I drive an 86 Toyota Camry. Last week, it cost me 50 bucks to fill up, with Regular, in San Bernardino – and I wasn’t even filling a completely empty tank. This week, I drove by my local Corona “Shell” and saw that Premium was $4.51.
When I tell people what gas costs around me, I always use the Premium price – not the Regular, to which people usually reply, “But that’s the Premium.” As if 4.21 for Regular is better?! Moreover, news reports always focus on the average for Regular. Even further, no one seems to be saying much about diesel, which, last I saw was $5.09. Can someone tell me why diesel is so much more expensive because I apparently missed the reason in my busy, hurried life.
In fact, what IS the psychology behind gas prices? And just what are YOU going to do about them? Last I read on an MSN message board, these are the plans for some individuals to respond to the gas crisis so far (and what they expect others to do, too, in response to gas prices):
1. Buy a hybrid (oh yeah, let me just shell out the money for one. Oh, wait, maybe if I stop buying gas, I’ll be able to save for one!)
2. Take public transportation more often (oh yeah that’ll work considering the distances in between my various locations. I’ll get everywhere on time.)
3. Carpool (Feasible for some, but not for me considering my schedule.)
4. Ride a bike (Well, at least I’ll get in shape considering I’ve gotta bike 30 miles to get to school.)
5. Drive slower AND hope that the government mandates reduced speed limits (WTF? You need the government to tell you, and everyone else, to drive slower? Wow, this is a land of sheep, but yes, I have started driving slower.)
6. Elect a democrat (same as a Republican in my book!)
7. Accept it because Europeans have been paying more than us for a long time and our time is due to pay expensive prices (The value of the dollar is going down – this is the problem that Americans should be worried about.)
8. Do nothing because it will give the “upper class” even more of an “upper class” status, while controlling the “lower class” (yes, someone actually wrote this.)
9. Reduce spending on everything else: entertainment, food, material items, etc. – we spend too much on these things anyway. We should be more discerning with our spending. (A good idea for anyone, but this does not stimulate the economy. Instead, it keeps prices up, purchases reduced, and has a negative effect on overall societal morale, leaving us with a depressed, defeatist attitude.)
10. Do nothing because nothing can be done anyway (Let me just bend over and give the ones responsible for the price hikes the Vaseline) ß THIS seems to be what I see MOST people doing… including myself, and why? Because:
11. Eventually, gas prices will get so high that someone ELSE will do something about it (and how high will they have to go? What is the breaking point for you? I don’t even know how diesel truck owners are surviving, as it is, right now).
12. Or, there is just nothing I (or we) can do about it period. (We are slaves to the government. We are slaves to corporations. And we are funding our own, continued enslavement with what we pay for gas).
For some, these might actually be feasible, but are they really an answer to the problem? No, from my point of view, they are the psychological enablers. They keep gas prices steadily climbing. For instance, if a bully hits you on the head, eventually you put a helmet on to allow yourself to take the hits easier. The above constitute the helmet. Why not stop the hitting? Not only that, but some of the above just are not feasible for the masses to do.
And, well, if you’re like me, you really just don’t know how to solve the problem. And that’s partially the purpose of this blog. As graduate students and critical thinkers, how can we solve the problem without resorting to enablers? I want to know what YOU are doing or what possible solution YOU have to offer (that is/are different from the above) because I’m coming up empty handed, and it frustrates the absolute hell out of me.
I think facing an invisible enemy is part of the problem, psychologically speaking. We might differ on who the real culprit is behind the gas prices because the culprit is not clear cut for everyone (i.e. is it the government? Is it gas corporations? Is it the Middle East and the war?). Who do you think is responsible? I don’t really have a specific culprit in mind, myself, but if we cannot agree on who the culprit is, how can we organize to fight against he/she/them/it?
I know I should be writing another long overdue blog about Visual Rhetoric, but there is something alarming to me about what is going on with gas and diesel, especially diesel since this country RUNS ON IT. Trucks, trains, airplanes –major modes of transportation for our goods – are being hit hardest, and I have no doubt that the costs they incur will also be placed upon us. But for what reason…? Anyone? Anyone?
Oh yeah, and the environment. This is where the psychological briar patch gets MUCH stickier. We have been told, ever since we were little (the perfect age), by many different sources (the news, our teachers, Al Gore, some (not nearly all) scientists, the weather reports, etc.) that the environment is suffering and oil and cars are primarily to blame. So, it’s a GOOD thing that we have to think twice about living in our happily-ever-after-oil coated, suffocated world (going back to the pro-hybrid, public transportation arguments).
If we pair the hype – yes hype – over the environment with the gas problem, it makes it even easier to accept our “well-deserved” punishment. Could it be, I dare suggest, that the environment is being used – rather, prostituted - by those (nameless individuals) that are actually in control of gas prices?
Fear is one of the strongest forms of power over a group of people. As I study the apocalyptic rhetoric of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and their many cries of Armageddon and the end being near, I cannot help but see fear as the primary component in the apocalyptic rhetoric of the global, environmental movement:
“On August 9, 1923 front page article in the Chicago Tribune declared: ‘Scientist Says Arctic Ice Will Wipe Out Canada’” (Inhofe 9).
“On December 29, 1974 New York Times article on global cooling reported that climatologists believed ‘the facts of the present climate change are such that the most optimistic experts would assign near certainty to major crop failure in a decade’ (Inhofe 10).
“The article also warned that unless government officials reacted to the coming catastrophe, ‘mass deaths by starvation and probably in anarchy and violence’ would result” [emphasis added] (Inhofe10).
“These past predictions of doom have a familiar ring, don’t they? They sound strikingly familiar to our modern media promotion of former Vice president’s [Al Gore] brand of climate alarmism” [emphasis added] (Inhofe 10).
I’m not saying that the environment has not shown instability, but I am saying that those (unidentifiable individuals) who want power are prostituting environmental fear, akin to religious apocalyptic rhetoric, to breed acceptance of problems and to sell their protection. In what form is this protection? Control.
When we feel helpless, never more are we willing to accept our enslavement.
(The above quoted material comes from http://epw.senate.gov/repwhitepapers/HOT%20AND%20COLD%20MEDIA%20SPIN%20CYCLE.pdf)
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