Article Contributed on: 5/8/2009 11:49:58 AM
One of the things that we tend to do in politics is to extrapolate the world as we see it (see the blind men and the elephant blog entry). The truth is, that's what we do with everything.
It doesn't occur to us that some huge percentage of the population is still working its way to whole wheat bread while we worry constantly about every vitamin and mineral we consume. We don't see that for most folks, just getting a job, not a cool job, not a rewarding job, but something that pays the bills and lets them have a chance at a real life, with a TV and a car, and a place to live in something resembling comfort, is enough. We assume that the rest of the world sees things the way we do, or, more interestingly, *needs* to see the world the way we do. Sometimes that's just not the way it is.
Most of us consider ourselves, especially here in Boulder County, open minded. We consider ourselves intelligent enough to be able to hear all views and build a real gestalt picture of the world. Except, most of the time we are caught in our own ideologies like a fly in amber, and while we are convinced we are open, we really are filtering all that we see by our preconceptions. This has been true species wide for quite some time.
So I'm not really expecting to see folks coming out of the woodwork to get another view of the energy industry come Thursday from 5-7. Hearing from someone who actually spent time in the higher echelons of the oil industry is something most folks in Boulder County aren't likely to want to do. They *know* how all of that works, and how the big oil folks have kept us from alternative energy, etc. and aren't really willing to put the facts out there for examination. Never screw up a good theory with facts.
That's not to say that some of what we believe in this county about big business is wrong. Things are done for profit, yes, there are donations to campaigns (leaving aside the question that we have been known to elect folks that seem inordinately tempted to serve those special interests), and all the rest, but the central question is, can we really listen, to see how it all fits together so we can really understand the nature of the beast?
The author's Thursday reception at Second Chance Books in Louisville (see events listing) is a time when you can actually meet someone who's been in the cross hairs of the energy controversy, looking at the legal issues, watching all the end runs, and understanding who does what to who when. We'll never get to see that viewpoint personally, but if we really intend to make our country energy independent, and bring in alternative energy that pays its way, we can't afford NOT to listen. The interactions he saw, and the kinds of choices he saw made, have given Jim Remmert (the first of our authors in the "Outside the Box: Beyond the Status Quo" series) a completely different world view from what he started with.
It will be interesting to see if any of that information puts even a small dent in our preconceptions of how things work and what actions will really be effective in making a new energy economy that doesn't require all of our tax dollars and future prosperity to be sacrificed to the cause.
Is this an "I dare you?" Maybe. Come and see if some of your assumptions about how government and the corporations work together are correct. Second Chance has a number of copies of Jim's book, "Common Sense for the 21st Century" if you want to take a peek at the issues (heck, even if you want to prepare a rebuttal, this series is about thinking things through from all sides). It's like that bumper sticker says: "A Mind is Like a Parachute: It Only Works When It's Open." Take a leap and bring your parachute. I dare 'ya.
Second Chance Books, 1055 Courtesy Rd (42/95th St) Louisville CO
303-666-7681
Jim Remmert, author
""Common Sense in the 21st Century"
Thursday, May 14, 2009
5-7 pm
refreshments will be served