🚀👽I Want to Believe and
The First Political Rant 👽
#TLDR
August 23, 2020
I hope you don’t mind, but I am going to copy and paste the text from my Roswell, New Mexico post from February 2018 here, slightly edited, to start off. Because I’m outside Area 51, the mysterious military installment in the Nevada desert that allegedly received the Roswell, New Mexico crash wreckage back in 1947. And it stirs up the same thoughts. I also may use some of my Camp Hero post from May 2017 here too. All of this is interrelated and all are unfinished thoughts. Because we can never really know for sure–a fact that makes me a bit of an “Agnostic Believer” of many conspiracies. Our never being able to know is not a skeptic view of validity but rather an acknowledgement of the depth of deception and misinformation; how blind we are; how well the distractions doled to us are working; how we now are adept at distracting ourselves. As a thoughtful, critical thinker, that disturbs me greatly, as do the subcultures that further trivialize the want to know, the want to believe.
I used to teach 5th graders American history. The overarching theme of the curriculum I created was that a country, like a person, is a complex thing. That a nation, our nation, is not just this one way. That as citizens we have a responsibility to think critically, to question, to resist, to dissent, to actively seek truth and justice. That is true patriotism. (added as additional political commentary) But seeking truth and justice can be difficult–for many reasons. Because, also like a person, a country may hide things to protect the ones it “loves” …if love means to placate in the hope to maintain well-established power structures. [I heart Noam Chomsky.] There is an order to things that needs protection and sometimes this merits widespread deception. Deception blindly accepted often passionately by those who claim to be patriotic… in spite of their perpetuation of the most terrible parts of our country.
So what am I going on about? Well, I’m annoyed how layers of disinformation and deception turn into light-hearted kitsch, easily dismissed. I’m annoyed that the cute alien head helps to fictionalize and indulge the masses, to gloss over something much larger and important. Like how all of a sudden my students started talking about the Illuminati, a well-established and far-reaching conspiracy theory…. then it turns out it was in some stupid kids movie! Media as a means of distraction, propaganda, [I really heart Noam Chomsky.] and now fictionalizing alleged truths that might have the ability to promote critical thought, questioning, resistance, dissent, truth and justice. I don’t like what is happening here.
Ok, now that the paste is drying up there. Some new thoughts. Prior to coming on this trip, while in my 2 week quarantine post Virginia, I tried my best to research each day exhaustively in an attempt to facilitate safety, context, appreciation and maximum pleasure during all adventures. But this stop, Area 51, had me diving deep–20 internet tabs deep, streaming documentaries, reading arguments and counter-arguments, texting with my learned syndicate of weirdo friends, and most certainly adding to my own F.B.I. file. To validate those efforts, some of my thoughts on alien conspiracy while you peruse my pictures of the alien-related roadside attractions.
Oddly perhaps, though not really for me, I will tie my views on alien conspiracy into veganism, among other related values that define my personal philosophies and politics. How arrogant a view that humans are superior beings–that our intellect is the pinnacle, that we are justified in asserting dominance over other species, that we are the center of the Universe… or the Multiverse, that we are anything more than a small part of the grand and majestic fabric of Nature. In fact, denial of these truths underlies so much human-inflicted horror, so much imbalance. The social constructs that perpetuate mainstream ignorance of those truths are, these days, is creating empirical evidence of just how damaging our skewed view is. The environment, social justice, our mental health. Unfortunately it is no longer possible to not participate in the layered rigged game that we hang our happiness, livelihood and survival on.
This is what we did, us humans. As a country, we built a nation on greed, entitlement, dominance on the backs of those we deemed inferior to us. These are not the actions born of superior intellect. Look at our president. Thankfully his name is only one syllable as he wouldn’t be able to pronounce it otherwise. As an educator I am appalled listening to a man who has to put strained effort into decoding while orating, who displays the same petulance and egocentrism I’ve grown accustomed to in my experiences teaching middle schoolers–children whose developmental level is marked with motives transparent to all but them. But he is supposed to be a grown up. He is supposed to at least convey a singular level of intelligence, at bare minimum. Is that too much to expect out of the leader of the country? But alas, he is, quite frankly, the personification of all that ails this place and continues its downward spiral–short cuts, superficiality, inauthenticity, ignorance, egoism, capitalism, unscrupulousness, vanity, opportunism, nepotism, entitlement, histrionism (I’m making up “isms” now.) Anyway, welcome to the first ever direct political rant on Vegan Victuals. But yes, how dare we presume to be all… just because that is the capacity of our understanding.
Onward to Area 51. Some indisputable history. The U.S. Government only admitted to Area 51’s existence in 2013 though it has been operating since 1955. During the Cold War, Area 51–named for the grid reference by the Atomic Energy Commission, whose mission is to “foster peace” by staying on top of atomic sciences–served as a testing ground for several experimental aircraft projects. It was (is) a highly secretive test site in a time of heavy suspicion and global espionage. These classified and fiercely guarded projects employed new technologies to establish undetectable aircrafts with the goal of carrying out reconnaissance missions to Russia. But just how far was The United States willing to go to win The Cold War? What else could be hidden within its clandestine projects in an effort to attain global military supremacy? And after 65 years of deceit, tell me why anybody should believe anything the government offers to debunk the multitude of alternate perspectives now?
So many conspiracy theories involve the government’s classified projects. Cloaked in deep secrecy, billions of dollars and resources were utilized without the knowledge of the populus, suppressing advancements of science and the progress, efficiency and sustainability they could offer the United States, the World, and its antiquated systems. Doing so would dismantle the power structures that keep the world order, the industries that profit on delusions. This all under the cloak of National Security.
We all want to know,… but it’s just not going to happen. Let the fact that you will never know teach you a little something about your government. Think critically, question, keep track of yourself within a setting and circumstances that are, in essence, manipulated to perpetuate more of the same. The truth–your truth–can be out there.