Saturday, January 10, 2004
SHOCKED
Are we really as shocked as we seem to want to be when we hear reports of gross scandal and mis-conduct in high places?
Or, are we, in a strange reversal of self-esteem, led to accept the view that, since life has always been so disturbed from time to time, that we can overlook much of it when it does occur.
Some of the abuses have been going on for many, many years. Notably among them, have been the various levels of the problem of rampant pedophilia among the all-male clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. This has come to light in recent years, oddly enough largely because our temporal laws concerning limitations have encouraged victims to set forth any claims they might have before the statue of limitations rulings clipped their chances of recompense entirely. Just this week a statement was issued declaring that investigations have been conducted and that the problem was now under control.
Just how much such a pronouncement of conclusion amounts to remains to be seen. That has been a convenient, and much used, way out of problems that religious body has met with before. I feel it really hurts the Roman Catholic Church, too, far more than is, generally realized for admitted. I recall the feelings of a good friend of mine when we were both taking medieval history course under that most able and truly great mentor Dr. Julian Bishko at the University of Virginia. My friend, serious and almost in tears, confided in me one evening that he was seriously considering resigning from the course ...quitting... because what we were learning about the depths to which the Church had, at that time, fallen, was “undermining his Faith”. Fortunately, he stayed with it ...saw it through, and today, I would judge, is probably a devoted parishioner because, through the pages of history he witnessed much of what the church has had to withstand in the past ...to live with and among - and strive to best. The solution is never complete. The continued skirmishing must be fought even though the battle itself seems to fade away at times. Segments of the Protestant churches have had to face like, or worse, charges as well during recent decades.
It is not only religious scandals we must face.
We have political problems perpetually, it seems. One accuses a State Governor of accepting millions of dollars worth of gifts. How familiar that one sounds? Graft, nepotism, white-collar crime now in the computer area, business manipulation, lying, cheating and stealing have all run wild at times.
Are we becoming too complacent? How far do we go in thinking of this as being natural or normal. When such occurrences begin to be questioned in your natural or normal common sense department it has become a problem which can do you personal harm as it affects our nation.
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Scandal ....shame in high places ...makes many of our other “great problems“ seem petty in a sense, because it involves and concerns the very substance of our being.
A.L.M., January 8, 2004 [c519wds]
Friday, January 09, 2004
NATIVE TONGUES
I remember, as a kid, our being fascinated with the idea of having secret languages all our own.
I've never overcame that idea, now that I come to think of it, because I still get a thrill out of sending radio messages by Morse code. For some strange reason is more exciting than simply speaking into a mike and then listening to another operator taking his turn to talk. The use of code puts it all into the framework of being a “secret language” and I feel I am intimately involved in true radio at its finest.
You probably enjoyed speaking something we called “Pig Latin”, I”ll bet, which, in our version made use of a lot of confusing sounds of ”ix-nay” and “ax-nay” and sounded more like a horse language than anything used by chattering piglets. Its main use, as I recall, was to prevent younger children or girls from understanding what we older boys were talking about doing which was, after all, none of their business. We also spoke what everyone called “Pigeon English” which was modified version of what we thought Chinese might sound like, mixed with our version of the King's English as spoken in the Appalachian Mountains of the Commonwealth of Virginia. You, no doubt, remember it flavored with your own native dialect whatever that might have been. I remember I could never understand how it was connected with pigs down at the barnyard.
I faced a like problem when it came to our useful language called “Pigeon English” I never heard the birds vocalizing anything other than their constant “cooing” at each ocher. The lingo didn't sound any more like birds chattering than the “Pig Latin” sounded porkish. It was years later that I found the correct selling - and saying - was “pidgin” not like the feathered cooers at all. It had nothing whatever to do with fowl unless you happened to be buying rom or selling chicken's to Chinaman. The word “pidgin” was simply a Chinese word (one of many, I would imagine) meaning “business”. So the proper term meant “Business English”. It was the modified, cryptic and often, I would imagine, a mysteriously bickering patter when spoken by scheming tradesmen.
So much the Greek we know today is (that's “we” in a non-specific sense) comes from commercial use, abuse and mis-use of the classical Greek. We have same sort thing today in what we call “street talk”, don't we? The British still have large chunks of Cockney dialect, which is a real winner among tongues natively spoken and used to the speaker's advantage.
A.L.M. January 7, 2004 [c442wds]
Thursday, January 08, 2004
DECEPTION
The Age of the Stage Magician may well be on hold at the present time, but we are still subject to being fooled by the experts at deception found in the advertising field.
Slight-of-hand of the most insidious type is evident in many TV commercials. You can see it most readily in those advertising efforts intended to influence children.
Look for the element of deception if they are featuring sets of small plastic figures withwhich children might wish to play. The figure moved about in a lively fashion and appear in one exotic setting after another, with stance altered a bit in each instance. The child, watching these transitions on TV – everything from a scene on a polar ice cap to the depths of a steaming jungle or a sandy beach in pleasant sunlight - comes to accept the suggestion that the tiny dolls move about of their own violition. Give it all a background of terse, semi-authentic ethnic music and you've got yourself a winner. Orders will flow in from parents who's kids say they've "gottta have 'em".
The whole idea, of course, is to convince the viewer that sometghing exists which has not been apparent until that moment. One can have his or her attention distracted by music, color or sudden, offside or by a sudden movment offside and not see the quick hand effect the change. I worked with a man year ago who had developed a novel type of social "ice breaker". He would accept a persons business card and immediately ask why they had their cards printing on both sides. He waved the card toward those about him and, sure enough, the card appeared to be printed on both sides. His quick fingers turned it, not once but twice . The trick wore thin with time, however. On- lookers knew they were being tricked even if they did not know exactly how it had been done.
We are fooled more often than we know, of course.
There are so many ways of such trickery "coming at us" these days as science outstrips itself in so much our daily lives. Oddly enough, so many of the old scams which used to puzzled our grandparents are stlll around in modern dress. The hand is still quicker than the eye.
A.L.M. JANUARY 6, 2004 [c392wds]
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
THE LANDING
It may well have rankled a few British ciizens this week when their expedition to Mars did not function as planned, and, just a few days later the United States landed a second unmanned craft which deployed on schedule and is not sendng back color photographs of the surface of Mars.
This sort of competative antagonism refected by such an attitude may well have been acceptable in the early days of space studies as if it were a sports compoetiton of some type. We have now advanced too far into space technology to let petty jealoucies and distrubing elements of false pride to impede progress we can make together. The simple truth is we owe much to each other.
Such expressions of pride in our accomplishment seem, to me, to be found among average citizen groups rather than among scientist or people associated with the space industries which are fast become a vital part of our economy. Much of the sensational style reporting coming from the media is found to be a direct result of the desires and references of average readers. The media has to give its users what they want as well as some things they ought to have.
If technical flaws exixt in the British vehicle which has not worked properly, they are probably much the same as he systems used in our own craft. Working together we can ovecome such hadicaps and we can make greater progress with less expense and, hence, get more public support for space progams currently available. It would seem any efforts to overcome some of the critical nitpicking, much of which does not take the space programs seriously, is to curb the ezrering citizen rather than the those in charge.
What do we, as individuals, actully know about the values we might obtain from such projects? We know very little, We freely accept the suppositions of others who seem to think they do know, but often shows that their views are based on conjecture and guesswork just as ours have been. We are, it seems, in constant dabgerr of pre-judging space projects ahead of the actual trials which will prove what it worth.. We do the same thing when we try criminals in the court of public opinion instead of allowing the judicial elements of our governmen o do their job.
Let's refrain from allowing ourselves to be too critical of space prorgams, until we know what the stated purpose is, and some of such work being done, as well as its limitations. The true facts will come from those qualified to state them and not sugar-coated, exagerated, mutated, battery-powered and wrapped in glitzy plastic cartons for us from Disney studios.
Place a "Handle With Care" label on your space project folders and think at least twice before you get critical. We should be aware of the fact that political colorings are being added to space news to make it seem to has never been. If there is to be any one area of our existance which is best kept free of political mid-handling this space study area is that item. Envy concerning any such accomplishments can be a crippling thing.
A.L.M. January 4, 2004 [c537wds]
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