Missed it by THAT much...

There was a little known and very campy movie released in 1979 called Americathon. It was a brief look into our future, 1998 to be exact. Here's a summary of the film as ripped from Wikipedia:

The premise of the film is that, sometime in the then-near future (actually 1998), the USA has run out of oil, and many Americans are literally living in their (now stationary) cars and either jog or ride bicycles to travel. The federal government, housed in "The Western White House" (a sub-leased condominium in Marina del Rey, California), is near bankruptcy and in danger of being foreclosed by a cartel of Native Americans in control of Nike Inc. (which has been renamed "National Indian Knitting Enterprise"). President Chet Roosevelt (John Ritter) hires television consultant Eric McMerkin (Peter Riegert) to help produce a national raffle. Instead, they decide that the only way enough money can be raised to save America is to run a telethon, and hire TV celebrity Monty Rushmore (Harvey Korman) to host it.

What I find interesting is that it's now 2008. Sure, we haven't run out of oil per se but we sure are scrambling for it. The entire world knows we're paying too much for it. The price is only going to rise as well. I'm sure incidences of theft are only going to increase as well. I'm not calling for it but I'm sure more 'random' acts of violence is going to occur from the rise of gas prices. This might occur because the trapped cage effect has surely begun. In April, Americans drove 1.4 billion miles less than in April of '07 and 30 billion miles less overall since this same time last year. Once people start getting tired of traveling to the same places or feel that their options have been cut off, they'll start fighting back. Albeit, they'll be fighting the wrong people but fighting nonetheless because they won't have any other outlet for their anger.

People need to let it out every once in a while. No unlike the various riots of the past, I expect another. Except this time, I'm not sure if it's going to happen in L.A., Watts, Chicago, Harlem or Brixton even. But it's going to happen. If I'm where a riot happens though, I just hope to God I have enough gas in my tank to get away in time...