The Exploder

It's been a week now. The infamous Ford Exploder has sadly sat in the drive awaiting repair. Some electric issue somewhere 'neath the hood. We checked the battery, cables, fuses and replaced the solenoid and starter. Still she sits. That clicking noise that tells of current wanting to complete its task but being rerouted by......what? A vacuum line, valve, relay switch????

I have responded to this situation (not being able to fix it myself and not wanting to pay John $300 to do it) by walking and riding my bike. That is fine most times. The pre/post hike to/from spin class has added a nice 40 minutes X2 session to the workouts. I am not tickled about walking down the middle of the icy roads at 0430 but, I look at it as doing my part to curb fossil fuel consumption. So I haven't driven in a week, what really have I done to cut our national demand for light sweet crude?

Nothing.

Not a thing.

Why?

Because we are the enemy. Not the Saudi's, OPEC, Exxon, or GMAC. Us. Because of our capitalistic model. Commodities. Futures, the stock market, NASDAQ, the big-board, greed and corruption. The paradigm of profit. Even if I was to cut my consumption of petroleum for an entire year, the regulating powers that be would adjust accordingly to compensate, keeping the pump prices 'fixed' to meet the new demand, thereby providing a stable profit for the 'industry'. I ask you:

HOW SICK IS THAT?

Yes, there is a tipping point, a dot on the chart that indicates critical mass where too much supply reduction will create a response, but me thinking that I alone have the power to enact this change is like one carpenter thinking he can build an entire city. He is gonna need electricians, plumbers, steel workers, pipe fitters, carpet layers, painters, roofers, and of course all the bureaucratic code enforcers to ensure that the proper products are used in the proper profitable and wasteful amounts. Just cain't do it alone Jackson.

BUT WE CAN TRY.

I'll take the positive and healthful side benefits of walking and knowing that I am a part of the solution even if it makes about as much difference as nailing the first two by four of the first wall for the first building on the first block of the first city.

We need a new paradigm folks. This is not right. The insurance industry, currently running health care, needs to be imploded. Banking, the stock market, credit, futures, market conditions, all of them, BOOM. Totalitarian agriculture. When did it become fashionable to profit off other peoples starvation? The politics of big industry, lobbyists, pork, earmarks, hypocrisy, CA-BOOM. Big oil? BLAMMO. Blow it up. Exploder-ize it. Rise it again from the ashes but this time cleaner, altruistic, humane, united.

But because it's rainy, windy, cold and hilly here, walking and riding will be a struggle and I will be weak. I will look at the Exploder in the drive and think that for only $300 I could drive to the Home Depot and get the materials I need to finish the new studio, where I will then create a movie that will change the world and offer concise answers to these difficult, quasi impossible, questions of our day. That would be a valid means to a legitimate end. Because it doesn't make any difference anyway under the current system.

THE HELL IT DOESN'T.

Pedal rotations in the right direction from Copenhagen. Sometimes I wish it was flat here.

http://www.speedace.info/petroleum.htm

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-28-how-cities-can-foster-demand-for-electric-cars/

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-15-5-fab-bike-solutions-seen-on-the-streets-at-cop15/