In Men in Black, Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) reveals the truth of alien life on earth to soon-to-be Agent J (Will Smith). J wonders why people haven’t been told, why the huge cover-up.
People are smart, he says, they could handle the truth. “A person is smart,” Agent K says, “but people are stupid.” He talks about how when individual persons become part of a group of people, they get panicky and irrational.
Never has that statement been more true that today.
Two of the biggest stories in the world right now, illustrate that point perfectly.
In Iraq, you had hundreds of people trampled to death because of rumors of a suicide bomber. Just the rumor of a bomber was able to kill countless more people than an actual bomber could, because a group of people panicked and stampeded over one another.
In America (espeically in the Southern states), you have people going crazy over gas. Long lines were forming around every gas station on my way home from work, with everybody running out to get gas. I saw one truck who had 5 or 6 jugs in the back of his truck to fill up.
Okay, simply economics lesson – what do you think it does to the price when the demand suddenly shoots up? Answer – the price shoots up with it and the problem is exacerbated.
It doesn’t help matters when the media and politicians are going out and fanning the flames. You have the national news telling people that gas is $6 in Atlanta. That is not the norm in Atlanta, even if that was the case for a single station. It is around $3.50 or $4.
The owner of the largest gas station chain across the Upstate of SC was on the talk radio station here in Greenville, SC. He, being the largest buyer of wholesale gasoline in our area, said that there was a interuption in shipment, but there was no supply shortage. It is simply a matter of getting electricity working on the pipelines again.
This morning, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said that they already had partial power restored to one of the two main pipelines and it was already starting the flow of gas out of the gulf region.
Put your gas cans down people, we will have gas. Some may run low or in the next couple of days for a period of time, but there is no huge gas shortage and you will be able to buy gas for under $4 a gallon. Just slow down, stop watching and listening to the media and use common sense.
Be an intelligent person, not part of the panicky people.