Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[Rezwan]

Thanks Aaron, the medical/military metaphor works for me. And eloquently put, as usual. What I see happening in this society is that people don’t take responsibility for themselves and go running to a doctor when things get bad for them. They overeat, don’t exercise, smoke, whatever. And then demand surgery.

That, to me, is similar to people saying that “war is the natural state” and demanding military intervention. It’s disrespectful to doctors to take your obese, self-destroyed body to them and demand they fix it, and then sue them when complications arise during surgery. It’s disrespectful to soldiers to mess up on the policy level and make a string of calculated decisions and then expect the military to go in and restore order for you. And it’s disrespectful to yourself to think you can’t do better.

AaronB wrote: Too many times throughout history, politicians and profiteers have sought to use the military for their own selfish ends, and they misapply military forces to try to affect certain outcomes. It *ALWAYS* fails, but the temptation is always there, and when in a bind, desperate people do desperate, short-sighted things. It’s called sacrifice, and sometimes we sacrifice what we want most for what we want now. Some sacrifices are justifiable and wise, while others are foolish and damaging overall.

The people who do this are hardly ever in a bind. They’re sitting in comfortable chairs overlooking splendid views, sipping their gin and tonics, what what. The people making the sacrifice are further down the line.

The same can be said about the oil spill in the gulf. We want energy to maintain our lifestyle. We have to go farther and deeper to get new supplies. Deep ocean drilling is difficult, dangerous, and risky, but we choose to do it anyway to support our energy habit. Companies and countries try to minimize environmental damage, but it happens when things go wrong.

Alas, countries and companies don’t try to minimize the damage.