Doesn't Darth Vader Ever Get Vanquished?

Sometimes I think that living a long life is a curse. Not that I have done so yet, 70 is kind of nowhere. Not long. Not short. But here stand I. The thing that I am allowing to irritate me these days is that things that seemed to have been accomplishments not only fade, but come back as new challenges in different forms. It gets hard to see progress.

Getting fabulous, never ending media coverage was one of the great triumphs of the Anti-Vietnam War movement in the USA. In previous wars, the general public saw the propaganda films put out by the military machine. Most every depiction was of our handsome heroic boys saving the world. It was pretty much the same from the German side.

In Vietnam, intrepid reporters sent images around the world that horrified, stunned, mobilized, and finally had a good part in exposing and ending the insanity of that War. We had learned how to expose the machine in real time. Yea! Except, that triumph was short lived. The powers that be also learned their lessons. In subsequent wars it has been impossible to repeat that. The purchase of the major TV outlets by the great arms manufacturers, the blackout of access to war zones except with embedded reporters, the publishing delays for stories that might have saved many lives (Think about Seymore Hirsh's story of the El Mazote Massacre in El Salvador). This was like a full stop of media until the exposure couldn't influence the outcome.

Now we have our every communication watched and listened to. How different this is from the CIA and FBI guys that would hide behind doors at anti-war actions and occasionally step out and flash a camera in our faces. Whistle blowers are no longer protected, but rather criminalized. Any progress that was made toward openness, has now been quadruply eroded.

My melancholy is not reflected by the greater thinkers. Chomsky, Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, these great men see humanity making great progress. Why would I feel a personal defeat in the loss of the triumph over the media? Well guys, it is a bit about the ego. I would guess that the need of my little ego to think that I had been part of something important is a character flaw that still irritates. Great human beings are those who get over the need for these self important pats on the back. Mea Culpa. Change is important and unstoppable. I know this.