WATCH: Robert Newman’s History of Oil
Philip Roddis
The best comedians are the cleverest people on the planet. I’m grateful to a BTL comment on OffGuardian, below a piece of mine on Venezuela, for linking to this forty-five minute video. It has Robert Newman saying exactly what I try to say, but with vastly greater wit and panache, on the history of oil and, more generally, a materialist perspective on history.
Performed in 2006, it could have been yesterday given the clueless way we insist on viewing each “pro-democracy” intervention – Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Venezuela – on a case by case basis.
Given too the criminal way ‘our’ media ignore the material drivers of war. In both my two posts this week on Venezuela, I described corporate media as having “abdicated a core duty in their refusal to explore motives that cast a very different light on Western interventions sold to us as humanitarian”.
Newman treads the same ground but here too – damn the man – he does it better.
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Wonderful thank you,
I had no idea that WW1 started in Iraq but i was always thought the official reasoning was plainly ridiculous.
Kerry, that info comes from “A Century of War” by William Engdahl, a real eye opener. The British Army’s first task of WW1 was to secure the oilfields of Mesopotamia for “Dear Lord Rothschild”. It’s final task of WW1 was to secure Palestine as A National Home for the same “Dear Lord” of the infamous Balfour regime, under which “six million men were mobilised, and of those just over 700,000 were killed” until those 2 objectives of Balfour’s “Dear Lord” had been achieved. That war continues to this day. “I never knew a war my sons did not like”. — Mama Rothschild. “The best time to make money is when there is blood on the streets”. — David Rockefeller, another Rothschild puppet. “I care not who runs a country so long as I control the currency”. — Lord Rothschild. Because control of the currency means control of the politicians —… Read more »
By started, you mean the first official action I take it rather than causing it.
Corbett’s recent documentaries on the WW! conspiracy include some new information (to me) – particularly about Hoover routing food through Belgium to prolong the war.
https://www.corbettreport.com/gerry-docherty-on-herbert-hoover-and-world-war-one/
https://www.corbettreport.com/wwi/
Thank you so much for digging this up. I saw it on Channel 4 (UK) back in the day, then once on sale on DVD, then it sank without trace. A brilliant, erudite summary on the subject and a perfect introduction for the potential convert…
If you haven’t watched Corbett’s recent documentaries on oil. I hold them worthy of watching. Note that the energy cartels – which branched into many others – became disproportionately powerful and therefore significantly unchecked and unaccountable to a true governance under the law. Unlike the ‘personality caricatures’ of nation states and their principle actors, a large part of Corporate power operates in the shadows or behind obfuscations, fronting organisations and institutions, targeted PR and of course key networks of influence – ‘by the usual means’. Mercantile endeavour, as plunder or trade – or plunder masking as trade, was the basis of The British Empire – I was going to say ‘and any Empire’ – but perhaps there are exceptions. One could suggest it was the basis of the nation state – where does one find a ‘line’? Possession defends against being dispossessed. Possession of private property writ corporate requires defence… Read more »
There’s enough oil in the Orinoco Belt to supply the world for thirty years, at current rates of consumption. Hooray!!! We don’t have to worry about the collapse of industrial society (just yet)! Hooray!!! Hooray!!! In that time: there will be no economic boost at all – that’s not at all – and all available profit will be distributed (first come first served) to the Carbon Aristocracy …who will invest it in themselves …and in more wars to conquer the Arctic. That doesn’t sound too good. That can’t be right – oil means prosperity, right? Wrong. Oil oppresses us all. Oil means prosperity only to a rarified supranational superstrata – the Carbon Elite. What do we get in return? The law of diminishing returns: and the externalised bill = permanent decline in living standards …in order to maintain the standards of the Carbon Elite. No, you’re wrong? I’ve already outlined… Read more »
Newman sets it all out in a marvellously constructed piece that skips effortlessly between comedy, theatre, and education.
I would go as far to say that Rob squeezes more geopolitical insight into those magical 45minutes than the Guardian has managed in the last 20 years.
I haven’t come across anything quite like it but would love to hear from Off-G regulars if they have any other recommendations.
Quite brilliant and appropriately hard-hitting. Just a shame that Newman was/is wrong about both ‘peak oil’ (as a global phenomenon) and ‘climate change’. Several oil-producing countries have certainly ‘peaked’ – but Venezuela is not one of them: precisely the reason for the almost unbelievably crude attempt to remove Maduro.
None of which should be taken in any way as an absence of concern about the pollution and other negative effects our addiction to the internal combustion engine as the primary means of locomotion continues to cause. People should if possible (it’s not always possible if alternative transport options are non-existent and city-centre living becomes simply too expensive for most) try to reduce their car usage – but not for the wrong reason.
Peak Oil is not a quantity issue – it’s a quality issue. Apart from the Middle East: every other oil producer has peaked and entered decline. Russia, I believe, is on the cusp. Without checking, I expect that Venezuela did peak in 2002 – as stated. Rob clearly referenced “declining net energy” – without actually referencing Energy Returned On (Energy) Investment (EROI: EROEI – there is a difference, but it’s academic). The difference between the two (calculated by the cost of the oil divided by GDP – expressed as a ratio) determines the amount of energy available for society. I’ve been researching the Orinoco Belt extra heavy crude: but can’t find a direct reference for it’s EROI. However, it’s sulphorous bitumen and likely to be in the 4:1 to 3:1 range of other bitumens and shales (unconventional oil: 4.5:1 is the ratio given foor Canadian tar in the report below).… Read more »
Hi BigB The transition away was compromised by the advent of shale oil in the US. This had a number of effects. Before the GFC and before Shale Oil, peak oil looked on the cards and you could tell the US took it seriously because it dictated the necessity for the invasion of Iraq and the 6 other countries on General Wesley Clarke’s infamous list to be conquered in 5 years. The discovery of shale oil obviously changed the timetable for those regime changes as the US began to see itself as oil independent once again. In many ways the opportunities for regime change in Libya and Syria kind of fell into the Neocon’s laps as a side effect of the GFC. QE and numerous other economic forces coupled with droughts and environmental problems in key agricultural areas around the world led to high increase in prices in staples such… Read more »
Peak Oil happened in 2005/6 exactly as predicted.
Peak Oil never referred to the total amount of oil only to the peak production of conventional oil.
The production of Conventional Oil that is relatively easy and cheap to produce has peaked.
Now we have more spend more to produce oil, there are smaller fields and less new quality discoveries in relation to consumption and cost of extraction and we have fracking etc. which does not make money but costs money to produce.
The non-dodgeable physics of EROEI* realities insist that despite everything that’s happened since, the world’s oil production did in fact peak in ’05, though at that time only in SLEG: sweet, light, easy-get crude. Since then SLEG production has bumpy-plateau-ed – but it hasn’t increased. Nor has the aggregate, planet-wide energy-density of all the various stuffs which are now bundled together under the deceptive single syllable of ‘oil’. That – the mean energy density – has declined. Yes, there are more barrels per year being raised – temporarily – since ’05, but barrels of what; with what mean energy density; and with what absolutely-critical mean EROEI? Why has net, aggregate global economicgrowthforever (honestly reckoned; crucial proviso!) virtually ceased in the intervening decade-plus since ’05… Remember that all economic activity depends absolutely on energy available in the right form (electricity is often not – and never will be – the right… Read more »
Well I’m a sucker for the idea it (peak oil) was a psyop. And it served its purpose, while there are always new ways to keep the show on the road. Perhaps the way I look at things is their leverage value in serving private agenda. Peak population is another one. And Peak CO2. Do you remember Peak horses? But then the automobile came through. Maybe the prayer groups around the issue were a PR stunt to prepare the ground for a new market. Hadn’t thought that but it isn’t impossible. You could say people are addicted to drama and others are opportunistic to feed it to them. So dram is also a sleight of mind in diversion while something else is being rolled out. Cartel monopolies control their market. With a Global system. Self protection is built in to anything we have bought into. All the costs of extraction… Read more »
“Every jest is an earnest in the womb of time”. — John Bull’s Other Island THE VETO: EXPOSING THE MANUFACTURING OF CONSENT FOR WAR AGAINST SYRIA Vanessa Beeley: “This is a trailer for the film The Veto: “During 2018 I was honoured and privileged to work on an investigative film that will expose the propaganda war waged against Syria since the beginning of the conflict. The fabrication was probably most effective and powerful in Baba Amr, Homs I entered Baba Amr in January 2018 with extraordinary journalist and documentary maker Rafiq Lutf and so began our journey to review the events that “manufactured consent” for the “dirty war” against Syria…tracking the evolution from 2011 until today when much of the propaganda is produced by the NATO-member-state financed and promoted #WhiteHelmets – Al Qaeda’s auxiliary in Syria. The film will be released in Europe on YouTube channels and if any media… Read more »
I think OffGuardian and the alternative blogosphere hold in their hands the ability to shake MSM by the scruff of its neck. I think this is ONE of those unique videos that should be on the front page of every alternative media outlet, like RT, Wikileaks, TheCanary……… I was brought up on a diet of Georgre Carlin, Mark Thomas, Robert Newman and my particular favourite, Aaron Russo (Mad as Hell). These people have been ‘Canary in the Goldmine’, societies cancer alarm and no one really takes note. Why and how, have will still not managed to laddle off the scum that frequently rises to the top in our societies? As we endure another ‘smash and grab’, sorry the Exportation of Democracy from the biggest Rogue State, SpartUSA, I can’t help feeling that now would be a time to see if the Butterfly Effect could be replicated digitally. I think its… Read more »
Good idea. In the past there was a movement to express discontent with the established order by simple gestures, like putting postage stamps on envelopes upside down. Or wearing some item of clothing. The Regime Change Brigade, Soros etc. exploited this with things like trying to incite unrest in Hong Kong with people carrying umbrellas.
One of the ways to disempower your ‘enemy’ is the claim their ‘territory’. I think the yellow vest is a rare reciprocal gesture of a legal requirement (in car for event of breakdown) as repurposed backwash. If enough whacko’s can be associated with a legitimate protest against denied responsibility – then feed them or makes some. Its all about blocking communication and therefore shutting down or degrading consciousness. If you can no longer hide secrets and lies then make blind, deaf or dumb by multiple vectors. But this works both ways and I choose to take responsibility for my experience – and so I have to own what is then with me. Temporary victories educate the ‘enemy’ as to how to better trap you in future. The idea similar to a work to rule – may have merit. But the anger has to transform to resolve that aligns in integrity… Read more »
Superb
Yeah. This is absolutely amazing!
Here’s another two and a half hours for you Philip. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zaLQA_p4jE4#dialog