Thomas Friedman was interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper this week about the political convulsions in the Middle East:
“We’re like the person who’s built their home at the foot of the volcano, and the volcano is now spewing lava and starting to rumble as if the top is going to blow. In this case the volcano that we built our home next to is our total dependence on oil to drive our economy; our addiction to oil, as it was first called by President Bush. If we continue to maintain this addiction we will be actually hostaging our economy to what is going to be, not just this week, not just next month,but for years, the most unstable part of the world.”
More links:
Friedman: Mother of all wake-up calls unfolding in Arab world
Claiming Joy & Healing Amidst the Climate Emergency 
2 responses to “Democracy Movement in the Middle East Should Be a “Giant Wake-up Call” for Oil-Addicted America”
Wow! What a compelling commentary. We in North America remain oblivious to the tragedy around the world caused by our addiction to oil.
A friend of mine is finishing post-graduate studies in journalism at Carleton and comes from Nigeria. The horror that his family still face there and the refusal of our government to allow them to escape to join him here are sickening.
Yes, Tom Friedman’s analysis of our oil addiction, and the atrocities that have been committed for the sake of feeding it, is brilliant and disturbing. If you read his article on the “Mother of All Wake Up Calls” he’s even more explicit:
“It is about time. For the last 50 years, America has treated the Middle East as if it were just a collection of big gas stations: Saudi station, Iran station, Kuwait station, Bahrain station, Egypt station, Libya station, Iraq station, United Arab Emirates station, etc. Our message to the region has been very consistent: “Guys, here’s the deal. Keep your pumps open, your oil prices low, don’t bother the Israelis too much and, as far as we’re concerned, you can do whatever you want out back. You can deprive your people of whatever civil rights you like. You can engage in however much corruption you like. You can preach whatever intolerance from your mosques that you like. You can print whatever conspiracy theories about us in your newspapers that you like. You can keep your women as illiterate as you like. You can create whatever vast welfare-state economies, without any innovative capacity, that you like. You can under-educate your youth as much as you like. Just keep your pumps open, your oil prices low, don’t hassle the Jews too much — and you can do whatever you want out back.”
Wow – talk about exposing our hypocrisy.