Everybody's free... to feel good... or not

I was just thinking about freedom, why we fight
for it, if we really can fight for it and why our
leaders always like to tell us that we are fighting
for it. Maybe the connection between fighting for
oil and freedom isn't so ludicrous after all. It's
one thing for those of us who don't fight because
we can't fight to say that we don't want anyone
fighting and dying for oil. But we do like to sit
on our asses in the light and warmth and watch TV.
We like our hot meals and quick Internet connections.
And boy oh boy do we love our cars, baby. We drive
downtown and get coffee then drive 30 miles east to
see a movie because we like the seats at the cineplex
by the mall. When we're done, we decide to come back
out tomorrow to do our shopping because we're tired.
We give not one consideration to conservation unless
bitching about the price of gas at the pump can be
called consideration. And it can't.

It's all about resources. In Paleolithic times, everything
from good rocks to water and food animals were resources
that were not only worth fighting for, but were worth
fighting for by every member of the tribe. No one had
the luxury of being a pacifist because the only peace
was the peace of the grave. Freedom was, and is, the
freedom to continue living. So it is not necessarily
illegitimate for our soldier to fight on our behalf
for the freedom oil brings us. And it is thus likewise
a bit naive to say things like NO BLOOD FOR OIL.
Because for as long as man has been alive, we lived
and died by resources.

Now, that makes a good argument for the conservative
position, perhaps a slightly more honest conservative
position than most of us are used to hearing. NeoCons
convince themselves that they are really trying to
spread Democracy and freedom to other countries at
the end of a gun. It's a position born out of frustration,
which is why NeoCons are often former liberals who've
"seen the light."

There is freedom to and freedom from. What the human
race needs now is freedom from dependence on fossil
fuels. That isn't going to happen. It's the shortage
and constant struggle to find more oil that makes it
expensive and therefore profitable. Money is a another
resource, isn't it? One created by men to make them
more powerful than other men.

And that is the rub. Where we once fought directly
over limited and very real resources, we now have
the wealthy sending the children of the poor off
to fight for resources that keep them rich and our
cars rolling, but which could be replaced if we
looked around and did the research.

We are evolution's little bitches.