I Am Consumer

SANDRA BULLOCK HERE WITH A ZOMBIE

I have always been a big fan of the apocalyptic/post apocalyptic movie.  It really kicked in when I watched the movie 28 Days Later (not to be confused with Sandra Bullock’s 28 Days) where zombies go from passive/aggressive brain thirsty to all out aggressive super zombie.  We are in an era of ultra disaster movies where humans have little time to react to the problem and then have to wake up in a new reality.  As the tagline for 28 Days Later says,

“Be Thankful For Everything, For Soon There Will Be Nothing.”

ZOMBIES JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND

If it were up to me, Will Smith would only be allowed to do apocalyptic/disaster/zombie/boxer movies.  To set the stage for I Am Legend, our technology has eradicated cancer by modifying the measles.  In doing so, we no longer have cancer, but we shun the light and want to eat the virus resistant humans.  Robert Neville (Will Smith) appears to be the only human left alive and still resistant to the cancer killing measles.  In one fateful suicide mission, he is saved by a woman and a boy who say they are on a mission from God and they are looking for him.  As they sit at his dinner table realizing he is a beaten man, they exchange these words:

CARLTON, HILARY, THE WHOLE BANKS FAMILY....DEAD! JAZZY JEFF IS A ZOMBIE.

.

• Anna: The world is quieter now. We just have to listen. If we listen, we can hear God’s plan.
• Neville: God’s plan?
• Anna: Yeah.
• Neville: ……..Every single person that you or I have ever known is dead! DEAD! THERE IS NO GOD!

.

This is definitely not the first, nor will it be the last, movie to warn us of our ability to create our own apocalypse at the hand of our own advanced technology.

IT'S NOT A TUMOR

In 1984, The Terminator caused us to pause and wonder:

WHAT WOULD OUR WORLD LOOK LIKE IF OUR TECHNOLOGY HAD SURPASSED OUR ABILITY TO CONTROL IT?

We have always been susceptible to the forces of nature, but never has our ability to destroy ourselves been greater.  It hit me at nine years old with an Austrian accented, “I’ll be back,”  and again earlier this year that our drilling technology has surpassed our capping abilities.  I can explain it by this simple equation:

Moore’s Law (computing power doubles every 18 months)+Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong, will) = plotline to every Hollywood man made disaster movie

With the number of infomercials in the past 20 years done in British accents, we obviously trust our friends across the pond, especially when the product has Euro styling.

They (British Petroleum)  sold us several oil spill capping methods that sounded more like Stephen Stegal Movies:

• Top Kill
• Junk Shot
• Saw and Cap
• Top Kill II (coming soon).

YOU NOW HAVE TWO WAYS TO DONATE!

It became glaringly obvious that the technology/public relations developed in drilling for oil between 8,000 and 30,000 feet below sea level is much more sophisticated than cleaning up the spill at sea level.  I was shocked when I heard that hair was the best cleanup material. It made me do a stock inventory of all of those technical disasters that have peppered my 35 year existence.  From the major disasters of Bhopal and Chernobyl to the more current issues with Toyota’s brakes and the I-phone 4 dropping calls.  We humans have officially put the technical cart before the horse.

Just like every NASA disaster, the American public will need someone to blame.  When I think of what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico, I feel that I can only blame myself.  Most everything about my life can be encompassed by one word:  CONSUMPTION.

I take advantage of every technological advance of the 21st century.  As I do this, I have lost sight of the risks and safety implications of our progress.  On a recent family road trip, I was in the middle of Indiana’s Hoosier Forest waiting for a gas pump to become available.  As I watched a man click the pump for maximum flow, he left his car while his wife got out and stretched her legs.  Not more than 15 feet away stood a man smoking.  The car was obviously full and gas began to overflow.

I ALMOST DIED LIKE THIS IN INDIANA

The woman in mid stretch runs to her car and pulls out the handle and starts an arc of petrol all over her car and the surrounding pumps.  What began as a scene from Zoolander just about ended in disaster.  I can’t tell you how many times I have locked the gas handle in my car and walked away trusting the overflow mechanism built into gas pumps.  I wasn’t even aware those could fail. It has fundamentally changed my gas station habits.

After realizing how scary two gallons of a gasoline spill can be at a gas station, I can’t even wrap my head around the estimated 218,000,000 gallons of crude oil spilled in the gulf with over 167,000,000 gallons unaccounted for.

At the conclusion of I Am Legend, Robert Neville comes to the realization that the only way the anticdote and the other two survivors get out alive is if  he makes the ultimate sacrifice.  He must sacrifice self for the sake of others.  This is the point where he is open to suggestion.  One “sign” of a butterfly in cracked glass leads from memories of his daughter to a  tattoo on a zombie.  This is the point in which he knows what God has prepared him to do.

• • Neville: I think this is why you’re here. [Places vial containing the KV antidote into Anna’s hand as he prepares to face the “dark seekers.”]
  • Anna: What are you doing?
  • Neville: I’m listening. [Referring to God’s plan]

I pray that as the finger pointing in our own real life disaster quiets down, we can realize that God is asking us to be better stewards of the planet.  I pray to be thankful for those technological advances that we have been blessed with, but understand that everything designed to make my life more comfortable and easy comes with risk.  I pray that when Murphy’s Law does strike, we spend more time listening to what God is trying to tell us rather than affixing the blame.

,

Brian

The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.  Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. Leviticus 25:23 (NIV)

---