The Foolish Virgins

To pick up one of the threads from my last post: Simone Weil (Gravity and Grace, chapter on "Necessity and Obedience") writes:

"The Foolish Virgins: The meaning of this story is that at the moment when we become conscious that we have to make a choice, the choice is already made for good or ill."

I think of this a lot in connection with the Copenhagen conference on climate change, which is at its halfway stage as I write. I know that many of those pressing for firm action on greenhouse gas emissions are doing so because they believe that if such action is taken, most of the good things about life in the richer parts of the world can be preserved. I am fully in favour of such action, but am not so sanguine about the resulting prospects. It won't preserve what we have; it can only cushion the decline, although that's valuable enough.

I remember reading some words by Jonathon Porritt some time ago. I can't find the quote now, but it was something like this: "I believe we have around twenty years to turn things around. Not to agree to do it, or start to do it, or put the frameworks in place to do it, but actually to do it." It was about twenty years ago that he wrote that. And I think his assessment was probably about right. Which is unfortunate, given that on a global scale, the last twenty years have been characterised by doing approximately nothing to prepare either for climate change or for peak oil. In fact, we have moved a very long way in the wrong direction. Did we know about the issues during those two decades? Some of us did, consciously; others doubtless didn't; and still others did know, but managed to render their knowledge unconscious so that they wouldn't have to face it.

There is a modern-day relevance of the Simone Weil quote above that she couldn't possibly have been aware of when she wrote it in the 1940s. What was the predicament faced by the foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1-13)? Oil, and more specifically, the lack of a sufficient supply of the stuff when it really mattered.