This week brought to a close a long-running pop culture classic, much to the mixed emotions of hardcore followers and DVD buyers.
That's right, "Everybody Loves Raymond" finally went off the air.
True, thankfully -- but that's not it. Ask any self-proclaimed nerd what this day, let alone this week, means and undeniably he'll shout out, with lightsaber in hand: "Star Wars!"
Cue the music, please.
I speak not to these people, because most of them are tucked away beneath their Yoda blankets by the time this paper hits the newsstands. Instead, for those who did not fulfill their ultimate life goal of waiting until midnight to see the final installment of whatever the hell this "saga" has been about, there's some interesting news on the horizon.
We no longer need science fiction in our lives, because we seem to have enough of it in our reality. In real life, there are aircraft flying over restricted places, small explosive devices being tossed at world leaders, war(s) being fought and crappy comic sitcoms ending.
All right, so perhaps some of it is good news, but the rest of it is rather disconcerting.
In fact, for those who think we still haven't blurred the lines of entertainment and our actual future, I suggest reading a newspaper -- Hey, look at you, already a step ahead! Case and point: Those who picked up an edition of the New York Times Wednesday were informed that our government, specifically the U.S. Air Force, has requested just a little more help preparing for (cough) galactic space battles.
President Bush is being asked by the Air Force to issue a directive allowing "the military to place defensive and offensive weapons in space," the Times reported. The report says Air Force officials will not, however, "seek the militarization of space."
Instead, they'll wait for Russia to beat us to it.
The Pentagon has already spent billions of dollars planning such projects, according to the Times. Such plans are may include weapons or satellites useful for offensive or defensive objectives, which, for the United States, means the same damn thing.
What that translates to, though, is the military not being as concerned with putting weapons into space as it would be concerned with having "free access in space," according to one Air Force spokeswoman in the article.
Seems to me, space is pretty open right now as it is. Sure, the transportation's a little bit of a pain, but as soon as Southwest Airlines starts its "Intergalactic Route," things will be so much better.
Truth be told, we may be a ways off from an accessible low-cost form of space travel, but the idea of defending our country from space has been a serious consideration since January 2001. At that time, Donald H. Rumsfeld led a commission that ultimately agreed the president and military should be able to deploy weapons into space if needed, the Times article said.
Since then, we've experienced a horrendous series of terrorist attacks, gotten ourselves into an increasing number of overseas conflicts and started two major manhunts, one of which continues to this day. (Neglect the politics for a second; like it or not, these things have happened or are still occurring.)
Alright, so maybe this idea isn't so absurd after all. We all know losing any sort of territory or dominance is the last thing the United States wants to do.
It would, uh, not be American.
"The Air Force believes 'we must establish and maintain space superiority,'" the Times article said. Funny, what in the he ... err, galaxy... has NASA been doing all these years?
Sure, it's nice to escape to the fictions and fantasies that have made entertainment what it is for so many years, but we really shouldn't forget that some of these issues and tensions are not too far off in our own world. If we're so tied up in all the fiction, we may never stop to realize the reality of what's going on around us.
And if we reach that point, the force will no longer be with us.
Write to Dave at
heydave@bewilderedsociety.com
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Times Article [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/business/18space.html]
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