“On Sunday, October 30, 1938, millions of radio listeners were shocked when radio news alerts announced the arrival of Martians. They panicked when they learned of the Martians' ferocious and seemingly unstoppable attack on Earth. Many ran out of their homes screaming while others packed up their cars and fled. Though what the radio listeners heard was a portion of Orson Welles' adaptation of the well-known book, ‘War of the Worlds’ by H. G. Wells, many of the listeners believed what they heard on the radio was real.”On May 22, 2011, National Geographic ran its own version of the War of the Worlds, creating a “documentary” on the subject of an alien attack on earth, and how that might play out. They pulled out all the stops: big CGI effects, dramatic music, “expert” testimony, etc. I finally watched it today. Jesus... they hit all the buttons:
- Compared the aliens to Nazis, and predatory cats.
- Portray the aliens as incommunicative - “unknowable”.
- The aliens destroy “civilization” (F-18’s, missiles, bombs, weapons factories, etc.)
- In the absence of alien communication, they assume the worst.
- Invoke Ronald Reagan’s famous alien invasion speech.
- Showed human beings at our worst in a disaster, using Hurricane Katrina as an example. (looting Walmart - the horror!)
- Shock and Awe, or Shekinah.
- Portray the aliens harvesting all organic life, beaming up the trees, cows and people.
- All the nations of the world combine to combat the threat (Armageddon).
Artful propaganda to be sure, and why the hell National Geographic has become a Fox News - Steven Spielberg clone is a great question - sort of exceeding their mandate. What was wrong with bare breasted African ladies?
I dunno, but with 2012 coming up and Terrance McKenna’s prediction of the Id manifesting as an alien spaceship in 2012, I find this all very curious. I'd link to the NG site tonight, but apparently their server is down... just like in their alien invasion scenario.
UPDATE:
I've been checking out the NG site (now that they're back online) and wow have I been out of touch. NG doesn't do trips into the Amazon much anymore, now it's all 911, Hitler and aliens. They're like the Discovery Channel - war, disaster and paranoia, 24/7. It reminds me of Popular Science magazine, which became "Popular War" magazine after 911. A small sampling:
2 comments:
Hello Mick, been a while..
i have said to you before about dreams i have had that seemed similar to dreams you had talked about.
For the past 3 years i have been having the same dream. Once every 3 to 4 months i have it. The dream is of a large planet appearing in orbit beside the earth. I am in a building in dublin city centre when it happens. Strangely i have been in the building just once that i am in, in the dream.
This dream was repliated almost perfectly in the recent transformer movie. the planet was cybertron. very strange.
anyway when michael jackson wrote Neverland over the top of a large clock face at his estate entrance i wonder was never land maybe a message not a simplistic reference to peter pan.
As in was it a plea to an orbiting mothership to never land upon this earth.
AT - fascinating, thanks! The NG "mothership" was spherical, like a planet. It occurs to me that if Michael Jackson represents our inner Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up, and if alien contact represents "Childhood's End", then quite obviously this "island of lost boys" never never wants the mother ship to land. I wonder if they will call it "Wendy"?
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