A readers natural reaction to the word oil is to associate it with a dark viscosity, a thick, absolutely opaque, unmanageable substance, the ugly, impossible to get rid of base archaic fuel of the industrial era. In "Clear Thinking in Trouble Times" Shell manages to project the important point - Shell not only stands for, but is analogous with the pristine, it is a no-nonsense illuminated beacon, a balm, for the anxiety expressed as our 'troubled times'.