The Great Temptation of Oil

“Oil kindles extraordinary emotions and hopes, since oil is above all a great temptation.  It is the temptation of ease, wealth, strength, fortune, power.  It is a filthy, foul-smelling liquid that squirts obligingly up into the air and falls back to earth as a rustling shower of money.  To discover and possess the source of oil is to feel as if, after wandering long underground, you have suddenly stumbled upon royal treasure. Not only do you become rich, but you are also visited by the mystical conviction that some higher power has looked upon you with the eye of grace and magnanimously elevated you above others, electing you its favourite.  Many photographs preserve the moment when the first oil spurts from the well: people jumping for joy, falling into each other’s arms, weeping.  Oil creates the illusion of a completely changed life, life without work, life for free. Oil is a resource that anaesthetises thought, blurs vision, corrupts.  People from poor countries go around thinking: God, if only we had oil!  The concept of oil expresses perfectly the eternal human dream of wealth achieved through lucky accident, through a kiss of fortune and not by sweat, anguish, hard work. In this sense oil is a fairy tale and, like every fairy tale, a bit of a lie.  Oil fill us with such arrogance that we begin believing we can easily overcome such unyielding obstacles as time.”  

Ryszard Kapuscinski, Shah of Shahs.