-Caveat Lector- Duct Tape Nation When hope and fear clash
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson 02/16/03 http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/Politics/ducttape.htm When I heard that duct tape and plastic sheeting were "flying off the shelves" in most major cities, especially Washington, my first thought was to hope Michael Moore was talking to some of those folks. In "Bowling for Columbine," Moore makes the points that we are led from one contrived crisis to the next and suffer one inflicted panic attack after another by a sensationalist and profit-driven media. The duct-tape phenomenon seemed part of the same social panic that leads the gun nuts to conclude that the only way they can deal with their family, friends and neighbors is if they have enough firepower to level Baghdad close at hand. My next thought, for I frequently have more than one in any given week, was that it would be fun to cobble up a fake ad for duct-tape and plastic sheeting head gear, that could be sold to people so they could keep the poison rays out. I'm not a political cartoonist, and my efforts reflect my utter lack of drawing skills, and so result in clip art and news photos combined with captions that right wingers insist aren't funny. Despite the endorsements from said right wingers, I'm not all that good at it, and I doubt Kevin Cunningham over at "Political Strikes" is losing any sleep over me. But, like a drunk at a karaoke bar, I keep trying. Just as I was beginning to gather some clip art to begin the project, NPR announced that the administration was now urging people NOT to seal up their homes with plastic sheeting and duct tape on the grounds that it was an idiotic idea that would do no good and would just leave dark sticky stuff on all the valances and moldings. Well, nuts. I guessed I was going to have to do actual work and write an essay instead. Darn it. Moore's documentary points out that life offers a simple choice. You can live in fear. Or you can live in hope. The fact that I even -saw- the documentary is illustrative of that. Up until a year ago, the nearest movie theater was 15 miles away, featured a sound system that had been subject to prostate surgery at some point, and was run by an aggrieved sort who felt he was doing everyone a major favor by only charging eight bucks for the latest blockbuster. Which meant that between that and the weather, we often just waited for the movie to come out on vid. In the past year, we got one of those multiplex jobs, with good sound systems and actual soundproofing between the theaters, and tube lights rather than 100 watt bulbs hanging from bare cords in the lobby. Popcorn made from this year's crop. All the amenities of the big city. But it was a chain multiplex, and all they knew about Mt. Shasta was that it was a rural area of some 13,000 people. Which meant that demographically, they better stick with the PG-13 blockbusters and not try to run any "art films" or documentaries. Mt. Shasta has a large artistic and intellectual community, and is considerably more sophisticated than most towns of this size. But marketing demographics is marketing demographics, so instead of Kenneth Brannagh, we got Harry Potter. I called them and requested "Bowling for Columbine" a couple of times, but without much hope. Corporate marketing demographics tend to be pretty hidebound. A good case in point was the local chain drug store. Small towns in California are not good locations to sell snow gear, normally a good assumption. Large towns are. The result is that the locals, if they want inexpensive snow boots, have to drive to the store in Redding, which averages less than one inch of snow per year, because they don't sell them in Mt. Shasta, which averages fourteen feet of snow per year. But a lot of other people made the same calls, and some even organized and signed a petition, and finally the theater decided to give it a try, blowing off dire warnings from local right wingers that people would stay away from such commie gun- grabbing nonsense. Not only did the theater have a great response to the movie, but they wound up holding it over for a second week. Hope over fear. A thought occurred to me during discussion of the pending peace rallies on line, and I approached a friend who is a retired psychiatrist to ask him about it. I had noticed that, more and more, the Putsch junta seemed to be falling into a pattern where on one day, they would panic the population ("We're at Orange alert! Protect yourself with duct tape and plastic sheeting!") and the next day, assure one and all that there was no cause for alarm, and to go about your normal business. This struck me as being a pretty solid example of brainwashing technique. The mere thought struck me as being paranoid, and while I know that the mere ability to question if a thought is paranoid is usually a pretty good indication that it is not, I wanted to get a knowledgeable and professional opinion on the matter. Now, my friend is a conspiracy buff. He routinely brings me material from a wide variety of sources, ranging from Michael Ruppert to David Ickes to Sedona Journal. It ranges from the highly credible to bullshit of the purest ray divine. (One of his more memorable passalongs was a magazine that reprinted a truly excellent interview with Gore Vidal, but lamented that Vidal couldn't see "the big picture," i.e., that the Bushes and the English Royalty were secretly extraterrestrial lizards). Given that he is sane, I know my friend doesn't take all the stuff he passes along seriously, but when he does, it's always with an animated expression. To him, it's the joy of the mystery. The joy of conjuring surmises. It's fun. When one of the theories is proven false, he merely shrugs and rejects the findings. If, however, one of his pet theories is shown to be true, he promptly drops the matter. It isn't fun any more. There's no mystery to chase. I mention this because I know the expression he gets when he's considering a conspiracy theory, be it contrails or the 2000 election. Like all good psychiatrists, he has an impenetrable poker face, but while he might use a bland expression to conceal, I don't believe I've ever seen him use it to deceive. When he responded, his expression was grim. He explained that the afflict/comfort cycle is one that is standard for brainwashing techniques, whether on a solitary prisoner or an entire population. The goal, of course, is to keep the subject anxious, confused, and dependent. Us. This government is doing that to us. My friend wasn't wearing his "conspiracy chase" face when he discussed this with me. Conspiracies are fun. This tiresome, manipulative and vicious junta is not fun. There's no mystery in this. Dictatorships and evil regimes have used it for years. Hope and fear. It can be used, manipulated, for evil purposes. But evil is limited by its own selfishness and stupidity. Hope and fear are eternal traits in the human psyche. Yesterday, 350 turned out in tiny Mt. Shasta in a cold, driving rain, to march up and down the Boulevard and cheer as drivers honked their support. Yesterday, one and a half million turned out in London and so terrified the lapdog Blair that he promised to hold off and wait for the next UN session on Iraq, sometime in March. Two million turned out in Rome. Australia had the biggest rallies in their history. Croats and Moslems marched together in Belgrade, while Blacks and Whites marched together in Johannesburg. It was the biggest worldwide demonstration for a cause in human history. The American corporate press, baffled and nervous, tried to downplay the demonstrations (the execrable CNN gave the NY demonstration ten seconds, showing two dozen demonstrators standing around an ANSWER banner) while the rest of the world exalted. The UN showed it had character and courage and was still relevant by standing up to the demands of the world's only superpower that it wage war on the people of a non-aggressor nation. The whores of the corporate press called them weasels and cowards, while people around the world cheered them. As the government played games with people's heads about plastic sheeting and duct tape, gleeful marchers used plastic sheeting and duct tape to cover their signs, their heads, and to make statements (duct tape in the form of a peace symbol on plastic sheeting was a popular item). Hope doesn't mean you have no use for plastic sheeting and duct tape. 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