Didactic Synapse

It’s been months, but this show is worth the wait. Over two hours of didactic goodness! We’re covering everything from Iraq to Edward Snowden to people pretending to be US Department of Energy spokesmen. Plus — as always — we give you the latest on fracking and high-frequency trading, with a visit from everyone’s favorite cigar-sucking businessman.

Enjoy!

DS#93: The Formula

Top Links

• Amazing Grace: Woman in Iran halts the execution of her son’s murderer
• Video: Glenn Greenwald and Paul Rieckhoff on Real Time with Bill Maher
• Video: Posing as US Officials, Yes Men Announce Renewable Energy Revolution at Homeland Security Congress

Take Action

• Stop the mass executions in Egypt

Current Events

• Video: Neil DeGrasse Tyson on race, gender, science, and society
• The Yes Men
  • DN: Extended interview with the Yes Men
  • Yes Men fake DoE speech
  • Trailer: The Yes Men Fix the World
• Net Neutrality
  • PC World: What it is and why it matters
  • DN: Internet for the 1%
  • The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age (Preface)
• Fracking
  • Feds: West blast was preventable
  • Texas family’s nuisance complaint seen as win against fracking
  • Scientists say tests prove fracking to blame for flaming wells
  • Nat Geo: Scientists warn of quake risk from fracking operations
  • The Guardian: Write-down of two-thirds of US shale oil explodes fracking myth
• Dave Zirin on LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling
• Amazing Grace: Mother of Oklahoma murder victim asks for clemency

Economics

• Millionaire survey: Higher taxes, please
• For the Love of Money
• Strike at Chinese factory supplying Adidas and Nike
• Michael Lewis: “Wall Street has gone insane”
• BW: Companies choose profits over productivity
• Video: Joseph Stiglitz on Tavis Smiley
• Video: William Easterman on Tavis Smiley
• Video: Matt Taibi on DN
• UK “aid” is financing a corporate scramble for Africa
• McDonald’s CEO says We provide “real careers”

Education

• NPR: What is quality pre-K education?
• DN: Jim Crow in the classroom
• ProPublica: Segregation Now
• InBloom shuts down amid concerns over privacy

Killer Robots, Etc

• Google’s Robot-Buying Binge
• The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Covert Drone War
• Glenn Greenwald describes Edward Snowden’s background and why he leaked the NSA documents
• BW: The Flu tricked Google. Can Wikipedia do better?
• AdWeek: Waiting in line: You’re stupid
• Trailer: Drone: The Movie
• Pepper the robot knows when you’re sad, will give you a hug

Hip-Hop

I’m postponing the discussion of hip-hop for a special episode coming soon. Stay tuned!

“Pessimism about man serves to maintain the status quo. It is a luxury for the affluent, a sop to the guilt of the politically inactive, a comfort to those who continue to enjoy the amenities of privilege.” — Leon Eisenberg

“All the pessimists in world history together are nothing against reality.” — Elias Canetti

“[A pessimist is] a man who thinks everybody as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.” — George Bernard Shaw

Note: I haven’t read the books. If you feel this disqualifies me from responding to the show, it’s probably best that you stop reading now. You will be missed.

Game of Thrones is the Human Centipede of fantasy epics in the 21st century. Both stories revel in the deplorable wretchedness of humans at their worst, without any viable mention of compassion, empathy, or conscience. Both stories work primarily to shock and revolt audiences, exploiting our emotions rather than digging into the deep soil of humanity.

There’s no question about the skill of Monsieur Martin (and the show’s writers) in creating complex characters, effective dialogue, and epic story arcs. My complaint is not with his skill with the tools of fiction writing; my complaint is with how he uses these tools.

There’s also no question about — and therefore hopefully no reason for me to discuss — the horrible brutality of GoT. We’re introduced to sympathetic characters and hopeful situations, only to watch them mutilated without mercy. Much has been written about the veneer of Schadenfreude that permeates Martin’s work, and many of his fans delight in watching newcomers cringe and squirm as good butchered by evil.

Responding to this phenomenon, Martin is quite clear. When asked by Entertainment Weekly if his books present a cynical view of human nature, he said:

I think the books are realistic. I’ve always liked gray characters. And as for the gods, I’ve never been satisfied by any of the answers that are given. If there really is a benevolent loving god, why is the world full of rape and torture?

A fair question, and I wish neither to argue to problem of evil from scratch, nor demand a theistic narrative paradigm. But Martin’s worldview as depicted in GoT is unrelentingly negative, and it is pessimistic. It pretends that compassion and empathy are statistically insignificant freaks of nature.

But this is not a full and fair accounting of reality, and I am tired of seeing hideous atrocities presented as the only “real” things, with the vast array of other human interaction derided as “unrealistic”.

To wit: Martin was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. He worked with the VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) program, part of Johnson’s War on Poverty. He clearly believed that there was a pathology in carpet-bombing thatched huts in Vietnam, and that he could do some good in refusing to fight.

So where are the conscientious objectors in Westeros? Why are there no scenes of compassion triumphing in small ways against hideous evil? I’m not calling for simplistic Pollyanna happiness, nor an idiotic deus ex machina to stop the wicked machinations of the Lannisters. But blood and suffering are the only “reality” we’re given. (A few tiny moments of romantic or motherly tenderness are inevitably bookmarked by elongated sequences of torture, rape, and murder.)

At the risk of repeating myself: Those horrible atrocities are not the full and fair reality of our world.

You cannot tell the story of the Santa Cruz massacre without mentioning Amy Goodman. You cannot tell the story of Black September without mentioning Marie Colvin. You cannot tell the story of Rwanda without mentioning Paul Rusesabagina. You cannot tell the story of the My Lai massacre without mentioning Hugh Thompson, Jr. And so on.

I’m not done with Game of Thrones, but I’m sick of its facile emotional exploitation. If a storyteller asks me to give up 30 hours of my life, I think I deserve a little more than crude manipulation and superficial reminders of how nasty people can be.