Every time energy prices spike, citizens demand protection. And governments provide it.
This is the trap. Not because protection is cruel. Because protection is what makes adaptation unnecessary. And adaptation is the only thing that actually ends this.
The biggest enemy of the green economy is not the oil company. It is the psychological comfort of the familiar.
The technology is not the problem. Wind works. Solar works. Heat pumps deliver three units of heat for every unit of electricity. EVs are cheaper to run, simpler to maintain, better to drive. The physics passed every test years ago.
The problem is that most people have never experienced any of it. You cannot think your way into a world you have never felt.
Every subsidised gas bill is another month of not needing to find out what the alternative feels like. Every year of cheap diesel is another year of the electric tractor staying hypothetical.
Pain is not the enemy. Managed pain with a clear pathway is the accelerant.
People change when the cost of staying the same exceeds the friction of changing. The Iran shock just moved that calculation for millions of households simultaneously.
That is not a crisis to manage. That is a window.
The political ask has to change. Not 'shield us from the price' but 'make it easy to stop being exposed to it.'
The cheque keeps you in the old world. The pathway gets you out.