I’ve written before about how the word “secret” has become obsolete in the world of any, where anyone, anywhere, can get hold of information about anything, anytime. Like the location of the British Queen’s summer house, or the name of people involved in confidential court cases.
The other day, someone stumbled upon the Boneyard on Google Earth. Within microseconds, anyone, anywhere had heard the news, and wanted to find the treasure themselves (just check out the explosion on google trends).
Formally named the 309th Aerospace maintenance and regeneration group, AMARG, the Boneyard is the (in the yestermillennium known as) “secret” location of the US Airforce’s used aircraft since World War II. It harbors aircraft summing up to an esitmated value of 60 billion dollars. Interested in a uses military airplane? Now you know where to go.
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so how come we can’t find bin laden? Is he the last one to use his sticky fingers and leave a trace or have the US used yestermillenium ways to find him?
Martin,
That’s a really good question. I’m pretty sure they would have found him if they’d taken full advantage of the world of any. I think politics might actually have been in the way for this. What do you think?
emvehå,
MD
Micael,
Well they supported him once in Afghanistan when the Soviets invaded. Who knows what is really going on behind the scenes. Bin laden’s video messages and the Americans anti terrorism rhetoric is good for one particular industry, namely the military, just look at the percentage of the American budget going to the military and military aid to rogue governments.
So yeah, if they really wanted to get him, they would have by now.
Souciance,
Insightful, good perspective. I’m thinking, won’t the US military soon have a problem with credibility – in the world of any, where anyone is accessible, and “apprehensible”, people should soon doubt either the ability or the intentions in the efforts?
Would the next thing be to let the public vote or steer via, for example, twitter?
emvehå,
MD
Micael,
True, but if you remember, in a society where the main goal is to crave the next thing that satisfies our urges, there is no room for critical thinking or questioning authority. Instead the standard is to be an obedient and “happy” consumer always looking for the next thing to buy. In world like this, people can get away with pretty much everything, even if the information is available to everyone anytime. This is because whilst the information is available, the desire to question and the will to act is not there anymore. Psychologically the will to act against seems to get suppressed by the desire to maximize comfort and happiness.
regards
Souciance
By the way, have you watched the documentary “The Century of Self” ? If you not I would highly recommend it as it explains quit in depth how from the time of Edward Bernays marketing and politics has gone hand in hand in order to form society in a way where people no longer buy goods because they need it, i.e. the good serves a function but because how the product makes them feel. The documentary is in 4 parts I think but yeah I recommend it very much.
Souciance,
Really interesting twist! I can definitely see what you mean with our impatience to move on, which would eliminate afterthoughts and thus the inclination to criticize. Also, we tend to forget past events (like the chase for Usama) so quickly that there would be nothing for us to criticize.
But I’m not sure how you think about the “obedient” consumer – is that what one would perceive and (falsely) conclude as an outside observer, or do you mean there is really such a norm which people adhere to?
Maybe I need to watch the documentary to get the answer?
emvehå,
MD
Micael,
Here are the links..
http://www.veoh.com/collection/powermongering/watch/v331913aKp43GXW
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-678466363224520614&ei=QIWOS-DnK4q62wKUpdCLCw&q=the+century+of+self
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6111922724894802811&ei=QIWOS-DnK4q62wKUpdCLCw&q=the+century+of+self
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1122532358497501036&ei=QIWOS-DnK4q62wKUpdCLCw&q=the+century+of+self
Please see them when you have time as they are very interesting, and goes through the historical details of how marketing has shaped modern society. I am sure you will find it to the likening.
Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Well by
“obedient” citizen, I mean one who has reached that point where he or she feels that it is only absolutely necessary to critize authority when it only affects yourself otherwise best not to. I think Michael Moore said once that it is strange that big media corporations allow the selling of documentaries that speak against their way of doing buisness. He said that their view is that even though citizens see and get informed, it will cause an initial shock, but after a while it will subside and life goes back to normality. This is sort of what I mean by the obedient citizen. I also think that if China, Senegal or Chile got the same level of standard of living as us they too would be as “obedient” as us. It is something that is part of the economic system. If people would constantly question what they are buying, how it is made, why politicians never fix the problem, then off course society would look totally different right?
BR
Souciance
Hi,
I submitted two comments earlier today but they did not get posted? I will comment back tomorrow.
BR
Souciance