The Oil of Death

17 January 2001

The phone rang, after I picked it up, I heard a voice on the other end of the receiver say, "Jerry?" I responded in the affirmative, "This is Bobo, please hold for Yogi."

Yogi? After a brief pause, a new voice was heard in the receiver. "Jerry, this is not your average bear, Yogi. How's things going. Sorry, I didn't make it for your cartoon piece last week. But I understand you plumb forgot about Mighty Mouse too. But I guess he kind of saved the day, after he arrived you had something to finish off the piece, when you ran out of gas on your own, a week ago Saturday. Mighty sent me a copy of your message, just as I am not your average bear, Mighty is not your average mouse. I decided to give you an interview for your column this week. I have some things I want to say about this country and this world and you are about the only guy I know who will listen to a cartoon bear and share my wonderful insights with real people.

"He (Mighty Mouse) and I got to talking about what you had to say about the seeds of destruction sown by America these last 20 years. I would like to give you my input, because I am a very wise and learned bear, and a good student of history also. I don't call myself smarter than the average bear, just to toot my own horn. Though some would say that is the case. We cartoon bears, as well as other cartoon characters just reflect the way we were designed, and carry out our mission with zeal. We all serve the greater good of the cartoon world as we were designed to do. Even those few bad guys. Its sort of like wrestling, its all for the show, but after the show we are all the best of friends, Our life's a stage and we all have a part to play. See it is just not any bear that can quote Shakespeare.

"The problem I have with America in this twenty first century, is that Americans, well for that matter most of the people of the earth, live a lie, and call it reality. And the true reality, they call myth, fable, and parable. Like this conversation we are having now. Actually, what I am telling you. You're doing great Jerry, just shut up and listen. People today just don't know the difference. That just goes to prove that: Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil, with the proud. That of course is the verses you quoted last week, lest you forgot. Proverbs 16:18,19.

"My point this week is to preach about the Oil of Death. Yes, Yogi Bear, sometimes is a preacher. The oil of death is what keeps, this whole sinful charade going. I'll bet you never stopped to think about it in that way before. While I continue to jabber away, think about this. The modern world is build on the oil of death. Dead mice, and dogs, and people, birds and trees and yes even a few not so smart bears. How else do you think I got to be so smart. What I am talking about of course is the death and destruction that took place after the first time that the Lord brought the animals together, to go into Noah's Ark. My bear ancestors didn't understand it at the time. Life was so cool on the earth then, except for men and women. They were literally evil and corrupt. It was so bad that even a few of the bears were of no redeeming social value.

"My hallowed ancestor Yogi Bear, the First, was on that Ark. Along with his wife. They were called by God to enter that Ark good old Noah had built. Once all the animals were in the ship, God closed the door of the ark and then it began to storm, like never it had before, nor since. It is all covered in the Bible in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 6-10. Most modern people consider especially that part of the Good Book, just subjects to be cartoon stories. But my very great grandfather Yogi, didn't consider it a story, he was there, and it was not all that much fun. As we say now the whole trip was the pits. The storm lasted forty days and nights, the best days were awful. Take the worst rainy day in Seattle and multiply it by infinity, and that storm would be like a BB rolling around inside a basketball. That was how bad the flood was. When it was all over, all life except for those on the Ark were buried under many feet to many miles of sediment and mucky ooze. From that burial, we have now our fossil fuels, coal, oil, and natural gas. It is truly the Oil of death that fuels our present economy. That is sure no way to build a lasting civilization. It in many ways is no better, perhaps worse, than the oil of its cultural roots.

Now let me say a few words about how that oil of death is going to effect the American culture for the next few years. George W. Bush is an oil man of sorts, and he understands to a certain degree how important energy is to the economy. But to a certain extent, because of his oily roots, it will be quite difficult to divorce himself from his oily friends. To put is simply, in the world, oil is power, oil is money, oil is commerce, oil is the life of the economy, or the lack of oil, is its death.

"Economists consider energy to just be a commodity which can be exchanged for monetary capital. But they like all who spend too much time in the cartoon world don't realize, that energy is the true capital of the world, the world runs on energy, and some of that is converted to money and other products, like plastics and other cool stuff. What is going to send America into recession or worse, is that the price of energy required to support the developed infrastructure is now too high. Therefore, something has too give and that is going to be some other areas of the economy, like jobs, stuff to buy, and stuff to trade. I am not a free trader, even though I would like everyone in the world to know about Yogi Bear and his sidekick Bobo. We can be transported about by computer bits and bytes and made real. But shoes and shirts, TVs and camcorders, wheat and pineapples, must be moved by ships, trucks, trains and planes, they all run on the oil of death.

"Of course much of the bits and bytes that fuel the so called new economy are also generated by fossil fuels. Once you get a real widget produced and moved from where it is made to where it is consumed, the energy bills are pretty much paid. With virtual reality, including, a lot of the present day natural economy like banking, communications and the like are nothing more than energy pulses, 0's and +'s that must be maintained or at least accessed by electricity or some form of the electromagnetic spectrum. If these virtual components of the economy cease to function. The whole economy is dead. You see it is all about the Oil of Death. We have sown seeds in the ground of ancient corruption, and may will one day wonder, like viewing a real cartoon, why everything has run out of gas. Then the quotation from Revelation 6:6 will be understood by all who can read: 'A quart of wheat for a denarious, and three quarts of barley for a denarious, and do not harm the oil and the wine.' For in that day it will be understood oil and wine will be what keeps the bread on the table, and drunkenness the reason for life.

"George W. Bush when he takes over will push for a tax cut, and to a certain extent that may ease or slow the speed of the seed planted and fertilized with the oil of death. For much in the actual planting and fertilizing are forms of abuse of oil, this even restricts true wealth from the soil in exchange for cash crops. One thing Bush can do is develop an energy policy that is not as dependent on foreign oil. That of course is only a short term solution, for the oil of death will eventually bring disease and death to all of man's culture and commerce. Just as in his relationship with the Middle East, which shall exacerbate the energy problems, W. must reach beyond the conventional wisdom of his advisors and the world as a whole. On both fronts he can or will set the course of America for many years too come. The ecological energetics of society is undergoing a shift. To the extent that this shift is understood by those in leadership and throughout society, this wisdom will determine the comfort of our lives and perhaps our future. For to continue the current path, will shorty led to a collapse of society, beyond the parameters of which most are not wise nor learned enough to handle.

"As you now understand Jerry, this is the reason Yogi Bear is known as not just an average bear. It was a pleasure now telling you how I think, Weren't you blessed by me granting this rare interview. Now Jerry, say good-bye to Bobo.

"Thanks for the call, you sure made this week's message easy. Good-bye for now, and God bless you both, Yogi and Bobo.

Seeds for Prayer

For those of you who have not been with this message from the beginning, the Chronicles of Diversity began with the concept of a ship (Diversity) traveling around the world doing acts of charity in the broad sense. The main reason for not going ahead with this concept was the price (or waste) of energy required to maintain that infrastructure. Over time I have come to believe that the only satisfactory way to accomplish this, is with a sailing vessel. That has always been in my mind, but until recently my attempts to find such a vessel have proved fruitless. Last week I did find a sailing ship in Germany that meets all the criteria, that I have determined to be important. The neat thing about this ship is that it is part of a viable and profitable company, which could serve as the underlining infrastructure to truly begin the whole Diversity concept. I have been told that there are also interested parties from Austria, the first with the gold takes the prize. If you would like to receive an email post card of the ship as something to pray for please let me know. That card is also available through the home page, following the link of the Sailing Tall Ship Peace, or this direct link: http://home.earthlink.net/~jerrybannon/prefer/peaceicard.html

I have begun to redo the web site and put it on my free space with my ISP account. If you would like to visit and/or make some comments just use the ending with bannon/, or http://www.meyersfalls.com That is a forwarding account until the end of the month. I have been investigating different options about space, it seems as potentially viable options exist from about $1 a month, to $15 a month, and upwards. To a certain extent you get what you pay for, the major question is at this time I am not sure what it is the Lord would want me to do, or redo for the site.

Finances also continue to be quite difficult, but the amount of capital needed to get from here to there continues to decrease, but the total capital seems to be within my understanding of how to get there, including the Peace ship above. It is just that some limited amount of capital will be required from some source to begin the process.