Blog


About


Books

 Latest Post: Flash!

Agnostic
A Spirited Manifesto
Available April 4, 2016

   Who is the AT?   Books by LH
  • Agnostic

  • The First Muslim

  • After The Prophet

  • Jezebel

  • Mary

  • More from LH

     

Oil Worship

Posted May 18th, 2010 by Lesley Hazleton

Interesting things happen when you stop thinking of oil as a resource and start seeing it as a religion.   How else explain the non-rational, all-encompassing human devotion to the stuff?

Charles Mudede brings a gently sardonic brilliance to bear on this on Slog, the blog of Seattle’s alt-hip weekly The Stranger.  On offshore drilling platforms:

They are magnificent, they are the descendants of Our Lady of Chartres, they are the cathedrals of the oil industry. Indeed, recognition of this connection will add to our understanding of why it is that Christians on the right side of politics so deeply admire offshore drilling—they can’t help but be impressed by the almost Gothic severity of an offshore platform, out there in the sea like a cathedral on a mountain.

Face to face with the industrial sublime —  the energy-producing, distance-defeating, plasticizing miracle of oil, as essential to modern society as the sun was to ancient ones — what can a mere human do but submit and worship?   Simply by living as we do, we are all followers of the cult of oil, all members of a church that far surpasses any other in size and wealth.   Helplessly dependent on it in every aspect of our daily lives — give us this day our daily oil — we abjectly acknowledge its power to sustain us.  And panic as we realize the other side of its power, which is to destroy us.

It all gets very biblical:   like ancient Israelites who had the temerity to worship other gods than Yahweh, we tremble as the divine wrath turns on us, and with such sublime irony:   the current Flood is not just oil instead of water, but oil into water.

See Charles Mudede’s  full post here.  And lest anyone accuse me of losing perspective, check out this earlier Slog post by Dominic Holden, superimposing the current outline of the Gulf oil spill on a map of western Washington state.   Do the same superimposition over a 400-mile-long  swathe of your area, and experience awe.

Share this post:  Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
File under: Christianity, ecology, Judaism | Tagged: Tags: cathedrals, industrial sublime, offshore drilling platforms, oil spill | 2 Comments
  1. Nancy McClelland says:
    May 25, 2010 at 11:26 pm

    I like the perspective, although I’m not sure it’s the oil itself that is worshiped, but what it affords us. As Bernadette Peters whines in “The Jerk”, “it’s not the money I’m gonna miss… it’s all the stuff.”

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      May 26, 2010 at 9:24 am

      I am immensely tempted by the idea of physically prostrating ourselves before a gulf-full of viscous, oozing, stinking, black gunk, then immersing ourselves in it until we “become one” with it. But yes, you’re right: Bernadette Peters nails it. .

Order the Book

Available online from:
  • Amazon.com
  • Barnes & Noble
  • IndieBound
  • Powell's
Or from your favorite bookseller.

Tag Cloud

absurd agnosticism art atheism Buddhism Christianity ecology existence feminism fundamentalism Islam Judaism light Middle East sanity technology ugliness US politics war women

Recent Posts

  • Flash! September 1, 2019
  • “What’s Wrong With Dying?” February 9, 2017
  • The Poem That Stopped Me Crying December 30, 2016
  • Talking About Soul at TED December 5, 2016
  • ‘Healing’? No Way. November 10, 2016
  • Psychopath, Defined August 2, 2016
  • Lovely NYT Review of ‘Agnostic’! July 14, 2016
  • Playing With Stillness June 22, 2016
  • Inside Palestine June 20, 2016
  • Virtual Unreality June 6, 2016
  • The Free-Speech Challenge May 23, 2016
  • Category-Free April 20, 2016
  • Staring At The Void April 13, 2016
  • Sherlock And Me April 3, 2016
  • Hard-Wired? Really? March 22, 2016
  • A Quantum Novel March 9, 2016
  • This Pre-Order Thing March 4, 2016
  • The Agnostic Celebration February 29, 2016
  • The First Two Pages February 23, 2016
  • Two Thumbs-Up For “Agnostic” February 10, 2016
Skip to toolbar
  • About WordPress
    • WordPress.org
    • Documentation
    • Support Forums
    • Feedback