Liberties at risk?

Week 16 Notes

(OOG WARNING: this is Politically Incorrect. It reflects not my personal views or preferences but simply a speculation on what a World Without Oil would be like. I can think of many things that would be great about a WWO, such as fewer cars, better environment, more walking, better more closely-knit neighborhoods, smaller regional schools, etc. Kind of like the 1950s without the big fins on the land cruisers or the Cold War. But I can also think about a lot of things that would not be so great….just like the 1950s with blatent racial discrimination, homophobia, and much more limited opportunities for women and minorities. I encourage everyone who reads it to think about it and research it before drawing your own conclusions.)

This will be brief and sad. With all the blogs about violence, it makes me fear greatly for the future of our great nation, particularly given our diversity. I DO believe our diversity is a strength and I believe our country offers opportunity for all. I also believe our past has not always lived up to our potential but I believe we have the capacity to change and make things better. I also fear, however, that as the world without oil progresses we will become more local in scope in both good and bad ways. The Big Box Shops like Walmart may devastate the local economies in a lot of ways but as national chains, they can also be brought to pressures that some small local businesses can become immune to. For example, sadly, in the past some places in the South would NEVER hire an African American. I suspect this is not just unique to the South either. And so long as the place is a privately held, small concern, they could get away with it fine. If local people didn’t like it, they could have boycotted the place on their own, but often they didn’t have an alternative or didn’t care, which is unfortunate. But when a Big Box pulls that kind of crap they become a target and get a lot of bad publicity and people care, and typically they respond in some positive way. I think similar things will happen to gay rights and women’s issues. Small communities can often be intolerant of such things and in a world without oil many more of us will be in small communities. I remember some time ago Cracker Barrel, the restaurant chain, had a big fiasco over the firing of a gay employee. I was at a restaurant in Virginia which was similar to Cracker Barrel in that it served home cooked Southern style food. A lady in the waiting room said she didn’t like Cracker Barrel due to their hiring practices. Frankly I doubt this little hole-in-the-wall was any more tolerant than Cracker Barrel, and it was probably a lot more immune to the kind of pressure that organized national groups can exert on the chains. Finally, a word about women’s issues in a world without oil. I don’t think abortions will be as common because there will be less people and consequently I suspect birth rates will increase (as will infant mortality and the life expectancy in general). If antibiotics and medicine are hard to come by in the world without oil, so will birth control. And our small communities will be less tolerant of things like divorce, which will probably lead to more oppressive conditions for women and less opportunity. Of course less opportunity will be rampant for everyone, not just women, but somehow I’m afraid the world without oil will be much like the past and many great strides we’ve made for individual liberties will become obsolete. Please comment and convince me I’m wrong.
(OOG: this is a work a fiction for the worldwithoutoil.org experiment.)