The birth of the paranoid State: troubles and parody of oil security in the post-hegemonic United States

Abstract

The oil shock of 1973 was a historical watershed, a preamble to the competitive globalization of oil and the decay and fall of American global hegemony. Oil revenue reached status category, whether OPEC has existed or not. The earnings from oil sales are realized by the owner on the site of the oil field, public or private, and independent of its belonging to OPEC.  Among other elements this explains the birth of a Paranoid state, much more dangerous and self-destructive than the witch hunts of the McCarthy era.