Don't just do something, stand there.

Crisis
1. A stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.
2. A condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political or international affairs, leading to a decisive change.
3. A dramatic emotional or circumstantial upheaval in a person’s life.

Gasoline is four dollars a gallon. It’s a real crisis, folks. It must be, because the media tells us it is. End of the world, fire and brimstone stuff. It’s the sort of thing that they make movies and write books about. It’s so bad that we’ve decided to change our way of life and make difficult choices. Or not. Mostly, I’m seeing the “or not” option. We’re loath to change because we feel it’s tantamount to someone telling us what to do and we don’t like that. We like to complain and we’re good at it. “Do something!” we scream to whoever will listen. Generally there isn’t anyone listening, which makes us scream louder.

I haven’t affected any drastic changes. Partly because I don’t feel the need and partly because I don’t know how much difference it makes. One percent here, one percent there - it’s pennies on the dollar. I don't use the air conditioner on my morning drive. Instead, I run the defroster on the cold setting. It keeps me comfortable, since the sun isn't shining at 7am. Beyond that, I'm a conservative driver most of the time, so I'm still doing the same things I was doing when gasoline was a dollar a gallon. I get passed when the light turns green, drivers zoom past me only to move in front of me to use the next highway exit and I still see a large number of people in "drive thru" lanes with their engines idling even though they could speed their trip by parking and going inside.

Our local supermarket proclaims a “fire lane” in front of the store. There’s no parking, but people circumvent the law by staying in their idling vehicles while their lazy counterparts run in for a “few things.” Never mind that there are parking spaces. Those are at least a hundred feet from the store and God forbid our precious fat asses move from an actual parking space to the store. We like convenience and we’ll spend and do what is necessary in order to achieve it.

Unfortunately, that's true of the speedy-lane changing-hard accelerating-hard braking drivers who are the majority. Old habits die hard and I think most people feel they're entitled to be wasteful, as though it were some sort of American birthright. They'd rather complain than change, because in order to change you have to want to change.

They also want to complain. Complaining is more fun, and we’re all about fun.