The (updated) Rite of Spring: Gas prices up again? Golly gee, why?
No matter how hard humanity tries, our pagan nature stays with us. I'm referring to the traditions that occur at certain seasonal points of the year. In this case, at this time of year, it's The Rite of Spring.
Culture-snobs everywhere will know that "The Rite of Spring" (in French: "Le Sacre du printemps") is the name of a ballet symphony by Igor Stravinsky. In this gory tale, a bunch of pagans get this maiden (an old-school p.c. term for "female virgin") to dance herself to death. Actually, maybe they kill her as a group.
Anyway, she ends up dead, and by her dying, Spring is celebrated. Don't ask why. That's just how our whacky pagan nature goes. I guess we humans think if we don't do something, Spring will never come, or we think a being powerful enough to create the universe is petty enough to need our thanks. Either way it always results in a periodically occurring bizarre societal non-sequitur, as in: "Spring is here! Yay! Let's kill a virgin!"
Okay, but the title of this article included the phrase "gas prices." What the hell does a maiden dancing herself to death in an ancient pagan ritual have to do with gas prices? The point I'm making is that we might appear on the surface to have ditched silly seasonal rituals, but we so totally have not.
For example, it’s Spring time again and Summer is closing fast. So what does that mean? Time to get out your warm-weather clothes? Time to install the air conditioners? Time to head for the beach? Sure. But even more regular than those traditions is the call to the seasonal dance by our modern criers, the news media. It goes like this:
Gas prices are up, and golly gee, no one seems to know exactly why.
Having heard the call, the traditional parties gather for the ritual. Those parties include Congress and oil company executives. The media narrates the play, and in keeping with lame stories world-wide, includes a prophecy at the start that gives away the ending:
Congress will be getting a committee to find out if there is any wrongdoing or price-gouging by the oil companies. Chances are, it’s just supply and demand because people are traveling more in the summer, so they want gas more, and the increased demand raises the price.
Everyone knows their part. Everyone says their lines from memory. Sometimes those who play Congress will even bring in the oil company CEOs to testify. Then comes the only real variation in this yearly tradition: will Congress angrily demand answers?
The pagan circle is filled with mock theatrical tension! (Open-OH-mouths covered with hands, eyes wide open!)
On a whim as random as the Spring winds, Congress chooses to demand answers or not.
If it doesn't, it's because Congress decided there was no wrongdoing so nothing happens. If it does happen, the CEOs deny any wrongdoing, Congress believes them and then nothing happens. Except, Spring is here! Summer is coming!
Then that’s the last we’ll hear of that, until next Spring. The question of why gas prices are so high while at the same time oil company profits are higher then previously will fade away, preempted by another summer news tradition: Boy is it HOT!
So once again, despite record profits, endless oil wars, an economy under pressure, screaming consumers and a faux-enraged Congress, the oil company CEOs shrug and say, "It's just our luck! There's no shady dealings here!" Life goes on as if nothing changed, because nothing did. Oil companies got rich again, their executives, the media and Congress did their obligatory dance to commemorate the arrival of Spring and the coming of Summer, and the earth kept on spinning.
(Here's some sample news stories, Rites of Spring across the last few years: 2008 . 2007 . 2006 . 2005 . 2004: You get the idea.)
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Larry Nocella is the award-winning author of the novel Where Did This Come From? available at Amazon and Xlibris and other fine online book stores. Where Did This Come From? is also available as an eBook. For more info, visit Larry Nocella's website at http://www.larrynocella.com/.
posted by Larry Nocella at 3:09 PM
1 Comments:
Amen to all you say here. No matter which party is in power inside the Beltway, the oil companies always get their perks and then some. While the rest of us are driven into debt, and our country itself is driven to bankruptcy by these oil wars. The price of which, of course, we're gonna have to pay back, when the bill comes due on all those T-bills by 2017 or so.
Seriously, more and more each year, my American (as well as Canadian and Australian friends, interestingly) who have things like advanced degrees, education, prospects-- are leaving the sinking ships of the USA, Canada and Australia, all mired in these stupid wars, and emigrating.
Where they're going varies-- an awful lot of people to Eurozone countries. In Euroland countries like Italy, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Greece, Portugal, Spain-- you work maybe 2/3 of the bonecrunching hours in the USA but, due to the currency exchange, you make much more money with a salary in Euros. Only hitch is, you gotta learn to speak German (really the Euro-wide language now) and a local language if it's not German, e.g. Italian, Dutch, French depending on where you go. (Forget about the UK, it's as hosed as the USA is.)
So if you've got an Italian grandmother in there somewhere, or some Germanic background (German or otherwise), you've got an ace in the hole once you pick up a bit of the language. Especially if you're a professional, plan to have children, can contribute something, you can jump off this sinking ship before the bill for all our ridiculous, warlike policies comes due.
Even South America has been getting very popular as an emigration destination, especially for my professional American and Australian friends. There's no Euro "currency advantage" there, so it seems to be more a matter of better quality of life, stronger family and social ties in a place like Chile, Argentina, or the wealthier regions of Peru, Ecuador, Brazil or Venezuela, provided you can pick up some Spanish (or Portuguese). Not being stuck in endless wars helps.
Even a few people emigrating from USA to China, Korea, Hong Kong, though they usually have family background there already. Though not in every case.
Point is, people can see the ship sinking with our idiot leadership and reckless foreign and economic policies, and people don't want to be stuck here when the bill comes due. If I only had half a brain for languages, heck I'd snap up a bit of Spanish, French or German, and head out for South America, Belgium or Germany myself.
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