Dying For Lost Causes

65 year old Mehdi Shahbazi passed away last week, ending a several year war he had going on with Shell Oil. Mehdi claimed that Shell Oil has been manipulating gas prices and in 2005 posted signs all over his gas stations notifying his customers of his beliefs. In retaliation, Shell Oil first stopped supplying him gas and then took away his franchise.

In an effort to drum up attention to his plight, Mehdi decided to go on a liquid only fast. The only problem is that no one it seems, including the oil giant, cared. In September Mehdi died of his self inflicted food restriction and received barely a mention in the media.

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The lesson here is that you need to pick your battles wisely. Not only that, you should endeavor to use a strategy that doesn’t end up costing you your life or making you look like a fool with your death. I suppose Mehdi was trying to emulate the great Mahatma Ghandi with this pacifistic move which is noble. The problem is that this only works if you are Ghandi or otherwise able to get people worked up enough over the thought of your death to go out and do something to prevent it. Unfortunately for Mehdi he was not able to get his community invested in his cause.

Right now, oil companies are operating in monopoly mode which means that because our alternate sources of energy are limited they think they own us and thus think they can do whatever they want. Strike back by going green. Buy hybrids, take the bus, carpool, ride your bike, work from home, support research into alternate fuel sources that are Earth friendly. Like big tobacco, the only way to beat the big oil companies is to decrease our need for what they are selling.