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Gold/Mining/Energy : PEAK OIL - The New Y2K or The Beginning of the Real End?

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To: kryptonic6 who wrote (476)	5/6/2005 11:00:40 PM
From: Mahatmabenfoo	of 1183

-- artists generally don't wield the greatest amount of power I don't mean art as advocacy -- in the sense of guerilla theater; or campaigning for a candidate. So in a sense I agree with you. I'm not sure I can explain the way art can help people do the right thing. There's art as a warning system. Truths that people cannot face ("Peak oil could be now!") when presented as fact become quite compelling when presented as fiction. As examples: Twilight Zone with its stories about nuclear devastation; and those 1950s movies (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Stepford Wives) about the then newly discovered surburban turning people into zombies and robots. Those movies were scary for a reason, and perhaps influenced behaviour in a positive way. In the 1956 move Forbidden Planet we marvel that the Krell despite their gigantic achievements were capable of disappearing "overnight". On some level the audience must have understood: we are the Krell. But the movie conveyed the message in that coded and indirect way that is the only way most of us can take it. Star Trek inspired a lot of people to pursue careers in science. And it helped create a picture of a world based on cooperation (Vulcan and Earthling in fiction, but also the first TV series to have a multicultural cast) rather than the old shoot'em'up cowboy model (Roddenberry described Star Trek as a "Wagon Train to the stars"). The idea of making a transition to a society based on renewable fuels would be more appealing and easier to imagine (and for those reasons, smoother) if artists had created a story about what that would be like. Despite the the massive industry of science fiction and fiction generally, I don't know of any story like that -- which is why I say artist failed us. - Charles

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