Reaching the boiling point

Our Opinion/When the temperature rises, will you notice?

Cindy Gomez-Schempp
Editor

There is a myth about a boiled frog. It refers to studies done in the late 1800s where frogs thrown into boiling water leaped out, but frogs who were exposed to very gradual temperature change placidly allowed themselves to be boiled alive without resistance. The metaphor of ‘the boiled frog’ today symbolizes many things. Among them, the idea of a sheeple-like-naivete about change around us that results in our slow, but inevitable, demise.

Believe it or not, the boiled frog syndrome has been hotly debated. Leading experts in the amphibian field today mock the myth saying frogs dropped in boiling water would die, and frogs cooked slowly would jump to their safety if offered the chance. Maybe today’s frogs are not as resilient as the Evil-Knievel-frogs of the 17th century or perhaps modern frogs are more evolved and can’t be easily duped by a slow boil.

Truth is, we all believe that the frog would let itself be boiled.

Myth or not, the boiled frog represents much more. It represents the ostrich with its head in the sand. It represents the Chinese torture of a thousand cuts and the theory of creeping normalcy. It has been associated with the slippery slope argument, and the ‘first they came’ poem by pastor Martin Niemöller. The boiling frog metaphor is being applied to today’s society, unable to recognize our own impending doom until it is too late. In a New York Times article about the boiled frog phenomenon, Paul Krugman acknowledges the metaphor isn’t literal, but still applies it to the realities of a desensitized America, unaware of the cause and effect that occurs when politicians make irresponsible environmental decisions today which won’t show negative effects for decades or generations. And every generation after us faces new challenges in their quest to avoid becoming the metaphorical boiled frogs.

Having kids that are adults is a trip, let me tell you. You learn about the strangest things. The latest is the internet meme. It’s hard to explain what a meme is and if you look up the definition it doesn’t really help much. So, I’ll do my best interpretation of what I think one is.

A meme (pronounced MEEM, like dream) is basically an idea that everyone shares through the world wide web to express an emotion that we all collectively (or at least many of us) share. Obviously, those ‘memes’ which stir the most commonality throughout the world spread further, faster, and stick around longer. Researchers and the marketing industry are studying this cultural phenomenon, while riding the networking wave created by memes, to learn about our behavior and to sell us more crap.

What’s really interesting about the meme phenomenon is not so much that it exists, but what the popularity of this form of expression implies. That is, it shows our need for collective expression of our shared griefs, joys, outrage, and so on. This got me thinking maybe today’s proverbial frogs are aware they are slowly being boiled alive, and maybe they are even protesting.

The meme is the outlet that most people no longer have, or never had, to acknowledge we are not alone.

You may have seen one of the new latest greatest meme’s titled ‘pepper spraying cop’, referring to the now infamous photo of the U.C. Davis campus police officer who maced a group of peaceful protesters in the face. This meme has been replicated over and over throughout the world. It has been used to simultaneously express our collective recognition of the abject cruelty of ‘the pepper spraying cop’, our shock, and our moral outrage. The ‘pepper spraying cop’ has been super imposed on photos (or as the kids today say: photoshopped) macing Mother Teresa, cute kittens, Mufasa the lion as he is falling off the cliff, and…well, you get the idea.

However, if you watch the mainstream media for these collective reactions to news and information, you won’t find it. No matter how outrageous a situation is in the news, the reactions of common people are usually replaced by those of talking heads often relaying the opposite of what the masses really think.

A great example of this was the new Muppets movie review on a FOX News business show calling Muppets ‘communist indoctrination’ of children against capitalism because the villain in the movie was portrayed by an oil baron named Tex Richman. When this passes as news, it’s easy to understand why a quarter of young people under the age of 30 use Jon Stewart’s Daily Show and The Colbert Report are their primary sources of ‘news’. Like these comedy shows, memes are a natural extension of our collective need to show the powers that be that we can all see the emperor has no clothes. The level of crazy and unacceptable is over the top. Those stuck in America are perhaps better described as stunned or stupefied frogs rather than boiling ones. The insanity is beyond obvious, whether the mediums of ‘mainstream’ communications acknowledge it or not!

Consider that the new “Protect IP Act”, if passed, will give corporations the right - - without a court order—to shut down any internet site they allege is infringing on a copyright. The “protect” part is purposely deceiving for a reason. Information is being controlled selectively and enforcement will also be selective. Meanwhile millions of people who already lost their rights to privacy through the Patriot Act, are horrified to learn millions of phones are tracking every key stoke. We’re in hot water now, right?

Never mind that the government has passed laws that make it totally legal to hunt you down and kill you anywhere on the planet without a warrant or a trial. There are immigration laws in states like Arizona, Iowa, and Georgia that make it OK to be racist. Thousands of U.S. American citizens are being detained and deported, for looking like the indigenous Mexicans—Arabs, Native Americans, Muslims. The effects of these policies and the destruction of families and loss of trust with law enforcement definitely feels like a slow boil for Americans. Is it time to jump out now?

Liberty and the pursuit of happiness are out. Next is our right to live. Did you know many western states such as Colorado, Washington and Utah among them, don’t allow people to collect the rain water that falls on their house or on their property? Watch this video to learn more: http://tiny.cc/ImThirsty If you thought it was nuts when they started selling water in bottles, you’ll be stunned to learn rain belongs to people with water rights and the government! Despite studies showing that rain water collectors actually reduce the use of water reserves during droughts and help conserve water, insanity is king and restrictions continued.

North Dakota has passed the laughable and redonkulous “Fighting Sioux” logo law enshrined by famed racist Ralph ‘Hitler Birthday Party’ Engelstad. Like the great wall of China, North Dakota also has a landmark that can be viewed from space: the flares from gas burn off. Meanwhile, we continue to frack the stupid out of Western North Dakota without a care in the world that people are reporting irreparable damage to ground water, air, soil, animals and people.

How badly are we ignoring the boiling in MN? What about Michelle Bachmann’s brand of loco laws? Remember when in 2003 she introduced a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage even though same-sex unions are already illegal? Rolling Stone’s National Affairs writer, Matt Taibbi put it best saying “[E]ven the politicians who were sufficiently gay-phobic to have passed the original anti-marriage law were floored by the brazen pointlessness of Bachmann’s bill”. The empty ideological gestures of passing unnecessary laws to ‘send a message’ is taking root. Just consider that in Moorhead we’ve already passed ordinances outlawing the specter of guns and drugs—because the real things are already against the law.

What’s next, taxes on breathing in air? Oh, wait. They’re already doing that it in London and the U.S. can’t be far behind. The Mirror news reported Dec. 5, 2011 the Air Traffic Control System will be assessing the per household charge for breathing air. See full report here: http://tiny.cc/GASPbill

One study concluded that only frogs with their brains removed were more likely to be boiled alive. Go Figure. Maybe the loss of our communication rights are making us more prone to boiling. An FCC report this summer showed media had half the staff of newsrooms in 1980’s, putting us at pre-Watergate levels of journalists. Local governments have suffered the brunt of this loss in terms of poor decisions, abuses of power, and costly financial management—all of which go unreported.

New laws are cropping up that restrict the rights of people to record audio or video of officers on duty. Old eavesdropping laws were reinterpreted (very creatively) to charge people with felonies for simply recording their own interactions in public places with law enforcement. HPR wrote about this impending menace last year in an editorial titled “To Serve and Protect - Themselves”: http://tiny.cc/VideoBan Shortly after that story, a Whapeton youth accused police of misconduct and set out to capture it on tape. The teen-aged minor later posted a video online (watch the video here: http://tiny.cc/Whapetoncop) alleging his civil rights were violated when he was arrested by the officer, interrogated and threatened by police, and detained without Miranda rights or communication with his parents for over an hour. The Whapeton office was later suspended and forced to take additional training. Current occupy movements are now proving the perfect opportunity for police to charge citizens with these new felony charges.

This new form of brainwashed, head-in-the-sand, McCarthyism is one which falls under the “terroristic threat” umbrella we currently live in where our government has declared open season to suppress and oppress everything and everyone including environmental protection, economic oversight, federal regulation of corporations, freedom of religious expression and speech to basic human rights, including communication rights and access to independent media.

The real reason we crave the meme is not necessarily the meme itself, but the feeling of acknowledgement of our collective emotions on issues pressing the world today. Because of the world wide internet, more people than ever in history can connect virtually and discuss globally anything they want. Despite this incredible power, governments around the world - - including our own - - are making these conversations more and more restrictive.

However well intended or gradual our loss of freedoms may be, our comparison to the proverbial boiling frog may have less to do with our knowledge of the boil, and more with our ability to climb out. Memes certainly seem to suggest we are well aware of the fact that we’re being boiled alive.

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