Posted by Pattie on 3/20/2003 09:20:00 AM

IT HAS BEGUN OR RATHER, UH, IT CONTINUES...

Okay, first, this is surreal.

Meanwhile, the bombs have begun in earnest.

Last night I got a migraine. First, I've had in some time. I usually only get migraines when I've been tense about something for a long time and then it concludes and I relax. Relaxing causes blood that had been constrained by tension to flow to the brain and cause the headache. So I get headaches after things like big exams, the GRE, my dissertation defence, the closing on a house, etc. I have no idea why I got a headache yesterday, but I wonder if it isn't the war. I've tried to keep it at bay, in the back of my mind, but I think all this tension has gotten to me, and then it began and I hate to admit it but I have a weird surreal sense of relief that it began, that it was no longer up in the air.

Once I realized that, I felt profoundly manipulated. The build-up on the border, the so-called diplomacy, the suspense -- will they? won't they? The ridiculous tape loop of news stories about security and diplomacy and threats. All of this now feels like a well-designed Hitchockian suspense thriller designed to make us feel relieved that a war has come. Dammit! I hate being manipulated. I have to wonder who and what else is being manipulated as well.

In the meantime, I've recovered from the headache, but I still have this nagging feeling of impending doom.

Today, we remember history.

I think I've figured something out. VietNam was the war that got covered on television. The Gulf War, version 1.0, was a war that refused to be covered on television. When the media failed to challenge that refusal, the powers that be figured out they were in control of media interests. So this war, Gulf War, version 1.1, is the made-for-television war. Hyperreality lives on.

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