The Joys of Fasting
Or, How to be lean rather than starving
06.11.08
by: Nathan James


I’ve lived more than half of an average American lifespan, and I’ve seen only one economic period that felt worse than the one we’re in: the mid-to-late 1970s, kicked off by the Mideast oil embargo of 1973, and culminating with 21% prime interest rates, double-digit inflation, high unemployment, gas shortages, and President Carter’s proclaimed “crisis of confidence” in our nation.

By some economic measures, we are currently much better off: interest rates, inflation, and unemployment are all low, though there are signs that all three are rising. Gas is available, if you can afford it. By other measures, we are much worse off. Housing prices are in a record-setting decline. National debt has climbed from 26% of GDP in 1980 to 38% in 2007 (about $31,000 per U.S. citizen). Foreign nations now own 25% of our debt. Our debt has weakened the U.S. dollar – which is part of why gas now costs so much, because international oil purchases are made in U.S. dollars.

To make matters worse, we are spending $1 billion every day to fight two wars.

But I had a meeting this week that made all of that troubled news sound trifling.

I met with the founder of a solar energy company here in New Mexico. Understandably, he closely follows energy trends and public energy policy. But part of the problem is, America has no energy policy – unless the continuation of our dependence on oil from Mideast nations in which Islamist terrorist groups receive support can be considered a policy, instead of simple insanity.

But that is not what scared me.

The solar CEO is worried that the existing federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC), designed to encourage investment in renewable energy sources, will expire as scheduled at the end of this year, instead of being renewed. Indeed, U.S. Senate Republicans, whose Energy & Natural Resources Committee members are led by New Mexico Sen. Pete Dominici, this week defeated a bill to renew the ITC. (Senate Democrats, whose Energy Committee members are led by New Mexico’s Jeff Bingaman, promise to re-introduce the bill this summer.)

As oil prices soar, there could be no worse time for federal support of renewable energy sources to expire. The CEO of the world’s largest maker of solar panels this week promised that if the ITC is allowed to expire, he will withdraw his company’s manufacturing and sales operations from the United States. Why? Because other countries support renewable energy, no questions asked. Those countries make better markets.

But even that is not what scared me.

What scared me was when the solar CEO spoke of watching the U.S. power industry dissolve. The nightmare scenario: cost of power generation – greatly dependent on oil – skyrockets beyond the capacity of most people to pay. As many become unable to pay for power, power generation becomes economically impossible. But because our government abandoned support for renewable energy, there is nothing to take its place.

Anarchy.

Here is an alternative future: we fast. Not diet. Not cut back. Fast.

In the Old Testament, fasting is always accompanied by words such as humiliation, shame, repentance, grief and mourning, sackcloth and ashes. It is a punishment of self-mortification, a temporary death to permit rebirth.

In the New Testament, the language changes completely. Fasting in the era of Jesus is accompanied by prayer, and provides a path to greater understanding of, and closer communion with, God. Fasting brings clarity and strength, not pain. It is proactive, not reactive.

The physical act is the same: denial of sustenance. But the moral approach and result are vastly different.

It has become fashionable to look down on our country’s Puritan past, our roots in hardship and deprivation. We live in a culture of obesity and excess. We are less than five percent of the world’s population, but we consume 25 percent of the world’s oil. Fasting isn’t much discussed.

But we are re-entering an era of energy fasting – like it or not, willingly or not. The earth cannot sustain our current lifestyle. The fast we are entering can lead to greater understanding, or it can be a torture of grief and mourning. Which we experience will depend on whether we are proactive or reactive. In this crisis brought on by our greed, our salvation will not come from God. And it almost certainly will not come from the United States government.

We are going to have to save ourselves. Fast now. Or starve later.

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