The Oil Drum

10 comments on First morning of the Conference

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karlof1 on November 11, 2005 - 3:39am

HO's encapsulation and observation that the presentations are well worth the time is seconded. I was most impressed by the "field" man, who didn't talk so much about directional drilling, as such, rather describing what I'll call the "culture" of oil drilling and its demise in the USA, leaving unsaid the implication.

In the evening aftersession, I attended the "film" festival that featured the directors/producers/actors of the growing number of PO related films. It was here that the conference experienced its first glitch as problems with power caused delays that cancelled all but the first Q&A session. However, we did get to see a lot of film. IMO, the Community Solutions production re:Cuba's experience is the best because it provides a direct challenge to our supposed greater ability to cope with and solve problems by peoples long villified by US Imperial policy going back to the "Platt Amendment."

Overall, the conference has more than met my expectations, and we have another day.

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helium3 on November 11, 2005 - 10:29pm

What's the "culture of drilling?"

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karlof1 on November 12, 2005 - 2:07am

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 - 3:13am

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 - 8:51pm

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.