When dealing with an addict, interventions almost never seem to work. The addict must want sobriety for themselves if anything is going to be accomplished long-term. For America to recover from Oil addiction, something like this would have to happen.
Step One: Admitted we were powerless over oil and that our lives had become unmanageable. "My name is America, and I'm an Oilaholic. There were many signs that oil consumption had ruined my hopes for my life. I never wanted to destroy ecosystems with spills...but I did. I never wanted to start wars over where my next fix would come from...but I did. Oil is all I know. I am powerless over oil and my life has lost it's meaning."
Step Two: Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could resore us to sanity. "I'm America. I always thought that there was NO power greater than me...until I became a slave to oil. There HAS to be a power greater than me that can restore me to sanity, because all my best efforts have resulted in escalating madness."
Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over the care of God as we understood him. "No problem! In God We Trust...right? It's right there on all of our money. Our money. Oh no. I've made money my God. That's not good. Money didn't make the trees and the sky and the animals and the oceans and the seas and money sure as heck isn't going to get me off oil. Money is my enabler! Money...oil...money...oil. I need a God Of My Understanding. For right now, I'm going to go with God. Heck, I bet God could even teach me how to turn energy from the sun, wind and water into replacements for oil."
Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. "Oh no. That sounds painful. I guess we could start with pre-oil stuff like Native-American genocides and de-forestation of most of the Northeast and Northcentral continent. Slavery. But that...I mean...everyone was doing it, y'know. I guess things really started to get bad with the Industrial Revolution. My oil/money addictions killed children in factories, decimated millions of acres of midwestern cropland, billions of gallons of hydrocarbons in the atmoshphere, environmental and economic disasters, turning other nations into dealers & prostitutes just to support my habit, greenhouse gasses oh God. Can I have another sheet of paper?"
Step Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. "I'm America. Most of my sins are public record. Look 'em up. Yeah, I'm being 'combative'...so what of it?...Oh...okay. If I'm going to get better than I have to come clean. Matricide, genocide, infanticide, slavery, property damage and chemical warfare on my own people. Stealing, mutilation, wholesale murder, lieing, graft, human exploitation and corruption. That's just the stuff I can disclose publicly. Damn...how did I turn out to be such a dick?"
Step Six: Were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character. "How in the hell am I suppposed to function without arrogance, wrath, greed, gluttony, lust, envy and sloth? I'm AMERICA! Oh...wait a minute. I remember a time...before greed and oil...when I stood for something humble, something beautiful. That all men are created equal...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...a nation by, of and for the people...freedom of religion. I can be that country again.
Step Seven: Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings. "God. America here. No bargaining. No ultimatums. No demands. Please, I am now willing that you take these defects in my character and, as you see fit, move them out of reach. I no longer wish to solve my problems with arrogance, wrath, greed, gluttony, envy or sloth. I wish to have the virtues of humility, kindness, generosity, moderation, contentment, satisfaction and creativity."
Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. "Ohhhh kay. The list is so long I don't even know most of the people on it. So I'll break it down into groups. Oil workers. Yeah, I gave you jobs...but I also gave you cancer. The auto industry. Again, I gave you jobs...but I also made it hard for you to develop non-oil technologies. Citizens. Oh god...the smog, the bad water, suburbia. Oil tycoons. Yeah, even you. I harmed you by making you into gods. You lived amoral lives beholden to none. Sister nations of the world...to you I set a horrible example of what freedom is all about. Freedom isn't about excess, it's about responsiblity. I am willing to make amends to you all...if it takes another 150 years."
Step Nine: Made direct amends whenever possible except when to do so would injure them or others. "I'm so, so sorry. I am America. I am a collection of individual citizens. For me to make it all up to everyone I've harmed would injure my citizens and their prosperity. I will make amends, if you will let me, by living in recovery. My continued efforts to find alternative energy sources other than oil will eventually make up for the damage I've caused...in about 150 years."
Step Ten: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. "I, America, will open up the doors of every branch of my citizen's government to the continued scrutiny of my citizens. If I keep my pledge to live on virtue and not my character defects, there will be very little of my activities which need to be kept private for reasons of National Security."
Step Eleven: Sought through prayer and meditation to increase our conscious contact with God as we understood him, asking only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out. "I am America, and In God We Trust. I didn't say God Entrusts Us. I didn't say In My God You Must Trust. I didn't say Trust Me, In God. I said IN GOD WE TRUST. Oh, and while I will pray for power, it is for the power to carry out God's Will for us...not mine. There's a difference.
Step Twelve: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we tried to carry this message to Oilaholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. "Take a memo; You are cordially invited to share in a harmonious solution. Free coffee and cookies." Now send it to everyone on the UN mailing list. Now all we have to do is stay clean and set a good example. Wow. I feel better about myself than I have in over a century. I feel like a leader again."
Pretty soon, America would again be that trusted parent, reliable partner and respected community member. America's development would not be arrested, we would develop new technologies to satisfy our energy needs instead of developing technol;ogies for damage-control. Don't get me wrong...withdrawal will suck. Big time. But we'll get through it.
Now all we can do is wait for America to get sick and tired of being sick and tired.
