RANT: The Hypocrisy of Power

Few things enrage me as much as hypocrisy. Ever since I can remember, and even as a child, hypocrisy was something that I can simply could not abide.

A case in point is the appearance yesterday of embattled BP CEO, Tony Hayward, before a congressional hearing on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

As expected, Tony came across the blithering British public schoolboy idiot that he is. All clipped accent and sheepish Hugh Grant-esque demeanour, he tried his hardest to deflect the criticism being hurled at him by the congressmen.

A real twit atwitter.

But that was no surprise. After all, the man has been a PR disaster for the oil giant since the very beginning of this crisis. The oil giant itself has been a disaster.  BP deserves every bit of derision, criticism and all-out anger directed against it - not to mention, dare I hope, continued mounting financial losses.

However, that didn't annoy me half as much as something else, something positively dripping in hypocrisy: the sight of all those pompous, self-righteous congressmen acting all sanctimonious as they attacked Tony.

Are these the same congressmen who belong to a body of legislators who are the most over-lobbied and bought-out politicians of any democracy? Are these the same legislators the vast majority of whom accept huge contributions (read: kickbacks) from the oil lobby, one of the biggest and most powerful in Washingon D.C?

Where has the initiative been by Congress to ensure less dirty, less polluting and more sustainable energy sources for the United States, the largest and most energy-consuming economy in the world? Where was Congress in the oversight of the Mineral Management Services, the much-maligned division of the Department of the Interior that oversees offshore drilling? Nowhere, that's where - they were too busy counting their petrodollar contributions (read: bribes) and turning a convenient blind eye to the fact that oil is dirty, unsustainable and puts American security at even greater risk.

Not to mention the looming uber-monster that is peak oil...

The United States Congress is as much to blame, when all is said and done, for this spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil rig may be all BP, but the lax regulations and double standard on energy policy sits firmly at the front steps of Capitol Hill.

And there they sit, lording it over the BP CEO as if they had no part to play in this whole mess.

What a bloody cheek!

If this isn't hypocrisy at the highest levels, then I have no idea what is.

Do you get my point?