Q: Are We Men? A: No We Are Lemmings!

I could as easily have named this post something-to-do-with-oil, as it's the ever-rising oil-prices that is the subject here. But ah, always nice to indulge oneself and dive into popcultural ephemera and evoke the spirit (or should that be ghost?) of Akron, Ohio-new wavers Devo.

But I digress... as I said, it's all about the oil. Isn't it always thus?

It's reading stuff like this from the WSJ that sometimes even makes a pro-capitalist such as yours only doubt the existence of this thing called Western civilisation. Or make that «civilisation». And its discontents.

The panic created by the ongoing events in Libya (a far more limited producer of oil than the impression created by the ever-present hysterical mass media), apparently has seen oil prices reach their highest level in two years. Strange really, considering that there are sufficient back supplies to last another month (as the WSJ piece points out) and any losses in Libyan oil production so far in 2011 have been offset by similar rises from the world's primary oil producers – the Saudis.

So why the panic? Are We Not Men? Sadly it doesn't seem that way. So much for the idea that people in the West think independently. It all looks rather more like a flock of lemmings heading towards the nearest cliff together. And not exactly in a communal spirit, which would have been the least to expect given the circumstances.