now I HAVE to drive for the next two years.
I'm really kind of bitter sweet about the whole deal. On one hand, the money and stability will be good to help my kids with their future plans, but on the other hand, the whole concept of mega business, centralized industry really bothers me. I hate how we have allowed a small number of companies to take over entire industries. I hate how those companies streamline their business with central hubs and rely on transport and logistics to provide for the rest of the continent. I hate how we allow this so we can splurge and horde on stuff for cheap stuff (stuff we rarely need, or need very little of) at the expense of small, local, family oriented businesses. I hate how small farms, orchards, ranches etc, have been replaced with industrial, cruel as hell, poison to the natural order of things, farming and ranching.
I'm a meat eater. I love meat. But shit, even I know that we don't need meat everyday. Let alone 3 times a day. I would rather pay 20 times the current price for a slab of meat and enjoy it only once a month, if I knew a rancher could earn the same amount off one free range cow as he does now from 20 cows industrially raised. I would be willing to pay 3 to 5 times the price for locally grown produce if that would mean no more industrial single crop, bee killing, farming.
People need to realize the insane amounts of fuel being burnt so that a few mega companies can hold a monopoly and profit on entire industries to provide us with cheap products. I am but a single drop of water in an ocean of truckers criss-crossing the continent 24/7, and I alone average $8000 a month in fuel. Multiply that by the millions of trucks on the road and you'll start to get an idea of what kind of insane amounts of carbon we are releasing into the air non-stop. SO WE CAN HAVE CHEAP SHIT, AND MAKE INSANELY RICH PEOPLE, MORE RICH.
So let's just say fuck the money for a moment, since in the grand scheme of things it means shit anyways, and think about the true consequence of our actions. We have a finite supply of oil and ice. I'm hoping we have more than 100 years worth but I seriously doubt it. Now people generally fall into two different camps when we start talking about this stuff. The first group of retarded monkeys feel that this is all propaganda bullshit and oil and ice will last forever. The second group is filled with people who realize there is a problem but feel that technology and Elon Musk will save us when that time comes.
Both groups are wrong. If you are part of the first group, then I probably lost you a long time ago and there is no need to respond to your retarded fantasy bullshit. If you're part of the second group then let me explain why I think you're wrong. Yes we do have the tech for society to function without oil today IF the proper steps have been taken BEFORE the oil runs out.
How many electric cars, wind farms, nuclear power plants, solar farms, solar cars, hydro dams, nuclear cargo ships, geo thermal plants, coastal wave generator plants, ultra high altitude blimp wind generators, blah blah blah do you think we could build without oil? The answer is ZERO. Not a fucking one. All the electronics, ultra light weight materials, plastics, composites blah blah blah are petroleum based products. How do you think we will be able to build all the society/mother earth saving eco-friendly mega projects without the ships and trucks to transport all the necessary raw materials to site without fuel? How will we run all the equipment needed to build it without fuel? The answer is simple, we can't.
Look, I'm not a tree hugger. I spent my free time as a youth at my Dad's gas station pumping gas. I spent my free time as an adolescent building cars and racing them from north van to whistler at night. I freakin love cars, speed, and all the noise and fumes that go with it. But even I know that thrill is not worth the mess we're making. And I've gone through the numbers, you actually earn money with an electric vehicle. Ask me about it if you're curious.
My point is painfully simple. Yes we have the tech to survive without oil, but ONLY if we save what we have left to prepare for life without it. The longer it takes us to realize this, the greater the shock will be to our current way of life. Cheap products and the convenience of gas powered cars is not worth the price we will have to pay later.
