Thursday, June 11, 2015

Hillary Clinton, HAARP, and Adolescent Hormones

As I ponder the current state of American popular music and the history of radio, two things traditionally that have mutually coexisted, I have realized that radio intrinsically began as a racist entity.  While I don't think many people will disagree with that concept, like the definition of American jazz or swing music it could ignite a firestorm with Millenials.  They have proven, like other youthful generations, that when they do not know anything they sling mud in an attempt to get ahead.  I did it.  Probably it is a part of the adolescent mind which does not develop and thus mature until one's early twenties.  So they are saying.  We are instilled with a survival instinct that transcends social behaviors and religion.  We must fight.  Only as we mature and experience our own weaknesses and failures do we develop empathy and thus compassion.  What does this have to do with popular music or radio?  I have come to realize that it has a lot to do with each.  Music by nature is a product of popularity.  Is that really true?  I can't say for previous generations, but living in America certainly popular music has been linked directly with youth culture.  Its connection with adulthood is a more nebulous thing that shrinks in importance as people begin to settle down.  Why has radio been racist?  The answer is simple and lies in its definition.  Only low frequency radio waves can travel long distances.  These are difficult to produce, because they require an antenna similar in length to their own wavelengths.  Research began at a facility in Alaska which experimented with the creation of low frequency radio waves using the earth's atmostphere.  It will not be any time in the near future they will be licensing these newly produced radio waves to mobile telecommunication companies.  Or will it?  Let's hope Hillary does not win the presidency in 2016.  If she follows in Bill's footsteps, that exactly is what will happen.  For now radio wavelengths are relatively short and thus local.  Local is the operative word.  Why do we continue to see cell phone towers sprout from our native soil?  It is because telecommunications is a large part of the global economy, and still it is competitive.  Despite the inherent risks of microwave frequency radio radiation, these towers are surrounding us more and more each year.  Each ominous tower creates a "cell" of coverage for phone owners.  If you venture outside the cell, you loose your bars.  Lose my bars? "Captain, only recently did I make Lieutenant.  I'll do anything to keep my bars."  Apparently this is the sentiment of the human race.  Nothing is more important than their cell phone coverage.  Until human beings realize the danger of this radiation, like the burning of fossil fuels, and begin to wean themselves from it the problem will continue.  In the meantime irresponsible companies will continue to produce the technology to satisfy the demand.  Radio and cellular communications bear no resemblance in my mind, except that they both use fairly short and thus "local" wavelengths.  Radio since its inception for popular use has been local.  Only HAM operators have graduated to a level of radio useage that becomes international.  Local means what?  In pop culture local often means indigenous or native.  Have these terms developed a negative connotation through history?  It is possible, and a slew of pop culture films and music deal with this issue.  Nothing could be more symbolic than Leonard Bernstein's musical "West Side Story."  The feud between the Sharks and the Jets was portrayed as racial in the story.  As they characters grew and matured they developed an awareness greater than racial boundaries.  Have we developed beyond this in America?  Radio has not helped, because of its reliance upon local populaces for its sustenance.  If commmodities have to choose between their own liquidity or crossing racial boundaries, you can imagine which they chose?  Popular music does the same thing.  If given a choice between staying alive or educating, it will choose to stay alive.  Just as adolescents know no better, neither it seems does radio or pop music.  Isn't there are way to remain commercially viable and still develop and maintain mature themes?  Must adolescence and its relating hormonal surges continue to be exploited by capitalist America?