Chuck
Yeager
Chuck
Yeager
and the
Death of Truth:
14 October 1947
FIRST SUPERSONIC FLIGHT
Today, the 14th of October 2002, is the 55th anniversary of the first recorded and documented flight of an aircraft through the so-called 'sound barrier'. 55 years ago today, Brigadier General Chuck Yeager stuffed himself into the perfunctory crew cabin of the experimental Bell rocket plane and flew off forever into the pages of aviation history. The fact that probably a couple hundred or more men actually flew faster than the speed of sound before him (but never lived to tell of it) doesn't detract from General Yeager's historic accomplishment. As the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight by man looms (next year, 17 December 2003), these facts serve to remind us of how dramatically the application of scientific technology has changed the world we live in.
Of course, the Wright Brothers were not the first men to fly (not even a powered aircraft), but by virtual consensus, to them belongs the glory that such an accomplishment carries with it. While we honor and remember the feats of Yeager and the Wright Brothers, it is important to not lose sight of the fact that the same technology that enabled them to penetrate hitherto imprenetrable physical barriers is also presently helping to destroy our earthly habitat with mind-numbing ferocity. These are the fruits of modern technology and science: however wonderful they seem, we fail to recognise that 1) they are frightfully expensive; and 2) that they are capable of as much death and destruction as they are of benefit to humanity. Failure to recognize this duality of potential comes at our dire peril.
Last evening I was sitting in our living room, absently watching the national news on television (commercial, not cable), when I was reminded for the millionth time just how unreal the 'modern' American culture is that we are spoon-fed each and every day. The more I reflected on the gross disparity between 'reality' and the carefully constructed and heavily commercial-tinged 'pseudo-reality' that we watch on television media, the more frightening such thoughts became. After a short while, I found myself getting palpably depressed by this realisation and its attendent knowledge of the fact that the average American middle-class 'consumer' has about as much awareness of these matters as a Banana Slug...
After the national news, which was full of news about the latest Terrorist bombs in Indonesia (delivered by perfectly coiffed news anchors with earnest, concerned faces--the news, not the bombs), a movie followed, which I watched briefly. The film was the recent Disney remake of DOCTOR DOOLITTLE, with Eddie Murphy cast as the central character. The previously mentioned depressive spate had given me a sudden, desperate need for something to laugh at, so I kept the TV on for a few more minutes. Mistake! As the film continued, I couldn't help but note all the deliberately contrived imagery that this erstwhile children's story had suffered in the contemporary Disney translation (this, despite the fact, amazingly, that there was an asinine commercial stuffed between every 5 minute segment of the film).
At the onset of DOCTOR DOOLITTLE, there was the fact that while Eddie Murphy is VERY obviously a Black American male, his cinematic 'wife' was so fair complected and so very nearly White in her features that her Black ethnicity was hardly apparent. Why is this? Why is it OK to portray a Black male without any equivocation, while it is seemingly not OK to subscribe to the same standards for a Black female character? Why must the 'ideal' Black woman look more White than Black to be considered a fully actualised attractive female? Most American males watching this film would fail to take note of this fact at all, of course, and simply think "What a babe!"....
Then there was the fact that all of the animals spoke in a clearly Black patois: another jarring and awkwardly dishonest construct. This sort of gimmick carried on, ad infinitum throughout the film, and it was not long before I switched the TV set off, quite intellectually nausiated by the gross distortions of reality that this single Disney movie had succeeded in creating for middle-American primetime viewing consumption.
The reason I mentioned this particular example of media-constructed pseudo-reality is the close parallels that such seemingly innocent diversions have with other, more vital aspects of contemporary American culture....such as our political processes. So complete is the process of brain-washing American media viewers to accept commercially contrived synthetic substitutions for reality (accomplished principally by television viewing of both commercials and drama), that our politicians now subscribe to the same doctrines as a matter of course in carrying out their agendas as 'elected' representatives. As a result, truth is more than merely a candidate for the endangered species list: truth is in fact now completely extinct. What exists in the place of truth today is spin-doctored, euphemistic pseudo-reality. What began as merely another developmental tool of commercial advertising has now become an irreversible concrete reality in contemporary American society. Sad, but true (no irony intended)...
The demise of 'simple truth' and the institution of synthetic substitutes in our lives is more than a vague intellectual cause for great concern: it is a terribly dangerous reminder to all of us that what we are told each and every day by those who control our lives is probably as divergent from genuine reality as life is from death. Thus, when we are told by our nation's leaders that we absolutely must send our Armed Forces half way around the world to physically dismember Iraq, we are expected to fully and faithfully swallow this happy horse exhaust whole and BELIEVE it without qualification. After all, wouldn't any loyal American believe his president's sincere assurances that we must do this in the defense of basic American freedoms?...that our very way of life is threatened if we fail to act decisively now, to obliterate Iraq's present regime with massive military might?
If Iraq constitutes a threat to the ENTIRE American culture, our way of life, and our democratic hegemony, then perhaps it is a good thing after all that America's influence and power languishes and ultimately fails. Personally speaking, I believe unswervingly in the justness of my nation's fight to preserve and defend itself against threats to our immediate national boundaries; I do not believe unswervingly that I must support my nation in a one-sided and dangerously half-baked campaign to convert the entire planet to the American way of life. Such sentiment is more than simply colossally stupid!
Most recently, it has come to our attention that a great majority of those national leaders who are most outspoken in their exhortations to send a massive military force against Iraq fall into a unique category of individual known as "Chicken Hawks". This is a perjorative term used to refer to Americans who deliberately tried to avoid service in the US Armed Forces during the Vietnam Era (and were successful), yet who are now (surprise, surprise!) in the vanguard of those most outspoken in their urging to mount a pre-emptive strike against Iraq. Included in this shameful calumny are none other than our beloved leader, George W. Bush, along with Vice President Dick Cheney, and just about 2/3rds of the Republican senators who are most outspoken in their efforts to declare war on Iraq. My, my...isn't that interesting? As a public service, below may be found several URLs at which more information on this interesting and highly ironic turn of events is available. I strongly suggest you dial them up and learn the facts yourselves.
Of particular interest to me is the fact that our revered leader, George "Dubya" Bush, not only used powerful family connections to enlist in the Texas Air National Guard (so as to avoid having to fight in Vietnam), he actually failed to complete his enlistment by 'disappearing' for almost 2 years before his term of service was complete (call it AWOL or outright desertion, either or both apply equally in his situation). Furthermore, there is a growing body of hard, factual evidence--backed up by information and documentation obtained under the now-threatened Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)--that demonstrates deliberate attempts to remove and destroy Dubya's service records, so as to cover up this outrageous set of circumstances! And this is the honored American President we are all supposed to be believing in and supporting, utterly!
I'll let you draw your own conclusions after you have visited the URLs in reference, but one hardly needs more compelling proof of the fact that we now live in an age of utterly disingenuous, dissembling pseudo-reality. If this doesn't shock and scare you half to death, you are further beyond hope than even you yourself suspected. Furthermore, if this is the sort of example set by the highest and most prominant leader of the most powerful country in the world, the entire world stands to fear far more from America than we do from the Iraqis.
Finally, as new terrorist prompted outrages occur in Indonesia and Bali, yet more proof is offered that "Dubya's" campaign against Iraq is so far off the mark that it is beyond the pale of laughter! The so-called Islamic terrorist threat we should be concerned with stems not from Iraq, but from these far-flung and shadowy Islamic lunatics who are not conveniently camped out in any particular country at the moment. To be sure, Saddam Hussein may be one of the worst, most despicable, and most inhuman (I don't personally think there is much doubt of that!) monsters to come along since Pol Pot, Stalin, and Hitler, but he is not the threat we should be addressing at this time. The Al Quaeda terrorists ARE, but Dubya and his Congressional 'Chicken-Hawk' cohorts have succeeded in blind-siding middle-class American patriotism into supporting his absolutely insane agenda to remove Saddam Hussein, rather than recognizing this important fact. The fact that this is an American election year had all those stalwart Congressional representatives (with a few notable exceptions) practically wetting themselves in their haste to vote the recently passed Congressional declaration into being (so that 'America speaks with one voice!', as Senator Daschle put it? I don't think so!...) is of course, also shameful, but that's politics, isn't it?
OK. Thanks for your attention to these observations. I am still very much worried by the basic substitution of a commercially sponsored syntheic reality for truth, honor, integrity, and morality in today's television media, but the greater harm apparent lies all about us, as Bush lurches onwards in his campaign to even the score for his dad's failed adventure in 1991...
On a somewhat lighter note, Autumn Moon Festival has come and gone (Autumnal Equinox) again. Lotus-Seed Moon Cakes are as expensive as ever and this year's equinox eve was clear and bright and very beautiful. The full moon was huge and lucent (despite all the execrable Sacramento air pollution that has now made our city among the worst in the nation for air quality); I even got out a few of my Autumn Moon Poems, written during the Gulf War while I was in Riyadh, to recall the melancholy but beautiful feelings engendered then, in the midst of the great Arabian desert. This was over a decade ago and I was still somewhat of a romantic idealist at that time. Now, 11 years removed from that time, I find myself increasingly devastated by the transformation of my native country into a land of near Orwellian anti-logic, spin-doctored euphemisms, and commercially fabricated pseudo-reality that poses a grievous threat--not just to the saner, reflectively intelligent members of the world, but to all humanity--that is nearly beyond belief.
Below are a few of the links I mentioned above, concerning the so-called Iraq War "Chicken-Hawks": Please visit them and make your own determinations of what is truth, therein. Be well, citizens, and don't ever for a moment accept anything anyone tells you without first giving it serious thought--these opinions and observations included!
HALL OF SHAME: The Chicken-Hawk Roll-Call
MORE ON THE CHICKEN-HAWKS' CAMPAIGN FOR WAR ON IRAQ
GEORGE BUSH'S DISGRACEFUL AIR NATIONAL GUARD SERVICE RECORD
EVEN MORE ON THE SUBJECT OF 'WANNA-BE' WARRIORS WHO HAVEN'T A CLUE
A UK SLANT ON THIS UNIQUELY AMERICAN SITUATION (THE GUARDIAN)
STILL MORE COMMENTARY ON THE SUBJECT OF CHICKEN-HAWKS
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE'S VIEW ON THESE CONTEMPORARY HEROES
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, PHIL FARUGGIO'S OBSERVATIONS ON CHICKEN-HAWK WAR DRUM-BEATERS
++++14 Oct 2002++++
