The ANWR Crackheads

Put aside, if you can, the utter pointlessness of drilling in the ANWR, for I think this assault on rationality has another, more pathetic side.

It represents, for me, the last step in the malling and paving and raping of the American landscape.

It isn't, of course. There is plenty of grassland and forest to go, but this has an impact beyond the mere mechanical. It stands in as a metaphor for our utter inability to stop. Like junkies, we are hooked on cheap oil and we don't care what it takes to extend, even for a moment, all that entails. When you hear the stories of ruthless addicts who attack and rob feeble 75 year old ladies to help finance their next rock of cocaine, think of the United States of America; a land where we will gladly despoil a nearly pristine wilderness so we can drive our massive cars, unfettered, for one more year. And like the crack heads, we, have only two states; high or desperate. And neither has anything to do with reality.