$7 Gasoline and Okie Mythology

Some financial pundits are predicting Americans will soon be paying $7 a gallon for gasoline, and, rest assured, when it happens the corporate media here will spin this on one level as great news for Oklahoma because local energy companies will benefit with massive profits.

Sure, you might see the obligatory times-are-tough stories. But, really, who cares that you cannot afford to drive to work anymore? What is good for energy companies is good for Oklahoma, the mantra goes at The Oklahoman and Tulsa World. It has become a deeply entrenched Okie mythology that Oklahoma’s quality of life and the happiness of its people is dependent on the success of a handful of energy companies here and throughout the world.

When gasoline prices go up, well, then Okies should be dancing in the streets, right? After all, these wonderful energy companies contribute much to the state’s tax base and provide great jobs. Why, you are simply un-American and un-Oklahoman if you do not love those wonderful energy companies who make life so great here.

The only problem here is the mythology is not the least bit true. This is what energy company worship has wrought in this state: Oklahomans have relatively low average incomes when compared to other states. It does not provide adequate funding for education because its tax base is traditionally low and shrinking because of recent tax cuts that reward wealthy people. Its deteriorating roads and bridges are some of the worst in the nation. The state has high rates of hungry families, poverty and uninsured people. It ranks close to the lowest in the nation in most categories dealing with health issues.

Meanwhile, some local energy executives use their wealth to support ultra-right wing politicians and initiatives that help promote the oil-company mythology. This keeps the state’s political leadership mired in a corporate-worship mindset that hurts ordinary Oklahomans and rewards only the relatively few millionaires in the Okie oligarchy.

So what happens to a state that has been built on the sanctity of energy companies and planned on the ubiquity of the automobile when gasoline prices hit $7 a gallon?

During the last belch of The Oil Age, expect Oklahoma, in particular, to face incredible fallout. The state’s sprawling cities and neighborhoods were planned on cheap gasoline, for example, even though the idea of diminishing supplies of oil has been discussed for decades. Who will lose out as people here move closer together in centralized locations? More importantly, who will want to move here knowing they might have to drive 300 miles or more each week? As the economy sours even more because of rising costs, local energy companies will have even more leverage here to call the political shots.

The solutions are obvious, but nothing will happen here until we face a full-blown crisis because of the current political influence of energy companies. Here are some obvious solutions to rising gasoline prices: The state should become more sustainable. Oklahoma City and Tulsa should centralize their neighborhoods and important institutions. Local governments should provide new funding for mass transit. The government here should encourage the use of alternative energy sources through tax incentives.

The first thing that must happen, however, is for Oklahomans to stop electing politicians who support the agenda of oil companies over the needs of struggling families. A vote for politicians such as U.S. Senators Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn, who support the interests of energy companies over regular families, is an act of self-loathing. It should be known as a form of family abuse.

The financial success of energy companies has been an integral initiative of the failed neoconservative experiment, and these companies have reaped record profits. Now it is shaping up to be a year of great political change in this country. It would be a shame if Oklahoma once again got left behind, but it seems inevitable at this point.

Once the last bit of oil and natural gas is sucked from the soil here, the energy companies will leave and never come back. They are a blip on the state’s and country’s history. They have prevented the state from prospering by using political manipulation to protect their narrow interests, and that is what the historical record will show.

Carlin and Russert

When NBC’s big-shot infotainer Tim Russert recently died, he received the equivalent of a state funeral and the corporate media lauded him for days as a great “journalist.” Imperial President George Bush even attended Russert’s wake to obviously thank him posthumously for his unequivocal support of the Iraq invasion and ensuing occupation.

When comedian George Carlin died a couple of weeks later, the media offered up obligatory obituaries.

This is yet another example of how the mainstream media distorts reality and significance. Carlin and his comedy, which always offered brilliant critiques of our culture, will be remembered as an essential part of the American milieu in the last half of the twentieth century. Russert, who hosted Meet The Press, will be forgotten in a few years or so. If Russert is remembered at all, it will be as a sidenote, as one of those millionaire celebrity infotainers who served as a toady for the most corrupt presidential regime in the country’s history.