Oil and Apathy - a rant

In general, I am anything but apathetic. I run into apathy quite a bit while teaching though. It drives me insane to see people who don’t think they can do anything or don’t care enough to change anything. The explosion in the Gulf today is an example of more apathy in action.

We depend on oil so much that we plumb the bowels of the earth to dredge it up, and then we seem to be surprised when things don’t go as easily as planned. Twice this summer, we’ve wreaked havoc on nature and things went badly. And yet, people seem surprised again that something bad has come from humanity’s greedy nature. What did they think was going to happen?

Business as usual to the oil companies seems to mean bitching about having to follow regulations and then demanding help when their efforts NOT to follow regulations lead to something bad… Like an oil spill or a rig explosion. They then turn around and try to blame someone else, anyone else, for their own mistakes or, in the case of BP, try to minimize the damage and pain they have caused.

And people seem to be OK with this. Why? Because actually doing something about it might put them out a smidge. They might have to take action or pay attention to something outside their own wants and desires. Or, even worse, they feel locked in to the situation, so why bother? What happened to the country that rose up against the British Tyrants and established the Democratic Republic? What happened to the people who fought for civil rights and justice? Has cable and fast food really turned our nation into this?