The lubricant of history, and world politics
By: Angel Ontiveros Cabrera
The journey to the underworld begins in oil wells rotting in the Sun and following the venous path of its pipelines- flows into the desert, where monotheism meets the Earth and its dark dreams of a future in which it can finally rebel against the l Sun. Reza Negarestani
There’s something impressive about what’s hiding in the depths. Huge deposits, almost like underground seas. Yes, in the darkness the humans have sought out themselfs, and we are digging more and more to find the fuel that has been so central to the progress of modern civilization. But what do we take out of the subsoil? What’s that black, poisonous, smelly liquid? There are the smal stories that are not listed in the universal history, whose historical totalitarianism decides what story is told, what history does not! Anyway,”Scientists say we’re made of atoms, but a little bird told me we’re made of stories, ” as Galeano would say.
Let’s start with a story that can be told in parts, and that deals with Whales, Steam Engines, The British Navy, and The Oil. This is the progression behind modern oil history. First, I’d like to make a clarification because it’s interesting when you tell stories of the story. As a story is told of something that historically happened, a certain selection is made from a certain perspective with a certain purpose, so it is quite easy to build a coherent story. Although this is what of course, historians dispute: How consistent is the story we tell the story of what really happened? It doesn’t necessarily sound difficult, we just have to find out what certainly happened, and so we’ll know if the story is true or not, but unfortunately it’s not that simple, because what happened in itself is debatable, because the fact that an event has happened doesn’t necessarily mean that all have understood it in the same way, and that it can only be found to have happened and then murmur ahha, and now what?… Therefore, it is the meaning attributed to the facts when they are given, that is what has historical significance. But, even that’s not enough, because then, the meaning that historically one generation gives it, another generation continues to attribute new things, history keeps changing in some way, maybe the event itself is not changeable, but the meaning itself changes. I just want to make that clear as a fireball, because that goes for all the stories that are told, including mine, but that doesn’t mean this story lacks substance, although there are many other ways to tell it.
Let’s start this story with whales. When European immigrants arrived in America in the 16th century, they did it before, but this story begins in the 16th century in New England. It turns out that the Indians there used to boil the whale fat that was very useful for everything from lighting to the lubrication of various tools. The Europeans seeing that expressed a Waaoo!! That’s really good! It was a special whale, also known as sperm whale. And to sum up this long history, from the beginning of the seventeenth century until the end of the twentieth century, there was a real Cachalote hunting industry whose main objective was to rescue two products, partly the oil and raw material for the corsets, for the beautiful ladies of the time, who created a great demand at that time. In the head of a sperm whale there is a substance called spermaceti, this pure substance is a fantastic raw material for the manufacture of candles, with a clear light that does not drip, a light like a burning white spoon[1]. A great demand for these candles arose, as the demand for good lighting increased enormously with modern development, and all reading, accounting and other alacrities, such as the economy, were wanted to work in good light even in the evenings, so the demand for candles grew in a colossal way. Spermceti light became a kind of quality standard about what a good light should look like, even after the manufacture of the former, it was the light of the spermceti that was used as a norm because it was a good light. Spermceti was quite expensive, so not everyone could afford it and, of course, it could not be produced in large quantities. But it was discovered a byproduct of spermceti that was something they called “whale oil” in English, we can call it aceite de ballena. And this whale oil was produced in much larger quantities, and you could also get good light from it, not as good as the light of pure spermaceti, besides it had a pleasant aroma. The good thing about this oil (from an economic perspective), it was not necessary to convert it into a candle as the case of spermceti that was only transported as a sail, but the other oil could be transported as such, and the oil could be extracted directly onthe ships that marketed this production in a great way. When this trade peaked, there were hundreds of whaling boats at sea for the sole purpose of catching whales to obtain such oil. This oil then illuminated the streets of cities such as London in the early 1800s. It became a great product, but it was also surrounded by some problems, in part there were not so many whales, and although spermaceti was more expensive, whale oil was not cheap enough.
In the mid-18th century, an oil product called kerosene was invented. Kerosene had about the same properties as this whale oil and was much cheaper. Arguably, at the beginning of this period Europe was illuminated by whale oil, this is also the case when we have enlightenment, as a historical period. Actually, whales may be the ones to be thanked for the lighting, even if this period has more to do with social change or interior lighting. Quickly, kerosene replaced as a light source, this change was very fast since the lamps did not have to be technically modified, the same lamp could be used, it was enough to replace a single component and be able to recycle it. This change from whale oil to kerosene was very expeditious (in terms of lighting). In parallel to this, at the end of the eighteenth century, diesel and gasoline engines also developed, increasing the demand for oil. From the perspective of the whales, it can be said that kerosene became their salvation, since their number was substantially reduced and is currently designated as a vulnerable species. Kerosene was also used as fuel by aircraft engines and other engines. Simultaneously to all this, maritime transport changes radically as sailing boats move from sailing boats to machinepowered ships, and the new element for this is the coal-based steam engine. Commercial fleets and military fleets were hastily built, of course, so did Britain with its merchant fleet and military fleet. England was the dominant superpower in the world, given to its great heyday, Oil was not yet of much importance, but coal, which favored this country economically and politically because Britain had its own coal that it could exploit, it did not depend on any foreign country in that sense. The development and improvement of steam engines also become the basis of the advancement of the railway infrastructure. Britain was happy at the time as a maritime superpower, both commercial and military, had as much coal as possible and could operate their ships around the world.
It can therefore be said that becaming political decisions in the future would have a real impact on world history. Inside the British fleet were some leaders who proposed reinstalling the engines on all vessels in the fleet, from coal-powered machines to oil-powered engines. The reason for this was said, that oil-powered vessels were going faster, had a wider range of action, they could load oil even into the sea, or near enemy territories, it would no longer depend on the coal of the ports. According to these reviews there were many more benefits to using oil instead of coal. But it was criticized by those who said that England had no oil, that Britain then had to buy it from the Middle East, so they felt that they could become dependent on distant countries that had oil. By then it was known that oil wells existed in the Middle East, the US had a little, only that it was not yet known that oil could be used for other things rather than for lighters. Now, returning to the British fleet, and to the debate over whether they were beginning to use oil instead of coal-sea military vessels. The decision was made by Winston Churchill, who became the navy’s senior commander in the early 1900s, he was “The First Lord of the Admiralty, as they called it in English.” The British began to note that Germany was becoming economically strong and also willing to expand territorially. The British empire felt threatened then some thought that the war between themselves and the Germans might be inevitable, hence in some circles, the first war was not a surprise, so to speak. The British began to prepare for this eventuality, and one of these preparations was precisely to switch to oil vessels, the supply of this element was in an excellent way, thus becoming an almost total decisive power in the First World War, when the U.S. They joined the war after a few years, so did their oil resources automatically, to which the Germans responded by wanting to sink as many ships as possible with their submarines that began to be built in that period, as a attempt to break with the asymmetry in terms of oil vessels. This is how many after World War I realized that oil was one of the most important strategic resources in the world, at the military level, therefore, everything that is an important military strategic resource, is also an important economic recourse. This way, basically, the military is behind economic development. This is something that is almost denied, erasing itself from the progressive way of writing the general story, that is, how incredibly important the role of military decisions and strategies for economic development has been. Here we have simplified and shortened a lot, but we still remained true to the story. This is another way to tell a story within the universal history, to explain why the world looks today as it looks, and that this has to do with the strategic role of oil.
One problem for European states was that they had no oil there, except in Romania, and Russia, the fate made that in Europe there were no large oil fields, at least not the highest quality oil and more accessible when compared to oil in the Middle Orient. Since then, virtually everything related to political – military conflicts in the Middle East is oil-related, in the strategic sense. After the end of the first world war, the Ottoman Empire disappears, and the entire Middle East becomes British. The British were the first to take advantage of the oil race in that region. There are some historians who mention this period as “the first Cold War,”and it was above all a commercial and state struggle for oil between the United States and the British, from which Britain emerged victorious. Subsequently, after many comings and goings, American interests end up repositioning themselves in the Middle East and thus lay the foundations of the new empire or American rule, just as we still know it. So, the root of American global domination is based on this period. Here should be mentioned a special American peculiarity, which is particularly interesting, namely that the British side of the battle for oil was controlled by the state, the BP (British Petroleum) was state-owned while on the side of the USA the private sector was always skeptical of the state. These commercial interests (which did not want to ally with the state or politicians) were the ones that fueled their own struggle, and they did so in this battle for oil assets. It was the big oil companies that drove everything in the Middle East, thus becoming, in practice, political and diplomatic actors, although they only dealt with their own business interests because the U.S. government didn’t want to get involved in this. All of this (to summarize) is an important background to why America’s commercial oil interests have such incredible political influence in that country’s state, without them the U.S. would not have achieved their imperialist position. Such companies continue to have a great influence, suffice to know that recent Us presidents, such as the Bush family, have their wealth based on oil. You might wonder here, why is oil so important? Is it because it’s so easy to exploit, so easy to transport and that it contains so much energy? And of course, oil has an extreme quality that is not easy to find an alternative to compete with it. However, in recent times, most high-quality oil assets have already been exploited, hence they are beginning to look for significantly lower quality oil, such as tar, sand, etc., to continue to meet the demand of the World market. Most high-quality oil is found in the Middle East and Venezuela.
Another thing that is good to know to better understand political opportunities. Oil extraction is often carried out in inaccessible places, very isolated from cities and people, are heavily guarded, only seen in the distance as illuminated islands in the desert. Pumping lines, for example, from Iraq to the Mediterranean, basically traverse wasteland all the way. The same is true of ports and refineries that are often isolated, which require very little staff unlike coal mining, where mining requires a lot of labor. All that has to do with coal extraction and transport is very labour-intensive, so it is no coincidence that coal unions have had a great political influence in countries where it was being exploited, not least in the UK. All the apparatus and logistics around the oil has a completely different physical character, which does not make it politically vulnerable, making the oil economy politically inaccessible to democratic forces compared to the coal economy. In this context, it can be said that so many political actions continue unlucky, you can argue, demonstrate, shake infinitely against them, but nothing happens.
The real blood circulation (pumping tubes) is not seen, it is hidden, think how often you see this infrastructure when walking for example in a city, traveling by car or train, it is not visible! You can hardly see any tank, or gas station. This central economic – political component, and its surrounding apparatus is hidden, not only physically. And this leaves much to think about democratic forces being able to directly affect various types of energy such as coal or oil through active measures. This is still relevant in times of climate crisis in which oil plays an important role as everyone probably already knows by now, and which is considered one of the biggest, if not the most important, political problems of our time. How are we going to deal with the climate crisis? Very little is about thinking about arguing or writing books about oil infrastructure. in relation to the discussion about the climate crisis, however, discussions are about other things, only peripheral things like consumption, which is at heart, the end of oil infrastructure. Lashing against this is like attacking the symptoms of something, rather than ramming the roots of the problem. In any case, it is quite surprising how the real structure behind what is an important part of the causes of the climate crisis does not take place in climate debates, except when they claim as deniers of the climate crisis in the United States, which are financed by oil companies, which is a truth and are therefore aligned with political interests. In this way, the oil magnates (tycoons) emerge, but, and the apparatus itself, which is more concrete than carbon dioxide?
Historically, modernity has needed huge amounts of energy, in which it resums up modernity, suddenly civilization had access to a source of energy that is so powerful and accessible all over the world, that there seemed to be in infinite quantities, and can be used for so many different things, from a small kerosene lamp to aircraft propulsion, and the manufacture of plastics that come from oil (at least the cheapest comes from that source). Plastic is a magical material that can be used for most things, pity that all this has a price. What a joy people must have felt in the early 19th century, everything people had dreamed of for hundreds of years to be able to move, warm up, be deceived. The old punishment when Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden (the existence of paradise is over, now you have to fight to survive), was suddenly abolished by oil, among other things. All this will make the next climate crisis so traumatic, a little like when a big party end. Everything that was associated with economic growth, what a disappointment! Despite this, humanity must start arguing again, how to build a new world, and how do we want it? That in the end, the old illusion to finish, which was not sustainable. what does the climate crisis and ecosystem destruction mean? It means that we are subjected directly, literally speaking, increasingly to the unequally distributed consequences around the world. All this from a purely mythological perspective, what is it? Do we build our babel tower too high, or do we dig too deep, as we mentioned at the beginning? We did the forbidden, we have raped Mother Earth in a way that we don’t really understand. There are many myths, which often deal with the pride of the human being. The Cartesian idea that we are disconnected from nature, and also the idea of invulnerability, immortality, although in myths, man falls back to the ground, recognizing his limitation but also his place within the whole, yes, we have a place, but that place is not to be super exploited. We can establish in a cryptic way, how dangerous it was to penetrate the earth, in a civilized way, we have pumped a lot of smelly underground fat that after being used has ended up climbing into the atmosphere.
“All who enter here, leave your hopes upon the gates of Hell.” Dante
I’ve felt repeatedly a kind of devilish feeling throughout this whole story. Like, for example, the lighting of entire cities meant almost the disappearance of a species of whales. Tactical considerations or purely military strategies make oil a completely dominant energy resource, and that these have a lot of civil consequences that we can see. All the riches of modern society, comforts and leisure opportunities have the same foundation, and that base seen from a macro perspective, is military. The oil burning that caused the greatest climate change in many millions of years in earth’s history was so rapid that, even some beginning to talk about a new biological era caused by this, so it is not uncommon to feel that there is something diabolical about this. Amitav Ghosh[2] says that: “the resistance to global warming to be expressed artistically begins in the underground depths, thinks of the words associated with it that is there, naphtha, python, oil. No poet can make these words beautiful, thinks of the very substance of the charcoal and soot it produces, and the dizzying, smelly and disgusting increase for all the senses.” Here we certainly see the hidden, mythical associations that such formulation provokes, and it is so specifically associated with this substance that it is so important and totally central. Another association accompanied by this has an almost mind-boggling way of making visible what (the author above doesn’t see) he doesn’t see. It is a strange book: Cyclonopedia[3], written by an Iranian philosopher, Reza Negarestani, writing in a strange, fascinating, yet profound, analytical, hidden, hallucinatory, mystical conglomerate of strange compilations in this book, he writes: “The journey to the underworld begins in oil wells rotting in the Sun and following the venous path of its pipelines- it flows into the desert, where monotheism meets the Earth and its dark dreams at last it may rebel against the Sun.” And this represents him through a rich range of Babylonian demonology, united by a wealth of political-philosophical analysis. Just writing this: oil is the underground stream of all stories! Is it possible to tell something, to think something, to imagine something that excludes oil today? or are we trapped in this teluric insurrection, in the underground currents, and the distorted inferior regions of the earth that we have pumped and propagated into the atmosphere?
For the old stories, the underworld is the underworld, and it has to exist, we can’t eliminate it, you can even go to the underworld, sometimes some end up there and then have to go out, others have to go through it. It is said that we live in a Faustian world; that man has made an agreement with the powers of darkness. This is the myth of Faust, who tells us very unexpected things about today’s technological development. The figure of Faust is one of the central mythological prints in the West, often used as a kind of code to summarize the liberation of man, and his rebellion against traditions. Nor are we far from the thoughts of the controversial philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on the darkness and light inherent in man. In this context, he becomes a prophet who warns of the great catastrophe that always occurs when we believe that building a sober, rational and sensible community can protect us from the dark forces within us. Think of Orpheus who must dive underground to recover his beloved. The underworld is the underworld, and one could symbolically say what he wants about it, it can also become a psychological image of humans. Then we have the ordinary world and, finally, heaven, at least according to Christian histories, one is brought into the celestial kingdom, and so it is often in stories; many want to rise to the sun, to the light, to the sky. But what is oil really? It’s pumped to the surface, used, and where does it end?… It rises to the sky, first we thought it wasn’t a problem, it was just carbon dioxide, it wasn’t so toxic, and we continue more and more, and in the end the sky has the same substances as the subsoil, that’s the mythological! The underworld is the underworld, but when the underworld is liberated, gasified and ends up in the sky like a giant fungus above our heads, that’s when we start to have problems. It is as if there are different forces; the celestial power, the power of the spirit, the underground counterforce, and the world on the surface, the intermediate axis, which must find some kind of balance between these forces, which means that spiritual power must be considered, otherwise becomes too destructive if the other force is respected, and the other counterpower is literally spreading in the atmosphere, in addition to being in all our senses, and our psych in different ways. It is almost strange how well these mythological figures correspond to real events without having to look for them. In any case, it is obvious when we look at our surroundings today that, imagination, the power of the spirit and the power of dreaming do not have the high course as we would like.
All this “spirituality” has a concrete dimension in time, since our Cartesian dualist relief vision is learning to see that there is connection. In addition, if we think ecologically, the ecosystem and ecology are not abstract theories, ecology is something that happens in every breath you take. We are part of the same ecology as everything we are in contact with, with what surrounds us, with living beings and all nature. Not like any kind of system components, but as real co-breathers in general. When you breathe, you are part of ecology, you exhale oxygen and release carbon dioxide, when you eat something of the environment, when you shit, you return a little to the environment, so everything happens through us constantly. It is important, never to forget the fact that we, literally speaking, are ecology! The environment is not only where you drive the car in the city, ecology doesn’t start there, ecology is here where you are now! That’s why we’re almost psychotically accustomed to disenting this, so it’s so hard for us to think about even a different habit when it comes to climate change, or dependence on oil. We treat everything as if it were something that’s outside, away from us.
Sweden February 2020
Angel Ontiveros Cabrera
[1] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physeter_macrocephalus
[2] Amitav Ghosh: The great derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. 2016
[3] Reza Negarestani: Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonimous Materials. 2008
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