Puppet Masters of the Universe

“Until you realize how easy it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else’s game.” -Evita Ochel

A couple of decades into the twenty-first century we think nothing of having a space station, suppose the space stuff is true, what is the value? We just accept it and I don’t even know what they do up there. I do know a lot of money is being spent up there, when it could do a lot of good down here, just saying.

My work was on the road for a while, staying in motels with terrible cable TV. This one evening a Public Service Announcement played on the television. It spoke with hope about the eradication of Leprosy on this planet, and how it could be achieved with twenty million dollars.

Wow, thought I, that’s pretty cheap, who is going to pony up?

The very next program talked about a new blockbuster film and how the principal actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, had taken twenty million of his own money to keep a spectacular bus crash scene in the movie.

Is it just me?

Have you ever been in a position to influence perceptions around how major events are perceived, have you ever worked for a media outlet, written a blog, or wrote a review?

An event, perhaps horrific in its enormity to you, may only be a blip in another’s life. From your living room sofa, you watch a war being reported on your television, they speak of the death of a child, and you perceive the horror.

The video game operator responsible for the remote detonation of the missile that killed the child is only aware his target was destroyed, or not, and does not know of the child’s involvement, his perception is a job well done.

The sinking of the Titanic was a miracle from the perspective of the lobsters on board. Jack of all trades….one letter changes the meaning of one word in the sentence, one word changes the entire sentence's meaning, and seemingly insignificant errors in detail completely alter perspective.

The perspective you have on issues outside your sphere of influence, if gained from the standard media, is likely altered, not quite real, not quite fake. I know, a little confusing right?

Let me see if I can pull out another tale to bring a little clarity.

Once upon a time, I always wanted to start a story like that, I had a career as an Electronic News Gatherer. This meant that when a newsworthy event occurred, my beeper beeped, and I made the call. Yes beeper, I know I am dating myself, why not date the best! I digress…

Twenty minutes later we meet, the cameraman, soundman, and reporter. Silently we set up our equipment, this is a practiced routine, it is automatic, and we begin to record the event, the reporter telling the story.

Let’s make one thing clear, we were not live streaming, this type of manipulation occurs best when able to edit. A lot of video footage is shot of the event, around the event, and people at the event, a picture is greater than words when trying to convince, manipulate or distort.

When we return to the studio, the fun begins in the editing suite, bringing the story back to life, with only one purpose, to improve corporate profits through ratings, sensational!

Now we have all the outtakes and background footage, edited to tell the reporter's view. The reporter goes home and the editor adds the finishing touches, hmm I don’t think this little bit, maybe change that little bit.

Mr. Producer, is it ready for broadcast?

Apparently, it is not. Mr. Producer wishes to add his take on the event. “Wait!” you say. You are right my friend, he wasn’t even there, and yet his influence changes the point of view slightly, once again altering your perception of the event. The news story is not the entire truth, some of it isn’t even the truth, only what those in charge of the current reality want you to perceive.

If only the truth sold.

What we perceive is often influenced by the various media avenues we stroll. Take this as an example. I had an assignment to produce a documentary, using TV as a forum to provide facts and hopefully a most trustworthy interpretation of a newsworthy story, simply put, a documentary. Back in the 80’s, there was still some ethical journalism so the idea didn’t seem as impossible as it does today!

The environment was becoming a rallying point for youth in this pre-internet age, pollution, poisons, and perceptions were changing. This little story is about a dump, the drain a lake and fill it with garbage kinda dump.

The documentary was about how a combination of various toxins and miscellaneous hazardous waste reacted together in ways I am sure are warned about in the individual MSDS sheets, transforming the soil into leachate, soaking into and poisoning the ground.

You do realize, of course, water flows through the ground, yes, your drinking water.

The documentary of a picture-perfect garden full of poisoned vegetables.

Have you seen the one?

Of course not, it was too controversial in that time and place and it never got aired.

Sure, you don’t know me, perhaps my talent was not worthy, my story told too poorly. The same station that refused my documentary on the poison landfill, sent me north in a helicopter, to record a documentary on the first female worker in a heli logging camp, besides the ones cooking and cleaning of course.

Yes, that one got aired, barely… the affront, celebrating, not the first woman in a remote working camp, but the first woman in a non-traditional role. Do you see how basic censorship works?

All this banter back and forth about censoring the internet has seemed to stop. Does anyone have any idea why?

Let me tell you my theory. Grab a coffee, and settle yourself in.

Ready?

They don’t have to make any laws to censor the internet when they can lead us voluntarily down the garden path and into doing it ourselves by using dominant platforms with inherent censorship built into the contract.

Think about the most used social media platforms in existence and remember, everything is censored on them. Try it and see, make an innocuous post on Big Blue that a pandemic is not real. See how quickly your post was removed?

What is the movement of political correctness if not self-censoring?

While we are on the topic, how close is denial to censorship, can something be censored by being denied, and can something be denied by being censored…

The ice caps are melting!

Wait, pull yourself together, polar, not cappuccino, geesh!

As I understand it, the universe, and particularly the planet we are currently pillaging, will continue developing and changing, regardless of the bipedal wrecking machines with more potential intelligence than actual, that live on her.

Perhaps our behaviour has sped up the natural processes, perhaps not. These scientific debates are not within my realm of knowledge or understanding, a less capable source would be hard to come by.

Instead, let me tell you a story, and as always, you decide.

We stood on Fo’c’sle and bridge, those by duty or lack thereof, and took a collective gasp! Most of us had never been in front of such an ancient and monolithic masterpiece.

Let’s go back a bit.

At one time parts of the world now desert, held sea and vice versa. Let your imagination wander for a moment, visualizing what my inadequacies are unable to describe. Other parts of the world were covered in massive sheets of moving ice. Now, of course, naysayers in the Cowichan Valley and Alberta aside, most of us believe these things to be true.

Have you ever attended a homeschooling field trip to a fossil bed with fundamentalist Christians? God put those fossils there for us to find, after all the earth is only four to six thousand years old, depending on which group you ask. Sorry, digression is sometimes progression.

So there we stood and sat, each according to their station, as the glacier melted, massive chunks falling and the thunderclaps as they hit the ocean.

Is it weird they call it calving?

“One mile”, the navigator says, “if the coordinates you provided are accurate, that glacier has receded almost exactly a mile in the last seven years.”

You see, some crew members had been to this exact spot seven years previously, well not exactly the same spot, as the glacier had been there, but you get the idea.

Is it Politically Correct to admit chilling a cola on chunks of glacier fished from the sea?

There certainly are some incredible finds along the coast of North America. On another occasion, we found a hot tub nestled in a small bay, with no population of people, no roads, just a small wooden dock for the ship's RHIB. It was a surreal treat that afternoon, we even passed around cigars as we each took our turn for some well-earned relaxation.

Along the same piece of coast, there exists another bay, relatively recently created by a melting glacier of which I was told a real mind-bending story, perhaps it will make more sense to you, my learned friend.

There is a piece of the good ole US of A carved from the coastline of northern British Columbia. As I understood, the water in front of it belonged to Canada, the land to the USA. Now here is where it gets tricky, see if I get this right.

A glacier is receding from the Pacific Ocean straight through this bit of America carved from Canada, apparently, the water rights follow the water and as the glacier disappears water appears and pretty soon we should have a piece of Canada inside a piece of America, inside a piece of Canada. What political ramifications will ensue, and how will borders be defended?

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!