they took our jobs

We are contained. Our lives, generally speaking, take place within things or between things which are often beyond our control. Despite living in a container, many of us experience a great deal of freedom to move around inside it and do what we will. We even invent new dimensions to move around in, like cyberspace or, more primally, our dreams and imaginations.

We aren't necessarily confined within our container, but getting out is almost inconceivable. Depends how you define the container, of course: there are several. There's the physical world: you need several billion dollars just to get out into orbit... and then what? There are our decrepit old bodies which, admittedly, were a lot more fun when they were nubile and young. Of course there's also the tangled web of our social structure, mitigated by the hundreds or thousands of relationships we have with other people. And then there are all the things to which we've become enslaved in the pursuit of getting away from the other prisons the define our lives.

So, now that you're thoroughly (dis)enfranchised, I wanted to ask if you've heard of EnCana. They're an oil and gas company that operates in the Dawson Creek (ha ha, not Dawson's Creek, you nerd) BC where they've been the subject of several terrorist attacks.

Let me back up a little, though. In October 2008 some of their pipelines got blown up by small charges which were deemed deliberate by the RCMP. Other than saying, "Yep, someone's doing this on purpose," the Mounties have squat. Despite the Integrated National Security enforcement team being tasked with this one, they're dubbing it sabotage, vandalism, or mischeif as defined under the criminal code instead of the big 'T'.

So, that's an interesting distinction: deliberately set explosions, not terrorism. Why? Because there's no sign of any intent to harm anybody. Any leaks have been easily controlled by EnCana, and all the "mischeif" took place in unihabited areas, though there was significant damage to property and infrastructure.

Yesterday, the Dawson Creek Daily News received a hand-written, two-page letter to the editor, alledgedly from the bomber, which makes demands and threatens further action, but after a well-deserved "summer vacation" for all parties involved.

The RCMP have taken the stand that the letter is blackmail against the communities in question, while CSIS is looking into the possible political motives in an effort to protect Canada's critical infrastructure.

I know what you're thinking (or at least what you should be) and no, when they say "critical infrastructure" they're not talking about our eco-systems... they mean oil & gas infrastructure. But the talking heads of national security policy never really come out and say they that is because then they'd have to admit that they don't really think of ecology as valuable or critical even though it's the only thing that makes life possible in this little container that just gets smaller and smaller every day.

So yes, of course blowing up pipelines is politically motivated. Everything is. You're grocery list is politically motivated, but you just don't think about it because the politics of the grapefruit from South Africa you bought don't enter into the decision. If you or I can get grapefruit out of season at $1.29/lb who cares, right?

Well, somebody in South Africa might. And to them, if you're supporting a system that perpetuates unfair wages, living conditions, and a heritage of racial oppression (for example), then you or I might be implicit in doing harm even if we just want some cheap, sour citrus in July.

The RCMP, CSIS, EnCana, the Government of Canada: these folks are all implicit in the successful operation of oil & gas mining in what was once pristine (or as near as it gets) wilderness in one of the last places where it exists in abundance. EnCana does it for profit. The government lets it happen for the employment and subsequent tax revenue. RCMP and CSIS do their best to keep the bombers at bay so the rest of us can carry on as usual. Their position is firmly rooted on the bottom line of a financial container in which the value of the natural doesn't figure because it doesn't fit on their spreadsheet.

The problem though is, as I mentioned, the container---economic, ecological, whatever---is getting smaller (well, actually there are just more of us in it).

So there's less and less to go around. Less oil & gas, for sure. Even though there's more oil being produced than ever before, we're consuming it at such a rate that the demand increases at a greater rate than the production. We've reached (Thomas Homer-Dixon will tell you this) the point of peak oil production which means oil prices will only get higher as demand goes up and supplies run lower and lower (and what's left gets more expensive to process).

It's big business, which means jobs jobs jobs!

Pity there's an inverse relationship between the amount of new oil production sites and unspoiled eco-systems in the world. Like I said, we live in a container and all that spent fuel goes somewhere, but it stays inside the container. And it's hazardous for your health, don't ya know. Of course you do. So do the oil folks. And the government. And the RCMP and CSIS. And yet, none of them are stopping it. In fact, they're very interested in keeping it going. IN FACT, they're VERY interested it doing even more of it.

But, there's at least one guy (or gal) out there who's taking a stand and hand-writing letters and setting off dynamite and stirring the pot and doing their best not to hurt anyone in the process (even though I can't say the same for EnCana, who wouldn't do anything illegal, no, but there's plenty harm you can do to people before anyone, even the RCMP, will call you a terrorist). This particular vigilante is someone who's breaking out of one of their containers probably because they recognize that a much bigger container, one they can't get out of, is getting crowded and kinda hazy.