He Who Must Not Be Named

I suppose I’m obligated to say something about the death of He Who Must Not Be Named and what I have to say about it is only a short piece of this posting and then I’ll move on to something else.


Basically, what we witnessed earlier this week was the death of American trust and whatever the opposite of cynicism is – call it naiveté if you will – but we’ve totally lost touch with that ‘50s America (which I never knew personally by the way) where people believed in other people.

Consider that literally within minutes hundreds of thousands of people were posting messages of various descriptions on Facebook and Twitter. Most of these messages were of the “USA-USA” variety or the “I’m-so-glad-the-bastards-dead” variety, or the “show-me-the-body” variety. This is an astonishing thing that information can travel so far so quickly and permeate nearly every level of society. Information is available to people from all social/economic classes on a scale unheard of in human history. Still, like any weapon, information can be frightening if not in competent hands.

Did I just call information a weapon? I suppose I did. Make no mistake, it can be a weapon. The downside is that EVERYONE has it. Even Cletus and Cooter, who are still working on carburetors when they’re not racing lawn mowers. And because everyone has it, everyone feels obligated to use it (like me, yes. I’m not a total hypocrite, I get it).

But what we end up with is a cynicism like we’ve never had before. And if you know me, you know that I know about cynicism. We’ve become a nation – possibly a world – of cynics. And Americans have a capacity to believe others and not their own government that amazes me. Conspiracy theorists were spewing electrons before Voldemort’s body even started polluting the ocean.

Today, three days later, we’re treated to the usual suspects: He’s not dead; this is a government cover up; it’s a political ploy to get BHO elected again and the list goes on. How much? Well, I just Googled “Bin Laden Conspiracy Theories” and turned up 2,360,000 hits.

My favorite theory: Bin Laden’s been dead for years but we’ve kept his body frozen until we needed it.

Wow. Tinfoil hats for everybody.

(Ok, this is now officially not a short piece about Voldemort but rather the whole post. Sorry about that.)

Imagine if the connectivity we had today was around in the ‘60s when we landed on the moon or during World War II. It’s bad enough there are many people who think the moon landings were faked and that there was no holocaust, but what if these events had taken place in the Twitter age…good grief. Hitler would be alive today, or he was captured by the Russians, or the Allies took him to work in a girl’s school teaching home economics…whatever. It would all be out there and there would be people lining up to buy all of it to some degree or other.

All of this simply leads me to believe we are rapidly approaching that place where the lowest common denominator is no longer the lowest, but entirely common. Ironically, it seems all our connectivity, instead of letting us create thoughtful expressions of our own, has merely given us all the opportunity to search until we find expressions that match our own -- giving us an unrivaled capacity for groupthink – which is wholly anathema to any sort of real freedom.

And the people who want pictures … do you really want to see a picture of a guy who has been shot in the head? It’s not television. There isn’t a neat and clean little wound. Well, maybe an entry wound; but at the back there probably isn’t much left. The exit is always larger than the entrance.

So, let’s say the government posted pictures. I’m sure within hours (maybe minutes) there would be people who are very good with computers who would compile “video evidence” that the photos were faked. We’ve seen this happen in regard to 9-11 where people use the ‘evidence’ that the hole in the Pentagon wasn’t shaped like an airplane. The theory, I guess, being that we live in Toon Town where anything going through a wall leaves a perfect silhouette.

What if we release a video from the special forces helmet cameras? Obviously, the videos would be theorized as having been staged in Hollywood. Because we all know how those right-leaning Hollywood types want to ply their trade for propaganda purposes. (I know, sarcasm and cynicism – bonus!)

Americans are the first ones to get indignant and outraged when foreign powers show pictures of captured soldiers, but can we honestly say our desire for ‘proof’ makes us any better? Is it really proof we’re after or just that Roman coliseum thrill of watching wild animals rip people apart? Is it justice or a cheap bit of titillation?

I’m curious as to what makes Joe 6-Pack feel he has the need to ‘know’? It’s not the government’s job to prove each and every little thing to each individual person. Governments don’t – can’t - work like that.

The places you work do not tell you each little detail of what they do – you have to take some of it on faith. Governments work along those lines as well.

When I first heard this special ops team had killed bin Laden and nobody knew about it until after it was over, I thought to myself, “Excellent. That means we can still keep a secret when we really have to.” I had the same feeling when the existence of the F-117 stealth fighter was revealed in the late ‘80s after it had been flying for years.

I sleep better knowing the government can keep its collective mouth shut when something important is going down, the same way I sleep better knowing there are people in uniform who have the capability and the ability to do things on our behalf that, quite honestly, I’d rather not know about.

Personally, I’ll happily believe that BHO made a ballsy decision to go boots-on-the-ground into a sovereign nation without their permission and do what needed to be done. Sometimes a win is a win and you accept it and move on. Save the speech-making; save the ridiculous campus revels; and save your breath with the “prove to me” this and the “show me” that.

I don’t need to have it proven to me he’s dead. You would, however, have to prove to me he’s alive. Good luck with that.