Brink Mansplain

Documentarian Michael Moore, Secular Talk, Senator Warren, talk host John Stewart, and Young Turks all say today some of what Labann was undaunted to relay decades ago. Difference is they got on bandwagon with either partisan agendas (given electorate’s current mood) or profit motives (charging tickets to rallies or showings), whereas this writer only ever wanted to discover truth (an unpaid unless punished process). Politics alone never offer answers. You may try to vote for candidates you think will serve electorate’s interests, but politicians and system weren’t built that way. Anyone who asks for your approval is probably a conceited narcissist or greedy, needy baby who pushes all parties into battle beyond the brink of catastrophe. Learned first hand they lie to your face by promising whatever you request then spitefully making it impossible, if it’s no bother, as if some maddening amusement or sport. Labann wants nothing except social justice, which includes equal pay for equal work despite age, creed, gender, orientation or race, because entire society’s collective personal sacrifices account for everything that succeeds.

Labann refuses to be labeled a Social Justice Warrior, since just as likely to acknowledge own flaws as point out yours. But if men can’t “mansplain” brinkmanship on Dad’s Day, what good is being a male? Obliviously ogling one ballgame after another while swilling beer? Most problems arise when people are unaware, or they just don’t care; needs go unmet, resulting in pushing, shoving, and suffering. Frustration instills aggression, guilt, hostility. Altruism punishment undoubtedly occurs, but why equate cheaters and cyclists? Game changers can equally annoy by rearranging best laid plans.

Going green on this basic commodity is 2008 documentary Fuel. Filmmaker Josh Tickell drove all over America in a diesel truck, any of which can burn fuel made from renewable vegetable oils; they neither pollute nor steal food from babes. Biodiesel can be made by diverting sewerage into growing green algae or certain weeds, not just farms of soybeans, in cities, deserts, and reclaimed toxic sites. Biodiesel could end dependence on foreign oil overnight, gains 3 units of energy for every 1 expended, and wouldn’t take any significant change to existing infrastructure. Petroleum is 1:1, though it remains the most profitable business on earth due to taxpayer subsidies and wars costing $billions/year. Too bad planet is addicted to crude that causes asthma, cancer, and COPD. Most ingenious are Tickell’s 10 ways to replace oil altogether, which include better city planning, biking/walking more, smarter engineering, and solar/tidal/wind harvesting.

If impressed, ask yourself why, after eyeing Fuel before first term and quoting it repeatedly, nation’s big daddy POTUS Obama did nothing to further global green agenda. Is oil industry such a persistent parasite? Or an incurable disease? Massive change will never be gladly embraced or go easily. Alternatives are not without downsides. Wind farms face nimbyism supported by junk science, like ornithologists who complain that birds might be harmed, though birds are often smarter than humans. Likewise, tidal turbines might kill fish, though experiments could establish risks. Might makes right in more ways than one. Harms of coal and oil are already documented and understood by most, yet you let them go unchallenged. Atmospheric carbon causes extreme weather and will push everyone who benefits from shipping or resides near shoreline over the edge. Nature will always be the ultimate brinksman. Humans acting just as savagely only hurt themselves by alienating potential allies.