Oil

A geothermal compression of non-fossilized organic matter can, millennia later, lead to and perpetuate wars over controlling the ground that is saturated with it underneath, can stultify national economies (see Venezuela), and become the topic of conversation at G7 Summits where forward thinkers teeming with ideas and legislation concerning ‘green energy’ fly their private jets loaded with jet fuel to discuss how to decrease its usage.  The petrol dispensing company “Sinclair” goes so far as to remind customers with their quintessential dinosaur insignia that they fuel their automobiles with the geochemically altered remains of dead animals and plants.  So, as Russians and Saudis and Americans brace for Trump to lead the world into what has been deemed by pundits as the ‘Anthropocene’ – that is, the geologic era controlled or primarily impacted by human influences, particularly with the burning of hydrocarbons such as oil (all of this, of course, is based on uniformitarian assumptions of geologic history) – pictures of polar bears on shrinking glaciers are sure to abound to compel a certain guilt towards using and burning fossil fuels.  Fuel oil is not the only type of oil that exists, however, though it is perhaps the best if you wish to combust a fire under the hood of your car to get it moving or if wish to blast rock (using ANFO – ammonium nitrate fuel oil) or destroy buildings.  Other types of oil can be used to make food robustly tasteful, such as olive oil or coconut oil, or to make one’s skin smooth and glossy and remove lactic acid reservoirs in the skin.  There are reports of slave traders rubbing olive oil or other types of oil on slaves’ skin at the market as to increase their appeal – a detestable use of a remarkable product.  Perhaps you are a whaler several centuries ago who discovers you can use the oil from the blubber of whales to light lamps efficiently and, voila, you have a highly marketable and monopoly-prone product.  Or maybe, just maybe, you recognize the complex organic compounds that comprise various types of oil are good gifts, not to be exploited, but used wisely, whether enlivening your dinner or moving and lubricating your car’s engine, or maybe even a noble endeavor such as anointing a king, like when Samuel did such to King David.  So, even ignoble and ordinary things can be used for noble purposes.  Even hay trampled and defecated on by animals can hold a king.