Blue Season – Answers From an Astronaut

8/14/2019 Blue Season Answers From an Astronaut

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Blue Season

answers from anastronaut

By Wendell W Solomons


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History had seen waves of

demonstrations contribute to

ending the Vietnam War.How

would you, if need be, keep

demonstrations off the street

in cities such as New York,

London and Paris?


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In later years, young people -

seemingly on their own - were to

hang out and then drop out of

street protests. The West hasntseen waves of demonstrations

since the 1960s.

Curious?

Lysergic acid, a hallucinogenic, had

been extracted in Sandoz Labs in

Switzerland in 1938 through

experimenting with a fungus affecting

rye. Sandoz went into the production

of LSD in Switzerland in 1947 soonafter World War 2.

When large-batch production began,

far away in the USA an intelligence

service received high-level directions

to begin research into the effects of

LSD on people. The program, code-

named MKULTRA, was

disclosed two decades later in a

report to Congress.

Yet, the effects were long known to

experimenters. A quantity as small as

the weight of 1/10 of a grain of SAND

induced hallucination.

The US Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) put LSD on a list

of restricted drugs. At the same time

influential think-tank men such as

Aldous Huxley were advocating the

use of LSD and these voicesprevailed.

Troopers of the ATF (Bureau of

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and

Explosives) had famously been

signed in to tackle the Branch


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Davidians by President Bill Clintons

Attorney General and classmate

Janet Reno.

The ATF troopers cast incendiary gascanisters into the wooden building of

the Branch Davidians. The little-

known group is thought to have been

broken away by US intelligence from

the Assemblies of God (the group

was one of several used as pilotcommune for behaviouralist studies

by the agency.) Janet Renos

incendiary gas triggered an inferno

and besides sealing the lips of David

Khoresh all adults and children in the

Texas building perished too. Othersuch control groups where all

subjects died were the Peoples

Temple and Heavens Gate (Paul

Wilshire and more sources on the Net

suggest David Khoresh was among

the decoys whom the intelligence

agency used for branching off thegroup)

Now, if you look at the Net you will noticethat a mysterious other kept troopers of

the US Food and Drug Administration

away from rock concerts for young

people when contract men were

distributing packets of LSD (the

Woodstock Festival came in August

1969). This included distribution at

concerts of the Beatles.

A promoter who found the future Beatles,

the independent Brian Epstein (he ran a

record shop) was converted into a paid

manager of EMI (or Electrical and

Mechanical Instruments, an axial UK

defence contractor). The musicians then

received their name Beatles, a

commercial pun replacing their original


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audiences upwards from 3-chord

music.

The rebellious Irishman in John

Lennon wasnt placated with the fame

and fortune that arrived (at a

command performance for the Queen

he asked those with jewels to rattle

them.) A sense of fair play caused

him to glance from the West towardsAsia.

EMI manager Epstein was withdrawn

through his death in his London flat at

age 32 and the Beatles were broken

up. Lennon went on to crucifixion.Bullet holes entered his left side

according to the autopsy report now

on the Net and were thus fired from a

service door (alleged plot-scripter

Robert Rosen and the New York

Times had claimed in 1980 that

labourers name of Quarrymen.

The play-by-ear performers had

been reproducing Rock n Rollmusic imported from USA (where

it had evolved from black

Americas Boogie-Woogie). For

the performers, poets then

shadow-wrote songs such as

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

(LSD). Musicologist drew on

classical music (for instance,

Tchaikovsky and Borodin) and

EMI contributed with bankrolling

the issue of Parlaphone-labeldisks and promoting the new

compositions with radio broadcast

hours. This combination suddenly

pushed This combination suddenly

pushed UK and US national


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In the aftermath of the artificial, drop-out

subculture, two issues arose:

(1) The global South remained thick

with dissent. Developing nationssuspected that Northern elites were

keeping off manufacturing industry in the

South with an argument that small

industry would employ more people. At

the same time, India, China and the East

Asian Tiger economies were seendeveloping modern manufacturing. So

the anti-industrialisation fable began to

falter. Conscientious academe - in both

global South and North - had seen

through the scheme of Small is

Beautiful (Western protectionists

such as E F Schumacher and

Dudley Seers.)

(2) After the zenith of protest

rallies of the 1960s, the newlyinduced drug culture saw young

people not only drop out of rallies

and take to hippy lifestyle. Some

chose to become yuppies (young

upwardly mobile young people.)

They took it that the office shouldafford them a BMW if they were

singing along. So in both fashions,

yuppie and hippy, true commitment

to social and corporate institutions

began to fade. Anglo-American

innovation tapered off. Yet, how doyou still control the world?

A new fable was required so as to

keep the levers of control with the

dynastial Bold and Beautiful versus

assailant Chapman fired while on

Lennons right.)


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the world.

The new substance administered

was Free to Choose. The fable

was injected into media by Nobellaureate Milton Friedman from

1976.

Its consequence, a cult of Limitless

I, was tossed into countries

distant from the West like Sri

Lanka. Western news agencies(e.g. Reuter) and TV (e.g. CNN)

would out-muscle local journalists

and TV news presenters. Later, the

IMF / World Bank anchored this

Limitless I by using reforms that

dismantled or made dormantCentral Bank and other controls.

Ranging from Sri Lanka to the US,

Limitless I was to transform

logically into Limitless Obligation

for millions of ordinary households. Now - over to the astronaut

Behind the allure adapted from

advertising industry (Your Right to

Choose), it was Milton Friedmans task

to ensure that fat-cat financiers came

out winners. He had compiled part ofthis agenda in 1964, for Barry

Goldwater, Las Vegas casino mob

asset, to step into the shoes of slain

President Kennedy.

After President Reagan entered theWhite House with Milton Friedman

gaining the position at last in 1976 as

economics advisor to counter

Kennedys advisor J K Galbraith.

Private financiers got their free lunches;

you and me - Limitless Obligations.Next, the Anglo-American banks - that

the fat cats controlled - hid away the

private winnings, the banks knowing

that they could assuredly ask the

taxpayer for missing capital.


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Astronaut Leonov converses in Sri Lanka. Yuri Gagarinand Mark Twain stayed in same year-1857 hotel.


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Astronaut Leonov was on the list

of five people overseas whom

Arthur C Clarke named when Sri

Lanka decided to celebrate

Clarkes 90th birthday.

Undiscovered by the Nobel

committee, Clarke created the

concepts of the earth-orbiting

artificial satellite and the Internet

that help the world everyday.

Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry had selected

me, your narrator, to serve as Astronaut

Leonov's translator. The three days that I

served helped me benefit from the

experience of the person who now headsRussia's Space Academy. Our

relationship chanced to lead him to speak

openly, confiding much in me. When I was

seeing him off at the airport he left me with

the words,"I must now leave or else our

conversation will never end."

Leonov turned out to be a fancier of spicy

food. The hotel with verandah looking out

on the ocean also has lobster and crab in

abundance.

One day - as in the picture taken at table -

I put this question to him, "What is the

most important quality in a man?"

ALEXEI LEONOV FROM JET PILOT TO ASTRONAUT


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Leonov thought briefly and said, "The

ability to fight with oneself."

I understood him. Suppressing the selfhas been taught by sages including

those of the subcontinent where

Leonov was speaking. He was the first

man to walk outside a spaceship ever

and tragedy looked the mission in the

face because his spacesuit wasswelling to double-size in the vacuum

and wouldt enter the entry hatch. TV in

Moscow was playing classical music for

austerity and Leonov now struggled to

save both himself and the mission. His

body might succumb to pressure-equalisation for vaccum but he used

the release nipple of his suit to down-

size it.

Let me introduce counterpoint.

I was seated on the self-same sea-

front verandah with a second Clarke

guest. This was a PhD scientist

working for NASA. I asked him toowhat the most important quality in a

man was.

The scientist replied, Self-respect.

He meant well but the old norm was

undone towards Obsession withoneself for the Me Generation of

the 1970s.

Self-respect must be heard in the

context of the outlook of the era that

extends from Reagans comrade-at-arms Margaret Thatcher too. She

had announced, Theres no such

thing as society - there are only

individuals and families.

A popular song declares with no


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An iPhone with Me applied for icons

apparent sarcasm, I believe that the world should

revolve around me!Did swindlers like Bernard

Madoff need more prompting?

Earlier, SONY had got no

further than use BetaMax

and Walkman for names

when launching new

products. The latercommercial pandering to

self-adulation evoked

MyYahoo, WindowsMe,

iMac, iPod and iPhone. A

UK jewelry store calls itself

Me Me Me. With everyonedrifted into doing his own

thing I must get suspicious

of my neighbours agenda.

This follows naturally when

my neighbour claims fame

and gives everyone else theblame for ills in the street. I

GETTA DA FAME - U

GETTA DA BLAME.

Our possibility to share

useful information breaks


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down. To overcome dullness of

mind I turn to TV. There a machine-

wash recycles my mind.

An emptying loneliness? Videos

supply me with air-brushed andgilded starlets with whom to mingle

Ego.

Neighbourhood chat? My iPhone

takes me up, up and away to

MySpace on the Internet where Ican overcome the loneliness of life

in neighbourhood and office where

a post-US-USSR Arms Race

dividend has arrived. The dividend

arrived in the form of a new Cold

War of Each-against-the-Other.Regarding the war of Each-against-

the-Other, it was proposed by

pamphleteer Thomas Hobbes. He

suggested that a population could

be managed easiest by the

sovereign if society was atomised

to the individual.

Hobbes method was found

dangerous and was rejected byBritish statesmen in the 17th

Century. These statesmen were

correct; its introduction in the 20th

Century has triggered the

atomisation of society. In the UK,

consequently, innovation hastapered off and the country has

grown an external debt that is

larger per citizen than US debt.

issue. Jean M. Twenge and W.

Keith Campbell put their researchinto a book entitled, Me! Me! Me!

American's Narcissism Epidemic.

A brief excerpt follows below.

People strive to create a "personal


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brand" (also called "self-branding"),

packaging themselves like a product to

be sold. Ads for financial services

proclaim that retirement helps you

return to childhood and pursue yourdreams. High school students pummel

classmates and then seek attention for

their violence by posting YouTube

videos of the beatings.

Although these seem like a random

collection of current trends, all are

rooted in a single underlying shift in

the American psychology: the relentless

rise of narcissism in our culture. Not

only are there more narcissists than

ever, but non-narcissistic people are

seduced by the increasing emphasis on

material wealth, physical appearance,

celebrity worship, and attention

seeking. Standards have shifted,

sucking otherwise humble people into

the vortex of granite countertops,

tricked-out MySpace pages, and plastic

surgery. A popular dance track repeats

the words "money, success, fame,

glamour" over and over, declaring thatall other values have "either been

discredited or destroyed.

The United States is currently suffering

from an epidemic of narcissism In

data from 37,000 college students,narcissistic personality traits rose just

as fast as obesity from the 1980s to the

present, with the shift especially

pronounced for women.

The rise in narcissism is accelerating,with scores rising faster in the 2000s

than in previous decades. By 2006, 1

out of 4 college students agreed with

the majority of the items on a standard

measure of narcissistic traits


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"Celebrity narcissism: A bad

reflection for kids" is a report filed in

USA TODAY newspaper by Sharon

Jayson.

She interviews behavior expert and

physician Drew Pinsky and S. Mark

Young, a social scientist, on their

book "The Mirror Effect: How

Celebrity Narcissism Is SeducingAmerica."

She quotes: "It may be especially

dangerous for young people, who

view celebrities as role models."

Q: Let's begin with the title. What do

you mean by the "mirror effect," and

why do you say it's a problem?

A: I've been working with celebrities

many, many years. I've treated

many for chemical dependency and

the like. They have profound

childhood trauma. It's not

something to do with their job or

the life they lead. They just happento be people driven

people driven to seek celebrity as a

way to make themselves feel

better... We're taking someone who

needs to be a god and making them

a god.

Now to move onwards from the

US observations -- the godling

effect comes as corollary to

Limitless Choice. To have bitten

into this apple makes the victim

try to say No to obligation. In

the family, children subject to

programming by TV often say

No to guidance by an elder

(Madonnas handlers supplied


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the video Daddy Dont Preach!)

Besides the office, this bequeaths

aggression, cold war and

emptiness to the home too.

I was at a state-owned bank that

serves the public in Sri Lanka.

I was speaking with a worker with

around 20 years experience.

I asked him of two tall women bank

clerks, one a Hindu wearing a sari and

the other wearing a trouser suit and

Muslims head-scarf, Which of the two

women is smarter?

He said, Theres not much difference.

You see, young people are just

cunning and wont be responsible.

I had to call at the Post Office.

This also being a government

institution, I decided to query the

grey-haired postmaster. His

response was instantaneous, The

young are irresponsible.

What a sea change between the

two generations!

Later, on the midnight of Xmas eve2009 I chanced to hear a televised

transmission of mass from a

Catholic cathedral in north Colombo.

A teenager recited a prayer in Tamil

and followed up to perfection inSinhala. A short Sinhala sermon

was then delivered by a senior priest

and this was followed by a sermon

in Tamil because the neighbourhood

has a large Tamil l


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economy. That includes the

development of a port complex in

southern Sri Lanka and pipelines

overland for oil and natural gas from

Central Asia to China. Today the worldwaits on China that retained the

tradition of keeping one's Ego under

control, the principle that astronaut

Leonov mentioned.

* * *

An English friend asked me some

days ago , What do we do?

In benumbing times we shall need to

hold on in some sort of a fortress.

I responded, Old wine, old shoes and

old friends.

population. Yet, prayer and response

arose soon in Sinhala. Then came

singing in Tamil. Now this is the nation

that schemers tripped into warfare five

years after the use of Limitless Choice asa principle for the nation.

Looking at the world, the principle of

Limitless Choice led US foreign trade into

a huge dependence on imports. To foot

the bill for financing these imports, the USchose to depend on Chinas and other

savings arriving in the US for purchase of

Treasury bonds and commercial paper.

With the US in recession, the transfers of

these funds are being switched

elsewhere.

China is turning its foreign currency

earnings towards improving infrastructural

access for China's

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Blue Season – Answers From an Astronaut