Month: April 2003

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Baseball McCarthyism

Dale Petroskey, a former Reagan Administration official (who hates it when you mention that about him, in this context) has decided that Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins will not be allowed to attend a 15th Anniversary commemoration of the film “Bull Durham” at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

If read that carefully, the word is “attend”. Sarandon and Robbins were not scheduled to speak. They were simply going to attend. Without polling anybody in baseball, Petroskey decided that because both Robbins and Sarandon had made antiwar statements, they can not be allowed to be seen by baseball fans.

It is entirely predictable that the first words out of Petroskey’s mouth in defense of his action will include phrases like “I am in favor of freedom of speech” and “I am against censorship” and so on and so on. Have you ever talked to a racists? The first words out of their mouths, on the topic of race, is invariably “I am not a racist”. Think about, “it is not about oil”, and “clear skies act”, and “security forces”.

Of course he is against free speech. That is exactly what Petroskey is doing: suppressing free speech. He is punishing people with whom he has a political disagreement, and trying to prevent baseball fans from being exposed to any ideas other than his own.

This is political correctness.  Don’t let conservatives fool you into thinking it’s a left wing issue: the right is far more “politically correct” (wearing your flag lapel pin, are you?  standing for the national anthem?  pledge of allegiance?) than the left ever was.

Petroskey is not entirely stupid. He immediately announced that no “pro-war” speeches would be allowed… either. This, after inviting Ari Fleischer, the White House chief butt-kisser, to speak last year about the noble Bush agenda. But Robbins and Sarandon were not scheduled to speak. To be truly consistent, he would have to announce that nobody in favor of the war will be allowed to appear at any ceremony at the Hall of Fame either. However, since everybody is either in favor of the war or against the war, that would limit attendance, don’t you think?

In a bizarre twist on an already twisted perspective, Petroskey said that the appearance of Sarandon and Robbins could put U.S. troops “in danger”. It would be tempting to make fun of the statement, but it’s hard to even imagine a satirical explanation for that comment. Does he seriously think Saddam Hussein has some of his spies monitoring Cooperstown for signs of irresolution on the part of the U.S. Marines?

It’s a dark moment for our times. Yes, it’s funny and stupid and bizarre, but it’s also a dark moment. This is McCarthyism plain and simple. We don’t actually lock up dissidents (not yet, at least) but we deprive them of podium, profession, or credibility.

You may recall that Michael Moore’s book “Stupid White Men” was suppressed by his publisher, Harper Collins, in the aftermath of the World Trade Centre attacks. I’ll bet that among the first words out of the publisher’s mouth were the phrases “against censorship” and “believe in freedom of speech” and then he went and did the opposite.

You might have been able to argue that Michael Moore’s book might not have been welcomed by an America still reeling from a terrorist attack.  What difference does that make?  Let the market speak.  However, when the librarians of America finally insisted that the book be published (I’m not kidding), it shot to the top of the best-seller lists and stayed there for 9 months.

That’s the real danger, isn’t it, Mr. Petroskey? When Americans do get a chance to be exposed to decency and common sense, they might just reject assholes like you. Crawl back into your hole where you belong.

 

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The Permanent State of Crisis

The Republicans in Congress have just given themselves away.

They want to make the new Arbitrary Search and Seizure Act permanent.

Permanent.

Forever.

The current legislation, the so-called Patriot Act, which was passed as an emergency response to the World Trade Centre attacks, expires in two years (in 2005). If you were a reasonable person, would you think that the crisis is going to continue beyond two years? Well, it might, if George Walker Bush is still in office. He’s obviously incompetent. Let’s be fair and judge the man only by the results: according to the Bush Administration itself, we are not safer. Get out there and buy some duct tape. Let’s lock some people up without due process. Let’s prevent Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins from appearing at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But a reasonable person might be justified in asking if two more years is not enough to have made the world safe for Enron.

Permanent. Forever.

Why? Why would a lawmaker decide that we should make these draconian, unconstitutional laws permanent?

It’s really quite simple. And it’s now clear. Because the goal is not really to make the world safe. The goal is to keep all citizens in a perpetual state of fear, while the treasury of the United States Government is looted (with tax cuts for the rich), world markets are made safe for genetically modified foods and patented pharmaceutical products, and serious dissidents are arrested and locked up. The goal is to sustain the incredible level of spending on military toys by convincing most Americans that the world is full of deadly threats that we must be prepared to face.

The goal is to keep in power the petty, small-minded, paranoid white men of the Bush Administration, until they have completed their real agenda.

Hero: Senator Russ Feingold

The co-sponsor (with John McCain) of campaign finance reform, stood all alone in opposition to the “Patriot” Act. My only question is, when does he run for president? And if he does, will Joe Lieberman do to him, in the primaries, what another “good”, “decent” man, George Bush, did to John McCain in North Carolina?

[2022-04-28 Update: he didn’t have to.  Feingold was defeated in 2010 by Ron Johnson 52 to 47%.]

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Maryland Schools Sell Out

Why aren’t parents enraged when schools invite corporations to present plays and organize field trips for students at public schools?

This is one of the most insane things I’ve heard about. Schools throughout the United States are inviting corporations to pay for field trips and even to give “dramatic presentations” to students to get their corporate messages across to a captive audience in an “uncluttered” environment.

So, are these generous corporations sending children to museums and art galleries and theatres?

No. They are sending your children to Toys R Us and Petco and Saturn dealerships..

Isn’t this an insult to your intelligence? I mean, they are not even pretending to attach any real educational value to these excursions. Toys R Us, for god’s sake!

At Petco, the hapless students are presented with coupons entitling them to free goldfish. Not a free goldfish — a coupon. They have to blackmail their parents into returning to the store to redeem the coupons. This is allowed? This is legal? Don’t any parents care about this kind of crass exploitation of their children’s minds? Don’t they find it annoying to have two-bit hucksters in the classroom instead of a teacher?

They are seeing plays designed to teach children the virtues of consumption, the environmental friendliness of energy companies, and how wonderful it is to buy things.

The word “uncluttered” comes from Tom Harris, vice president of sales and marketing for “The National Theatre for Children” which basically presents advertising to children disguised as entertainment, and with the informed consent and complicity of principals and school boards.

Mr. Harris says it’s easy to dupe principals into accepting commercial intrusion, though he wouldn’t use the word “dupe”. Apparently, 95% of school boards are clueless enough to allow it.

The word “uncluttered” is chilling. In other words, the one environment in which children are not yet assaulted and bombarded with continuous advertising has opened the gates. The other chilling word he uses is “captive”. The children have no choice. They have to be in school. The parents have no choice– they have to send their children– it’s the law.

Was there ever a more flagrant expression of government intrusion into private lives than this?

This is as close as it gets to the government actually ordering its citizens to consume. This is the government actively promoting the gospel of conspicuous consumption. This is not free enterprise. This is corporate fascism. The minds and thoughts of the young must be turned to the “correct” attitude.

You don’t believe the National Theatre for Children is engaged in sheer propaganda? Read this description, from their website, of one of their programs:  In “Mission: It’s Possible,” a program favored by Wisconsin Gas, patriotic Professor Dabney Wabney is assigned by the government to produce a fuel that is plentiful, clean, and safe. After extensive research and the help of friends and colleagues, she discovers that there is no need to invent this elusive fuel because it already exists – natural gas. The show’s plot also explains where natural gas is found, how it is transported into people’s homes and why it is considered kind to the environment.

Are the children really learning about the environment and energy efficiency? Or about what a great, environmentally friendly, kid-loving corporation Wisconsin Gas is? Can’t wait to see an Enron or Monsanto-sponsored production! Just imagine what children can be taught about genetically modified foods and nuclear power plants!

Another production, conspicuously sponsored by Dole Food Co., promotes the virtues of eating fresh fruits and vegetables– and provides the children with coupons for Dole products.

Other productions, to be fair, try to discourage the children from smoking and promote environmental concerns. These are the Trojan Horses of this scam, usually sponsored by municipal water and waste departments

Even the tobacco companies recognize that it is a political necessity for them to pretend to want to discourage children from smoking.

Shoprite and United HealthCare are sponsors. Sponsors pay up to $1,000 per performance at elementary schools, or $10,000 per week at middle schools.

The National Theatre For Children actively promotes itself as a venue for corporate sponsors to get their messages to school children, with subtlety and tact, of course, but no less effectiveness.

As if corporate sponsorship of school outings and theatrical presentations wasn’t stupid enough, some school boards have prohibited trips to places of real educational value because of “security concerns”. Presumably, they are thinking that Osama Bin Laden is still out there and plotting right now to attack a group of American school children on a field trip to the Smithsonian.

I’m sorry if this offends anybody, but it has to be said that these people are either insanely paranoid or monumentally stupid or, more likely both..

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Acoustics

In spite of the fact that many American auditoriums in the 19th Century were based on European designs and traditions, there was never any conscious attempt to develop a “science” of building acoustics until 1898 when Wallace Sabine was commissioned by Financier Henry Higgenson of Boston to design a new symphony hall.

Until Mr. Sabine made a conscious effort to discover the objective properties of “good acoustics”, most American builders either modeled their designs on successful European buildings, or went with their instincts.

Carnegie Hall in New York was designed without reference to any acoustical science whatsoever. Apparently, it is quite good.

Many buildings are designed with reference to good acoustic principles. Then the buildings’ owners make a last minute change– add a balcony, or increase the width or something– and don’t go back to the architect for a re-reckoning of the acoustics. The results: disaster. The main auditorium at Redeemer College in Hamilton, for example, looks fabulous, but the sound is horrible. Choirs howl, instruments screech. (You don’t believe me? In all fairness, I must say that many people think the hall sounds just fine. I confirmed my impression with a music professor who led the choir that performed most often in that hall. I think we’re right.)

Sabine came up with a formula: the reverberation time multiplied by the quantity of absorbent material equals a constant that is proportional to the room’s volume.

Sabine then measured the reverberation time of some classic European halls, including Leipzig’s Gwandhaus and the Music Hall in Boston, and applied it to the design of the Symphony Hall. Symphony Hall is still around today and it is reputed to still have excellent acoustics.

Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Centre) had poor acoustics. The acoustical engineers tried and failed. They spent millions trying to fix it.

By the 1930’s, with the development of electronic amplification systems, the marriage of acoustics and structure began to fall apart. Today, whether you are watching a movie in a theatre or a live production at the Pantages Theatre, you will not hear the sound of the building. Everything you hear will be electronically processed and manipulated. That’s why singers can now project their affections for each other with breathless intimacy. That’s why people who can’t project at all– but can hold pitch– can now star in a musical production.

That’s probably a good thing. Why should only big people with voluminous chests get to sing? And I like the breathy, intimate sound of the quiet human voice. But don’t go away thinking that the building has “great acoustics”. The acoustics of the building are now largely irrelevant, as long as it doesn’t have vast hard surfaces to create feedback. What you are hearing is the result of electronic engineering.

Unfortunately, some shows now use taped or synthetic music to accompany the singers. Sometimes they use part of a real orchestra and a keyboard with synthesizer or digital recordings. People don’t like it a lot, so there is a bit of flimflam there– the producers want to keep their costs down by employing as few actual musicians as possible, but audiences want to feel that they had an “authentic” theatrical experience for their $75 a seat, so they put up a show of an orchestra.

In 1906, Julia Barnett Rice, who was married to the publisher of Forum Magazine, organized “The Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise”. New York had a “Noise Abatement Commission” in 1929. See? There was a time when people cared about ambient sound. I don’t think we care today. Maybe we’ve just given up on trying to control it. Until you’ve camped in the wilderness, you probably have no idea of how much constant, ambient sound you are inundated with. And I doubt that anybody fully understands how much stress this creates in the human nervous system.

One of these days, I believe we will find out that regular periods of silence are more effective than Prozac.

Did you know that “jazz” comes from the word “jass”, which was slang for “jasmine”, the smell of the perfume worn by prostitutes in the Storyville District in New Orleans? I didn’t know that.

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War and Our Attention-Span

Now we want all our wars to end in three days because the concentration required to care beyond that is unimaginable.”
Rebecca Noblit-Goodall, Adbusters, December 31, 2003