netflixed "a crude awakening: the oil crash" and "the wind that shakes the barley". you could say i knew very little about the topic of both films before watching them.

by the title, you can guess what "a crude awakening" is about. it's about a lack of fossil fuels in this world. that we truly need alternatives but even the alternatives don't offset our fuel crisis by very much. basically there is only a finite amount of fossil fuels left for us to pump or dig out. the question is, when will it run out? and what will happen once it runs out? no matter what alternatives we start to use, it could take awhile to develop to be efficient and to spread out the infrastructure so that we benefit from it. plus if the alternative is only helping to provide a small percentage of our fuel source, it's not helping. we probably need many alternatives and these need to be renewable. watching the film, they mention fossil fuels are being used to produce more fossil fuels. well if you think about it, of course that is so. even electric cars or recharging batteries and so forth, where does that electricity come from? from a plant burning coal? from nuclear energy? these are not renewable. then there is an issue of waste. watching this documentary could lead you into some sort of panic but the important thing is of course to reduce, reuse, recycle, as well as finding alternatives and demanding more from those in power to make mandatory change. if regulations aren't being efficient, we are being wasteful. if city layouts and mass transportation aren't efficient, we are being wasteful. this is a long topic and many avenues to venture but our economy was built on cheap fuel and if we want to continue to enjoy modern conveniences that we do now, we must do something. afterall, demand for fuel will only rise as the population increases and more countries modernize.

as for "the wind that shakes the barley", it's about ireland and their fight from independence from the uk. i never really understood the irish fight because i never studied it. it certainly was never taught in any of my classes. i only knew very basics. that there was a religious divide and that's why ireland is divided. i cannot say anything more as i'm too ignorant on the matter. was never sure as a kid in the 80s what the IRA stood for. only that it's bad like the PLO and all the other boogeymen of the reagan era. perhaps our own fight for american independence was too long ago for us to give a shit about ireland. perhaps it's too geographically remote or because i was just a kid and kids don't study politics. or maybe by the time i was old enough to study such things the issue had died down and i just had shitty world history teachers who weren't covering more recent history, just ancient times. what about the others fighting today from independence? do we not care? this film helps to explore independence movements. if the country you're trying to break off from allows you some room, what do you do when it's not meeting all of your demands for independence? and then once you gain freedom, how to shape your newly independence country? watching this film, you can see how easily factions can form. those you once fought alongside with can become the ones whom you fight. brother turned against brother. maybe for some who don't understand other countries because it is too remote for them, they can at least understand the case of ireland with this film as they also broke off from england. what if england gave us the same deal and part of this continent still bowed to the crown? *cough canada cough* anyway, just watch and ponder. start thinking about war, independence, and diplomacy 101.