The Stability of our World

Life in the Oilfield. If there is one word that can describe the lifestyle, it is the word unstable. Although a more indirect and confusing word for it is 24x7. Its confusing because when you hear that word you are not sure if its a good/bad thing. But I like the word unstable because it describe the way of life as positively negative.

And when you live like this it gives you a lot of insight into the nature of human beings and society. There are many people who lead such unstable lives. Sailors, Soldiers, Pilots. Humans have always tried to make their lives more stable. Which is why people moved from being nomads to building villages and cities. When you lead unstable lives your needs become more immediate and your whole life revolves around today and tommorrow. It becomes difficult to care about next year just as it becomes difficult to think about faraway things , people, places. Today, here, now is what its all about. And this changes the way people behave. Just like the behaviour of the invading hordes of Genghis Khan were different from the behaviour of Mughal occupiers. Loot, plunder and building cities , empires are merely different behaviours. One is the behaviour of people who lead unstable lives and the other of people who want to lead a stable life.

If this stability factor can affect the history of our world so drastically, think about the world today. If our world is going to be ruled by people who lead unstable lives we may someday look at our world and wonder, if only... That is why military dictators are bad. And so are people who only want more oil.