The Oil Drum | First morning of the Conference

10 comments on First morning of the Conference

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karlof1 on November 12, 2005 - 3:07am

The "culture of drilling", from an athropological perspective, consists of a group of people sharing a unique culture revolving around the processes of oil extraction--it has its own language, rituals and rites of passage that transcend national and ethnic lines, which are its fundamental attributes.

I would also say that we "peakniks" have a similar culture, which was quite in evidence at this conference.

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helium3 on November 13, 2005 - 4:13am

Is the culture integral to the maintenance of the technology or is it just that people are unwiling to participate in the culture so the older folks have no one to impart their knowledge to?

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karlof1 on November 13, 2005 - 9:51pm

I don't think "that people are unwiling [sic] to participate" since it's a matter of choices. But I would agree that the issue of cultural continuation looms large as newbies need to be present to be trained by "the older folks," indoctrinated into the culture, as 'twere. And with no one to continue the culture and maintain its language, rituals, monuments, and icons, the culture will die.

For example, the US once had a culture based on self-sufficiency and communitarian values whose cultural attributes fell into disuse and were replaced by our current culture of materialistic consummerism. And like the old folks in the oilpatch, there are still some practitioners of our former culture.

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10 comments on First morning of the Conference

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