Oblivion becomes the oblivious

AS THE price of oil skyrockets there is evidence that the US is blindly bumbling into superpower oblivion; that the American century is passing before our eyes. An empire built on oil is losing supremacy and, indeed, internal coherence.

The US will remain, but the superpower period is passing, just as did the USSR. There is no wall to fall as there was with the Soviet Empire but the sole superpower can be no more.


No other great power in history became as dependent on one single substance for projection and protection as America on oil – America’s precious bodily fluid.

Abundant, exceedingly affordable petroleum made possible the American automotive and trucking industries, the airline industry, the mechanisation of petrochemical and plastics industries, indeed the rebuilding of the nation around suburbs linked by freeways. The very term is a metaphor for America; a people chained to SUVs drinking petrol at $US4 a gallon. The “freeways” are forever clogged with commuters spending four hours a day and more getting to and from work.

According to the US Department of Energy, the US is importing 13 million barrels of oil a day. At about $US130 per barrel, that’s $US1.7 billion a day.

The Age