Blank Generation

So here’s to our collagen lips and saline tits
To our growth hormones and antibiotics
To the Hollywood world we made out of Barbie-doll hearts
After we melted them down so we could make a new start
Here’s to a generation scared and always wondering why
Instead of playing doctor
We play ‘shoot each other and die’,
Instead of ring around the rosie we play hide from mommy
Because mommy’s been drinking again and we don’t wanna get beat
Even with all our tattoos, and all of our cheap thrills
There’s still a hole inside of us that will never get filled
So we give back a little bit of what the world’s given us
Giving back a bit of never giving a fuck.

Machine Head,
Blank Generation

We’re sitting in class at the end of the year, and we’re at the end of our History syllabus: The Second World War.
“I feel that watching the footage from Concentration Camps is a sort of voyeurism,” said my history teacher when asked why she didn’t want to show us any of the footage. I myself have seen hundreds of images and several video clips, not to mention read several accounts of the horrors that went on inside those camps in the 30s and 40s. Therefore, I had an idea of the images we would be watching. She started the tape.

Even I was not prepared for the horror that was developing on the television screen. Prisoners of war so thin that they were merely walking skeletons; devoid of all individuality, conformed to the image the Nazis wanted to give them: something other than human. Bodies of emaciated prisoners flung into ditches like rag-dolls, the look of pure despair and horror on their faces. Tears welled in my eyes (and indeed they still do at the thought of it, merely half an hour after viewing the video in question), but I did not weep. I merely sat there, showing a blank expression on my face, watching the images. The video ended.

They had clamored to watch the video; as soon as they started nagging the teacher, I knew they had no idea of what they were letting themselves into. I expected a few people to be teary, but a general stunned silence to envelop the class. It did not. Five minutes later, they were giggling, laughing and chatting amongst each other.

This is the day my hope for human empathy dies. We are no longer Generation X, we are the Blank Generation. A generation of youth so desensitized by violence that it does not affect us, does not provoke a strong emotion. Violence is glamorized on the Idiot-Box and in Holy-Wood, imposing the idea upon th
e young child that violence is the norm as long as you’re killing the bad guys. The lines are very obviously drawn on the TV as to who the “good guys” are and who “the bad guys are”. We’re creating a generation of young soldiers.

In the United Kingdom, the army recruitment adverts are becoming all the more blatant in the fact that they market themselves toward teenagers. I know that one army recruitment advert shows a soldier piloting a spy plane with an X-Box controller. “Come and join the army, it’ll be just like a video-game, just without a reset button!”.

Television isn’t the only medium we desensitize children to violence, either. In one of his spoken-word pieces, former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra shows the audience his collection of Desert Storm bubblegum cards (sold without any bubblegum), which features well-known weapons and generals complete with ‘batting average’.

So why haven’t I gotten to video games? I thought I’d leave them till last in order to transmit this message:

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT KILL PEOPLE.

Sorry, what was that? Maybe you’d like to hear it again.

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT KILL PEOPLE.

“So what does kill people, James?” I hear you ask. Well, I must admit, I kind of left out the other half of the message. And this is the important part.

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT KILL PEOPLE. PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE.

Regardless of what various parents and government officials say, a video game does not make someone go out and kill another person. They desensitize us to violence, but only to a certain extent. I am the proud owner of around seventy PS2 video games including Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil and Max Payne, yet I have never had the urge to walk into my school and start shooting people.
I always find it amazing how the blame for such incidents is never placed on the parents, and family life is never scrutinized. Is the father beating him? Are his parents getting a divorce? Who the hell cares?! As long as we’ve got video games and Marilyn Manson to blame, we don’t need to look for other explanations. And this, my friends is possibly the worst type of desensitizing out there: the desensitizing of global scrutiny and investigation. People are no longer willing to do a little detective work if they can simply find a scapegoat at the snap of a finger. We are being taught by Fox News pundits such as Hannity and Colmes to center our attention on violent video-games, in order to brainwash us into the pseudo-conservative ideal of “You are free to do and think what we tell you”. They are creating generation after Blank Generation by discouraging independent inquiry, urging us to leave it to (fanfare)

THE PROFESSIONALS.

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.

So think about that the next time you see Mr. White-Collared Conservative on the television. Also, try to teach your children to feel a little empathy, try to avoid another Blank Generation popping out like champagne corks.

As an afterword, I would like to go back to my original reason for writing this. While profoundly shocked by what I witnessed amongst my classmates this morning, I still stand beside my strong conviction that we
should
show students as much of this footage as possible; in order for them to better understand the horrors of human will. The question is; will this desensitize future generations even more? Something to think about when you have a spare moment.

Signing off for now,

James.

Nineteen Eighty Four and the Idiot Box

Over a dozen hidden cameras document the every move of several ex-members of the general public, each of whom passes each day locked in a house being forced to perform menial and pointless tasks for the amusement of several million viewers, all sitting around the television each night with square eyes and closed minds.
No, this is not the basis for a science-fiction movie, or even an Orwellian novel. The new series of Big Brother has hit the British airwaves.
First, let this be made clear: I HATE Big Brother with a passion. To me it represents everything that is wrong with Television, especially reality TV. A dozen morons competing against each other for the amusement of the sheeple on the outside world. What could be worse? The people who watch BB (one of which, I’m afraid to say is a member of my family) seem to be able to conjure up a plethora of excuses as to how watching this show doesn’t make them idiots. The most laughable one I have heard recently was something along the lines of “Oh no, you don’t understand! Big Brother teaches us to value our privacy and be more aware of the surveillance we’re subjected to daily by the government!” Or how about “It’s a tribute to George Orwell!”? Bull. Fucking. Shit. Orwell would be spinning in his grave if he knew the ideas from his dystopian novel were being adapted (perhaps even stolen) in order to create… well… that. I somehow doubt that the Channel Four executives had actually read 1984 before ideologically raping it’s main concept.
But does Big Brother have more serious implications hidden behind the gaudy interior decorating and the shit-for-brains contestants? Think about it for a second, Channel Four are effectively marketing this as a program that combines voyeurism and entertainment. The constestants are filmed all day, every day by hidden cameras. Notice anything familiar?
A recent survey found that there is on average one CCTV camera for every five British citizens in the UK at the moment, constantly filming our every move. The question is, is Big Brother trying to teach us that this blatant invasion of privacy on behalf of the government is an acceptable part of every-day life by repackaging it and glamourizing it? Could we be spawning a new generation who have a pre-programmed indifference to the fact that they’re being watched by the government every day of their lives, because they’ve seen the same thing on TV, and they say it’s OK? And perhaps the most important question to ask would be: is Channel Four aware of the implications their sub-standard programming is providing?
I think I’ll just switch over to Channel Five. At least they flaunt the rampant soft-porn without trying to find any excuses. Coming soon: a documentary about a man who has sex with cars! Yay!

Signing out,
James

I Pledge Allegiance…

In America, the flag has replaced the need for religion. Indeed, we are finding ourselves in a new dictatorship that is not all unsimilar to the Mussolini and Hitler-esque cult of personality. But instead of a man embodying the ideological representations of a country, he has been replaced by a rectangular piece of cloth featuring fifty stars and twelve red and white stripes.
Whereas in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy school-children were required to pledge allegiance to Il Duce or Der Führer, a more chilling battle-cry emerges from their fragile eggshell minds:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America”.

The American Flag has replaced the President as the new ideological catalyst that guides the most powerful nation on earth. No more will people ask themselves “WWJD?” (What Would Jesus Do?) but instead will base their daily decisions and actions according to what the American Flag would do.
Flash forward to twenty-odd years and the Orwellian nightmare has become complete. The World Trade Organization, the PMRC and the corrupt law-enforcement institutions employ the television networks to keep the sheeple in line. It is eight ‘o’ clock in the evening; Prime Time. The American Nuclear Family sit around their idiot-box and the courageous bugle of the United States Military pours out of the speakers.
“At nine PM, Jay Leno speaks to Joey Lawrence about his upcoming film, but first a PSA from the Provider”
Fade in to the American flag. A Big-Brother-esque figure appears from nowhere. The family stand up and place their right hands over their hearts. Simultaneously, and throughout the country; a single, brainwashed cry emerges from the mouths of each American:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.”

The battle for hearts and minds has been won by extracting the hearts and minds of the People and replacing them with pre-programmed microchips set to one directive: obey, buy and fear. The American flag must be obeyed. Do not desecrate the American flag, lest ye be punished. Stand up like a proud American and shout out your submission to a rectangular piece of fabric swaying in the artificial wind. Men have died for this flag. To hell with ideals. The concept of fighting for democracy and freedom was shunted. Men have fought and died for this rectangular piece of fabric; all the while reciting the same fundamentalist chant in their heads:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.”

What next? “I pledge allegiance to Nike, and their kick-ass basketball shoes that helped Kobe win the Playoffs”? Or how about “I pledge allegiance to Ronald McDonald”? Nevermind Ronald Reagan; he’s long gone. How long until the American flag becomes a trademark? How long until every American is required to own an American flag, disregarding the fact it was made in Korea similar to in Nazi Germany, where every German citizen was required to own a copy of Mein Kampf? How long until the Orwellian nightmare described above becomes true?
We already had the scandal over burning the American Flag during the eighties and nineties. Throughout the country, people were asking each other ‘is it okay to burn the flag’? Nevermind serious ethical and moral issues, nevermind foreign relations and poverty; we need to know whether or not burning a rectangular piece of cloth is legal or not. This is the ideological dictatorship Americans are living in, where a deliberate campaign of ignorance is issued through the Idiot-boxes in order to keep the People planted in front of the TV, drooling.
Welcome to 1984, the next generation. You are free… to do what they tell you.
I pledge allegiance. Not to the American Flag, but what it stands for: freedom; not to do what they tell you, but freedom of choice.

Stay sane,
James

Right vs. Left : Why all the Hate?

In America, there are hardly any centrist politics at all nowadays; it seems that you’re either lumped in as a “liberal” or a “conservative”, regardless of whether or not your political ideologies conflict with that of the rest of the community.
America has come a long way since the McCarthy “red-scare” era, but it still has a journey to undertake if leftist ideologies are to take a better hold. I feel that Europe is considerably more evolved than the Americas when it comes to politics, because we do actually have that freedom when it comes to our political ideologies. This is evidenced in France through the strong presence of leftist parties such as the PCF (Parti Communiste Français) and the PS (Parti Socialiste), as well as some of the extreme right parties such as the FN (Front National).
I personally think the liberal and neo-con parties would be united if they formed together to struggle against a common enemy: the far-right racist and neo-Nazi racial separatist parties that seem to be springing up like wildfire across the United States. While freedom of speech is supposedly valued in the United States, these civil liberties are exploited by such personalities as Tom Metzger, a neo-nazi radio host and self confessed racist who used his radio show as a medium for spewing forth his racist agenda, urging like-minded individuals to strike out against the US government. While law enforcement agencies such as the police and the FBI are keeping a close eye on Metzger, they have so far been unable to charge him with breaking the law, as he words his message in such a way that he is not actually breaking the law, and protected by his first amendment rights.
I believe that if the United States government were to pay more attention to people like Metzger, the leftist community and the centre-right politicians would have a common enemy, thus sweeping aside more trivial disputes that they have between each-other. This would be beneficial, as the parties would not be trying to simply win elections, but would work together to create a better society to live in.

Chernobyl

The 26th April 1986 is burned into our memory, and will stay there for many years to come. The Chernobyl disaster has become perhaps one of the most dramatic arguments supporting the end to nuclear proliferation. Surprisingly enough, within the past decade or so, the 30km exclusion zone surrounding the NPP and Pripyat has become an increasingly popular tourist destination among those who wish to visit the exclusion zone and soak up some of the history and the atmosphere.

A Little History

It was April 25th 1986, and the technicians working in Reactor 4 were in the process of preparing the reactor for shutdown, so that maintenance could be performed on the reactor and various performance tests could be exacted. The head of the maintenance operation decided to test the efficiency of the fail-safe systems, making sure that the reactor could generate enough electricity to power up the safety protocols preventing a meltdown of the reactor. The reactor itself was an RBMK-1000 model which required water to be continuously circulated through the core, in order to cool down the nuclear fuel and prevent any accidents.
The plant’s reactors themselves had back-up generators as a precaution, though it would take 40 seconds for the generators to power up to full speed in case of an accident. Nevertheless, the maintenance team went ahead with the preparation, as they felt they could react in time lest something go wrong, despite a test run already coming up negative. The reactor output (in other words, the amount of electricity the reactors produced) had been gradually reduced to 50% causing a regional power generator to go offline. This was an unexpected complication for the team, as they had not projected that this would happen. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a massive setback so they continued with the test. The grid controller at Kiev furthermore requested that the team stop the reduction of the output rate, as they needed electricity for rush hour and the like in the evening. The plant director agreed and postponed the testing, and left a skeleton crew to watch over the plant during the night. The crew itself had very little experience when it came to these types of tests, and were indeed insufficiently advised concerning reactor safety, this was one of the main factors responsible for the meltdown, yet the worst was still to come.
The crew were unaware of the postponement of the reactor shutdown, whether it be through communications errors or simple incompetence. They therefore followed the original test protocol that had been planned out prior to the decision to postpone the testing. This meant that the power level supporting the safety protocols that safe-guarded the reactor were decreased too rapidly, leaving the reactor incredibly vulnerable. The reactor started to produce more nuclear toxins (Xenon-135) which further dropped the power output, further endangering the integrity of the reactor core. The operators, through sheer inexperience simply believed that this was a malfunction in the automated power generators and not because of reactor poisoning. They then decided to try and increase the productivity of the reactor by extracting the control rods from the reactor’s core.

Then came the day of the experiment itself. Officially, we know that it started at 1:23:04AM on the morning of April 26th. Through what was possibly an equipment malfunction, the unstable state of the reactor did not show on the control panel, therefore the team were unaware of the fact that there was something wrong. The steam leading to the turbines was then shut off, and the water cooling the reactor decreased in flow. The turbine was further disconnected from the reactor, which in turn increased the amount of steam contained therein, heating up the core. The reactor had an elevated void coefficient (the rate at which a nuclear reactor can change as steam bubbles form in the coolant) and the reactor started to become unstable.
At 1:23:40 AM the team noticed that something was going wrong and ordered an immediate shutdown of the reactor, re-inserting the control rods into the reactor core. The emergency shutdown was known as a SCRAM and Anatoly Dyatlov, who was the deputy chief engineer of the plant further stated in his book Chernobyl, How did it Happen? :

Prior to 01:23:40, systems of centralized control … didn’t register any parameter changes that could justify the SCRAM. Commission … gathered and analyzed large amount of materials and, as stated in its report, failed to determine the reason why the SCRAM was ordered. There was no need to look for the reason. The reactor was simply being shut down upon the completion of the experiment.

The mechanism that inserted the control rods was incredibly slow, which in turn reduced the amount of coolant generated around the reactor, meaning that the emergency shutdown increased the reaction rate. At this point, nothing could be done to reverse the effects. A massive energy surge fractured several of the control and fuel rods, making it impossible to shut down the reaction. The reactor then suffered an immense steam explosion which blew the lid off of the reactor. The sudden surge of oxygen in the reactor then sparked a fire and the reactor exploded.

Crisis Management

Due to the fact that the crew were unaware of the immensely high radiation levels contained within the reactor itself, they performed several severe miscalculations. In the reactor building, the worst hit areas contained up to 20 000 Roetgens per hour (500R/h is a fatal amount). Nevertheless, a geiger counter measuring up to 1000R/h was unavailable at the time, due to the Soviet economy decline that the 80s experienced. The Geiger counters that were being used at the time read off-scale levels of radiation, therefore the crews only knew that the radiation contained in the area was somewhere over 3.6R/h. Alexander Akimov, the crew leader assumed that because of these low readings, the reactor was still intact, ignoring the fact that there was massive chunks of debris lying all around the reactor. Another Geiger counter was brought in, and read accurate readings, but they were assumed to be defective and the readings were disregarded. Akimov and his crew therefore stayed in the reactor building, and were dead three weeks later from radiation poisoning.
After the accident, several firefighter crews arrived at the scene, but were not told of the severity of the accident or of the nature of the accident; they assumed that it was a simple electrical fire, and therefore were in the dark about the toxic radioactive materials they would be handling. By 5AM the fires on the roof of the plant were extinguished, and the crew focused their attention on the fire in the reactor. They decided to try and drop sand, boron, lead and clay into the reactor in order to try and smother the fire. This did nothing, and in fact further fueled the fire. This can be evidenced by looking in the underbelly of the reactor; large lava flows were created thanks to the superheated material.
Pripyat was then evacuated. The residents were told that the evacuation would only be temporary. This means that you can still see many of the personal belongings of residents still in the city today. Having said that, many people have taken to looting, despite government warnings.
The liquidators were then sent in to assist in the clean-up. I have nothing but the utmost respect for these men; they were volunteers and they knew precisely what they were getting in to. Teams would work for up to two minutes each, running across the plant roof and clearing a small piece of debris off, then running back to safety. Hundreds of these men died not long after, all that remains of them is a large vehicle graveyard on the outskirts of the Zone, and a monument to their bravery in Chernobyl itself.

Aftermath

Since the fatal experiment, Chernobyl has now become an internationally recognized symbol for the fight against nuclear proliferation. Many countries were affected by the explosion, and still are to this day.
One would expect Chernobyl and the 30km disaster zone surrounding it to be completely barren of life, though this couldn’t be further from the truth. Ukranian authorities are reporting a surge in the Elk population, a species which were dwindling before the disaster, and it also appears that there are no serious mutations among animals except a slightly elevated cancer risk for mice.
The reactor core itself is still probed and explored by several scientists, trying to find out where the nuclear fuel went after the explosion. Ironically, they have suffered two deaths from heart related problems. One would expect radiation to be the culprit.
There are still problems though; the sarcophagus surrounding the reactor is slowly crumbling. Plans have been made to construct another sarcophagus around the reactor, but due to lack of funding this has been delayed. If the sarcophagus were to crumble, another accident could happen, resulting in another release of toxins into the air, which could affect many countries in Europe, such as Belarus, a country which already has an elevated child deformity rate as an direct cause of the radiation. In fact there is an orphanage in Belarus itself housing many children with mental deficiencies and Leukemia. Many people visit this place on their way to Chernobyl, to help the children and donate money to the orphanage.

Other than that, what’s to say? It’s easy enough to get into the Zone itself. It’s an interesting place, regardless of what happened there.

Peace