I've had a specific conversation with several friends and acquaintances that always ends with shrugs and an off the cuff comment or impolite  reference towards the monetary power of the energy corporations. 

 

The city I live in has seen spectacular growth over the last ten years and housing communities have popped up seemingly at every available corner.  When I watch these houses being constructed, I always look for the same objects, which leads to the question at hand:  Why weren't solar panels installed on all these new homes?  A functional grid could supply electricity to every home throughout the year for pennies.  So...why didn't the builders include solar panels in their costs?

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In 1971, a psychiatrist named Philip Zimbardo created an experiment where twenty-four university students were hired at fifteen dollars a day to pose as either a prisoner or a guard in a mock prison.  What ensued was no less than a snapshot of the classic novel, Lord of the Flies.  One guard, brilliant in his role, became the appaling prison guard he sought to resemble from the movie, Cool Hand Luke. He and one cohort not only followed the script but also contributed thus proving that power can and will corrupt.  Prisoners were humiliated and degraded to a point where they accepted the guards authority and would do as asked.  The key words in the last sentence are "they accepted".  Even the good guards followed the instruction of the two guards who ruled the nest and never intervened.  They accepted being controlled.

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So, while the responses to the question, "why weren't solar panels installed on the new homes" may be for the most part strongly worded rants against energy corporations,  they are also humbling proof of our acceptance to authoritative corporate power.  How many North American bankers went to jail after the 2008 bank failures?  None.  Even after financial executives gave themselves enormous bonuses with government money, the most we could drudge out was the short-lived Occupy Movement.  At least we got a t-shirt but we didn't get mad enough.

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Because we accept.  We talk a lot about change, about fighting back or actually leaving the comfort of our recliners to be part of a new movement...but we don't.  The world is filled with good intentions but unfortunately good intentions and four dollars will get me a ride on the subway.  We write theses, attend conferences, pick up Doritos and then drive home in our SUV's. 

 

We love our oversized cars and ridiculously priced cellphones.  We love our homes and our large televisions that broadcast the latest from Netflix and HBO.  Who would want to risk losing all that even if it is a second class existence?  We're better off bowing to the corporate nation that maps our routine driven lives.

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Don't question.  Accept.  Pay your overpriced bills that fund exectutive bonuses. Accept.

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That's why - in a watered down version - a quiet energy revolution will never happen in Canada or the U.S. or western Europe.  We're not angry or desperate enough.  We can't step outside capitalist methodology long enough to realize that the so-called comforts we strive for are the ----that are destroying us.  No revolution can work in a 360 environment; a hampster's wheel.

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But it can work. 

 

Who am I? Keep reading.

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