|
|
Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Tuesday, November 01, 2011 at 14:49:34 :
In Reply to: Has anyone else notice this? off topic but? posted by Fleabag [96.60.222.95] on Tuesday, November 01, 2011 at 13:53:14 :
I've heard those announcements too, and they're puzzling to me. I'm old enough to remember when radios had "CD" marked on the dial and all the AM stations ran regular tests of the "emergency broadcast system". In those days, everybody knew that "emergency" really meant "nuclear attack". I heard them so much that I can still recite the spiel by heart. Then when the cold war ended, all that stuff kind of fizzled out. Lately I've heard a couple of tests of something, and I've seen test runs on the internet in conjunction with the NOAA storm warning system.
What's strange this time is that they're making a lot of announcements to announce the fact that they're going to do a test of the announcement system. Most likely this is just a typical government money-wasting bureaucratic boondoggle. There are an awful lot of people in this country being paid pretty well to make plans (rather than to make actual things). They no doubt have plans for official responses to everything anybody could possibly dream up.
On the other hand, it is sort of one of those things that makes you go "hmmm...", sort of like everybody at Ft Lewis having their leave canceled on Sept 10, 2001. No doubt every President is in love with his own self-importance and thinks it's really important that he be able to talk to all of "his" people if he wants.
More ridiculously, they probably all think that we care what they have to say. You can bet that if there was any real crisis, whatever the President said would be part of a carefully-scripted response intended to get the American people to do what the official plan requires. You can also bet that the first sign of a real crisis will be that the Internet stops working or only a few websites remain accessible and they're just propaganda.
It's all about the control of information. We're so immersed in information that I think it will be hard to not freak out a bit if we can't get any. That's where short-wave radio comes in handy. Even if the Internet is down and all the US broadcast stations are restricted to "official announcements", you might still be able to find out from the shortwave what really happened. On the other hand, it might be good to think about how to survive without a 24/7 news feed, just as people think about how to survive without store-bought food and fuel. And don't get on the white buses.