Wednesday, August 24
Dystopia?
Another taste: I've also been collecting news items, for some odd reason which will likely become clear once I start writing. Maybe my next novel is about living in the Early Days of Dystopia? Here's the current state of a chunk of the master text file.
Something's up. A vibe. A ripple in time? Clocks spinning backwards? The first step towards…. A West Caribbean Airways plane crashed in Venezuela, killing all 160 aboard. An Ecuadorean boat carrying illegal immigrants sank off the coast of Colombia, and more than 100 people were reported missing. Helios Airways Flight ZU522, with six crew and 115 passengers, plunged 34,000 feet into a mountainous area near Athens. There were no survivors.
Every day it's something else: Three car bombs killed at least 43 people and wounded 76 in an attack on a Baghdad bus station and nearby hospital. Hackers unleashed new variants of a computer worm that attacks a vulnerability in Windows operating systems, but infection rates appeared to be low and damage minor so far. British police made a series of catastrophic errors that led to armed officers shooting dead an innocent Brazilian when they were hunting the failed July 21 bombers. A Spanish military helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, killing all 17 on board.
Other fears grow: A top Iranian nuclear official warned that the European Union's mounting pressure on Tehran to limit its nuclear activities would only be counterproductive. Inflation at the wholesale level in the United States increased in July by the largest amount in nine months, reflecting the hit consumers are taking at gasoline pumps. Some 300 small bombs rocked cities across Bangladesh Wednesday, killing one person, wounding at least 100.
The next day, we hear that despite some resistance, authorities said Israel's historic withdrawal from Gaza was progressing rapidly and predicting that 19 out of 21 Jewish settlements would be cleared by the end of the day. Grueling six-party talks aimed at defusing a crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions enter an 11th day, but a joint communique may prove elusive with Pyongyang insisting on the right to peaceful nuclear programs.
Madonna falls off a horse on her 47th birthday. Puff drops the P and simply goes with the Diddy. Paris Hilton is on TV again. We sit silently, watching our televisions, listening to our iPods, waiting for the next bombing, waiting for news of Brad and Jen.
And yet we go on about our little lives, not worrying about jihad. If we change the way we live, the terrorists win. That's what they say. That's what they say. That's what they keep saying. So we worry instead about other thing . Will that car really turn left, like its blinker indicates? Will my kids grow up OK, avoiding drugs and drunk drivers? Will that lump in my father's chest turn out to be nothing? Will I be able to afford a new car next year? Will I in fact have a job next year? Will it rain tomorrow, or should I mow the lawn tonight?
Or maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's just in his mind. His mind. His never ending hive mind.
Today's news? More of the same. New York's subway will be scanned by thousands of cameras and motion sensors under a high-tech strategy to counter the threat of terrorist attacks. Rescuers combed a jungle marsh for victims of a Peruvian airliner that split in two after an emergency landing during a fierce hailstorm, killing at least 41 people. Tropical Storm K____ formed in the Bahamas and could reach hurricane strength before hitting the coast of Florida later this week.
Spread of H5N1 avian flu virus from person to person has been rare so far, yet, still, scientists are concerned that the avian flu could one day be able to infect humans and experts from around the world are watching the H5N1 situation in Asia very closely. They are preparing for the next global influenza pandemic leading to unprecedented high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. What happens then?
Is that it? Forget the terrorists. Is it the flu that does us in?
Reports from the south say Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may see an increase in popularity because of the death threat leveled by a US television evangelist. Another movie star -- the third this month -- was on the giving end of a minor car accident near Disneyland--an accident caused, her publicist says, as the actress tried to swerve her Mercedes to escape a crew of paparazzi shutterbugs.
Meanwhile, dozens of heavily armed insurgents attacked police checkpoints with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles in western Baghdad, in some of the heaviest street fighting in the capital in months. The president meanwhile has started fighting back to the growing peace movement, maintaining that pulling out of Iraq now would weaken the US fight against terrorism. His son started high school. My daughter started kindergarten.
The woman whose son accused Michael Jackson of child molestation could face her own criminal trial on welfare fraud charges. Fox is still obsessed with the missing teen in Aruba. The movie he wants to see plays at 7:10 and 9:15, but he's covering for someone at work and needs to go in early. Too early for the late screening. TV instead.
Pakistan's religious schools say they will resist state registration unless several new measures are withdrawn. A US soldier has been sentenced to two months in prison for abusing an Afghan detainee who later died. Pakistan's president confirms a disgraced nuclear scientist gave North Korea centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Thousands of firefighters battle to halt a series of forest fires raging in northern and central Portugal. The US president says the time is ripe for the Israel and the Palestinians to return to the international roadmap peace plan.
British Interior Minister Charles Clarke published a list of "unacceptable behaviors" which would prompt deportation or a ban on entry in the wake of the most recent bombings in London. Prime Minister John Howard angered some Australian Muslims by saying he supported placing government spies monitoring the nation's mosques.
And still life goes on. I take the kids to school. I sit in my cubicle. I eat breakast, I walk the dogs. I read. I watch tv. I watch movies. I buy new music. Life goes on. The world crumbles around us -- or does it? -- and life goes on.
See, something's up. The World As We Know It is changing. Rollback of enlightenment? Stage one of our long feared dystopian future?
Or just another day in paradise?
Something's up. A vibe. A ripple in time? Clocks spinning backwards? The first step towards…. A West Caribbean Airways plane crashed in Venezuela, killing all 160 aboard. An Ecuadorean boat carrying illegal immigrants sank off the coast of Colombia, and more than 100 people were reported missing. Helios Airways Flight ZU522, with six crew and 115 passengers, plunged 34,000 feet into a mountainous area near Athens. There were no survivors.
Every day it's something else: Three car bombs killed at least 43 people and wounded 76 in an attack on a Baghdad bus station and nearby hospital. Hackers unleashed new variants of a computer worm that attacks a vulnerability in Windows operating systems, but infection rates appeared to be low and damage minor so far. British police made a series of catastrophic errors that led to armed officers shooting dead an innocent Brazilian when they were hunting the failed July 21 bombers. A Spanish military helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, killing all 17 on board.
Other fears grow: A top Iranian nuclear official warned that the European Union's mounting pressure on Tehran to limit its nuclear activities would only be counterproductive. Inflation at the wholesale level in the United States increased in July by the largest amount in nine months, reflecting the hit consumers are taking at gasoline pumps. Some 300 small bombs rocked cities across Bangladesh Wednesday, killing one person, wounding at least 100.
The next day, we hear that despite some resistance, authorities said Israel's historic withdrawal from Gaza was progressing rapidly and predicting that 19 out of 21 Jewish settlements would be cleared by the end of the day. Grueling six-party talks aimed at defusing a crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions enter an 11th day, but a joint communique may prove elusive with Pyongyang insisting on the right to peaceful nuclear programs.
Madonna falls off a horse on her 47th birthday. Puff drops the P and simply goes with the Diddy. Paris Hilton is on TV again. We sit silently, watching our televisions, listening to our iPods, waiting for the next bombing, waiting for news of Brad and Jen.
And yet we go on about our little lives, not worrying about jihad. If we change the way we live, the terrorists win. That's what they say. That's what they say. That's what they keep saying. So we worry instead about other thing . Will that car really turn left, like its blinker indicates? Will my kids grow up OK, avoiding drugs and drunk drivers? Will that lump in my father's chest turn out to be nothing? Will I be able to afford a new car next year? Will I in fact have a job next year? Will it rain tomorrow, or should I mow the lawn tonight?
Or maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's just in his mind. His mind. His never ending hive mind.
Today's news? More of the same. New York's subway will be scanned by thousands of cameras and motion sensors under a high-tech strategy to counter the threat of terrorist attacks. Rescuers combed a jungle marsh for victims of a Peruvian airliner that split in two after an emergency landing during a fierce hailstorm, killing at least 41 people. Tropical Storm K____ formed in the Bahamas and could reach hurricane strength before hitting the coast of Florida later this week.
Spread of H5N1 avian flu virus from person to person has been rare so far, yet, still, scientists are concerned that the avian flu could one day be able to infect humans and experts from around the world are watching the H5N1 situation in Asia very closely. They are preparing for the next global influenza pandemic leading to unprecedented high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. What happens then?
Is that it? Forget the terrorists. Is it the flu that does us in?
Reports from the south say Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may see an increase in popularity because of the death threat leveled by a US television evangelist. Another movie star -- the third this month -- was on the giving end of a minor car accident near Disneyland--an accident caused, her publicist says, as the actress tried to swerve her Mercedes to escape a crew of paparazzi shutterbugs.
Meanwhile, dozens of heavily armed insurgents attacked police checkpoints with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles in western Baghdad, in some of the heaviest street fighting in the capital in months. The president meanwhile has started fighting back to the growing peace movement, maintaining that pulling out of Iraq now would weaken the US fight against terrorism. His son started high school. My daughter started kindergarten.
The woman whose son accused Michael Jackson of child molestation could face her own criminal trial on welfare fraud charges. Fox is still obsessed with the missing teen in Aruba. The movie he wants to see plays at 7:10 and 9:15, but he's covering for someone at work and needs to go in early. Too early for the late screening. TV instead.
Pakistan's religious schools say they will resist state registration unless several new measures are withdrawn. A US soldier has been sentenced to two months in prison for abusing an Afghan detainee who later died. Pakistan's president confirms a disgraced nuclear scientist gave North Korea centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Thousands of firefighters battle to halt a series of forest fires raging in northern and central Portugal. The US president says the time is ripe for the Israel and the Palestinians to return to the international roadmap peace plan.
British Interior Minister Charles Clarke published a list of "unacceptable behaviors" which would prompt deportation or a ban on entry in the wake of the most recent bombings in London. Prime Minister John Howard angered some Australian Muslims by saying he supported placing government spies monitoring the nation's mosques.
And still life goes on. I take the kids to school. I sit in my cubicle. I eat breakast, I walk the dogs. I read. I watch tv. I watch movies. I buy new music. Life goes on. The world crumbles around us -- or does it? -- and life goes on.
See, something's up. The World As We Know It is changing. Rollback of enlightenment? Stage one of our long feared dystopian future?
Or just another day in paradise?
Comments:
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Fascinating, Eric. I agree with you, and have thought and thought about this stuff--what in the heck is going on--and yet I continue to go on my merry, day-to-day way, worrying about my little day-to-day stuff, while this little niggling worry about the bigger picture is squashed at the back of my mind.
Have you ever read a book called "God's Politics (Why the Right Gets It Wrong, and the Left Doesn't Get It)", by a guy named Jim Wallis? Absolutley fascinating book that explains so many things so clearly. He's a "faith-based activist" who seems to me to be dead on in his understanding of the current political situation in the U.S., and the world, today. I keep thinking, as I read it, "Gosh, if everyone could read this, and then act on it, we could "fix" what's wrong in the world today!"
Anyway, good job--and have a great day.
Terry
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Have you ever read a book called "God's Politics (Why the Right Gets It Wrong, and the Left Doesn't Get It)", by a guy named Jim Wallis? Absolutley fascinating book that explains so many things so clearly. He's a "faith-based activist" who seems to me to be dead on in his understanding of the current political situation in the U.S., and the world, today. I keep thinking, as I read it, "Gosh, if everyone could read this, and then act on it, we could "fix" what's wrong in the world today!"
Anyway, good job--and have a great day.
Terry
# posted by 
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