unfinished post (partially recovered after techno-blip)

Indeed, my young Turk, the fat sage sighed, that was a curious blip in human history. The petroleum era.

The young Turk, in the second year of her research program, mined the fat sage for all he had to offer. The fat sage had devised volume upon volume of entertainment on this very subject. Few knew more about oil than the fat sage.

There are several curious things about that epoch, the sage continued. It demonstrated the curious hold the natural world exerts over the structures of society, in ways society never anticipated.

How so, fat sage?

Oil, as you, know, is a dark, viscous material, which, by and large, dwells far below the surface of the soil. Already you'll begin to deduce my first point?

I think I can, but elucidate, fat sage.

The easiest parallel to oil in our common usage is bile. A malvolent fluid with few redeeming features which lurks in the body; needs to be drawn now and again, but when it is, is always a sign of sickness.

The Young Turk frowned. The fat sage was disappointing her. She had heard this line before and she found it both too literal and too ephemeral. The fat sage saw her frown and smiled. He asked if she disappoved of this analysis. The young Turk was embarrased to know her thoughts could be so easily read, and she asked the fat sage to go on.

Well, he said, perhaps put out by the attractive student's reaction. There is another more beautiful way of seeing the point I am making. I have outlined the what, but the how is perhaps more enlightening. What was the key to the oil revolution, the point of no return.

The Model-T Ford.

The sage smiled. Indeed. The development of the individual automobile, also known as a car. I shall talk to you about the car for a while, and its relationship to that culture.

The car was a great success for nearly a hundred and fifty years. It had a great effect on the thinking of vast, priviledged swathes of the culture. It was a success for several reasons. Firstly, people lived in the constant belief that they had places to go. The car was, to this end, a serviceable and effective means of achieving this. Yet, what the drivers failed to realise, was that every car journey ever taken was part of a demolition of social fabric. The