Review: NYC Epicenters: 9/11 to 2021 1/2

 

I just watched the first episode of the Spike Lee joints on HBO, “NYC Epicenters: 9/11 to 2021 ½”. Here are some of the initial thoughts and feelings about the two-hour long episode. Firstly, it was such a relief to feel acknowledged by the past I experienced as being real. Sometimes, the past year can seem like it was a bad nightmare. This felt like an acknowledgment of all the feeling and emotions I had being validated. The betrayal of the government handling of the pandemic to the protest against police brutality and injustice around the world. This felt like a validation that it actually happened. It wasn't a dream. I was there. Here is the footage. It's want what the media presented at the time, from ANY side. It was peaceful, lovely, and inspiring. Honestly, I feel sorry for you if you didn't get to experience that global movement like most of humanity did during that time. Once again, I am so glad Spike documented and presented so it is immortalized as it happened.

 

Some may try and change that narrative, like it wasn't as magical as it was, like the global agreement acknowledging systematic racism and injustice under the law around the world didn't happen. But, it did. And it was just as glorious as Spike Lee depicts it. My memory doesn't have the same soundtrack, but the spirit and emotion of his score fits to what I felt during those first, uneasy moment of the COVID19 Pandemic.

 

The film reminds us of our own experiences in the unfolding of a contagion. Namely, the bad. For it wasn't until it got really bad that Americans took notice. The failure of leadership across the board leaves you dizzy trying to blame every level of government. But, ultimately I couldn't help thinking of Socrates and how we elect every person fumbling the ball now. For he did not think the “ordinary people [of Rome] were fit to govern themselves.”

 

That might sound offensive to read. But, his explanations were reasonable and convincing. I used to be one of these contrarian, hipster wannabe, armchair scholars watching YouTube thinking I was smarter than the entire scientific, and medical establishment. I get it. In a world of Dr. Oz selling BS on daytime TV, it can be tough for the lay person to follow. Now, when we see the general public science literacy every year, I get it and I agree. The question of whether the Earth rotates around the Sun or if ghosts are real should not be controversial. Certain scientific facts like evolution, get politicized. However, modern biology and medicine wouldn’t make sense without it, therefore they would not exist.  

 

Carl Sagan used to inspire me and leave me in a state of wow. Now, his words mostly just haunt me...

 

“A world built on science and technology, which no one understands it…is liable to blow up in our faces.” A recipe for a perfect storm of disaster.

 

Now, social media and the internet provide so much information that the BS is indistinguishable from the truth. There is no better example relevant than the misinformation, fear mongering, and conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID19 vaccines.

 

Turns out the modern age didn't give us flying cars, jet packs, and hover boards. The future made processing power smaller and more powerful. So, we get computer phones and digital cameras in our palms. You can thank space exploration and telescopes like the Hubble for technology in the phone you are using now. The spinoffs are not calculable.

 

But, this comes back to how it all works against us. Access to information quicker, also means access to disinformation quicker. Once I heard the question, if you were asked to prove the world is not flat, could you? Without the use of the internet, but sheer logic and experiment. I knew this was an important aspect because I couldn't do it. Ancient people could do it. What knowledge did they have that I did not?

 

Instead, I learned how all those ages ago, someone measured the angles of the shadows from a sun dial in two different locations at the same time. The results are what proved the truth of the universe as we know it today, the world is indeed not flat. They could even find the circumference of the Earth with the results they found with incredible accuracy.  

 

According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of the word “epicenter”, means the central point of something, usually unpleasant or a difficult situation. New York City often serves as the center of many situations that we tend to forget about. We get examples of how the pandemic helped bring people closer together in certain ways and pushed us apart in others. Not just in a physical sense, but in a personal, psychological sense.   

 

When we get saved from this global pandemic, remember that it is not because of any politician or world leaders. You give credit where it is due, to the health care workers on the frontline and scientists developing new technologies such as the vaccinations that will help us win this war. Never has there been a time that peoples attention and interest should be in science. This is our moonshot. As Americans we should rally behind the efforts to find solutions and support the healthcare workers. We have a common enemy in the virus killing indiscriminately, whatever your beliefs might be. It is killing Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and even germ deniers all the same. During the moon missions, people complained about the cost of sending men to the moon. I am sure people asked how much it would cost to shut down St. Louis during the Flu of 1918, but the opening back up before it was safe, would cost them more than they could ever imagine.

 

I am sure there were people saying they overreacted in St. Louis closing the city down during the Flu of 1918. But, all of those people soon felt like assholes when the virus had a second wave worse than the first, and a third when science deniers protested the disease into each others uncovered, open mouths. I am sure most people have not heard of this, because those who do not know history, are doomed to repeat it.

 

Original Artwork By Noah Nez 

*Series is available on HBOMAX now

Conspiracy Theorists Will Not Read This!

While it is easy to shrug off and laugh at, we are seeing more and more grand conspiracies being highlighted by social media. Some are less concerning, while others are more. Superstitious thinking isn't harmless and has real world consequences. The internet has always had this problem, but information gets around quicker than it ever has in the past. A viral video can travel around the world before the truth can get its pants on. 

The problem with combating these types of things, is that they get emboldened when ridiculed.  It's easy to condemn and come off condescending in the process.  Have you ever been persuaded by being ridiculed?

People would rather be wrong on their own, than be ridiculed and proven wrong by someone else. Therefore, it can be tough to be cordial and understanding when talking about something like vaccines. When I first heard of anti-vaccine groups, it drove me crazy. Crazy enough to start this blog and thus my whole campaign of consumer protection advocacy.

I used to ridicule my cousins for getting flu vaccines every year, while making the same argument many vaccine hesitant people make today. "I am young and healthy, therefore I do not need a vaccine." But, that is wrong, followed by more wrong. Those are just more  reasons for getting a vaccine. You get vaccinated for the ones who cannot get the vaccines themselves. Like babies, old people, or the elderly. The immunological response the human body has when expose to immunizations is far safer and effective than any natural method. Vaccines are a technological marvel of science and should be celebrated for adding decades to the human lifespan. 

At the end of the day, conspiracy theories aren't about science or a search for the truth. It's about human psychology and the pitfalls in our thinking when we aren't taught how to reason. Our brains, like the internet, they  are powerful tools of information. But, if we aren't taught how to use them, we could end up with more misinformation than what is tried and true. Like a chimpanzee with a machine gun. 

There is a subtle difference between being skeptical and being cynical. Carl Sagan once said,

"Science is more than a body of knowledge. Is a way of thinking; a way of skeptically interrogating the universe. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we’re up for grabs." 

One of our Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton, said something similar in "a man who does not stand for something, will fall for anything."

It turns out, researchers have found something similar to be true when they study it with experiment. An extreme example would be, highly educated individuals without any formal critical thinking skills or science literacy are not more likely to be right, but are more likely to rationalize with more elaborate explanations.  

In skeptic circles, we call it "hand waving". It reminds me of politicians who overuse gestures while they talk, or frauds who sell bunk science with over complicated technical terms. It's a psychological tool to convince you they know what they are talking about. 

Not having one skill is bad enough. Not having either is a recipe for disaster. Some fraudsters and con artists would say you deserve to be taken advantage of as a result. How do you feel about that? There are people out there who knowingly pull the wool over the eyes of the susceptible, and there are even more who know and do not care. Well, I care. People are taking advantage of others and exploiting this blindspot and nobody does anything. I can at least call it out. 

Critical-thinking is being able to challenge one's own beliefs and positions. It is the crux of any decision making process. 

So, mere doubt isn't good enough. Asking questions of all authority isn't good enough. We must ultimately demand evidence and be able to differentiate what credible with standards of validation. 

If you don't believe any of this, good, look it up. You do not have to take my word for it.  Challenge any, and all, preconcieved notions. Especially, your own. 

Original Artwork By Noah Nez