Oh, Mercy Mercy Me

Lo Ling; listening to: the fan hum, and my brother letting his musical genius go on his guitar; 1:10 PM; my room; feeling: concerned but jubilant


"Oh, mercy mercy me; Oh, things ain't what they used to be no, no; Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas; Fish full of mercury"



So. Does it freak anybody else out that there has been a statement just released about the very realistic possibility that oil might reach $200 and gas $7 in the coming years? I don't even drive and I am wildly disconcerted.

While this does put a new perspective on my rationale as to why my "overprotective" parents never let me out (clearly they weren't being overprotective, but rather preparing me on how to survive these days soon to come when we will all be tied to our homes given that it will cost too much to GO anywhere! Ha.. -__---), it puts and even more new and unsettling perspective on the so-far-so-blessed lives we have been living as Americans.

I never thought I'd see the day, in my lifetime or anyone else's here, when the risk of "energy-related crime" would be added to the list of our concerns. According to a recent L.A. Times article, "Restaurant owners are complaining that thieves are helping themselves to used barrels of cooking oil, which can be home-brewed into biodiesel fuel." I don't know if that's the cherry on top or if its the increase in ads for locking your gas caps.

...
YOUR GAS CAPS!!
I know a lot of us already lock our gas caps, but I've always thought it to be done out of formality. You know? You lock your gas cap to keep your gas IN. Pretty soon we'll be locking our gas caps to keep somebody OUT.... of your GAS SUPPLY!? I don't know if you understand the reason for my disbelief.


Locking gas caps? Stealing cooking oil?
It disturbs me that our luxuries aren't what the "thieves" are soon to be targeting anymore. A picture has been painting in my head, reminiscent of third-world countries and prehistoric times, with humans in a race against their own neighbors to simply survive, some resorting to or being victimized by kleptoparasitism, all in a battle over basic resources,... your energy!

So that's really bothering me. In some ways, though this thought may be completely extreme, I feel as if we've reached the brink of the end of the world. And say we haven't, well in that case I still feel as if though we've reached the brink of the brink... of the brink of the fall of this country. And according to us, Americans, whom I love, throwing that in there for the feds, that really is the brink of the brink of the brink of the end of the world. And I'm scared.


Never really thought, that I'd ever think, that I might see that day.