Large Fierce Mammal

As the late unpleasantness in and around Japan continues to unfold, I’m seeing more and more media coverage that has a net information content of zero. On at least two cases, rather than informed, I actually felt stupider after listening to it.

The constant soothing wordage and disclaimers like “slightly radioactive material” and “a small amount of radiation was released” are meaningless and simply calculated to assuage the fears of a justifiably suspicious audience that even now, after so short a time, is hearing what is not said far louder than what is.

The King James Bible quotes John 8:32 as, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Ironically, that passage is the motto of the US Central Intelligence Agency, inscribed right there in stone for all the world to see, in the foyer of CIA headquarters. That speaks volumes about the way governments define “truth”.

Aldous Huxley paraphrased it as, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.” I tend to think his version rather than the original is the greater motivator of spin doctoring, particular in this case. What seems to be missed by the Japanese government, and other governments and organizations with a vested interest in hiding as much as possible of just how seriously out of control the present situation continues to be, is that Huxley’s version becomes more applicable with every moment it takes for people to reach the point where they know they’ve been put in jeopardy by a web of deceit.

Much that has occurred in recent years, from the troubles in Japan to the abuse of government powers – yes that’s what I said – GOVERNMENT powers, not police powers – at the G20 Summit in Toronto last year points to a steadily more obvious exposure of a REAL, capital “T” Truth. No matter what rights and freedoms might be “entrenched” in constitutions or bills of rights, even so called democratic governments consider the citizens of their nations to be chattels of the state rather than individuals with rights to anything – ever – beyond having their face slammed into the pavement if they cross the line of understanding that the meek will inherit the shit. They do not trust their populations to think for themselves, and will expend more effort in shaping perception of a situation than they ever will in managing it.

Even as very legitimate and heroic people labour to bring order from chaos on a scale that numbs the mind, the Japanese national government gives every appearance of working steadily to save face both nationally and abroad while it strives to avoid losing control in areas that were actually spared the direct effects of the earthquake, the tsunami, and/or radioactive material from damaged nuclear reactors, using the tried and true means of controlling what passes for the “truth”, and instantly denying any naysayers. That way, if the naysayers turn out to have been right, it’s still possible to pass off the latest catastrophe as something that could not have been foreseen, even by the government’s trusty experts, but that even so is now either completely under control or shortly will be.

The press, in some cases knowingly, in others unknowingly, and in still others apathetically, is complicit in this. Stories are filled with information that is contradictory, inaccurate, misleading, and completely wrong, often in the same news piece. Professorial types are trotted out to explain what is going on with the damaged reactors, but the ones I’ve seen so far seem incapable of explaining what is really not a particularly complicated bit of science in a way that the average person can understand. Most of them bring to my mind the old Cadbury commercials featuring Professor Irwin Corey explaining the secret of getting the caramel inside the Caramilk bar. This, ladies and gentlemen, is bullshit that I am here to put to rights.

My next two articles will explain, with the simplicity they deserve:

1. What is actually meant by “radiation” and how to tell when you’re having smoke blown up your kilt by someone who’s talking about it; and
2. What a nuclear reactor us, how it works, and what happens when one goes to shit.

Stay tuned!