"Ultimately," says Noam Chomsky, "in that region (the Middle East) everything is about oil." (1)
Petroleum drives more than just our vehicles and machinery. Ultimately, (echoing Chomsky) our very lives are dependent on a steady and ever-growing supply of this diminishing resource. Of course, this creates an extremely dangerous situation, and one that will eventually have to change. But unfortunately, the very institutions powerful enough to initiate and pursue change -- the giant oil corporations -- seem fixated on following the same suicidal, petroleum-exclusive policies that have brought us to the brink of disaster.
Oil has driven U.S. foreign policy for the last 50 years, from our CIA-sponsored overthrow of the Iranian government in 1954, to the designation of Israel as our surrogate enforcer and hit man in the Middle East, to the phony blood-for-oil war in Iraq. Our ever-increasing dependence on foreign supplies of the precious substance is in large part responsible for the increasing levels of homicidal rage directed toward the U.S. by populations in that part of the world.
People who think we can solve the problem by ending oil imports, cutting consumption, and living on increased exploitaion of domestic supplies are kidding themselves. Experts declare "If the United States were forced to rely on its own resources, it would run out of oil in four years and three months."(2)
Therefore, a boycott of the major oil corporations is a top priority, perhaps the top priority. These include ExxonMobil (number two), ChevronTexaco (6), ConocoPhillips (7), and Marathon Oil (35). To this list should be added two gigantic foreign corporations, Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum.
But boycotting the oil companies is not as easy as simply avoiding Wal-Mart; in fact, it's literally impossible. Nearly all the gasoline we buy, even that sold at small chains and independent stations, is imported and refined by the giants. The only recourse we have is to stop driving. For most of us, that's impossible, so what this means is that we'll simply have to drive less, or all buy hybrid vehicles.
1. Chomsky, Noam, Power and Terror (Tokyo; Little More, 2003), p. 104.
2. Cassidy, John, "Pump Dreams" in The New Yorker, Oct. 11, 2004, pps. 42-47
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