Tuesday, May 25, 2010
25th May.
The day started in discouragement and difficulty.
I felt distressed that my last two plays had elicited such strong responses and such profound interest but that, yet again, I had failed to translate this response into anything concrete...
I went to my office but simply could not concentrate.
I was about to give up and go home when i remembered a phrase I had picked up from a fascinating conversation i had had on Sunday night.
With a disillusioned oil producer who had been unable to tolerate the fact his industry was living in, and fiercely propagating, a lie and so had felt obliged to leave it.
The phrase was "peak oil".
This refers to the fact that oil reserves are finite; that the rate of discovery of new oil fields is slowing; but the demand for oil is constant, and growing.
A point will come, of necessity, when oil supply can no longer meet demand.
And because the whole structure of our society is dependent upon oil, and the continuing supply of oil, this will precipitate a profound crisis.
This crisis is coming soon; and it certainly has been underlying the West's invasion of Iraq; quite probably the tremors and panics in the stock market, which seem interlinked and never ending. (Today its the Euro again, and fears of war between the Koreas)
There may also be a connection between the difficulty that some states are experiencing in retaining control of their own capitals (Greece a couple of weeks ago; Bangkok; and now Jamaica)
Under the circumstances, there is a pressing need for Western economies to begin the process of adapting to a post-oil situation.
But none of them are doing so.
In fact the subject is never mentioned.
We just had a Queen's Speech today, with all the flummery such an occasion seems to demand, that in fact bore absolutely no relation to the underlying realities of the situation.
Scotland has immense possibilities of creating renewable energy; and yet, as a conference today pointed out, there is absolutely no possibility of raising the finance to exploit these possibilities (http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Cash-39black-hole39--threatens.6316501.jp).
So the political and financial systems are both failing us.
This has been a concern of mine for years; and to have this confirmed so graphically (see http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net)
which logically should have left me depressed, suddenly galvanised me.
All the work I am currently doing, on the Enlightenment play, on "God's New Frock", "Jesus Queen of Heaven", "Losing Venice" and "The Tree of Life" suddenly seemed to inter-connect and make perfect sense.
And all the little whinges of the beginning of the day vanished in the context of the realisation of what needs to be done.
The day started in discouragement and difficulty.
I felt distressed that my last two plays had elicited such strong responses and such profound interest but that, yet again, I had failed to translate this response into anything concrete...
I went to my office but simply could not concentrate.
I was about to give up and go home when i remembered a phrase I had picked up from a fascinating conversation i had had on Sunday night.
With a disillusioned oil producer who had been unable to tolerate the fact his industry was living in, and fiercely propagating, a lie and so had felt obliged to leave it.
The phrase was "peak oil".
This refers to the fact that oil reserves are finite; that the rate of discovery of new oil fields is slowing; but the demand for oil is constant, and growing.
A point will come, of necessity, when oil supply can no longer meet demand.
And because the whole structure of our society is dependent upon oil, and the continuing supply of oil, this will precipitate a profound crisis.
This crisis is coming soon; and it certainly has been underlying the West's invasion of Iraq; quite probably the tremors and panics in the stock market, which seem interlinked and never ending. (Today its the Euro again, and fears of war between the Koreas)
There may also be a connection between the difficulty that some states are experiencing in retaining control of their own capitals (Greece a couple of weeks ago; Bangkok; and now Jamaica)
Under the circumstances, there is a pressing need for Western economies to begin the process of adapting to a post-oil situation.
But none of them are doing so.
In fact the subject is never mentioned.
We just had a Queen's Speech today, with all the flummery such an occasion seems to demand, that in fact bore absolutely no relation to the underlying realities of the situation.
Scotland has immense possibilities of creating renewable energy; and yet, as a conference today pointed out, there is absolutely no possibility of raising the finance to exploit these possibilities (http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Cash-39black-hole39--threatens.6316501.jp).
So the political and financial systems are both failing us.
This has been a concern of mine for years; and to have this confirmed so graphically (see http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net)
which logically should have left me depressed, suddenly galvanised me.
All the work I am currently doing, on the Enlightenment play, on "God's New Frock", "Jesus Queen of Heaven", "Losing Venice" and "The Tree of Life" suddenly seemed to inter-connect and make perfect sense.
And all the little whinges of the beginning of the day vanished in the context of the realisation of what needs to be done.
Labels: peak oil
Comments:
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Jo, dear, you are such a caring writer because you feel you should act on people's responses. But such strong responses from your audience and critics leave you in a very open and vulnerable position sometimes. And I would think you still feel a bit overawed by your growing fame and critical acclaim. On one hand, maybe, you feel people are at last acknowledging you as the person you have been struggling to grow into all your life. On the other hand, you'll always have ignorant, or frightened, people acting in a hurtful and negative way towards you. I think what I'm trying to say here is, at the moment enjoy the process of reaching out to people and creating strong responses which make people think and feel. And don't worry about translating it into something concrete. I think, maybe, this might come when you're not swamped by everything else going on. And one day you'll look at your work in a way that will throw light on how you can translate people's responses in the most productive way. Hope this assumption helps :) lots of love xx
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