Where Never Lark Nor Eagle Flew (The 5G Chronicles III.)

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high un-trespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. ~High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee.

...

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." ~Voltaire

I heard that Voltaire quote a lot during the Trump years.

Fundamentally, though, what if the person making you believe all this silly bullshit...is you?

I guess there was some guy going around the Trump rally today talking about how he believes the Earth is flat.

Horse...and I cannot stress this enough...shit.

The Earth is not flat, the ancients knew this, it's why if you live on a coast, and you see a ship sailing away...the ship will eventually disappear over the horizon. You can see this happen.

Hell, I personally have observed the Earth's curvature, not because I've done anything special, not specifically because I was in the Air Force, but simply because I've flown on a commercial flight here and there, and commercial jets cruise at around 40,000 feet up. The altitude at which the Earth's curvature becomes visible on a clear day is around 37,000 feet. It's literally not rocket science. 

If you've got a window seat you can see it for yourself. It's kind of cool, honestly.

Well, for a few people it might be, or have been rocket science at one time, but for the average person there's no reason for it to be all that complicated. Not anymore, at least.

This stuff is part of our history. 

America broke the Sound barrier, Chuck Yeager with the Bell X-1 at Muroc AAF (Now Edwards Air Force Base) in California, The space program, starting with the Mercury Seven, up through the Gemini and Apollo programs, the moon landing, to the Space Shuttle and now the ISS. Up until the end of the Cold War, the Space program was very much considered to be on the pointy end of American power and scientific prowess.

And there was no footage erased. Hell, the footage was the damned point. They fucking broadcast from the Moon. I've seen a lot of the damn video. Seriously, what would even be the damned point of trying to fake something like that?

Nowadays, "Where never Lark nor Eagle flew" seems to best describe how fucking high on drugs these people get. Yeah, that's right. I saw Trump Jr. talking nonsense and looking like he was whacked out of his gourd at his dad's rally today too.

And the thing that gets me about this bullshit is these fucking people who think the Earth is flat or the moon landing is faked (these being basic scientific things one can, like I said, determine for oneself with a little effort) will believe wild tales of cloning and robots and secret executions and tribunals...

Because hey, if we could make a clone or a robot that looked and acted like this or that famous person...wouldn't it be fairly easy to go to the moon, or at least into Earth's orbit? If you believe all this other fantastical stuff...wouldn't you at least want to know? I mean, why isn't interplanetary or interstellar space travel ever a thing in all these people's crazy conspiracy theories?

Oh, right, it's not about any of that wondrous hyper-technology unless it can be used to beat political rivals over the head with. Of course that's also...in the context of the Cold War, what the space program was, politically.

But I'm not going to lie, I find it creepy how nobody ever dies in the enchanted make-believe world these conspiracy theorists have spun up for themselves, and everybody...certainly anybody famous...is some kind of a clone or Stepford robot...because something something Gazpacho can't frighten the masses yet or something.

Bitch, I play Vampire: The Masquerade. Your argument is, by definition, invalid. Even as regards that game and the others produced by Onyx Path and White Wolf, with every Supernatural or related creature on the planet agreeing to some variant of "The Veil Shall Not Be Lifted" the game itself still figures a fair amount of humanity knows something. 

The idea thus becomes keeping people from figuring out too much. Grand conspiracies are seldom that airtight in real life, because people are stupid. Top Secret programs and yes, conspiracies, take real effort and often, ultimately force of law to maintain secrecy, because the more people are involved the greater the chance that someone will talk.

That's just human fuckin' nature. I don't make these rules. 

People die, deny this or desensitize people to this fact at your own peril. It's the nature of the world and, if you believe in religion, death is a requirement for going into the afterlife and achieving Eternity.

Being, rather than becoming, is not a luxury granted the living for a damn reason.

We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for a purpose, and that purpose is not...this silly bullshit.

But the absolute truth is, all these right-wing bull-shitters and conspiracy theorists can't wait for the killing and the dying to start. 

They just want to fool the masses with a bunch of sunshine and rainbows crap, so that people won't think it's so bad and let them start to do what they want, figuring by then...well it'll be too late for anyone to stop them from killing anybody who doesn't bow down and behave like some kind of Stepford robot and shout Seig Heil and salute the flag with somebody's boot on their neck.

But every now and again...actually, with increasing frequency, some idiot goes off script and flies a Nazi flag. Because these fucking morons can't wait to tell on themselves, to tell that they're (in their own minds anyway) some kind of a big deal in the vast right-wing conspiracy. 

Even in Canada, apparently.

And don't worry, Commie [or insert derogatory whatever of one's choice here] you'll get yours, they say. These people's entire problem is that other people exist. You cannot reason with that kind of shit, you can only put it down, by force.

And that gets easier when these fucking people simply won't shut up about their fascism and all the fucked up shit they want to do because of it.

In other words, these fucking people disprove their own god damn argument, they refute their own statements about all these vast conspiracy things by their own actions. Because they're stupid and they want to get a little of the power and glory they think they have coming right now.

Because in the end, these sick fucks get off on the torment that their murderous beliefs and vain words inflict on other people right here, and right now.

There's reasons most First World countries...and even plenty that aren't...literally have laws against this type of shit, and actively criminalize things like ethnic hatred, hate speech, hooliganism and racism.

Because it's fucking awful behavior and bad for society, among other things. Here in America we've too long relied on education and social consequences, but those systems are starting to fray...because one side of our political spectrum is actively undermining our traditional methods of consequences.

And it will continue to go on, unless we step up and stop it.

Because annoying or antagonizing one's neighbors or making some LGBT person or person of color sick to their stomach with anger and worry and meeting the world with middle finger upraised is just so much damn easier than reaching for the stars and trying to accomplish something...or even simply getting on a plane and going somewhere, much less the effort, hard work and risk that goes with doing hard things or serving one's country.

Believing nonsense, or inflicting pain and petty bullshit is so much easier of a way to find meaning in one's life than actually doing something, I guess.

Used to be, way back when I was a conservative, we had two words for people like that: Fucking Losers.

Ya know, I spent some time when I was a kid living in Orange County, California. There was a park by my neighborhood that was kind of known as a place where gay men hung out, cruising, as the term at the time went. One weekend the Klan was threatening to come into the city from whatever desert shithole they lived in. They started making statements to that effect awhile beforehand. My town pretty much told these people they could go fuck themselves. And this was back in the 1980's, the oh-so-righteous Reagan years...and in staunchly Republican at the time Orange County...people preferred the gays to the racists.

We, as a people, need to stop tolerating this fucking bullshit.

Stop listening to conspiracy theories and lies because they make you feel important. You want to feel that way? Well, what have you done lately?

Don't be these fucking people.

If you want meaning in your life, go out and fucking earn it. You'll feel better in the long run, trust me.

Part II

And thanks, Melo.