movie: silkwood

[brian carroll <human@electronetwork.org>]

  once had a professor whom i highly regarded
  whom was related to the karen silkwood case
  whom exposed nuclear safety issues and was
  mysteriously killed while trying to bring
  the situation to light. a US movie from
  the early 80s depicts this story and offers
  a glimpse into what the early days of the
  nuclear industry were like, and likely are
  still like today, given that so much goes
  unsaid.

  but even with that in mind, there are a
  few thoughts i had upon watching the film.
  one, the reaction of people when it came
  to making larger change is to disengage
  with anything that challenges the status
  quo, as it threatens basic survival and
  the quality of life. so too, how systems
  protect themselves in their own best
  interest, whatever their goals and merits.
  be it government, science, business, or
  regulators, citizens, or organizers.

  the one difference it seems from today's
  worlds is that things are much more out
  in the open. knowledge is much freer if
  one is looking for information upon which
  to based one's ideas, such as the Internet.
  yet, that same 'silence' exists, a type of
  cultural feedback loop when change comes,
  and it is time to mutate, and sacrifices
  must be made to move forward. and few if
  any want to make the sacrifices. and until
  they do, things remain on the same course.

  thus, even though the 'secrecy' of the
  nuclear industry has become public information,
  still, it is a hot-potato to talk about online,
  as the same forces exist, and their undertows
  can be equally as deadly.

  the only possibility for a different scenario
  than that of individual versus system that
  seems viable is that of groups of individuals
  working together for change, to change the
  system that they exist within. individuals
  cannot do this alone. it requires collaboration.
  especially when birthing in new ideas, new
  knowledge, new ways of seeing, of being.

  that is why the open-source intelligence,
  be it stratfor.com or openflows.org, or
  the software and hardware movements are
  exciting. they form a basis for a way of
  collaborative work and sharing of the burden
  of working for larger changes. the tragedy
  of change is thus not upon the individual,
  but upon the whole group, and could instead
  become a positive experience, instead one
  of loss. something more could be gained
  by working together, than any individual
  geniuses could produce alone. especially
  if people worked together and inspired
  eachother in their work.

  the Silkwood movie seemed to be about a
  person whom was ordinary, but began to
  piece things together, almost by accidental
  necessity, as a duty of being alive, and
  having an independent sense of things.
  what is evident is the cohesion that
  exist behind the silence. that is, the
  status quo, the way things already function,
  and the interests they represent. everyone's
  in a certain sense, and no one's.

  the funny thing about electromagnetic
  knowledge and information is that most
  pass it off as a technical or scientific
  subject and may think it too abstract or
  that is mathematical or just beyond them.
  and thus it is a non-topic. it belongs no-
  where in the current way of seeing. and yet
  everything that maintains, sustains, and
  makes up the real is based and biased by
  its force. education is key to changing
  the way the electromagnetic order of things
  works, and yet this knowledge must be made
  public, shared, in some way that it has not
  yet been, and is traditionally not seen as
  being relevant nor tangible.

  thus, it is almost a type of secrete or even
  esoteric knowledge, when it is verifiably open-
  source and first-hand empiricism abounds. every-
  one can see it for what it is, in its parts.
  together, we could see it as a whole, if only
  there was a 'we' to see and-or sense it, as
  both a scientific and cultural phenomenon.

  someday this change will occur. paradigms
  are incremental only to those whom ignore
  them. they are readily available to those
  whom engage and directly question their
  authenticity to describe the real, and to
  model it, more effective than previous
  models, which cannot deal with the new
  way of seeing, nor its everpresent truths.

  hopefully there will not need to be the
  individual martyrs and a grand inquistorial
  atmosphere today when birthing in the new
  awareness of electromagnetism and its central
  role in defining the real, and the present
  moment, and a way of understanding the world
  around us...

  the movie offers a dynamic that seems very
  similar to topics that do not fit in to the
  current system and challenge it. in the end
  change happens through challenge... and it's
  much easier in groups than going it alone...


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