In Which Hope Is the Last Gasp of the Damned

A WARNING: In this post, I will discuss the BP oil spill.  I am not going to discuss it in great depth because, quite frankly, I haven't been reading as much about it as I normally would for an issue of this importance, but I really can't take too much.  Sometimes, just the headlines get to me, and I can't read any further.  I realize that it's a lame excuse, but it depresses me.  There's nothing I can do, and reading about it only makes me feel completely helpless and terrified.  That's not a good reason to be less informed, but I honestly don't feel capable of any more.  And that's why I have begun with this warning: because I know that I'm not the only one who feels this way.  So, if you're also avoiding reading too much about possibly the worst single environmental disaster in history, then please don't read on.

I am not much for animal rights.  I'll grant you that owning a dog makes me far more upset by animal cruelty, but I am still fairly utilitarian when it comes to animal rights.  If torturing and killing a thousand non-endangered monkeys to test medicines ends up saving thousands of human lives, then I'm for it.  If cutting off the legs of chickens makes food significantly cheaper, then I'm for that as well.  But the equation is never that simple, is it?  Maybe crowding animals into feedlots makes food cheaper, but it also spreads disease.  So we give them antibiotics, but that only makes antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  Which ends up hurting us more than it helps us.

So, I remain pretty utilitarian: as long as it is definitively a long-term net positive for humanity, then I'm for it.  I also want to say that when hurting an animal has not even a shred of real, perceived benefit to humanity, then I am decidedly AGAINST it.  Furs may feel nice, but we don't need them to remain warm any longer, and it remains a travesty that any animals are killed for our vanity.  And don't even get me started on bullfighting and dog fighting, which are disgusting, brutal activities masquerading as entertainment.

Anyway, as I said earlier, the equation is usually more complex than what we like to reduce it to.  It's all fine and good for one side to yell, "drill baby, drill!" and the other side to yell, "save the alaskan wildlife!," but that doesn't actually solve anything, does it?  And however we might like to caricature the people who disagree with us, it behooves us to acknowledge that nobody is ever that simple.  I firmly believe that no one, save actual psychopaths, is really capable of naked malice.  People who want to drill for oil believe we should do so because it is best for all of us overall, and people who want to halt all drilling believe we should do so because it is best for all of us overall.

But I admit that I am a liberal, and I believe that big businesses is inevitably incentivized against the long-term prosperity of all humanity.  Nonetheless, when President Obama announced he was lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling in certain areas, I was not steadfastly against it.  Smarter people than I are making these calculations, and I had faith enough in the president, who I still believe is an intelligent and thoughtful leader, to make the right decisions for our long-term success.  "If he says that expanded drilling for oil is important right now, keeping in mind a renewed emphasis on developing new energy sources for the future," I thought, "then maybe it's our best option."

Then the BP disaster happened.  "But," I thought, "maybe this is just an unfortunate coincidence.  Maybe drilling responsibly is still the way to go."

Then I saw these photos, which I will not embed in the post, so that people can choose whether or not to look.  This does not benefit humanity.  This hurts us, perhaps irrevocably.

Perhaps this sounds like hippy mumbo-jumbo, but Life is an important thing, a precious thing.  It would be a mistake to pretend that the world can take whatever we can throw at it with no consequences, yet this is what countless people truly believe.  Maybe this isn't the beginning of the end.  Maybe the world can bounce back.  Maybe we'll look on this years later as nothing more than a tragic blip in the history of our time on this planet.  But maybe not.  And as long as there is that chance, we can not afford to put our global health in the hands of groups that are structured, by design, to care only about short-term profits, and not long-term success, viability, and responsibility.  This is where we need to band together, as a people, to prioritize our society in a way that counters the short-sightedness of our nature and emphasizes our amazing capacity for vision.  Because whether or not this oil spill ends up affecting us for lifetimes to come, we can always still do better in the future.  Or not.