Could the Gas Crisis Lead Us to Scavenging a la the Road Warrior?
Aside from gradually rising gas prices (read: outrageous gasoline whoring) resulting from 9/11’s impact and the war in Iraq, [gas prices] have also risen as the result of potential security disasters, i.e., attacks on the world’s oil supply.
That means, as a major world consumer, America has to deal with the shortcomings of other countries’ security. On the other hand, America has its own oil fields to protect; Houston, Texas has some serious border problems as it is. In fact, Texas’ oil production accounts for a substantial amount of the U.S. economy as a whole. If terrorists did attack again, which many people consider inevitable, they’d know right where to hit. Osama would have, indeed, bled us.
Big deal – gas would just be more expensive, right? We’d all learn to accept ten dollars per gallon, right? Wrong. Not only would that cripple the American middle class, there wouldn’t even be any gas to buy! Jimmy Carter Syndrome, only a hundred times worse.
America doesn’t need to prepare itself for gas gouging by funding hybrid vehicle research and investing in hydrogen technologies; it needs to prepare itself for eye-gouging by funding post-apocalyptic-Road-Warrior vehicle research and investing in hydraulic crossbow technologies. The United States of America must become ‘Humungous’ The Road Warrior, that Mel Gibson movie. It’s the one in between Mad Max and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Yeah, the guy with the hockey mask.
Can you picture hybrid vehicles trying to do battle with a steel-plated, grenade-launching dune buggies? Seriously, there’s no chance – the hybrids would be blown to pieces!
For once, power would be returned to the American youth as a result of presidential policies; young citizens could finally overpower senior citizens. Sure, they would overpower them by pulverizing them on the highways, but they would overpower them nonetheless.
On the other hand, the post-gas-crisis youth wouldn’t know how to handle itself without modern conveniences: brushing their teeth before going to sleep; going to sleep on a full stomach; eating something that’s cooked; cooking something they bought from a store; and the list goes on.
If the Bush administration focuses too much on one front of it’s ‘war on terrorism’ – the war in Iraq – many Americans could find themselves living like modern day Flintstones…rabid, modern day Flintstones. Until then, those Americans will be forced to accommodate for swelling gasoline prices while praying for a better tomorrow.
