ARTANDENERGYBARRYLORD

All life depends on energy, including all human life. Accordingly, all human cultures are dependent on the energy sources that make them possible. We access other energy sources because we need additional sources of energy to make our cultures possible. But each energy source requires us to accept certain values in order to access it - to prioritize some values while suppressing others. These values become basic values of the cultures that are dependent on those energy sources. Because these values are so fundamental, they affect how we see ourselves and how others see us... This thesis is well known about coal and the industrial revolution: whereas people had previously been either peasants or serfs or landholders or someone serving either group, coal and manufacturing made us see everyone in relation to the production process. The coal-based culture of production brought a work ethic, a disciplined work force and class consciousness with it; the need for a self-disciplined..