Merle -
You ask: /"I am really at a loss here. Why would ANYONE like to tour a
B-29? Give me one good reason.//"/
Interesting sociological (and gendered?) question! And some
interesting (also gendered?) answers. [TLDR for most of you]
There is definitely a strong bias in many men I know toward enjoying
(wallowing in) both mega-technology and warfare. It is an interesting
question as to which is the chicken and which is the egg. Are men
fascinated by these things because they are indoctrinated to them early
or are they fascinated with them early and simply make it more
extravagant as adults? Are women who become fascinated by such things
abnormal or were they simply indoctrinated differently? Do women just
intrinsically "know better"?
I remember two such "toys" of my own... the first being a metal airliner
about twice the size of my fist (age 2-3) with the little friction
motors in the wheels so that you could spin them up and let them roll
under their own power across a hard surface. Trying to make it fly, I
threw it over a fence where there was a big loud dog who took exception
to my trying to retrieve it.) The safety-yellow road-grader about 4
times the size of my little fist (age 3-4)... and I spent hours and
hours on the side of a mound of dirt making roads with it. I don't know
that I had ever actually seen a real road-grader doing such a thing but
somehow it was "obvious" to me. This I was enjoying so much, I failed
to pack it when we moved away and it remained on that pile of dirt until
another little boy came along to make rumbly diesel sounds as it skimmed
dirt and made level...
I WAS fascinated with both toys and had some idea of what they were
about, that on one hand they were fetishes for "full-size" and
uber-competent technology for doing "important stuff". On the other
hand, I don't know what... what is the magic of such things? Neither
was overtly military, but I suppose that was just luck of the draw... or
maybe my parents had some inkling that the glory of war was a false path?
I don't remember if/that my sister (2 years my senior) took any interest
in such things, though we *did* compete over other "toys"... with me
experimenting with her "perfume" making set whilst she made her own *bad
smells* with my chemistry set. This experience made me aware of my own
synesthaesia and it set her on a path to majoring in microbiology in
college... go figure.
My sister taught me to read by first reading Nancy Drew mysteries to
me... for her own entertainment I guess...I did find them interesting
enough... but one day she had no new ones and for reasons she cannot
explain, she read a book to me whose cover was an illustration of a WWI
Sopwith Camel Biplane and a WWII Fokker Triplane in a chase (no guns
blazing, so not obviously a dogfight in the stereotypical sense). The
story of these two "gallant knights of the air" caught my fancy and I
set out to learn to read using that book and at some point discovered
the vaguely parallel experiences of Tom Swift opposite Nancy Drew...
why I found an adolescent boy schlepping all over the world solving
problems with uber-technology fascinating while my sister found the
adventures of a slightly older adolescent girl doing the same thing more
locally with advanced social skills and powers of deduction, I can't
exactly say... but that was our divergence. Is it nurture reinforcing
nature or over-riding it? Would she have been better off if my parents
had brought her Tom Swift collections from the library? Or would she
have become bored and not become an avid reader? I wasn't bored with
Nancy Drew but boy did the WWI Aces and Tom Swift trump her best moments
in a hurry!
Later I began to construct and draw model airplanes, becoming quite
fascinated with the "rivet detail" on the WWII fighter planes... I had
no significant interest in the armaments on these amazingly capable
/phenotype-extenders/, those /transportation-prostheses/. I saw
airplanes (and all vehicles) as elaborate prosthesis which amplified my
ability to (especially) move through space rapidly, over long distances
and in unfamiliar mediums such as air, water, vacuum, even boring
through the ground (which Tom Swift was THAT?). My favorite antique
book is one of "rivet patterns" from the 1850s which shows a thousand
ways to join "boilerplate" into various *steamtight* vessels. It also
has a section "ingenious mechanisms for inventors and engineers". I
gave it to my nephew who is studying to be a Material Science Engineer
with the idea that if Eric Drexler was right, then perhaps
nano-materials will be macro-technologic mimics. Gears, levers,
guides, cams, etc. Who knows, maybe even riveted boilerplate (probably
not)!
This early fascination with aviation lead me to take a "pilot ground
school" class taught by one of the HS coaches who owned (a share in) a
plane and then during the summer between my sophomore and junior year in
college I had the opportunity to buy a 1947 Luscombe 2-seat taildragger
for the princely sum of $2000! It was virtually all I had in the
bank... but I already a good summer job near an airport without a tower
and spent that summer honing my skills at sunrise for an hour or two.
Me and a row of ratty cropdusters. A retired cropduster and a vietnam
helicopter pilot taught me the basics and stood back... in it's own way
it was less dangerous than my motorcycle riding at the time with a stall
speed of 45 mph... could (crash) land it anywhere and except for a few
manouvres it was well built enough to withstand any aerial nonsense
All that said, I'm not that interested in a B-29... but do understand
how many people (albeit mostly men?) would be for roughly the reasons
Cordingly enumerates here. I'd rather ogle the MIGs at the airport for
their low-tech implementation of high-tech concepts (Vacuum Tube
electronics?! a jet engine that can burn just about anything from diesel
to kerosene?), and for their unfamiliar performance envelope (out of the
range of birds, if not out of the range of darts and arrows). But the
1914 Ingram-Foster flyer (copy of the Curtis-Wrigth Model A biplane) at
the ABQ Sunport fascinates me a great deal more... a flying machine that
could be repaired (even built) by craftsmen of the time with hand tools
for the most part. Amazing!
As for Tom's responses... yes, should a pacifist go to a war museum? I
went to work at LANL at age 24 *as* a self-avowed pacifist... sadly I
conflated peace with lack of active warfare... I actually believed in
the doctrine of MAD and that "someone is going to have the big stick, it
might as well be us, because we are such good people". Fortunately I
came to understand the fallacy of all that over time... but I *was* very
much (otherwise) a pacifist.
> TJ wrote:
> For the same reason 4-year-old boys will spend hours watching
videos of bull dozers at work.
This has a sad note to it. I spent hours in the dirt with that tiny
fetish of a giant yellow machine rather than in front of a TV watching
someone else practice the same rituals on camera. I *did* get over my
mega-engineering fetish at some point in my life, but still can feel the
stir in my loins when I see some giant yellow machine shoving mountains
around or plucking trees up by their roots (as they scream their
tree-screams) and dropping them into grinders (that is how 599 got
cleared of pinon and juniper before the scraping began) to be turned to
mulch on the spot...
Whilst at a cognitive neuroscience conference a few years ago, the
researchers were all abuzz about "media budgets" for children. This was
not a part of their formal work nor presentations, but it seemed that
all of these grandparents had come to realize that their grandchildren
were spending excruciatingly inordinate amounts of time with electronic
devices. There was much discussion of the neural coding likely
coevolved with long nights around the campfire and how videos and
computer games trigger the same wiring. Of course, a lot of it was
grandparents disapproving of how *their* kids raised their own kids, but
nevertheless, I was moved. And in this instant wondering why I am
sitting staring at this screen when I could be out moving dirt around
with a big yellow (1949 Ford Dump Farm truck) or orange (1970 Kubota
small tractor) moving dirt around aimlessly!
Meanwhile, enjoy the tour all!
- Steve
Hmm...
* to get an appreciation of the macro and micro cultures of American
militarism of the period
* to marvel at the engineering accomplishments
* /Fifi/ is the last B-29 on active flying status* and that can't
last forever
* a fascination with warcraft
but of course that's not your point. Should pacifists avoid military
museums?
Robert C
* for a price (~$600-$1600) you can book a ride.
On 8/1/14 10:00 AM, Merle Lefkoff wrote:
On Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 2:01 PM, Tom Johnson <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Anyone want to join me in going out to tour a B-29 tomorrow
(Friday, Aug. 1) late morning after usual FRIAM roundup at St.
John's? $10 See
http://www.airpowersquadron.org/#!santa-fe-nm/ccjb
============================================
Tom Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
505.577.6482 <tel:505.577.6482>(c) 505.473.9646 <tel:505.473.9646>(h)
Twitter: jtjohnson
slideshare.net/jtjohnson/presentations
<http://slideshare.net/jtjohnson/presentations>
http://www.jtjohnson.com <http://www.jtjohnson.com/>
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
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--
Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
mobile: (303) 859-5609
skype: merlelefkoff
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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