The Culture Wars In Print

Books, I am learning, play a major part in the American Culture Wars. I was in the bank today, when one of the tellers said to another that Charles Darwin had written in The Origin of Species that if they ever found life smaller than a single cell, that this invalidated all of his theories, and in effect, proved him wrong. Having personally slogged through The Origin of Species, I recall no such passage anywhere within the book, and Darwin goes into a fair amount of detail of current criticism of the theory of evolution. Later, at a bookstore, I found How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered The World, which seems to be a screed taking aim at anyone who dare believe anything other than the orthodox scientific view of the world, calling them everything from eccentric to dangerously delusional.

All of this prompted me to think about the Culture Wars (which have faded back into obscurity, given that it's currently nowhere near Christmas, and abortion clinic bombings seem to have gone out of style some years back), and the literary front. Not being much of a literary sort anymore (and having a preference for nonfiction over opinion and commentary), I hadn't really put much thought into the degree to which the Culture Wars are being waged in print. There seem to be thousands of books about, that attempt to bolster one side of the argument, or, perhaps more commonly, undermine the other. Despite the fact that The Origin of Species predates the American Civil War, and has been almost completely superseded by other works in the field of evolutionary biology, there is still an idea among the religiously-minded that being able to somehow discredit either the book or Charles Darwin will completely de-legitimize evolutionary theory, and leave the world with no choice but to accept the idea that the Genesis story (well, one of them, anyway) is a literal history of the origin of life on Earth. On the other hand, books like Christopher Hitchen's God is Not Great, and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion are widely understood to be attacks on both religious faith, and those who hold to it.

Not having the energy or the inclination to be a culture warrior myself, my interest in the literary side of the battle will remain more academic than active. (Although it can be hard to avoid the field of combat entirely - there are simply too many lone soldiers wandering around looking for enemy collaborators to do battle with.) But I suspect that one day I'll be interested to learn just how many skirmishes were fought in print, and who was judged to have won them.

Not A Problem

A friend of mine is having difficulties with his Google login. It appears that someone has hacked it, and taken over his accounts. One of the first things they did was change the password, so of course, he's locked out. Trying to get through to Google doesn't seem to be doing him much of any good. To a certain degree, this is unsurprising. Part of the cynicism that people have towards corporate America stems from a belief that corporations tend to be very diligent about shielding themselves from the problems that their customers might have with their products - perhaps more diligent than they are about creating quality products in the first place. Let's face it, if you go to the store and buy a loaf of bread, and it spontaneously combusts and burns down your home because some company bigwig decided that some flammable chemical was just the thing for the packaging, there's likely a disclaimer on the package that says that in purchasing that loaf of bread, you agree that nothing's ever the company's fault.

Of course, part of this is likely a pitfall of "free." People who represent a revenue stream tend to get faster service than people who a corporation looks on as freeloaders. But there is a certain amount of cynicism that is engendered by what seems to be a common idea in the modern United States. That "not MY problem" equals "not A problem." Corporations aren't the only ones who fall into this. It seems to be a general attitude across the nation. Ever notice how issues that tend to affect mainly poor and/or minority communities are minor - but when the white middle class starts feeling it, then suddenly it's a major crisis? For example - how much did we hear about offshoring when the only people affected by it were textile workers in the southeast?

So it seems the thing to do here is try to put the word out. Not that I'm expecting a sudden public outcry against Google or anything. But in making more people aware of what seems to be a pretty serious customer service lapse on Google's part, there's a better chance that they'll see this issue as being in part their problem. And while companies may ignore other people's problems, they rarely ignore their own.

Whither the Throwdown?

So I went and saw Transformers. Being old enough to remember the introduction of the original toy line, I was curious to see what a big-screen treatment of the subject would be like.

The giant robots were pretty impressive. Equally impressive was that the designs were not very toyetic. After all, Hasbro IS a toy company, so one could forgiven for thinking that they would absolutely insist on robot designs that could be easily mass-produced as toys. The fact that they didn't perhaps points to a level of confidence in the property that we've become unaccustomed to seeing in corporate America.

But I went to the movie thinking that I was going to see two-plus hours of impressively animated robots turning into things and beating the brake fluid out of each other, and I was prepared for some serious robot-butt-kicking to go on. And I was a little disappointed that it didn't seem to work out that way. The climactic battle at the end of the movie was something of a letdown, as they kept the focus on the movie's human characters. Given that they must have had a multi-bajillion dollar special effects budget, I really wanted to see the Autobots and Decepticons go head to head on center stage - at least for a few minutes.

Oh, well. That's why they have sequels...

Don't get me wrong. It was still a very fun movie. Giant robots trying to stay out of sight by hiding behind trees and under the eaves was Looney Tunes-level comic gold. The Deception police car (Barricade), with the motto "To punish and enslave," on its side was absolutely brilliant. And the Allspark imbuing a Nokia cell phone with life, a malevolent disposition, missile launchers and a miniature gatling gun was absolutely great.

But next time, more rock 'em, sock 'em, giant robot, please. Maybe it ended up on the cutting room floor, but it seemed that much of the big battle at the end of the movie takes place off-camera. Why make a big deal out of the fact that Ironhide is loaded for bear, if we never get to see him "bring the rain?" Megatron is standing on top of a building, dangling Jazz over the street - how did they get there? What was Ratchet doing the entire time? And where was Barricade? Not that the entire movie needed to be, as a friend off mine put it, "giant robots punching each other." But few people are going to see a movie based around a bunch of toys that turn into things in an interstellar battle between good and evil and expect to see a marvel of screenwriting and character development. So why not just go for the CG eye candy, and cut out the middleman?

Arab Fest

So every year at about this time, the Arab Center of Washington holds an Arab Festival, showcasing some 22 countries, down at the Seattle Center. This year, according to a radio story that I heard earlier this week, Christian missionaries will be attending, looking to convert Moslems that they come across. They will also be setting up outside mosques in the area. It was only a small story, in a top-of-the-hour news brief, not the sort of thing that seemed to warrant more enduring coverage.

I'm not sure that I approve. Yes, I understand that the missionaries have freedom of speech, and all that, but it seems... unwelcoming. Partially because it strikes me as being motivated more by fear than by a desire to spread "the Word of God." It's unlikely that Islamic radicals are going to be looking to recruit suicide bombers in a venue that an organization has created as an introduction of their culture to the rest of the world. But even if they did convert everybody they spoke to - what then? Our idea that the tensions that we're currently having with the Middle East, as well as Moslem populations in the rest of the world, is due to the religious differences, seems rather naive. Wouldn't they still be upset with us for what they perceive us as having done to them?

I was tempted to go down, and see if anything interesting would come of it, but I passed. Seattle Seafair is this weekend, and that means that one of the floating bridges in closed for part of the midday, so people don't kill themselves trying to watch the Blue Angels fly overhead when they should be watching the highway. So going into and out od Seattle is a pain, and I have a couple of standing appointments on the weekends that I need to keep. So going into the city is less than a good idea. But we'll see if anything pops up in the news later on this weekend.

You Can See It On Foot

There is a teriyaki place not very far from my new apartment. This should come as a surprise to exactly no-one. After all, I live near Seattle, and you can't swing a dead cat anywhere in the vicinity without breaking the windows of at least half a dozen teriyaki places, two Chinese restaurants, a sushi joint and a Thai place.

But I digress. The point isn't that there's a teriyaki place within walking distance. It's that I never knew it was there before. In fact, despite the fact that I've driven by the place time and again while I've lived out here, I've never noticed the entire strip mall that it sits in. I happened to notice it today simply because I walked over to the gas station for a quick bite to eat that didn't require me to cook anything. When I'm driving, I've found, I'm oblivious to everything that isn't right there on or next to the roadway. When I'm not driving, it's like a whole new world. There are all sorts of places, that have been there for years, and that I've driven past a million times, that I'm suddenly noticing for the first time. I suppose, do a degree, that sort of single-mindedness is helpful. After all, my driving record has no accidents that are more recent than twenty years ago. But something tells me that it might be worthwhile to do a little less driving, and give myself a chance to become better acquainted with this other world that seems to exist only when I'm not behind the wheel.