Trolls and Hugo Chavez
On one of my favorite websites, The Oil Drum, I often see the commentary, "Don't feed the trolls." I had no prior idea what this meant, but learned from context (and Wikipedia) that a troll is a person who goes out seeking unprovoked trouble, in this case inserting unpleasant lines onto a discussion group designed to send blood pressure into the stratosphere.We have trolls large and small in our midst, and they have one thing in common: a desire to make themselves larger by attacking established beings with huge credibility. One who comes to mind is the Rolling Stone's tiresome Matt Taibbi, whose trolldom against three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman has even earned him a Wikipedia listing. Everyone knows a troll.
But there are also trolls in politics, which is what triggers this post, and a question: Why do ordinarily smart people fritter away their time dissecting and vilifying buffoons with no impact on their lives?
I speak in this case of Roger Cohen at the International Herald Tribune, who has now wasted two consecutive columns trashing Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. In his article today, Cohen leads off by saying, "An oil-rich country bent on humbling the United States is an instructive place from which to view the world, so here are eight rules of modern political life as seen from President Hugo Chávez's Venezuela."
Who cares what Chavez is bent on? Can he do it? No.
We definitely have a world changing because of oil nationalism. But do the other oil nationalists -- Putin and Nazarbayev, for instance -- themselves take Chavez seriously? No sign of it.
When I returned to the U.S. from the Caspian and covered oil for The Wall Street Journal a couple of years ago, the Chavez phenomenon was one of the first things that struck me, that is: Why were my friends vexed over a fellow in a tiny country whose main crime, as far as I could tell, was running his economy into the ground in the name of patriotism?
Why indeed. The reason is his big mouth. Americans get really irritated by foreigners with that indiscretion, against which we've been known to order assassinations and even go to war.
Why, Chavez may even be as dangerous to the United States as, as ... Fidel Castro!
To which I can only say, Don't feed the trolls.
Photo: snarkhunt
Rights: Creative Commons
Labels: castro, hugo chavez, oil drum, roger cohen, taibbi, thomas friedman, trolls, venezuela, wikipedia
7 Comments:
Hi Steve,
Just heard parts of your appearance on the "Money Talk" radio show here in the Bay Area.
Sorry I couldn't hear it all. Caught the end part where "Henry" the pharmacist (means he's got chemistry training) came on and claimed there's a conspiracy because oil is biotic and planet Earth has a creamy donut center that refills the oil reservoirs all the time. Yup, that's what "they" honestly believe, even the semi-educated ones. Is it any wonder we got into the pickle we're in?
As for your faith-based belief that some great inventor is going to make gazillions coming up with something that will make carbon-fuels "obsolete", good luck with that one. This is not one of those problems that can be solved by a lone tinker in his Silicon Valley "garage" tooling away with a sine wave generator ala Hewlett & Packard. This is a "big" problem. The politicians don't yet "get it" (except for Roscoe Bartlett & friends). The public doesn't yet get it (including Henry the pharmacist).
I'm still scanning the Internet trying to figure out what "big" invention Al Gore was going to announce at the Fortune Forum in Britain on 11/30/07. Have you picked up any intel on that one?
Welcome back Steppy, I had no idea that Bob Brinker went coast to coast. But, as the words came out of my mouth in that last exchange on futurism, I did have a sneaking intuition that you were lurking out there somewhere.
And I'm glad to continue the Money Talk discussion on line.
I saw the same story you probably did on the Daily Green, but no follow up and it makes me suspicious. Did he really personally make this pledge to unveil something?
Stay in touch. I talked about our previous exchange at a book talk I did a few days ago.
Best Steve
Don't be surprised that thousands of people across the country heard you. That's the nature & power of radio. Expect to get a lot of feedback, especially if you trumpet your talk show appearance on places like TOD and link to a transcript site. The radio station I heard you on (WKGO 810 AM) normally keeps 24 hour archives of the audio. Perhaps you can make a transcript of that and post it.
P.S. It was disappointing that most of the hour was spent talking about Putin's deep blue eyes. Who cares what Bush thought of Putin! That's not going to change the course of history. Dealing with Peak Oil or not dealing with it, that's what is going to change us from a hard landing to a soft landing. So far as it goes right now, the stay-the-course mainstream is stampeding towards a hard crash over the cliff. Sad.
p.p.s. I did a double take when Bob Brinker said the words "Hubbert's peak" on air. How often do you hear that on MSM? Problem is, 98% of the listening public hasn't a clue what that is & they're not going to research it.
I'll see if I can get that link.
What in your view is a credible approach to peak oil?
Sunday 3PM:
http://kgoam810.com/Article.asp?PT=Archive&id=49920
Solar
Geothermal
(Solar enrgy -PV AND thermal is from the one fusion reactor that actually works)
(Geothermal is from the one fission reactor that been shown safe for millions of years)
Steppy, thanks for the link, which I've posted on The Oil Drum and this site. Also for the note on what might be the future which I am checking out. Best Steve
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home