Inertia

I rode shotgun thrice today; once on the bus to work, once with an Indian born co-worker to lunch, and lastly with my German born co-worker home.

On the bus ride I sparked a conversation with my neighbor. As we passed the Shell station at Laguna and I-5 I commented on the price of gas. He claimed it was all political.

Rakesh, at lunch today, after I sparked the conversation by commenting on the price of gas at the station at 16th and W street, suggested that it's all politics...with a little finanacial speculation thrown in.

Hagen, driving me home and after sparking the conversation by commenting on the price of gas as 65th and 5th, suggested that it's not an issue; when he worked for PG&E in the late '60s he earned $10,000 a year and gas was $0.40 a gallon. Today he makes ten times as much and gas is ten times as expensive. It hasn't changed in 40 years, so $4.00 gas is about right.

In a way, all three don't shoulder any beliefs that domestic demand might have something to do with the price of gas. The cause is either natural or political. That we all live energy intensive lives, that we all consume three gallons of fuel each day on average (directly and indirectly), that we all simply expect cheap energy...well, none of this has any bearing. I understand our collective ignorance. I blog about its consequences; it's what keeps The Franklin Monologues going. If we didn't maintain ignorance on our energy use this blog would cease to exist.

Regardless, $4.00 gasoline is nowhere near the price at which U.S. consumers change their consumptive habits. There is far, far too much inertia in suburban sprawl, in mega-malls, in single-use zoned "office parks," in personal mobility, such that a few nickels more for a tankard of petrol is hardly worth changing our habits for. We don't adapt; we don't adjust; we don't overcome. We don't need to. We just sacrifice a little. Here and there.

Inertia is going to be a critical point going forward in my little view. Think -- what would it really take for you to get out of your car and use the bus, light rail, train, bicycle, or your two legs to buy groceries at your local store? $4.00 gas? $5.00 gas? $6.00 gas? More?

This is where I have an advantage, I believe. I am already conditioned to think outside the car. If I'm willing to ride a bike in the rain to work when gas is $2.78, I think I'm willing to ride anytime. I believe that the biggest hurdle most U.S. consumers will face in the coming years of convergent predicaments such as peak oil, climate disruption and economic peril is that they simply are not psychologically prepared to do things differently. Inertia is so strong even the most stalwart environmentalists are only thinking of alternative ways to power our cars - not thinking of ways to live without the mandatory use of one for every facet of living.

Look around Elk Grove. In fifteen years of bicycle commuting, in fifteen years of driving my own car, I've not once ever seen an Elk Grovian woman commuting by bicycle. Inertia in car-dependency is just too strong to get a woman on a bicycle around here. This isn't misogyny, it's observation; there simply are no suburban Elk Grove women riding bicycles. I think that their belief in the entitlements to an auto-centric lifestyle prevent them from engaging such an activity. They didn't move to Elk Grove to ride a fucking bike. Women will not ride bikes at $4, nor at $5 in my estimation, and by that I mean riding for utility. It would take $7.82 gasoline to find an Elk Grovian woman riding her bike to the Safeway to buy groceries.

Neither would you find an Elk Grove immigrant commute by bike. None of my immigrant neighbors has ever, ever! mounted two wheels instead of four. Many left countries where the bike is the primary mode of movement and they immigrated to leave that behind, among other reasons. They would need $9.56 gasoline to even consider ditching the Mercedes, Land Cruiser or Acura for a bicycle. They didn't immigrate to America to ride a fucking bike. Often the Elk Grovian immigrant spends an inordinate amount on his/her private automobile, showing just how important car culture is.

The inertia of such cultural things or of sexual orientation; these are impossibly difficult to overcome. This is why, in my opinion, that trying to assert my little minority view against an entire population willing to roll over and tacitly approve the invasion of an oil rich foreign country is not worth the effort. I'm the minority here. I'm a white guy; indeed, a member of the only group of people in Elk Grove who commutes by bicycle, yet I also hold a minority position on why I do it. I hold it, apparently, because I'm a member of a group who has access to everything, whose neck has never been pinned down by the boot of someone else.

I believe that this inertia will cause us great harm; we will enagage in foreign wars and occupations to preserve our energy intensive suburban way of life, when it becomes clear that the rest of the developing world also wants access to the same extravagant lifestyles and we have to competed for the resources to power them. We will compete for these resources; indeed, we already are. The Elk Grove immigrant, the Elk Grove woman, the guy on the bus and my co-workers all think they are six degrees removed from the actions we collectively take to ensure our liberal, timely deliveries of Nigerian and Canadian crude but indeed they are only one degree separated. Both of their actions and inactions contribute to a nation that can't support itself.

Inertia is strong, yes...