Of “Oil Goggles” and the veil drawn back. Proust etc

I just put up a post on “All Our Yesterdays” about beer goggles and “oil goggles.”

A few things

a) a good friend pointed to the wording that would allow people to reasonably infer sexism/misogyny (I used the term “arm-chewer” – I had worded things to be equal opportunity offensive, but the term itself skews to being derogatory to females only ; I’ve amended the post to include, but wish I’d known the truly equal opportunity term The Wife told me – “double-bagger“.

b) another good friend (I am blessed to have two!) did a cartoon years back that was probably a subconscious prompt for the oil goggles thing. This other good friend is a stone-cold genius. So talented, so lovely (tbf, the first friend is pretty damn amazing too).

c) What I am talking about with “oil goggles” is akin to the “red mist” – when we are angry, we see everything as a threat or potential insult. When we are wearing oil goggles, we see everything as an (easily exploitable) resource, and don’t think about the EROI or any such.

d) And so from “red mist” to “black mist” – it reminds me of Carl Sagan’s testimony to Congress in 1985 when he tried to explain how we see certain parts of the spectrum of light, and insects – for example – see others.

And how if we could “see” carbon dioxide” well, there’s that Rolling Stones song…

e) And if we could see that, the veil would be drawn back, we would see what we are doing (as per that government advert back in the late 2000s). And the “veil is drawn back” in ancient Greek – well, that means apocalypse.

f) Yes, madeleines and Proust and all that malarkey – this is how a rhizomatic brain works, innit?