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... for reason and freedom. CommonSenS
Netitorial No. 2 August 31st, 2010
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Item First: the Ratchet Effect
One way to describe what I call the ratchet effect is to cite the example of the line that defines what is ‘morally unacceptable in movies. A single 4 letter word (now learned in kindergarten) yesteryear, morphs into a tit’s show in thisteryear...
On December 15th, 1939, Clark Gable uttered those used-to-be-famous words -- ‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!’ to a shell-shocked movie-going public. You say that shocks you? His use of the word ‘damn’ caused a firestorm of controversy and scandal.
Fast forward to the Super Bowl, February 2nd, 2004, and Janet Jackson’s ‘accidently’ exposed right breast goes out over Network air waves to millions (don’t even talk about what’s on cable or YouTube these days). When the FCC fined the network $550,000, CBS appealed the decision. The fine has been upheld , thrown out, and still wends its way thru the courts.
This ‘value creep’ of mores seems to be a function of human nature, and how we become desensitized (to decline?). It’s like one’s perception of growth when they are around a child or a puppy all the time, as they grow up, as opposed to what is perceived by someone else who only sees them once every so often.
“Wow, Junior sure is getting tall! ‘ Aunt Flo says when she arrives for that annual Easter visit.
“Really? Now that you mention it, I guess you’re right.’ Mom replies.
Something happens to test the boundaries of contemporary mores. Then comes a chorus of cat calls and hoots (figuratively, from our media or at least from pundits). When the controversy gets lost in the infoBlast, the ‘perp’ is washed by mea culpa’s and blessed as recovered, pretty much no matter what is done short of murder. Er, no, scratch that last statement, unfortunately.
What that does is lower the bar for the next challenge. And as we are all rushing by distracted by life, we don’t notice. Then along comes Aunt Flo and says -- hey, your values have been getting softer! And you have to admit, well, yeah.
Makes me a bit uncomfortable when I realize that I have just kind of shrugged it off.
But this discussion isn’t about mores per se, it wants to find out if the Sky is Really Falling, or was it an acorn that just fell out of that oak over there?
So first, we stir in some ratchet.
Item Second: Junk Science
Then we add some junk science. Man is there a ton of that out there, and the big winner is the back-slapping triumvirate of Al Gore, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, and the Academy awards.
Pet Peeve Alert: Man-made Global Warming
I grew up with the USAF Weather Officer who was so capable that he was chosen to forecast both the first US rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, and the first H-Bomb test in the Pacific, several years later. Lets just say that I had a better-than-most look, as much as any lay person might have, into weather, as I was growing up. And how long we have been keeping records. too? And what are we able to measure of it at all?
All the hoopla is based on computer models. The engineers had a saying in the video business when we’d come back with rough images: s__t in, s__t out. Models, even if they are based upon correct assumptions, are only as good as the data you input. And to hear the reporters (we’ll get to them) tell it, man-made global warming came down from the Mount, etched in stone tablets.
Which is not to say that a lot of the things we do, because the sky fell on Al’s head, are not good things. We screw up just fine as humans, but it somehow doesn’t seem like we have the same firepower as say, the Sun.
So, we may or may not be warming. And it may or may not be a ‘normal’ pattern over the roughly 4 1/2 Billion years (we think!) that the earth has been here. Hard to tell. Just this minute finished an article in Florida Trend Magazine, a tech supplement from the University of Florida, talking about very sophisticated research in the Antarctic Sea. The article paraphrases a geology Professor, Ellen Martin -- ‘climate is an extremely complex system that is hard to decipher based on human time span observations.’ Glad she gets it. That is, a reasonable consideration at the limitations of predicting weather at all, much less 50 years out. And her work was amazingly conceived :) -- the study of isotopes in grains of sand to determine flow from the Atlantic to the Pacific millions of years ago, if I got it right.
Now come all the agenda’s -- 3rd world countries wanting to leapfrog developed countries and get an edge; some scientists whose normally mundane field is suddenly worthy of Indiana Jones’ leather bomber jacket and fedora; industries vying between established ( Oil and Power Co’s) and imagined -- a way to trade ‘environmental’ credits that gives Wall Street another chance to get another 500 pounds of flesh.
So, does the truth stand a chance? It even got so bad for a while, as a scientist, if you didn’t tow the man-made cause line, you were like Galileo saying that the earth wasn’t the center of the universe. And your colleagues held the Inquisition. Intelligent thinkers had to keep their mouthes shut or no grant for them next cycle...
Once again, warming is not our topic today.
Item Third: the Media/NewsJunkie Argument
So, ratchet effect, junk science. What else we got? How about the Ted Turner effect (sorry Ted, but you opened Pandora’s Box). 24 hour, On-the-Spot, Up-To-The-Moment News. And now, YouTube.
They say it’s the chicken or the egg. The content providers just give the public what it wants, while the public looks at the media like they are ambulance chasers, which they sorta’ are. Because people are fascinated (glad it wasn’t me!) looking at wrecks.
Last week TV where I am was talking about bacteria levels in the ocean (the tourism folks winced, as they should have) probably caused by fish waste, and warning people. Having lived in Florida for quite a while, I don’t think I’m talking out of school when I say that I always assumed fish had to, you know, ‘go’ somewhere. Silly me.
Reminds me of a crafty video producer, who years ago, on a infomercial shoot in the Turks and Caicos Islands (BFE) all the way east in the Bahamas, asked the crew to pan left and right to keep the action up (swing the camera lens from left to right). Idiotic, but you have try and create something when nothing is happening, when it’s your job to show something is. Sometimes the weather folks almost act like they want a tornado, so they have a reason to break into regular programing.
So the media kind of mash-up rachet, and junk science, and pandering or promoting questionable stories. Like Marshall McClluan said -- the Media (has become) is the Message.
My Dad, that smart weather guy, once told me that the happiest people he ever met were in Germany, while we were stationed there. He said they had never been more than 20 klicks from the town they were born in. About 10 miles, 20 kilometers said the GI way.
Sure that was exaggerated a bit, but I bet they didn’t stray far, and hardly ever heard the news, as they were farmers way out in the countryside in the 50’s.
That’s about the only thing I can think to do -- just pay attention to my ‘God’s Little Acre’ and do my best to set a good example for others in the way I treat man and nature. Not take myself or the world so seriously, not let myself watch them proctoscope every topic that pops up on the evening news.
‘Pay attention to the small things, the big things take care of themselves’ (dear old Dad again).
Take a deep breath or two and think if what you see is as absurd as it seems. It may just be.
Twain said believe nothing of what you hear, and half of what you see.
Smart man, Twain.
Then again, who knows, maybe we’ll have another Ice Age.
About which they were so certain when I was in HIgh School eons ago, that Arthur Miller, the noted playwright, wrote one called ‘The Ice Man Cometh (our Senior Class play). It was all about our impending doom from the Glaciers that are supposed to be here now. We were supposed to be back in caves, wearing animal skins, what they knew for sure was true back then. Even made the cover of Time Magazine!
Epilog
Ouch, that was awful big for an acorn. Sorry, we got distracted for a minute, and Chicken still is confused a bit.
How bout you? What do you think? Leave a comment. Join In (follow! and tell your buds). We want everyone whose interest is piqued by our content to participate. Ours means to be a big tent, open for discussion. Feel free to comment, start a new topic, even offer a guest editorial (we reserve the right to... you know, NO violence, aggression, porn, or obscenity, name-calling or yer gone, Robert Rules of Order).
Haven’t picked a topic for next week -- there are so many choices... any ideas. Will be starting an awards program when I get the time to figure out how, but will have 3 categories:
Why America (your place here) is Swell.
Why America (your place here) is Not So Swell.
I Just Fell Down the Rabbit Hole (or, Kafka Is My Friend).
thoughts, anyone? Tell your friends to come give it a look.
me and Shadow.
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