
Probably when we need critical thinking the most for personal survival as well as the good of our nation, we've allowed commercial media to dumb us down while spinning yarns and smoke. Critical thinking will either save us from our own narrow nationalism and environmental stupidity, or we will fail to learn from this monumental testament to our mind's powers.
America's loss of Critical Thinking
"I think it's part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it's always got to be somebody's fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen."
—Rand Paul, on Good Morning America
Gulf of Oil -- A Weapon of Mass Destruction
Before I jump into this rant, I need to make clear how we gave away billions of dollars to British Patrol before they bagged to drill in the Gulf. Unlike many other countries, oil companies like BP pay United States tax payers half as much as other countries receive for drilling rights. This means Sir lanka and Vietnam get twice as much as we get for BP to destroy the Gulf of Mexico.
Hubris explains British Petroleum's Gulf of Mexico oil spill. This catastrophic release of oil has an inevitability about it equal to the inevitability of a catastrophic release of radioactive waste. Either by "accident" or design, hubris destroys our planet's living conditions, its habitat, for many millions to come, human and nonhuman alike. Many species must now diminish, even disappear.
There's a technological imperative at work in our hubris, and it means, "What can be done will be done." If we can build it we build it. If we can deploy it, we deploy it. Rethinking the consequences of technologies seldom enters the technological imperative's attitude toward habitat.
So what can be done will be done without much consideration for the future of humanity or other species. Tragically, we know beforehand the destiny of a technology exists in its design. Hammers drive nails. Nuclear reactors produce nuclear waste, oil releases goo in air, land, and water. Our hubris dismisses despoiling the earth as "inconsequential in the long-term." Religions, political ideologies, and poorly considered philosophies rationalize our short-term thinking.
For the recent catastrophic release of crude oil in our Gulf of Mexico, I waited for 60 Minute's to report on this biohazardous catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico before writing. I'd heard the story on KPFK in Los Angeles the previous Thursday. Ian Master's scooped 60 Minutes, but hearing and seeing are two different things. British Petroleum created a day of infamy. I wanted to see for myself.
What I heard on 60 Minutes sounded like felony terrorism by corporations. This time their weapon of choice oozed instead of radiate. Our government gave its nod of approval for our gamble with nature.
Meanwhile, British Petroleum (BP) struck a blow for King George in the Gulf of Mexico. This white collar crime scored a major hit against the unborn, unborn humans as well as thousands of other unborn species in our Gulf of Mexico and its coasts.
Besides its crimes against humanity and nature in general, there's crime in its approach to United States labor
Millions of animals cross the Gulf in their annual migration are now homeless. From the Gulf they migrate to North America. The Blue Finn Tuna breeds in the Gulf. This is their breeding season. Their eggs and larvae are drifting around in a sea of oil and dispersants.
These dispersants cannot be dispersed in British waters because it's too toxic. That is, British Petroleum cannot use this dispersant in other countries, including England. It adds an incredible toxicity to water. It is not mother's milk by any measure.
Few weapons of mass destruction destroy life on land while destroying the conditions for life on our sea's bottom. Bottom dwelling critters in the Gulf of Oil have no defenses against crude oil or the toxic's released by BP. Had Bin Ladin done the same, we'd sent the US Navy in guns blazing.
For a few dollars more this "accident" could have been avoided. At least, for short-term survival, these consequences of greed, capitalism, and our lust for consumer goods could have been avoided. In long-term survival terms, we're destined to despoil earth's habitat for ourselves as well as other species. Our weapons of mass destruction against Mother Earth have a long half-life.
For our short-term, thousands of people will lose their jobs. Food's cost must increase. Fuel's cost must increase. Education's ill health must increase. We'll learn a little more about biohazard cleanup. Perhaps, "biohazard cleanup" will become synonymous with oil.
Oil by any other name equals "biohazard." Have no doubt about it. Oil kills life forms, and it does so before and after it's refined. Forget about biohazard cleanup for bloodborne pathogens. What happened in the Gulf of Oil equals a release of weapons of mass destruction with collateral damage of monumental proportions.
Before it's refined, once unleashed from its tomb, oil smothers life forms as well as destroying habitat. After it's refined, it releases deadly levels of CO2 into the atmosphere. Global Warming then follows along with smog and lung-cancer.
Biohazard cleanup of oil IS crime scene cleanup. Any mature mind will connect these dots. Call white-collar crime in oil whatever you want. Oil cleanup equals biohazard cleanup equals crime scene cleanup.
Let me rant!
For seven generations on this continent, biohazard cleanup cannot do enough for our Gulf of Oil. Even then, there's no calling back the many known and unknown species lost to this holocaust.
Here's what get me. We have the largest navy in the world, not to mention the largest coast guard in the world. Meanwhile, our United States' government sits back and allows BP to dump thousands of pounds of "dispersants" into our Mexican Gulf's ocean. This stuff happens to create 4 times the toxicity of oil. Why dump more poison into an already poisoned sea of oil?
Why does our government allow this terrorism against life forms and our unborn to occur? Why doesn't President Obama order our US Navy to shoot down eco-terrorist corporate planes attacking the Gulf of Oil's ecology? Surely poisoning the Gulf amounts to any firestorm other terrorist would craft, given the opportunity.
Must biohazard cleanup from terrorism always involve foreigners? Speaking of which, BP is a foreign corporation.
BP must stand for biohazardous practices.
Here's an answer to why we allow terrorism against nature. Our population lives in an indoctrinated state of consciousness. We believe corporations will do us no harm. We believe "environmentalism" is a "liberal" word and therefore not OK. We've been lead to the edge of chaos by capitalism's pied piper. Ben Laden could have done little worse, and surely he applauds our own stupidity. Meanwhile, Fox "News" and the others continue their drumbeat against ecological sanity, polluting rational human dialogue.
Will we learn from any of this? Our hubris shows otherwise.
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