Last week I posted an essay on the
New Wisconsin Soviet . A culture of ubiquitous governmental and administrative oversight - tangled webs of banal bureaucracy and ubiquitous punitive rules - the crimminalization of all aspects of daily living - no tolerance rules - township, city, county, state, and federal administrative overloading - overwhelming fees, paper work, inspections, and review boards - the militarization of the police - and all the time real working class jobs sent to China.
A "new Soviet" would not be complete with out a matrix of citizen monitoring. We now have at our fingertips, cheap technology the old Soviets could only imagine. Do I even need to mention the computer virus, spyware culture and the industry that has sprung up to battle it - supposedly? Cell phones easily traced; cameras at intersections; cameras on millions of buildings; cameras in millions of hallways; random urine tests; consummer purchases tracked; world links of personal information data; facial tracking technology; DNA data bases; email, text, and tweet data bases; GPS chips in your cars and pets; cameras in the sky as it were, on the bottom of police helicopters; and, a hundred other Orwellian gems I can't pull off the top of my head right this minute.
To an old farm kid from the 1950s, and from a setting where we usually worked with 30 year old technology from the past as it was, this new techno-fascist world on banal auto-pilot can be overwhelming. All the time there is a hovering background noise...we can make it out if we listen close enough...
"Your privacy is secure good citizens - don't worry - trust us."
Are you fucking kidding me? Do I look like I just fell off a turnip truck?
In paradox, never missing a trick, playing off of what I am talking about above, agencies pop up to protect your privacy; national talk hosts hawk survival food for your disaster room; once thought of reputable celebrities tout the benefits of buying gold because, "The end is near;" more talk show hosts matter-of-factly play spokesmen for companies that help you escape debt or tax problems; and, General Motors has warm fuzzy adds about how their in-vehical tracking system constantly saves lives via audio. Regardless of the love fest, the aforementioned perps in this paragraph are only a spin-off off the techno-fascist rubic; and they are the tip of the creepy techno-iceberg.
The cyborging of every aspect of culture is of course, not exclusive to Wisconsin. But, to throw a science fiction timbre on the subject only George Orwell, Philip K. Dick, and Kurt Vonnegut could appreciate, Wisconsin and its transitional rural-urban; old world-new world; and Up-North region draped in emerging Orwellian technology lends itself to the paradoxes of the quirky world we all must now live in.
May the God of your choice help us all... if the wrong tyrant gets control of this thing.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Specialist Matthew Tyler Grimm, 21, Wisconsin Rapids died Monday, January 15, 2007 in Mosul, Iraq. He was one of four soldiers killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Also, he was the first Wisconsin casualty of 2007. Specialist Grimm was assigned to C Company, 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, out of Fort Bliss, Texas. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Matthew had been a member of a auto racing team in 2004 where he worked for Reffner Motor Sports in Stevens Point, unloading cars from the previous race and getting them ready for the next. He joined the Army later that year. Family is quoted as saying, "He smiled often, enjoyed life, and had many friends." The paper went on to say Grimm entered the Army after graduating from Lincoln High School in 2004. There he played football, wrestled, lifted weights, and was said to have a muscular frame. Also, he had an older brother who was who was an Army Specialist in the Army National Guard and served in Iraq. Wisconsin 2007 Senate Joint Resolution 14 states that Matthew was born on October 7, 1985. He was an M1A1 Armor Crewman. Resolution 14 noted Grimm was posthumously promoted to Corporal. At the time of his death Matthew Grimm was survived by his parents Eldon and Jean Grimm; and his brother Andrew Grimm. Corporal Matthew Grimm was the 68th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
98,252 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,736 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,428 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1334 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
824 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,967 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
8,706 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
24 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
144 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
