The Best Way To Break This Addiction

Tonight former oil man Bush said America is, duh, "addicted to oil" (which Wolfy later called "strong words"). Then Bush said, "The best way to break this addiction is through technology." More of the same. Did he say, "The best way to break this addiction is by driving fewer fucking miles?" Nope. Did he say, "The best way to break this addiction is by building communities that don't require nearly everyone to hop in a car, just to get a quart of milk?" Right. Did he say, "The best way to break this addiction is by buying less plastic crap at Wal-Mart?" Hardly. Did he say, "The best way to break this addiction is by investing in more mass transit?" Shit, no. Did he say, "The best way to break this addiction is to grow your own food, or buy local, so you don't have to have lettuce trucked 3,000 miles for that salad?" Nix.

Truth is, he can't afford to upset automakers, oil companies, developers, manufacturers, agri-business, and others who constitute his "base," let alone the media that this corporatism sustains. Don't worry, he's saying to the base: we'll invent something (like Kennedy's moon pledge) that'll keep feeding you. In George's world "technology" in the form of Tom Swift hydrogen cars will allow us to keep doin' what we're doin'. Keep on truckin'. Get real, get your head outta that Saudi sand. As many diaries have argued, peak oil is passed, and no whiz-bang alternative technology is going to be ready in time, if ever, to substitute for our oil-obsessed lifestyle.

"The best way to break this addiction," George, is to downsize, live local, and buy and use less stuff. Guess that wouldn't have received a standing ovation, though.