Side By Side

Safety is key Safety is key

I believe we must protect the people

and to do so we must be the most powerful

we must have confidence we must have confidence

in the calmness of the human heart

for power in the wrong hands

leads to destruction

The future is upon us the future is upon us

we must explore new territory we must follow the lessons of the past

Man At The Crossroads

Man at the Crossroads, a fresco by Diego Rivera, was destroyed by Nelson Rockefeller before it was fully finished in 1934. Rivera had depicted the face of Lenin and a Soviet Russian May day parade for a piece which stood in NYC’s Rockefeller Center. Rivera later re-created the piece in Mexico, which is shown above. Rivera’s piece portrays one man torn between two opposite sides of a universe. For Rivera, this divide was ultimately capitalism and communism, but he leaves ample evidence that there is more than ideology which separates the worlds. At first glance, the working man at the very center stands out, questioning and unsure. He looks upward awkwardly as if waiting for answers. Directly underneath him, a hand emerges holding what seems to be a glowing orb of controls. Rivera indicates that it is under mankind’s control what path they choose. On the left lays capitalism, with a bust of Zeus standing strongly in the background. Rivera signifies capitalism lies on the promises of religion while communism is dependant on the strength of the people. Rivera also depicts various STD’s in the lense image to across the man’s right shoulder. It is said to have been placed above the face of Rockefeller, one of the men standing in the circled group, as a sign of disrespect for American business. Rivera depicts a picture of an x-ray machine on the capitalist side next to Darwin, symbolizing the affect of science on American culture. The skeleton, and the masses of people, look ahead into the various diseases, while the communist groups look ahead to the stars and planets. Rivera makes the claim that science has given mankind the power to control the future. He believes that capitalism is headed toward destruction while communism holds the keys to a better future. However his underlying message is that the correct leadership is critical to the safety of humanity, development is inevitable.

Progress Characterization

Progress doesn’t like to sleep. When he tries, he has too much on his mind. Last night he laid in his bed restless for forty two minutes, then sighed, got up, and went downstairs to his woodshop. Progress has a lot of projects. Sometimes he can’t quite keep track of them all, but he still manages to get them all somewhat finished. For progress it’s really all about the journey, when he finishes things he normally just tosses them aside and moves on to the next one. He leaves the finished piece to whoever’s around. Progress has a lot of love-hate relationships. For example I ran into him on the street the other day and he was trying to finish the last twenty pages of The Brothers Karamazov while on the way to a Neil Degrasse Tyson lecture. He told me he just wanted to finish the goddamn thing. Reading is hard for someone who can’t quite sit still. Coffee and Adderall are his most firm allies. He’s widely considered a good person, though most don’t know him well. When he gets excited, you know it must be about something pretty important. Sometimes he’ll have bunk ideas too though. He worked on a project with Violence and they restricted his passport. I think the people he works with determine the impact of his projects.  I’d say he is a bit proud. When The Third World called, he said he’d have to get back to them. Sometimes he just disappears, he won’t be around for a couple weeks, then you’ll go to the coffee shop and pick up a NYT to find him on the front page, touting some achievement for the Brits or the Chinese. He seems to travel more often these days. Being so busy, it seems crazy that he’s only taken on more and more responsibility over time. Science, his boss, seems to believe he’s King Midas or something. He’s got streaks of grey in his beard now though. When he’s gone, sometimes you think it’s for good, that he finally called it quits, that maybe he couldn’t quite get something and it drove him off.

Haikus

Steadily marching

light fades, waits for tomorrow

the shadow lengthens

red dots on foreheads

gunmetal gleams in my eye

pull the trigger - click

man at the crossroads

towards science or safety

to find the middle

With Great Power

Human nature’s greatest strength, and flaw, is a desire to understand the world and harness it for personal means. This sense of selfish curiosity has lead to humanity’s dominion over all previous animal species. As humans have become more efficient creatures, mastering survival, scientific development has pushed into unknown territory to organize and simplify what we do not understand about the universe. While most applications of this understanding are used for the greater good, technology has also created opportunities for the most evil and destructive events of all time. The effect of war on a country’s economic, industrial, and scientific progression is enormous, for example, jumpstarting the U.S. economy from the great depression. However this same period birthed the Manhattan Project: the most deadly weapon of all time and the beginning of an era where a minority could forcefully control the fate of the entire world. Government and Military focus on scientific research has created evil, but is necessary for the progression of society as a whole because scientific technology now forms the backbone of the first world. Although it seems to be a double-sided blade, strong military defense is a protective measure for most people and has increased the quality of life for all. If research is slowed or stopped, society would become stagnant, failing to progress in many other aspects.

From a defensive perspective, military development of technology has many uses for the defense of individual countries and creates tools to solve the difficult problems of the modern world. According to a study on the ethics and advancement of military technology, military research is justifiable and necessary because technological developments have drastically reduced the amount of collateral damage associated with eliminating legitimate military targets. (Maine, Brachle, Arago) If science has provided for more accurate deletion of undesirables, society has benefited because the whole can be left virtually untouched. While weapons of mass destruction pose a threat to the whole of humanity and the value of the planet, wise scientific research can provide efficient and safe methods to deal with violent problems. Fear of the unknown is the greatest factor which limits societal growth. For example, despite concrete evidence that nuclear energy creates effectively zero greenhouse gases or harmful acid rain effects, creates more compact waste than fossil fuels, and creates less expensive energy overall than other methods (Nuclear Tourist), nuclear power plants have not been the majority of the world associates nuclear with Chernobyl and the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the potential for worldwide destruction is now increased, scientific development has given humanity tools to deal with other problems society faces like global warming.

An emphasis on state funded military research has also been correlated to have lasting economic benefits, building a foundation for the country’s people which promotes a higher quality of life across the board. This is most notable in the United States, a country whose progression during the cold war on computer technology lead to the breakout of the internet and massive logistical analysis systems. A study which focuses on government spending on computer research in the 1940’s and 1950’s claims military funding created an American “pre-dominance” (Schechter), an edge on the market which has only recently begun to slip. This era laid the groundwork for the technology age with the United States leading the charge. Regardless of politics, this industry’s prosperity trickled into many others, providing opportunities for growth and an increase in average American’s quality of life. The eventual development of the internet has evolved our world, even how scientific research is conducted itself, but was a side-effect of defensively minded leaders who understood the possible negative effects, yet decided progression was critical.

In The Stand, by Stephen King, military research is taken to an extreme: biological weapons are developed as a defensive measure only to escape and ruin the world. King describes a fictional world where the polarity of good and evil is pronounced, even obvious. In reality, the undiscovered is the meeting place between the leaders of today and the risks of tomorrow, secretive and unforgiving. King describes a scenario where humanity’s insatiable desire has bitten off more than it can chew, a reminder that society must be conscious of its decisions and the fact that there is an infinite amount we do not know. Military power will never become absent from society, and it has historically created monstrosities, but today the world has more people, and a greater portion living good lives, than ever before.

The Stand: The Wait

The Stand: Blog Post 2

I’m getting closer to finishing, although not as close as I would like at this point. I’m now on page 1136 of 1647. The camps are beginning to really assemble, characters have grown out of their backstories and developed their own depth, and the spring, and the stand, is coming closer. I really like this book, but I do find myself wishing it would hurry up at times. Two of the characters, Nadine and Harold have evil intentions although they still remain in Boulder, the good team’s camp, and that provides the most interesting drama between characters. However because King can’t have them killed off, he has them plot and struggle with their relationships despite the lack of real action. Hopefully, one of them will lash out soon to provide some excitement. The matriarch of the good team is also missing, fasting in the desert after missing a key clue from God about Nadine, with no luck at all despite extensive searching. While King does a really great job juxtaposing technology and religion, even comparing the evil of Vegas with tech and the good of Boulder with divine faith, he chooses to make the main religious character disappear for several hundred pages while the mortals get back on their feet. It’s interesting to see society re-build itself in Boulder, but the growing suspense is getting a bit stale. I’m looking forward to hearing about the spies they send to Vegas, Abigail returning, Harold and Nadine being found out, and Stu Redman becoming Sheriff.

As far as my research on the novel goes, I feel like I’ve lost sight a little of what I want to do. As the story has progressed, I’ve become less focused on the relationship between the government/military and the superflu, and more interested on the relationship between religion and good, and the juxtaposition of that connection with the science and weapons gathered for evil. I think I may start trying to find a topic that could bridge that gap, perhaps talking about how the progression of science in a military setting has actually been a negative process overall. It would be instrumental to find a paper or essay on that from which I could develop a thesis for the research paper. I think I will just end up researching biological warfare in WWI and how the war sparked industrial and scientific research, despite the destruction it caused. It would honestly help me to choose a specific event within the war, but I will need to do more research over the course of this week to find a key battle or scientist which I can base my thesis on.

Until then I must keep reading. I honestly can’t believe that if I wasn’t reading the Stand I could have read maybe five other (read: shorter) books by now. I suppose that’s a healthy sign for my summer reading habits, which I hope will only be stronger when I have more time on my hands and less responsibility. I am also reading the entirety of The Stand on my phone, something I hadn’t really tried before but is actually better than expected. It’s nice to be able to read at any time, and with a book like this it totally saves space in my backpack. Plus I think it only cost me five bucks, the paperback is more like ten.

I am currently on page 911 of 1647 of The Stand, by Steven King. A fictional thriller, his uncut saga details the lives of the survivors of the "superflu" on both ends of the moral spectrum. After exploring about four hundred pages of character development and tense foreshadowing, the vast majority of the human population is dead, and the remaining humans must begin to rebuild society. On the side of the good, there is Nick Andros, a dumb mute who gains a leadership role despite being beaten down for most of his life because of his disabilities, Larry Underwood, a troubled ex-rock star on his way to helping others, and Frannie Goldsmith, a pregnant college student just trying to find sure footing. The evil camp, lead by the devil himself, Randall Flagg, includes Trashcan man, a pyromaniac, and Lloyd Henreid, one of the very first to sell his soul. These characters, alongside many more, are on a journey to stay alive and eventually clash (although I haven't gotten there yet). However, despite the amazing amount of plot which King packs into the novel, he manages to keep the audience in suspense and interested despite so many moving parts.

The best way to describe The Stand so far, is to say it is building momentum. As the characters learn more and more about the unknown waste and why they have immunity to the superflu through the dreams, King places a divine purpose under the westward travelers while describing Vegas as a festering growth, engorged with evil character. This sense of journey and growth will inevitably meet, with violent consequences. Although most of the story is about the aftermath, I think my research project may focus on the origins of the superflu and the government's past relationship with biological weapons. I really loved that King had the U.S. government spread the superflu overseas to cover their own tracks, a desperate, and effective measure to critique military wisdom and the corruption of power. I think if I could find any information on U.S. cover-ups related to testing or weapons, especially around the world war II era, I could dig up some really interesting stuff.

I have to admit that it's hard to analyze The Stand in the same way we have looked at other major literature this year. Although it is very entertaining, I feel like it lacks the intricacy or subtle meanings that emerge from novels like Slaughterhouse or Beloved. Although the story is a ridiculous fantasy it appears more real than the life of Billy Pilgrim because it doesn't mess with time and dabbles in long, sometimes pointless, character development. King seems to know he isn't necessarily trying to critique society, but to put on a really amazing show between the forces of good and evil. Perhaps as the story starts to come full circle I'll see what he's trying to say about people in modern society, that perhaps there is desperation of the same level present in modern America. Honestly I just want to know who wins.