By Dexter MacBride, JD.
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“”Who tells the stories of a culture really governs human behavior.” .....George Gerbner. The author of the above quotation died several weeks ago in Philadelphia at age 86. Born in Budapest, he became prominent in the U.S. because of his research into the power and influence exercised by television, movies, radio and press. His educational research into the governance of human behavior conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, El Camino College and University of Illinois, brought him international recognition. Many appreciate and honor Gerbner’s vast research and perceptive judgments. Certainly, his conclusion that “...the prevalent association with television viewing is a heightened sense of being in a ‘mean world’ of violence and danger” is well targeted. In a certain sense, his conclusion is corroborated by the terse statement about (newspapers) by D. Dupont: “To the extent they tell you it’s so...it probably isn’t so.” Despite the above judgments, our Year 2006 is embracing the (almost) unthinkable: sending a machine on a 3 1/2 billion mile Mission to gather data about the planet Pluto...plus surveying an unnamed planet (UB313)...plus navigating the Kuiper Belt! Believe it or not...NASA scheduled the $700-million Space-craft “New Horizons” to be launched Tuesday, January 17, 2006... the very day I’m preparing this commentary. Surely, we’ll have time to consider the event....it will reach Pluto in Y2015! |
To those who deprecate the possibility of successfully achieving the current “Stardust” mission’s 7-year journey to collect particles from a comet’s trail: Relax! Mission Accomplished! “Stardust” returned to Earth this January Y2006...a “soft landing” at the Airforce Test Range in Dugway, Utah. Another world-renowned cultural scientist Poland’s Joseph Rotblat, died in September, Y2005; he was 96. He has been recognized especially as “the Nobel Prize Winner who supported Nuclear Disarmament.” The real reason I include Dr. Rotblat in this discussion? Not because he is recognized as “..the only scientist to resign from the Manhattan Project for moral reasons”; not because he was “...an advocate of a war-free world”, not because he, Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein produced the Russell-Einstein Manifesto which declared ‘...atomic weapons could threaten the continued existence of mankind.” No ...we know all of these attestations are shoved aside by nations and are of little interest to the world’s militarists. The reason I’ve included mention of Dr. Rotblat: the 1955 “Russell-Einstein Manifesto” he initiated provided the base for the formation of a world-wide organization known for its Science and World Affairs dedication to World Peace. What is the organization’s name? “The Pugwash Conference”! Pugwash!!! A small Nova Scotia settlement where the anti-nuclear scientists first met. Reportedly, it was financed by American industrialist Cyrus Eaton (owner of a summer home in the area). Pugwash! Anti-nuclear scientists! No wonder World Peace is so difficult to achieve! The only possible persons who might have embraced “Pugwash”: Mahatma Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau....and the ancient scriptural figure who taught “Blessed are the peacemakers.” |