BP spills coffee

This is funny, but of course, the problem isn't that BP has been inept in handling the current oil spill. It's a very difficult situation, after all.

No, the real problem has been our "drill, baby, drill" mentality, stupidly (and cowardly) refusing to accept the energy challenge we've been facing for decades, combined with right-wing anti-regulation ideology that basically let oil companies - and banks, too! - regulate themselves.

Thus the stage was set for this disaster. If we were going to let oil companies drill at such depths, we shouldn't have shrugged off the very real dangers involved. And in any case, we should have been using this to buy time while we engaged in a massive research and development effort to wean ourselves from fossil fuels.

Once the explosion occurred, it was too late for smart thinking. I have no doubt that BP is doing the best it can - and, indeed, that we've got every available expert working hard on this problem. But it's not as simple as spilling a cup of coffee. This is very deep in the ocean and very difficult to fix at this point. That's why we should have used our brains before the drilling ever started.

I'm angry at BP, too, which is why I laugh at this video. But I'm angrier at the Bush administration, and I'm even angrier at us, the American people who elected them, and who have let politicians take the easy way out for decades. This video clip is liable to give the wrong impression. But it's a lot easier to blame BP than to look in the mirror and see who really is to blame, isn't it?

It is our fault that we didn't get serious about weaning ourselves from fossil fuels after the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973, and in all the years since. It is our fault that we bought into right-wing ideology which claimed that corporations needed no regulation, because they'd just naturally do the right thing. It is our fault that we elected George W. Bush - twice! - and let him gut the government programs we still had in place. It is our fault that we left a Minerals Management Service rife with conflicts of interest, even after the 2008 scandals broke.

Now that oil is spilling everywhere, we're looking for a scapegoat. That's typical, isn't it? But if anyone is to blame, it's us. This is what happens when we're dumb. This is what happens when we're greedy. This is what happens when we're horribly short-sighted. And I'm afraid it's only the start. You think this is bad? Just wait. If we don't drastically change our ways, this is only the beginning.