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Stuck In Traffic Issue 34
==================================================================
Stuck In Traffic
"Current Events, Cultural Phenomena, True Stories"
Issue #34 - October, 2000
Contents:
Current Events:
Clinton "Delays" Missile Decision
President dodges the bullet on missle defense.
Current Events:
Senate Debates China Trade Bill
A look at how the North Carolina Senators approach
the decision to open up trade with China
Music Review:
"Everything Is Possible"
by Os Mutantes
***
Book Review:
_The Cluetrain Manifesto_
by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and
David Weinberger
***
Cultural Phenomena:
"Napster Rap"
A realistic look at the copyright issues surrounding the
recording industry lawsuit of Napster
Movie Review:
"Hollow Man"
aka "Gray's Anatomy Goes On A Rampage"
**
Book Review
_The Florence King Reader_
by Florence King
***
Book Review
_All Tomorrow's Parties_
by William Gibson
***
Movie Review
"Drowning Mona"
** 1/2
True Stories
WorldCon 2000 Trip Report
===================================
Current Events
Clinton "delays" missle decision
The BBC and other news services are reporting that President Clinton
has decided to "delay" making a decision on the missle defense system.
The relevant soundbites from Clinton are:
"I simply cannot conclude with the information we
have today that we have enough confidence..."
and
"We should use this time to ensure that NMD, if
deployed, would actually enhance our overall
national security,"
Figures. President Clinton has never been one to take a stand on an
issue unless the public sentiment is absolutely clear. But on this
one, the public is divided, so he's not about to make a stand on the
merits of a missle defense system. Besides, this is an election year.
No way is he going to stir up trouble and turn national defense into
an election issue.
President Clinton is more or less _making_ a lame duck of himself.
===================================
Current Events
Senate Debates China Trade Bill
The U.S. Senate is debating landmark trade legislation that would
open up trade with China, allowing U.S. businesses greater access to
China. Businesses strongly back the effort, citing the huge potential
markets there. It's interesting to observe how North Carolina's
Senators are taking positions on the issue.
Senator Jesse Helms strongly opposes opening up trade with China,
claiming that we should not do business with a country the not only
opposes religious freedom and human rights, but actively persecutes
them. Helms is offering several amendments to the legislation:
Delay granting of permanent normal trade relations
until China has met a series of human-rights
conditions.
Establish a voluntary code of conduct for U.S.
businesses in China, urging them to look out for
human-rights abuses.
Require China to stop jamming Voice of America and
Radio Free Asia broadcasts.
Voice the Senate's opposition to the Chinese
government's practice of forced abortion and
sterilization policies.
Require reports on the effect of the trade bill on
agriculture.
Require the president to suspend normal trade
relations after five years if China does not live
up to its trade commitments.
Supporting religious freedom, freedom of the press, and ending forced
sterilations and abortions are all worthy goals. But you have to ask
yourself if blocking trade with a nation has ever improved its human
rights record.
Has an economic blockade of Iraq improved the human rights situation
in that country? Has it loosened Saddam Hussein's dictatorial grip on
his people? Has Libya been liberated from Ghadafi after all these
years of econimic embargo? Has North Korea evolved from a Communist
dictatorship to a budding democracy? Has 30 years of economic
isolation reformed Castro and his communist dictatorship of Cuba?
The answer in every case is nope. Not a bit. In every case, economic
isolation has actually made the situation worse. In every case, it
actually strengthens the dictator's grip on his country.
Still, it's difficult to accept the notion of doing business in a
country where people are being arrested simply for peacefully
practicing their religion. We can't just ignore the problems and go
about our trading with a blind eye.
It's important to keep several things in mind. First of all, doing
business in a country does _not_ morally legitimize the government of
that country. Second, doing business in a country does not stop us
from voicing our opposition to human rights abuses and it does not
stop us from publicizing the human rights violations in that country.
Furthermore, having businesses at work in the country gives us good
access for monitoring and observing these abuses so they can be
publicized.
The biggest reason, though, to support opening up trade in countries
that have poor human rights records is that liberalizing trade
practices in a country does far more to help the people of that
country than it helps the government maintain power. Trade is
liberating. People how are economically destitute have no time or
energy for working to reform their government and oppose evil.
They're too busy trying to make through the end of the day without
starving. But if we infiltrate a country with trade, start working on
building a solid, thriving middle class, then there's more hope for
creating solid, political reform movements in the country. It's not a
guarantee of reform of course, but it at least raises the possibility.
So I applaud Helms publicizing the Human Rights record of China and
it's something we must never forget. We must continuously work on
selling the idea of Human Rights reform to the Chinese just as
ardently and vigorously as we sell them blue jeans and Big Macs. But
economic embargo is not the right way to do it.
To date, North Carolina's other senator, John Edwards has not had the
courage to take a stand on the issue. Says he won't do so until just
before the vote. I guess taking principled stand on human rights and
trade is not something we can expect from Mr. Edwards.
===================================
Music Review
"Everything Is Possible"
Os MUtantes
***
Os Mutantes ("The Mutants") were a Brazilian pop band in the late 60's
whom some people credit for introducing modern pop instrumentation
(i.e., electric guitars and drums) into Brazilian pop music. That
might be overstating the case some, but it's true they managed to take
some of the trends going on in music at the time, i.e., The Beatles,
The Animals, experimental jazz ala John Cage, and give it a distinct
local flavor. But it would be a mistake to say this band is a British
Invasion copycat band. They bring enough originality and attitude to
the table that their pop culture influences are just that, only
influences.
Long since broken up, Os Mutantes now have a CD out of some of their
best efforts called "Everything is Possible" on David Byrne's Luaka
Bop records. Listening to this CD you get a sense for just how
experimental their time period was. Each song is very different in
form and tone, from the long dreamy visions in "Day 36" to hard
driving rock sound of "My Girl." Lots of psychedelic sounds on this
one. You can't help but conjure up visions of GoGo dancers when
listening to this CD.
Well, GoGo dancers doing the Bossa Nova that is.
===================================
Book Review
_The Cluetrain Manifesto_
by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger
***
Widely touted as the book that outlines the future of business on the
Internet, I found my self both ardently agreeing and disagreeing with
it at the same time.
Ever since the net hit the mainstream consciousness a few years back,
people have been trying to mold it into different sorts of media with
only modest degrees of success.
At first, the net was going to be this gigantic library in the sky.
Well, that sorta worked but people quickly realized the the
information on the net is much more ephemeral than the information in
a library. And all the really dense information was hiding behind
some sort of payment request.
Then the net was going to be the next kind of Television. Web TV
baby. Interactive TV. Active TV that lets you control the action.
Seems kinda silly now, but that was the hype for a while.
Next on the hit parade, was the net as a cool and groovy magazine.
This was more successful, but it turned out that people don't like to
read for long stretches while sitting in front of the computer. They
don't like to read deeply on the net as much as they like to read
broadly.
So none of these analogies worked entirely successfully, but they
weren't entirely unsuccessful either.
The good folks at The Cluetrain Manifesto managed to name one of the
key features of the net that previous analogies failed to account for.
The problem with other past analogies is they had a built in
assumption of a few people in control of the content broadcasting to
the many. But the thing that attracts most people to the net is that
it's an opportunity for people to communicate one on one with each
other. It's an opportunity to create widely dispersed communities
rallied around common interests where people can talk, share, and
enjoy each other's company.
And that's the part of The Cluetrain Manifesto that rings so very true
to me. They argue that people are craving to hear natural human
"voices" on the net. They want to talk to other people. Real honest
to god people. They don't want to talk to superstars or
"personalities." They want to talk to real folks.
The part I disagree with is the second part of their thesis, which is
that since people want to hear natural human voices on the net,
there's no place for Big Business on the net. They claim that people
will reject the nameless, faceless, "marketing messages" from
corporations and demand to interact with companies on a human to human
level.
While there's certainly a place for human-to-human communications in
business environments, I think the authors vastly underestimate the
necessity of "brand." Anytime you're trying to conduct business long
distance, when you don't personally know the person you're dealing
with and when you are unable to personally confront the person you're
dealing with if something goes wrong. You have to deal base on trust
and reputation. A brand identity is a way to establish that trust. I
may not personally know my Honda Salesman, even if I shake hands with
him. But I know the reputation of the Honda brand and am therefore
willing to plunk down a large chunk of my hard earned money to buy a
car from them.
So I can't buy into the author's claim that there's no place for
business or traditional marketing messages on the net. I think
there's a place for both traditional marketing and human to human
communications.
In any case, _The Cluetrain Manifesto_ is takes a fresh look at the
net and what the heck the net is good for.
===================================
Cultural Phenomena
Napster Rap
For months now, the music recording industry has been trying to shut
down Napster, the online application service provider that allows
individuals to share songs and other audio performances with each
other. If you judged by the amount of press coverage the case has
been getting, you'd think that the legal case is terribly complex.
But you would be wrong.
For some reason, the hype over all things Internet related clouds our
ability to think straight. So it helps to try to separate the issue
from the net with a little thought experiment.
Suppose a wayward bunch of high school misfits starts up a speed metal
rock band called "The Whiners in Dad's Garage". They record a couple
of songs on a cassette tape using a 4 track recorder they borrowed
from one of the band member's older sister and slap a home made label
on it, thus creating the debut of their first album, "Spitballs and
Outlaws." They make a couple of copies of this tape and pass their
"album" out to their friends, telling them to listen and then pass it
on to someone else.
Anything illegal or unethical here? Nope. Not so long as there are
no laws against poor taste.
Now suppose Miss Susy Runaround receives one of the precious copies of
"Spitballs and Outlaws" from one of her fellow cheerleaders during a
break from practice. She loves the music so much, (or at least she
lusts for the lead singer so much), that she decides to help promote
The Whiners' inevitable ascendency to MTV Fame and Fortune by bouncing
down to her local Wal-Mart, buying some blank cassette tapes, spending
$2.00 per tape from her precious allowance, and making copies of
"Spitballs and Outlaws" to give to her friends.
Anything illegal or unethical here? Nope. And who would dare stop
young love anyway?
Now suppose Miss Susy, agog at her ability to boost the popularity of
The Whiners among the pom-pom crowd, decides that there are other
musical acts, namely The Backstreet Boys, that are equally deserving
of her devotions. So she bops back to the Wal-Mart and buys another
stack of blank cassette tapes. She proceeds to make copies of the
Backstreet Boys latest CD, "Millennium" and give them out to her
friends.
Anything illegal or unethical here? Oh yeah. You betcha.
On the back of the CD, right under Brian Littrell's grinning mug is a
tiny little statement that says, "copyright 1999 - BMG Unauthorized
duplication is a violation of applicable laws." Susy has clearly
violated BMG's copyright on the "millennium" CD. Presumably BMG wants
the cheerleaders to all go spend their allowance on a personal copy of
the Backstreet Boys' CD. Fair enough. Whether she knew it or not.
Susy agreed to not make unauthorized copies of the Backstreet Boys CD
when she bought it and now she's broken that agreement. She's
violated copyright law.
Now, at most there are 20 girls on Susy's cheer leading squad and even
if Susy made an illegal copy for every girl on the squad it's unlikely
that anyone at BMG would care or even notice. But if there were
legions of Backstreet Boys-infatuated cheerleaders all across the U.S.
of A doing the same thing. BMG might start to get worried. The
"lost" revenue might start adding up enough to put a minor dent in
BMG's profits.
Now, here comes the trick question. Who should BMG sue? A) Susy and
her tape dubbing friends, B) Wal-Mart, or C) the manufacturer of the
cassette tapes? Take all the time you need to consider your answer
carefully.
An ethical purist would of course answer. "A) Susy and her tape
dubbing friends." They are, after all, the ones that violated the
copyright agreement. Even if you have a little trouble with the
concept of punishing those who are the ones that actually do wrong.
You could arrive at the right answer through a process of elimination.
Does it make any sense, hypothetically speaking, to sue Wal-Mart
because they did not require Susy to sign an agreement to not do
anything illegal with the tapes before selling them to her? Is
Wal-Mart responsible for Susy's actions after she leaves the store?
Does it make any sense to sue the manufacturer of the cassette tapes
on the grounds that they are facilitating copyright violations? Is it
reasonable to expect them to somehow create cassette tapes that can
only be used for legal purposes and can't be used for illegal
purposes?
And what of The Whiners in Dad's Garage? Remember them? Assume for
the moment that BMG has no interest in signing up a band for which no
amount of air brushing can remove the pimples from its publicity
photos, even if they do know all of four chords instead of the
traditional three. Is it an acceptable legal remedy to outlaw the use
of cassette tapes for distributing music in order to make sure Susy
does not violate copyright law even if it prevents The Whiners In
Dad's Garage from using cassette tapes to distribute their music and
pick up chicks?
The ethical purist would, of course, answer, "No." It's just as
important to make sure that The Whiners In Dad's Garage have the
ability to distribute their music as it is to protect BMG's copyright.
Maybe even more important.
Let's look at a side issue. Does it matter how much Susy paid for the
cassette tapes? Would your answer change from A) to B) or C) if Susy
paid $1.00 per tape instead of $2.00 per tape? Suppose Wal-Mart ran a
promotion in which they were giving away free blank tapes for anyone
who would walk into their store and look around for a while? Suppose
Susy more or less got her cassette tapes for free. (She just had to
suffer the indignity of looking at clothing of non-GAP origin in order
to get her free blank cassette tapes.) Would your answer change from
A) to B) or C)? Is it suddenly Wal-Mart's fault that Susy violated
the copyright law?
The ethical purist would, of course, answer, "No."
Moving back to the world of the Internet, replace Wal-Mart with
Napster and replace cassette tapes with MP3 files.
If the Whiner's In Dad's Garage record "Spitballs and Outlaws" as a
collection of MP3 files. And Susy forwards these files to all of her
friends. Is there an ethical problem here? Nope.
If Susy converts her favorite songs from the Backstreet Boys
"Millennium" CD into MP3 files and sends them to her friends, is there
an ethical problem? You betcha. She has still violated copyright law
and infringed on BMG's copyright.
Who should be sued in a court of law to remedy the copyright
violation? Susy, of course.
Is it fair to hold Napster responsible for Susy's actions? No way.
Is it fair to block The Whiners In Dad's Garage from using Napster and
MP3 files to distribute their so-called art just because someone
_might_ use the technology to break copyright law? No. The Whiners
have as much right to the technology as anyone else.
Does the fact that Napster is an essentially free service (all you
have to do is endure the web site advertising) change the fact that
Susy is still the one responsible for the copyright violation? No.
And yet, from all indications, the recording industry is more
interested in shutting down the service that Napster provides than it
is actually trying to remedy the copyright violations.
Perhaps the industry realizes that sending a legal notice threatening
a lawsuit if Susy doesn't cease her copyright infringements to her and
her Dad might alienate her from her favorite Boy Band and tend to make
her less enthusiastic about buying next year's Backstreet Boys CD.
Not good for business.
Perhaps the recording industry realizes that they can't possibly
pursue every single small case of copyright infringement that they
hear about. So instead they are trying to shut down the distribution
channel instead of stopping the violators. This would at least
severely reduce the ability to infringe on their copyrights.
And if The Whiners in Dad's Garage are denied access to a cool new
technology that lets them spread their music around to their friends
for free, does the recording industry care? Not likely. After all,
there are only so many hours between cheer leading practice. Susy can
only listen to a certain amount of music. As far as the recording
industry is concerned, the fewer competitors for Susy's devotion and
allowance money, the better.
After all, this is the recording industry we're talking about, not
ethical purists.
===================================
Movie Review
"Hollow Man"
** 1/2
Also Known as "Gray's Anatomy Goes On A Rampage"
Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Caine, a megalomaniac scientist leading a
team of researchers in a secret government project that's learning how
to turn people invisible. The tricky part, it turns out, is making
them visible again. Alas, being invisible, tends to make people more
cranky, irritable, and aggressive. Trouble ensues, when Dr. Crane,
who's already more than a bit edgy, decides that only he has the right
to be the first human test subject.
I liked seeing Kevin Bacon play the disagreeable, yet genius mad
scientist. It's probably one of his better roles of late.
The special effects are darn impressive, even by today's high
standards. The scenes where he slowly phase shifts were especially
creepy because you slowly get to see all his innards exposed. And he
truly looks like one of those anatomy models.
But like so many movies these days, the movie draws out the Big Finish
with two or three too many cliff hangers.
===================================
Book Review
_The Florence King Reader_
by Florence King
***
Perhaps best known for here acerbic columns in "The Misanthrope's
Corner" of The National Review, Florence King has a reputation for
shrewdly exposing the folly's both the high-brow and low-brow elements
of modern culture. Looking back over the decades with he in, _The
Florence King Reader_ makes you realize just how intensely she hates
everything in the world. No way could anyone sustain such intense
barrages of social criticism for so long without being sincerely
worked up about it.
In The Florence King Reader, we get samplings of essays from here
early books, _Southern Ladies and Gentlemen_, _WASP: Where Is Thy
Sting_, and _He: An Irreverent Look At The American Male_. Among
these essays, _The Gay Confederation_ is perhaps the most relevant
today. In this essay she indulges in stereotyping of the gay man in
the south to such an extreme that one is tempted, (and only tempted!)
to enjoy the caricature before roundly dismissing it out of hand.
Further into the book, we're treated to an excerpt from a "bodice
ripper" book she wrote in the 70's, which is particularly interesting
considering the corner of the sexual revolution she inhabits, We also
get a smattering of book reviews she wrote for The Raleigh News and
Observer as well as columns for the National Review. Each and
everyone apparently written in the throes of indigestion and
inebriation, Florence King's command of the written language is
especially impressive given these circumstances.
===================================
Book Review
_All Tomorrow's Parties_
by William Gibson
***
In All Tomorrow's Parties, William Gibson continues some of the long
running story lines he's developed in other works, and it might be
tempting to dismiss it as just another cyberpunk novel. But that
would be terribly unfair for several reasons.
First, like all of Gibson's other novels, it's a really good cyberpunk
novel. We get the usual cast of characters in this one. There's the
fellow who lives online practically becoming virtual himself, though
it's slowly driving him insane to the point he becomes the mad prophet
screaming in the wilderness who makes just enough sense to scare
everyone. We've got a streetwise tough guy, just using his muscle
trying to get through the day. We've got lost children of various
ages. We've got several ex-girfriends wandering around. And of
course, we have the same artificial intelligencers which were
introduced in previous novels. To the usual cast of characters,
Gibson has added some new flavors, the assassin who takes a spiritual
approach to his work was particularly interesting.
Second, Gibson is not as enamored with the virtual world as he used to
be. Obviously he's been spending more time online since he first hit
his fame and fortune a few years back. In All Tomorrow's Party's
technology is still the driving and prevalent agent of social change
in the world, but it's also incredibly frustrating. Instead of people
seamlessly augmenting themselves with technology, living half in and
half out of the virtual world, we see people being frustrated with the
technology. For example, one character is given a cheap pair of
virtual glasses from the convenience store he used to work at. In
theory they are supposed to provide maps and directions, but the
problem is they keep showing Our Hero maps of Brazil instead of San
Francisco where the action takes place. I think it's sort of Gibson's
version of a running joke.
But most importantly, the remarkable thing about this book is it's
density. I think Gibson was experimenting with this novel. I think
he was seeing just how far he could push the "crammed prose" style of
cyberpunk without it breaking down. As a result we get a novel that's
a scant 276 pages in the hard back. edition and will probably be much
less in the paper back. Most chapters are just two or three pages
long. But the writing is so dense I often found myself having to stop
reading after every couple of pages and just stew on it for a while,
trying to absorb all the nuances and implications of what I just read.
It wasn't exactly light, fluffy, reading. It was challenging work to
read this novel, but it was worth it.
===================================
Movie Review
"Drowning Mona"
** 1/2
Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) is not exactly the most beloved person in
her small town. In fact, everyone pretty much hates her. And when
the brakes on her Yugo fail on the way to work one morning, causing
her to drive off a cliff and into a river, no one is exactly teary
when she drowns.
But when Chief Wyatt Rash discovers that the Yugo was sabotaged he's
forced to open a murder investigation. Problem is, everyone in town
is a suspect.
As he investigates the murder of Mona, we are introduced to a small
town so filled with white trash, it makes Jerry Springer look
sophisticated. Low morals, low aspirations, low IQ all around. The
only two good people in the whole movie, the Police Chief's future
sin-in-law seem to have any ambition or scruples at all. So why does
all the evidence point to him?
The plot isn't the best I've seen, but the movie is filled with lots
of good laughs and amusing characters. Definitely worth a rental.
===================================
Current Events
Olympic Spirit: Then And Now
Note: This essay originally appeared in issue 16 of _Stuck In Traffic_
As the Centennial Olympic Games open in Atlanta, it's fitting to think
about what makes the Olympic Games special. Amid all the hype, the
sponsorships, the news headlines, and the pageantry, it's easy to
forget why we're holding them in the first place. The Olympics, after
all, are far more than just an opportunity to sell T-shirts and
baseball caps by the millions.
The history of the Olympics can be traced all the way back to the days
of ancient Greece, then known as the center of the civilized Western
world. So we only know about them through legend and myth. But the
ideas behind the Olympics are clear. Every four years, nations set
aside their differences and people traveled to Greece to participate
in games of sport. Soldiers set down their swords and spears and left
the battlefield and headed for Greece when the time came. People who
were enemies one day suddenly became comrades and competitors in the
Olympic Games. Whether this is literally true or not is irrelevant.
That is the myth that has survived, that is the archetype in our
consciousness.
The Modern Olympic Games, are quite different and they've lost some of
that spirit from the Ancient Games. For one thing, nations don't stop
their antagonism toward each other for the Olympics. These modern
times move far to quickly for that. The wars continue, the battles
rage on. Two countries may be at war with each other while
individuals from the two countries are peaceably running marathon
races against each other at the Olympic Games.
But worse than that even, governments and political activists all
stripes too often try to use the Olympics to further their political
goals or make a political statement. The politically disenfranchised
have on more than one occasion taken Olympic athletes as hostages,
interrupting the games, terrorizing the world, and worst of all
denying innocent people the opportunity to live their dream of Olympic
competition. Who can forget the hostage standoff at the Munich games?
But it's not just the politically disenfranchised that have ruined the
Olympics in the past. Governments themselves have done so as well.
On more than one occasion, a government has "boycotted" the Olympics
by forbidding athletes from within its jurisdiction from participating
in the Olympic events. The arrogance of such boycotts are stunning,
as if the boycotting nation were saying, "You can't possibly hold the
Olympic games without us, so we'll just take our ball and go home."
The United States has done this in the past, and the former Soviet
Union even went so far as to start their own pseudo-Olympic games,
called the "Good Will Games," in a bald attempt at coopting the
Olympics and controlling who gets to attend. The Olympic Organizing
Committee does its best to prevent the Olympics from becoming a
showcase for political statements, but the media coverage is just too
irresistible for politicos who want to get their message out fast.
Every nation on earth has reporters covering the Olympics. There is
probably a higher concentration of media at the Olympics than any
other event on earth. And where there are cameras, you'll find
political activists trying to get their message out.
But it's not just the media concentration that threatens to turn the
Olympics into media showcases for politics. Part of the problem lies
in the nature of the modern Olympics themselves. The modern Olympics
have been portrayed in the last few decades not as human contests as
much as national contests. The image portrayed by the Olympic
organizers is not one of athletes coming together, but of
nation-states coming together by sending teams to the Olympics that
represent their country. It is a subtle but important difference.
By treating the athletes not as individuals, but as "teams"
representing a nation, the nations take center stage. For example,
the opening ceremonies always have all the athletes marching into an
arena, segregated by nation, each marching in under their country's
flag. And it is exciting to see all the flags flying. The pageantry
is nice and it makes for good TV. But the athletes tend to get lost
in all the hoopla.
It's not just that the national symbols overshadow the individual
athletes, the Olympic games almost invariably turn into competitions
between the national teams. We count the medals that each nation wins
and compare how many medals "we" have won against the number of medals
"they" have won. "They" almost invariably being the nation that we're
currently at war with or antagonistic with. The Japanese may be
whipping our butts in foreign trade and education, but we can beat the
hell out of them in basketball and we've got the medals to prove it.
Remember how the everyone in the United States was suddenly a hockey
fan when it looked like we were going to beat the Evil Empire in this
particular sport?
All this is a very sad commentary on the modern Olympics, and we in
the United States, of all peoples, should know better. The worst
struggles in our nation's history, the issues that have caused us the
most angst, have always centered around the unwise segregation of
people for arbitrary and inconsequential traits. The American
Revolution was born largely out of the belief that "all men are
created equal" and that one's background, the accident of ones birth,
confers no special privilege on a person. No one has the right to
rule you just because they have "royal blood." And of course the whole
issue of slavery has been fundamental in forming our national
character. Almost from the very founding of this nation, we have been
striving to rid ourselves of an institutionalized discrimination based
on the accident of one's race. And even though we perhaps haven't
quite reached the point where we are a "color blind nation," we've
made tremendous strides in the right direction.
If we can accept that fact that men and women should be judged not by
the color of the skin, but by the character of their souls and the
merit of their accomplishments, is it such a stretch to accept that
the participants of the Olympic games should judged by their speed,
grace, and strength instead of the accident of which flag they
happened to be born under?
Why is this so difficult for us to do? Part of the reason is that the
Olympics appear to be _designed_ to glorify the nation-states instead
of the individual athletes. That's why the athletes are segregated by
race during the opening ceremonies. That's why the athletes wear
their national flags on their uniforms. That's why the winner's
national anthem is played when the medals are awarded. That's why the
winners' national flags are hung from the rafters during the awards
ceremonies, always with the gold medal winner's flag in a dominant
position over the second and third place winners' flags. That's why
the medal winnings are always reported by nation. The symbolism of
these arrangements is unmistakable.
A more proper way to hold the Olympics, one that would be true to the
original Olympic spirit, would be to ban all mentions of nationality
from the games. The one exception might be for cases where
identifying nationality would help in the logistics of running the
events. There's no reason why the opening ceremonies have to
segregate all the athletes by nation. They can march in together,
without national flags. If you want the visual pageantry of flags,
let them carry the Olympic flag and streamers of the Olympic colors.
When medals are awarded at the conclusion of an event, it would be
more fitting to announce the winner's name than to play his or her
national anthem. And I think it would be fitting to let the winner
address the crowd for a minute or two. I would much rather listen to
an athlete say "Hi" to the folks back home than to listen to another a
national anthem.
A responsible news organization would not report the tallies of medal
winnings by country, even if other organizations stooped so low as to
do so. A news organization should simply report the names of the
winners. It's perhaps reasonable to report where the athlete is from,
since spectators do tend to be curious about where the winners are
from. But it should only be done in the context of painting a picture
of the individual athlete, helping the spectator get to know a little
more about the personal side of the athlete.
The focus of the Olympics should always be on the individual athletes
because they are the real marvel. They are the reason we do this.
They are what's impressive. It's the dedication a person has to have
to excel in a sport so well that they qualify for the Olympic games
that impresses. Not that they are from a particular country. The
Olympics, as the ancients' intended them to be, are symbolic reminders
of the ability of each and every one of us to transform ourselves
through sheer force of will. They show us that we can become "super
human," or as you prefer, they give us a glimpse of God.
It's a shame that the modern Olympics games have coopted the spirit of
the ancient Olympic games and turned them into to a glorification of
The State.
===================================
True Stories
WorldCon 2000 Trip Report
WorldCon in Chicago marked a milestone for me in my fannish
development. This is the first con in which I spent more time making
the rounds of the various bid parties and other sorts of parties than
I did participating in any of the con programming. I feel vaguely
guilty about it. I almost feel like I played hooky from school or
something.
Registration was a breeze on Thursday morning. I hit the registration
area Thursday morning, just as they were opening. I had expected
massive crowds lined up waiting to pick up their registration. But I
just walked right up to the counter and didnt have to wait at all.
The convention site at the Hyatt was a nice enough convention
facility, though it suffered from the usual hotel conference syndrome.
The panel rooms were freezing! The Hyatt was somewhat confusing in
its layout. The convention was held in a series of twisty little
passages, all alike underneath the Hyatt. They bordered on
catacomb-like. The pocket program books supplied to us by the con had
maps in them, which helped some, but there were lots of people
wandering around lost.
The few panels I managed to attend were interesting. I attended a
panel on how to review movies, since I like to review all the movies I
see, for my website. I also attended Bruce Schniers Cryptography
panels, which was equally interesting.
But I managed to miss the Guest of Honor speeches, the Hugos, and the
masquerade. I also missed all the live performances, like Faith, a
science fiction opera, The Martian Chronicles, and the Dont Quit
Your Day Job Players.
Like I said, I feel like I played hooky from the con.
I did manage to hit the art show, which I thought was unusually good.
Far and above better than the art shows in recent conventions that I
have attended. There was a collage artist that I particularly liked
and an oil painter that was able to create some very realistic looking
fantasy landscapes. And of course the Bob Eggleton stuff was good.
One of the interesting things about con art shows is that there are
some artists that show their work at these shows that transcend the
genre and others that are stuck in the genre. I find myself attracted
more to the artists that step out of the genre assumptions and do more
mainstream stuff.
The collage artist, for example, had a work called Venus Unveiled,.
From a distance this work appeared to be a view of a planet from
space. But when you got close to it, you discovered that the planet
was a collage of hundreds and hundreds of small print words clipped
from various publications combined with small pictures of beautiful,
Romanesque ladies, Aphrodite presumably.
The dealers room was not the biggest that Ive ever seen, but it had
lots of the sort of stuff that I like. Im not big into comics, Im
more of a book person and the dealers room seemed to be heavy into
booksellers. So I spent a lot of time plowing through paper backs. A
great way to spend a few hours!
As Im sure everyone has heard by now, Toronto won the bid for the
World Con in 2003. And they deserved it. They clearly had the best
bid parties! They had a great mix of booze, junk food, and good
company. And other bid parties ad these too. But the Toronto folks
also had door give-aways of books and cool trinkets and trash.
Japanese fandom is putting together a bid to host a world con in 2007
and they had a terrific bid party too. They were giving out cool head
bands to people who pre-supported them. At their bid party they had a
wide variety of Japanese junk food, some of which was good and some of
which was really strange. They also served sake and plum wine, which
I sampled.
The Svengali party was notable for its 80s dance music, its 70s
disco lights bizarrely colored drinks complete with those little
useless umbrellas in them. Sort of a lounge effect, if youre into
that sort of thing.
The slime party had its usual spiked jello shots and pineapple bits
super-saturated with some sort of booze.
The Mystery God Confusion party had a pagan religious theme, complete
with a goddess walking around offering sacraments of chocolate covered
cookies. Mondo cool. I told the goddess that Id be back later to
worship her, but she refused my devotions. Sigh.
There was a hoax bid party which I cant spell, except for
phonetically. It was the chitzineetza bid, which is the location of
some ancient Incan ruins. According to the bid committee, the Incan
calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012 so they figure its a
good chance for an end of the world party. Their bid party was
unusual in that they made ice cream with liquid nitrogen. I wasnt
sure what the connection between liquid nitrogen, ice cream, and the
Incans is, but it was fun anyway.
The Boston crowd had their usual bid party and next to the Toronto
Party, it was the busiest one. But I didnt stick around too long in
it. There was no place to sit and hardly a place to stand.
Likewise with the Philcon party. It was a large boisterous crowd of
good natured people. But I just couldnt stay in there for very long.
The last party I attended was the OddCon party, aka, the Cow Con.
Its being organized by some fans in Madison Wisconsin. They win my
award for the most bizarre room decorations because they had a shrine
to a glowing cow head. Go figure.
Chicago is full of wonderful things to see and do. Or so Im told. I
only did a limited amount of venturing out. One afternoon I went out
to Lunch with Diane Kurlecz to Joes Be Bop House for barbecue. Very
good. Of course, since this is Chicago, it was beef barbecue with a
reasonably good sauce, though being from Texas I expected a little bit
spicier.
On Sunday I went to the Navy Pier with my friend Pat Hario to see the
display of tall ships that were there. The crowds were staggering and
we only got to board two ships. But we were able to see the others
from the dock just fine. Its amazing to see all the hand made
rigging and the precise way all the lines are coiled and tied. Im
not much into sailing and things nautical, but I was nonetheless
fascinated by these ships. Its difficult to articulate why. I think
its something to do with the fact that its rare that you see
something so sophisticated and complex thats obviously hand crafted.
I saw so many good friends this con that I felt right at home. I saw
many, if not all of the Lemmings that I toured Australia with last
year. It seems like any time I sat down, one of them walked by and
struck up a conversation. And my fellow lemmings introduced me to
many folks that were lemmings in previous years. I also had a chance
to meet many of the people from the TurboCharged Party Animal apa that
I belong to. Its bizarre to finally be able to put faces to names
Ive seen in print for the past year. Im terrible at predicting what
people are going to look like! No one was the least bit the way I
imagined! And finally, I ran into several of the fans from my local
area.
So this was the first con for me where the people and the parties and
the socializing were more important to me than the programming.
Best Button seen at Con: "Uniquely maladjusted, but fun to be with."
Best Bumper sticker: "I drive too fast to worry about cholesterol."
=======================================
About Stuck In Traffic
Stuck In Traffic is a monthly magazine dedicated to evaluating
current events, examining cultural phenomena, and sharing true
stories.
Why "Stuck In Traffic"?
Because getting stuck in traffic is good for you. It's an
opportunity to think, ponder, and reflect on all things, from the
personal to the global. As Robert Pirsig wrote in Zen and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenance,
"Let's consider a reevaluation of the situation in
which we assume that the stuckness now occurring,
the zero of consciousness, isn't the worst of all
possible situations, but the best possible
situation you could be in. After all, it's exactly
this stuckness that Zen Buddhists go to so much
trouble to induce...."
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