Reality's Revenge

Here's a sensible and sobering piece on why going petroleum-free is pie-in-the-sky, at least for the foreseeable future.

"This reality often elicits the response that “if we can put a man on the moon, surely we can . . .” But transforming the scale of the energy economy isn’t like putting a few people on the moon a few times. It is like putting all of humanity on the moon—permanently. In other words, society-scale physical systems have, to use a physics term, a lot of inertia. Making big changes in enormous systems takes a very long time. The scales are hard to visualize, but we can try."

This country needs a major reboot and "reality check" in terms of our tendency toward pie-in-the-sky thinking. Perhaps this period of quiet contemplation (AKA quarantine) will prompt deeper reflection about the things that really matter, the things we often take for granted but shouldn't, starting with reliable energy infrastructure.

The bubble of relative safety, security and prosperity (not to mention economic essentials like reliable energy) in which we've long lived has bred into us a certain cluelessness and complacency that becomes all too obvious when the bubble bursts. We've enjoyed the luxury of keeping reality at arm's length. It's given millions of Americans a distorted and disconnected picture of the world. We no longer can sort genuine risks from imaginary ones. We've managed to keep reality at bay, but reality has come storming back with a vengeance.


Perhaps our current circumstances -- our current struggles with a true public health crisis, not a manufactured one like sugary drinks, plastic straws, leaf blowers or whatever other emergency du jour comes along -- will jolt us into a return to realism. What might a return of realism look like? What lessons should we already have learned from the current crisis? Here are just a few that jump out at me.

Americans must:

• Sober-up and get our heads screwed on straight

• Stop taking our amenities, health and security for granted

• Stop taking a strong economy for granted

• Learn to put real versus imaginary dangers in context

• Relearn the virtues of self-sufficiency and self-reliance

• Recognize that borders matter

• Realize that "modern civilization" is a fragile and thin veneer that can shatter in a crisis.

• Begin to take personal responsibility for their physical safety and security, recognizing that WE are the real "first-responders"

• See that nationalism isn't all bad . . . and globalism isn't all good

• Realize that open borders and global mobility can be both a curse and a blessing.

• Stop trusting in bumbling and incompetent government to do everything for you

• Ignore the "bread and circuses" and focus on important things

• Learn never to say "it can't happen here" -- because it CAN happen here