Pop Culture: #zombies4socialjuztiz

A few thoughts

  Some classes in anthropology as an undergraduate have left me with the cultural anthropology addiction. And the phenomena of zombie fanatics, "zombie as metaphor" if you will has nagged at my mind for some time. The most intriguing thing was the wonderful opportunity of having a monster who is ALREADY DEAD!!!!

  

  This morning it finally came to me. When I was a child we had the cartoon like portrayals of hordes of natives (pick your continent, any continent) vs. the white people. Or more finely crafted series where Nazis etc, (pick your favorite worst example of a racial, or ethnic group) were the monster. But now we have zombies. They want my brains!  And we get to kill them! But they could be me! Cool! Because they are already dead! So hey, no guilt!

  Am I crazy? Or is this a sign that we want a monster so preposterous because.. we are maybe, slightly, less,    (racist). Ok I said it. So that is one possibility. But it is probably just like the blob, or irradiated giant ants. It's just fun, scary and silly. 

#zombieBLACKlivesmatter

When black lives matter, all lives matter.

Book: By Light Alone by Adam Roberts

A Few Thoughts

Before I begin properly let me state that my father hated science fiction. He was a scientist and there was no science in science fiction. In honor of my father I henceforth declare the novel By Light Alone to be a fantasy novel. There, now I feel better.

This fantasy novel is set in a world eerily like our own but ostensibly in the future. The basic premise is the optional genetic manipulation of humans so hair can provide sustenance by photosynthesis. Babies can imbibe the mutation through their mother's milk. This procedure was invented with the best of intentions and indeed the world now is free from hunger. And as with so many good intentions we shortly find ourselves in hell.

Class divisions have gone more wildly berserk with the extreme poor having nothing; now they reduced to begging for water. They must get minerals and protein by eating bugs and dirt from time to time. The wealthy meanwhile struggle with ennui and constantly seek sensation. They ostentatiously shave their heads (although they do not have the magical plant-like hair) and dine on carefully crafted delicacies, after skiing on ice cream covered slopes.

The book is really two books. One is a bleak satire on over-consumption and living life in denial of pain and difficulty. Needless to say the characters in this section are not terribly likeable. Unfortunately they are recognizable. The humor makes the underlying despair bearable.

The second book is a call to action on the side of the light eaters. A view into their grim existence, which again, seems disturbingly familiar. Mr. Roberts has few real answers to the problem of how to bridge the gaps between the haves and the have-nots, however while giving away as little as possible there are two moments in the book which seem to provide possibility. They both involve characters in flight, choosing connection. The choice of connection is not based on logic or ideology. It is based on passion, emotion and acknowledgement of biological connection, an acknowledgement of the possibility of love.

As I was pondering the book the following words came to me:

Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey, and yellow, white,
but we decide which is right,
and which is an illusion.

~ Graeme Edge (Moody Blues)

This book celebrates humanity as much as it deplores where we end up in our humanity. We have enormous inventiveness and creativity. Where we end up depends largely on our vision as we go along. When we create something, what world is envisioned by that creation. Are we creating a fantastic bauble for only a few? Are we creating something "for someone else's good", while allowing the supposed beneficiaries no input into what good they desire? In the end, we decide. It may still turn up pear-shaped, but we do decide.

Anomalisa and Medicine

The Movie: Anomalisa

I was lucky enough to preview the movie Anomalisa early this month. I urge any adult who is interested in how our modern economy changes us to go and see it. Adult because it does have explicit sex scenes albeit with stop-motion animation, nevertheless it is sex that is so honestly portrayed that parents should be cautioned. 

  This movie gave voice to much of my dissatisfaction with modern living. In this case by modern living, I mean dealing with large businesses or organizations and the commodification of friendship. Obviously the big bad they have not been able to bribe or blackmail my actual friends into being false friends. However they have clearly infected every single sales or customer service rep with a virus causing them to imitate friendship. In a similar way casual games have been set up expressly to seduce me into one more level or more disturbingly into one more hidden object scene. There now my ugly secret is revealed.

So go, now, see Anomalisa, do not stop at go, don't wait til you have $200, go now to your local art movie theater and see Anomalisa. While you still can.

And Medicine

  So what has this got to do with medicine? Now that I am no longer a practicing doctor, I can express my dismay about what I will call algorithmic medicine. I was thinking about this quite intensely after seeing the film and attempted to put it all into words. My efforts were not pleasing.

  Then I saw an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (Jan. 14 2016, pp. 109-111). It compared industrial efficiency (aka Cheaper by the Dozen's Taylor) to the push to electronic medical records and a number of other regulations recently imposed on doctors.  Most of the comments about the article were outraged rants about how LEAN and six-sigma efficiency practices had been misrepresented. Yet for those outside of a hospital administrator setting, there is no real opportunity to give feedback, "Hey medicare! This isn't working for me, or for patients x, y and z." I mean there is opportunity, complaints, protests, appearing before committees and so forth, but not immediate, actionable opportunity.

  In brief, this is the message. Efficiency experts and pursuers of lowered health costs are trying to turn physicians and other health professionals into robots who churn through check-lists and algorithms to provide the best care that evidence-based medicine can provide. The problem is that people are not identical, neither physicians nor patients are robots with the same instruction and repair manuals. We are each wonderfully, fearfully made with our own amazing uniqueness as well as our common humanity. Let us never forget that. 

  Now go, see Anomalisa!

TV: Occupied 

A few thoughts -

  My latest binge watch on Netflix is Occupied a Norwegian television series.  I find the basic premise is a bit wobbly: Russia intervenes when Norway's new prime minister stops all petroleum production. That said the questions raised by the scenario resonate with me. Those questions are:

 -when must a nation/state rise up against an intruder or risk surrendering its very identity as well as its sovereignty? 

- to what extent do other nations have a claim on another nation's resources?

- how trustworthy is the new Russia under Putin?

- for that matter how trustworthy is any nation when its national interest (here represented by threat of war and energy security) is threatened?

  While I was relieved that the USA was absent during most of this first season, the above issues obviously could relate as much to the US in the middle east and Persian Gulf as they do to how Russia is portrayed in this fictional TV show. 

  The plot follows 3 Norwegian families, including that of the prime minister as they navigate the new terrain after the soft occupation begins. 

  Other random thoughts in no particular order:

- Norwegian sounds very different from Swedish, who knew?

- It's very odd to hear English automatically spoken with an American accent by actors who are not portraying Americans. I keep thinking where is the British accent (the proper accent)?

- This thing has so many plot twists that I am dizzy. Yet it seems eerily familiar. I must be watching too much television.

Here's an article with more detail.

Poem 1/18/2016

To a mother's eye
To a mother's eye
You are a miracle.

Breath made visible
In a cold morning's sun.
The sharp fine line's
Of a spring beauty's bloom.

To a mother's eye
To a mother's eye
You are a miracle.

In the face of wars
All cruelty and suffering known
No matter your mistakes
No matter how you've roamed

To a mother's eye
To a mother's eye
You remain a miracle.

Each fold of ear
Each lash of eye
Each tear cried
Each laugh that ripped the sky.

To a mother's eye
To a mother's eye
You are a miracle.