The public interest in the oil catastrophe has been pushed to the background by the media. The reason for this is not that the problem was solved. Apparently, nobody is interested any more in what BP and its accomplices did while working for all of us. Consequently, I will now write an extra cynical article, because I think we all need to be jolted a little.
I am trying to imagine how other cultures would have evaluated what happened at the Gulf of Mexico.
The Red Indians would have been horror-stricken. How can anybody commit such a sin against Mother Earth?
And they would remind us of the Warriors of the Rainbow (Weissagung der Cree):
Only after the last tree has been cut down / Only after the last river has been poisoned / Only after the last fish has been caught / Then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”
The Red Indians were not white, but wise.
For the Christians, it is a simple matter. It is their god-given duty to “make the world their servant”. And if you have to press even the last drop of this world into service, then you must expect that something tragic might happen. But this world is not all that important – after all, you only live in order to gain eternal life afterwards.
Those who do most damage are the followers of the cargo cult. They worship their false god “consumption” in the discount store, at the shopping centre and at the factory outlet. They find avarice attractive, drown in clothes and baubles. For them, a life without powerful cars and many vacations on strange continents is unimaginable. Their motto is “free rides for free citizens and self-interest to the forefront”.
In former times, they were mostly found in the US and European cultures. Now they have multiplied and can also be found in great numbers in the high societies of Asia and even Russia. They live in luxury and extravagance, even sacrificing their health for comfort. They suffer from the consequences of their excessive life-style and often can only stand their freedom by living single. They lament the climate catastrophe and are worried about possibly losing their privileged situation. Their behaviour is characterized by alibi activities.
Then they are not otherwise busy, they fantasize about solutions such as the electronic car for solving our environmental problem. These people do a lot of talking while doing (being good for?) nothing.
We also find more and more dogmatic or fundamentalist people. Sometimes they are also deistic in a special way. The Western Governments and the media call them Islamists. With these people, the Western world has a very bad reputation. Their fighters are prepared to give their lives against the “American Devil”. For them, a suicide assassination is the direct way to paradise.
And then there is the absolute majority: the very poor. They fight on a daily basis for their food. They are far removed from the internet and mobility. Starving in the countryside, they flee into the “rich countries” because of their misery, or else move to the slums of the mega cities. They will never live in the beautiful “smart cities” shown in our brochures. Seeing what happens at the Gulf, this majority might get some funny ideas, such as that fighting the white devil might be justified, after all.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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