Waking Life

Who is it that defends our country? I wonder what the
demographic make-up of our armed forces is. And how
it compares to the demographic profile of the United
States as a whole.
If China attacked the U.S. tomorrow, or some Chinese
terrorists flew some planes into the WTC, would I be
just as ready to join the army? Would I want to do so
more than I would otherwise?
What does it say to the rest of the world when their primary
interaction with our country is American cinema? Seriously,
when I think of how I interact with most foreign countries on
a day to day basis (thus I exclude the occasional vacation
as I can't afford otherwise) it's primarily through their movies and
occasionally through some of their citizens, traveling abroad.
Corporations have public relations departments to control
the perception of them by Wall Street, their investors.
Politicians and political parties are even more dependent
on public perception for their power than corporations, which
can show hard economic results to offset any subjective
assessments of their performance. I wish that politics
included some more truly concrete measurements for
political effectiveness and accomplishments. Because I've
seen what public relations is all about, and I've seen how the
press reacts to PR, and the process is horribly detrimental
to the truth. What we read or hear about politicians in
the press, from experts, from friends--it is like hearing a
person describe a courtroom artists sketch of a suspect.
What is it that causes so many sites to use mother's
maiden name as the question you have to answer to
retrieve your password? Is a person's mother's maiden
name really so hard to find out? Maybe it is. Someone
told me their mother's maiden name the other day and
I felt as if I suddenly had immense power over them.
If you didn't read that Chomsky article I referenced yesterday,
or maybe if you did and want to read more, a series of
interviews with him, conducted post Sept. 11, has been
published as an e-book titled 9/11.