Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Who Gets Held Accountable?

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... once again, recent events have forced me to spew my hatred towards society, the media, and the suits (does it ever go anywhere else really?) This BP oil disaster is probably pretty high up there on the fuck-up scale and even if we haven't noticed immediately the scope of which this severe lapse in preventative judgement will show as far as a fallout is concerned. Nobody can debate that this is something that hasn't exactly been dealt with, with a required level of urgency (Operation "Topkill"? Fuck off.) and this is an issue where the finger certainly hasn't been pointed at the right people.

As with any issue where a large sum of money is at stake, those who should be deemed accountable (aka: The oil companies) are not. They have the politicians in their pockets, it's just as simple as that. The Media is equally to blame, they may have their 'experts' on the air to speak of the potential ecological destruction or show images of cute animals covered in oil and the path of wrath of which has been paved to this point but the matter remains none the less. We are also to blame because there are far too few of us (myself included, apathy is a lovely thing) who simply don't care because it doesn't directly affect us. WHO is held accountable?

Many have scapegoated Obama, who "hasn't done enough" and that is straight up bullshit. I don't even want to imagine what would've happened if Bush was in charge during this disaster. This would've been swept under the rug just like 9/11 and spun advantageously to make the government look good while actually doing NOTHING *COUGH*KATRINA*COUGH* while his support further goes down into the tube. That's not how Obama rolls and he's paying for it when he shouldn't be. There isn't really much that Obama CAN do to solve this problem. He's not going to throw on scuba gear and swim down to the hole and try to plug it himself, thats not going to work. Wake the fuck up and smell the maple nut crunch as someone much wiser than me once said.

Do we blame society? A society that (because of the media and they're next) cares more about poor heartbroken Sandra Bullock or how big a cunt Kate from Kate plus 8 is being currently or how Michael Jacksons children are doing or so on and so forth. There's endless celebrity fodder for the sheep to flock to and they do, it never fails. That makes me so angry is that the news, LEGITIMATE news has embraced this trend and you're more likely to hear about what celebrity has fucked up now than some random old man getting stabbed and dying in the news. Or how some elderly driver lacks the proper vision to drive responsibly and blindsides a family killing the parents in a t-bone collision. (I don't have a hate on for old people, I realize how that reads it's just two extreme examples)

Do we blame the media, who only wants to make money (again, there it is, $$$) in this world where we can get pretty much anything we want information wise off the internet. So they give the people 'what they want' and they eat it up like the sheep they are. I can't blame the media for that, money makes the world go around. I can blame the media for failing to keep people properly informed. With great power comes great responsibility and the media has FAILED their responsibility without a shadow of a doubt.

The finger should've initially, and should always be pointed AT THE PEOPLE DRILLING THE FUCKING OIL! I'm not some tree hugging hippie but (as previous rants would show) I have always believed that our society lacks proper accountability  it's parents failing to hold themselves accountable or people failing to hold themselves accountable. Society loves a scapegoat but this is one instance that a scapegoat just doesn't cut it. THEY failed to have some form of contingency plan in place for just such an instance where something goes wrong with their off-shore drilling. THEY failed to man up to their failure upon the origins of this monumental mistake. THEY have failed to come up with an adequate solution for this situation and it's been over a month since this happened in the first place. Don't blame Obama because really, this isn't his mess to clean up. BLAME THEM, BLAME BP! BLAME BIG OIL. It's THEIR fuck up so why are we having such a difficult time doing that? It's THEIR fault. NOBODY elses...

I am abusing cap's lock, let me take a deep breath for a moment...

I don't understand why it's so hard for people to view the world around them consciously and for the media to provide un-biased views on the world FOR the people to view it consciously and furthermore for the powers that be to target those who are responsible for the various atrocities that occur in our world. Why can't the world just work out like that? Do we need to revert to the wild west days where everybody worked hard and if you crossed a man you got shot? Do we need to start hanging people and lynching and acting like cut-throats because NOBODY is willing to listen, or further more, do what it takes?

I'm just asking that you take the time to look at the world for once, rather than hiding in your bubble because it's easy. Look at what is happening and take a moment to legitimately THINK about it. Think your own thoughts, don't form an opinion because some fucktard on CNN or Fox News tells you to. Be objective, be critical, be an independent and free thinker. I don't think that would help this issue be resolved any faster but maybe if BP actually had the oil under their ass and the fire ready to char so to speak maybe they would be a bit more quick on the draw to take care of this.

2 comments:

Helmsman said...

Kinda directionless dude, but your blog, your prerogative.

Here's the thing... blaming "big oil" is about as pointless as blaming the ventilation system in your apartment for sharing the smell of curry cooking from next door with you. You wanna breathe air so the vents exist. Big oil is the same, we need energy, every single thing we do relies on that simple fact. The chocolate bar you bought from the corner store was drove to that spot in a truck. The wrapper is a petroleum-based plastic. Chances are five things within arms length of you put half their value in the oil industry's pocket simply because of their existence. This isn't because big oil is greedy, it's because big oil makes the very existence of these things possible. We need oil, just like we need air to breathe, so big oil will exist just as vents will.

The thing is, blame doesn't really matter. BP will have to clean up the mess one-way or another. They'll spend a lot of money to do so, and then one of two things will happen:
a) Either BP will transfer their public holdings into the custody of another oil company and withdraw from actively doing business in North America.
b) OR BP will spend 100 Billion fixing the spill and then devote a percentage of their total revenue (say 5 to 10%)in Environmental Preservation Projects, effectively making them the largest environmentalist organization in the world, and turn their PR disaster into a victory.

The other thing to look at is what will come of this. Hopefully this could be the start of a turnaround in the American political system where corporate interest doesn't run amok so unchecked. For all it's faults, Canada doesn't have this problem. Up here BP is a paragon of safety and environmental awareness because our legislation and enforcement of that legislation requires them to be as such. America could be like that too, and in many ways it would be good for the oil industry down there because over time it would renew public trust and more projects could be passed without the public special interest groups raising red-flags.

Ultimately the blame is about as hard to contain as the growing slick of much messing up the gulf. Sure it's a disaster, but I think there could be some good coming from it. There are a lot of people angry about this and in a democracy that means change will come.

Bozarth said...

Tony I understand where you coming from but really my main gripe here is that the entire system is to blame. Nobody is really framing a proper picture here because the media takes in certain people to have the kind of point they need made, made and BP will ultimately do what they want regardless of public backlash, the steps they've taken since I have written this have proven that.

Overall this was just me taking my anger out on specific sources that I felt were all to blame for this as its always seems to be more difficult to blame one specific party in these instances than it should be.

I guess the jaded humanitarian in me (a true humanitarian, not some bullshit trophy grabbing, dog kissing, asshole) just sees that this whole situation has been mishandled by virtually everyone responsible and that pisses me off. That's what I write these for to begin with.

But thank you none the less Tony for your imput as I really appreciate it and I always enjoy your thoughts in the aftermath of my (pretty much always unfocused :P) rants.