Season 5, Episode Nine June 18, 2023

Hello! Thank you for putting your ear to The Listening Tube! I’m your host, Bob Woodley. On this episode, we’ll hear about Saint John’s Dance, and no, it didn’t happen in the Catholic School cafeteria, The Tennis Court Oath, obscenity, and how to be a first-rate version of yourself. But first, (Not the Headlines!).

The United States of America has decided to rejoin UNESCO. According to a UNESCO story on its website, the US State Department sent a letter to the Director-General describing how they welcomed the group’s work in recent years addressing emerging challenges and modernizing its management, as well as helping to reduce political tensions. It was in 2011 when the US suspended its financial contributions because the organization recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization with the same legal standing as an official State, triggering US laws prohibiting any funds to the United Nations or any of it’s branches that do so according to a 2011 story by Matthew Clark for the American Center for Law and Justice. That stopped roughly 80 billion dollars a year, or 22 percent of their budget, from going to UNESCO. From the context, I’m guessing the UN in UNESCO stands for United Nations. Oddly enough, I couldn’t find anywhere on the UNESCO website what UNESCO stands for. The law tripping the stoppage of funds was created in 1990 under second Bush administration, and remained intact during the Obama administration when it was activated by UNESCO’s decision. The United States legally withdrew from the organizations in October of 2017 during the Trump administration, so there was at least some bipartisanship when it came to not supporting UNESCO for their support of the PLO, which we all know stands for the Palestinian Liberation Organization. They’re always fighting with Israel, and Israel’s our ally. As for UNESCO, I had to come across it in another story about the whole ordeal, and UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization! But don’t look for that on their website, unesco dot org. 

So I couldn’t help but wonder if there’s a law on the books against it, how can we just rejoin? Can we rejoin without paying them any money? After all, that’s what we did from 2011 until 2017. Did UNESCO change their recognition status of the PLO to less than that of a state? That would deactivate the American law that led to the split in the first place! 

Look, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Ronald Reagan pulled us out, citing “poor management and values opposed to our own," only to have his Vice-President’s son, President George W. Bush, rejoined again citing a change in the organization that championed freedom of the press and universal education. All this according to a National Public Radio story with the headline, “The U.S. says it wants to rejoin UNESCO after exiting during the Trump administration.” NPR used that headline to make it look like all Joe Biden is doing is undoing something else that Donald Trump did. That makes it okay! It doesn’t matter that there was a law on the books dating back to 1990. It didn’t matter that we eliminated our contributions during the Obama administration. Why did Obama keep us in the organization when we were prohibited by law to fund it? All Trump did was cut the line altogether. If all you do is read the headline, you miss all that. The NPR story goes on to say that one of the reasons for the reunion is that the US Congress last year agreed that they could make financial contributions to UNESCO again. Foriegn Policy dot com says UNESCO’s current Secretary-General has improved their efficiency, and tackled what was seen by many as anti-Israel bias. So, should we become part of UNESCO again? The Biden administration thinks so. Does this mean we don’t support Israel anymore? Probably not. In fact, Israel’s okay with it, and even discussed it with the Biden administration ahead of time Israel will even start cooperating with UNESCO on World Heritage Sites, but won’t renew it’s own membership. 

Well, we can’t join until the other members let us, and they might still be mad about us leaving them before. Twice before. So, why were we in it in the first place? Well, as we already sort of touched on, George Bush like it because it promoted his “No Child Left Behind” initiative. What else do they do? According to their website, UNESCO also tries to Reconcile humanity with nature by using science, local knowledge and values of respect for Ocean and Biodiversity to protect the environment. That sounds like a worth cause. We certainly need to get more in tune with our planet. UNESCO also hopes to develop ethical standards for Artificial Intelligence and neurosciences while supporting the free-flow of ideas and open science, and promote inclusion and mutual understanding by building inclusive societies with respect and tolerance, promote freedom of expression and information integrity, and protect cultural heritage. They also say that want to fight against racism, hate speech and stereotypes. Which begs the question: How does one protect cultural heritage while fighting stereotypes? That might be something we can explore at another time. 

Meanwhile, I also found this on UNESCO’s website under their mission statements: 

UNESCO believes that all forms of discrimination based on gender are violations of human rights, as well as a significant barrier to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. A search of UNESCO’s website didn’t reveal a list of the 17 sustainable goals, but I was able to find it buried in a story there. Most of the goals are worthy ones. I can see why they need all the help they can get. The number one goal is to end poverty, so they still have a long way to go. But health, ecology and equality seem to be the backbone of the goals. The only form of equality they single out is that of men and women. Nothing about race. Goal number 5 states “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” Elsewhere on the UNESCO website it says, “Our message is clear: women and men must enjoy equal opportunities, choices, capabilities, power and knowledge as equal citizens. Equipping girls and boys, women and men with the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills to tackle gender disparities is a precondition to building a sustainable future for all.

So, just like trying to reconcile protecting cultural heritage with fighting stereotypes, how will the United States try to reconcile the goals of UNESCO with the Biden administrations on promoting the people in between genders, either physically or emotionally. It doesn’t look like UNESCO has made any room or concessions for that group of people, nor has it set any goals to promote it. Will the trans-militants of the United States force UNESCO to amend its goals or be threatened with the transphobic label? How can the United States belong and financially support an international organization that doesn’t believe that trans rights are human rights? Do you think that the trans community and those who support and promote it will let an opportunity like the US joining UNESCO go to waste? No. This is a chance to have the whole trans awakening go international with the support of an already established human rights organization. The Biden administration just dropped it in their collective lap. Odds are, it still hurt! ..yea…. Anyway, once the trans community puts the pressure on the Biden administration to stand up for them at UNESCO, the boa feathers may hit the fan. 

Who will have to change? UNESCO or the current U.S. government? Oh, by the way, the US will have to pay 600-million dollars in back dues to rejoin.

Elsewhere, an Illinois man shot himself in the leg with a 357 magnum while sleeping. The 62-year-old man now faces firearms charges because he didn’t have a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification Card, which is required in Illinois if you want to have a gun. The man did have one, but it was revoked. I guess whoever took the card didn’t check if there was also a gun to go with it. Well, there was, and in this case, it was a 357. As it turns out, the guy shot himself because he was dreaming that someone had broken into his home, and he attempted to shoot the intruder. But there was no intruder. Just him. He woke up when he shot himself in the leg. Police said there was a lot of blood. He was having a bad dream, which is now a nightmare because he’s being charged with possession of a firearm without the ID card, and reckless discharge of a firearm. Both are felonies, according to a news release. 

Like me, you might have heard about this story from some morning radio funny guys. You may have got a chuckle out of it, or felt the guy was lucky he only shot himself in the leg. But there’s another part of this story that you probably didn’t hear. Two felonies might be the least of this guy’s problems. An article in the February Scientific American magazine tells the story of how acting out your dreams while you’re sleeping is an early sign of neurodegenerative disease. I don’t always read Scientific American, but my wife and I were traveling, so I bought a magazine to read on the plane, since I don’t have one of those electronic books like my wife has. The article by Diana Kwon tells a similar story about TV star Alan Alda, famous for his role on MASH back in the 1970’s. Alan Alda was being chased and running for his life. He saw a bag of potatoes in front of him, and hurled them at his attacker. He woke up to learn that he had thrown a pillow at his wife. The article, which was very scientific, did put enough into layman’s terms so that even I could get the gist. Studies have shown that acting out our dreams may have a direct link to the likelihood of brain disease. But more important, it may be the first sign of it, appearing 10 to 15 years before other signs of the disease. This isn’t a complete surprise. The article says dream enactment was recognized in Parkinson’s patients since the 1800’s. But having a canary in the coal mine of our brains would be an advantage when it comes to recognizing the potential for later trouble. Much later trouble. That’s the good part. The earlier we catch diseases, the better chance we have of fighting them. Acting out our dreams is perhaps a way for our unconscious to tell us something’s wrong. So, the next time your spouse kicks you in their sleep, get them to a doctor...they probably need their head examined. 

Let’s go back liner…

1340

In the Battle of Sluys – The French fleet is almost destroyed by the English Fleet commanded in person by King Edward III. Now, that’s what I call leadership! The ruler of the country taking command of the fleet of ships to confront and destroy an enemy fleet. King Edward III was no ordinary leader. He took control of England at age 17. He was 27 when he won the battle, turning England into a formidable power. He died at 65. In today’s political climate, he might not even be old enough to become President. The way it looks, the next election of an American President will be a contest between an 80-some-year-old guy and a 70-some-year-old guy. Which one of them would be willing to take control of a battle fleet of ships and lead a country?

1374

A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion. This strange phenomenon has never been explained. It spread throughout regions of western Europe for a number of years, and caused people to come out of their homes and dance in the streets. It was described in an 1888 book in this way: They formed circles hand in hand, and appearing to have lost all control over their senses, continued dancing, regardless of the bystanders, for hours together, in wild delirium, until at length they fell to the ground in a state of exhaustion. They then complained of extreme oppression, and groaned as if in the agonies of death, until they were swathed in cloths bound tightly round their waists, upon which they again recovered, and remained free from complaint until the next attack. While dancing they neither saw nor heard, being insensible to external impressions through the senses, but were haunted by visions, their fancies conjuring up spirits whose names they shrieked out; and some of them afterwards asserted that they felt as if they had been immersed in a stream of blood, which obliged them to leap so high.

Sometimes it helps to just get up and dance. Maybe if we all just streamed out of our houses into the streets and joined hands in dance, we’d get along better. After all, seeing Horace and Henrietta contorting their bodies in a fashion which might be described as “it was like nobody was watching” might make us more humble and respectful of our neighbors. Holding hands in circles would certainly help break down any perceived barriers that may have existed. Maybe we should mandate it, like a vaccine for societal disintegration. 

1789

Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath. The Third Estate was one of three estates that ruled France at the time, and it was the largest. The other two were spoilers, of sorts, so the Third Estate often needed the support of one of them to get things done. But the Tennis Court Oath was a pledge to divide the decision-making process more equally among the people rather than the nobility. The catch was that the deputies couldn’t really leave until the work was done. That meant that they would meet wherever they could, and do what needed to be done to create a constitution of the realm. This put pressure on the King, Louis XVI, to make concessions. 

Guess where they got the idea? The United States Declaration of Independence almost 13 years earlier. The preamble of the Declaration was especially inspiring, according to wikipedia. 

1916

Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a contract worth One Million Dollars. While a million bucks doesn’t sound like a lot to some people anymore, it sure was a lot of money to everyone in 1916. One million dollars then would have a value a almost 28 million dollars today. The Canadian-born actress would become known as America’s Sweetheart. While she played the “girl-next-door” role perfectly, she was also a powerful voice in the industry, going on to create films as well. Part of her million-dollar contract gave her full control of the production of the films in which she was the star, as well as half the film’s profits! One hundred years ago, she was incomparable, being described by one journalist as "the best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history."

1917

In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth, of course, was the home run king of the world until Hank Aaron came along. What many people don’t know is that Babe Ruth was also a Major League pitcher. In this particular game, Ruth started, and got one before he was ejected from the game for punching the umpire. The back up pitcher comes in and pitches a perfect game except for the first out.

1948

Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. All these years later, I still play my records, and people have started buying them again. Records recently outsold CD’s for the first time in decades, despite the heavier vinyl they’re using now being more expensive. I haven’t bought a new record in a long time, as I’m still trying to replace old ones I once had, and used is the only way I’ll find them. 

1957

In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. They even came up with a test to determine if something was obscene: Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the material appeals to a prurient interest in sex, and whether the material was utterly without redeeming social value. The Roth Test would be superceded by another test in 1973.

1969

The Cuyahoga River in Ohio catches fire. How can a river catch on fire, you ask? Well, there was so much pollution in the river that the men who worked the docks feared falling in, certain it would lead to premature death. But the fire in 1969 wasn’t the first. A 2019 story in Smithsonian Magazine by Lorraine Boissoneault recalls a dozen times the river caught fire prior to 1969. Many were far worse when it came to size and amount of destruction. But the 1969 fire ignited a spark of another kind, that of environmentalism. While the pollution was up to that point an accepted by-product of industry. If the river was polluted, the people were working and happy. Perhaps the irony of a body of water catching on fire was enough to make people wake up and start asking questions about how much longer we can sustain this condition, and why we should get a handle on whatever it is that’s causing the river to catch on fire! I was seven years old when I heard about it, and even I knew…

Can’t be right liner

1972

Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 is amended to prohibit sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds. Those educational programs include sports, at both the high school and college levels. The parameters of Title IX are being debated thanks to the hot beef injection of transexuals into woman’s sports. It’s causing a lot of confusion and bitterness among women. Title IX was made to protect them, now it’s being used against them.

1973

The United States Supreme Court establishes the Miller Test for obscenity in U.S. law. It was the result of a case called Miller v. California. Wikipedia says the Miller Test means something is obscene if it meets three criteria: One, whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, Two, whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law, and Three, whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. 

Here’s the thing: The whole Miller v. California case was brought because Miller mailed out brochures for his adult book and movie company that depicted photos of some of what you might see if you bought a magazine or movie from his company. Well, somebody’s mom saw one, and the next thing you know, the police are involved. He was found guilty. Miller appealed to two levels of the California court system without success, but the Supreme Court decided they wanted to examine the issue, so they did. 

What the Miller Test does is give the first hurdle to the local community. One community might find something obscene that another community would not. If the local community is okay with it, it doesn’t go any further than that. If the local community isn’t okay with it, then the next condition is considered. All three conditions must be met in or order to be considered obscene. 

1978

Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered by American astronomer James W. Christy.

1996

Ted Kaczynski, suspected of being the Unabomber, is indicted on ten criminal counts. He was found guilty of killing three people and injuring nearly two-dozen more during a 17-year bombing campaign orchestrated from a little shack in the Montana wilderness. They called him the Unabomber because his early targets were Universities and Airlines. One of his home-made bombs went off on an airplane, tripped when the plane reached a certain altitude. Fortunately, everyone survived. A mathematical genius, Ted began studying at Harvard at the age of 16. But somewhere along the way, Ted got lost in a delusional echo-chamber of his own making and began to purposely hurt people. Not for any just cause, but out of revenge.

He promised to stop if a thirty-five-thousand word manifesto he wrote would be published by a national publication. Two national newspapers agreed to print “Industrial Society and its Future.” I printed the manifesto myself, because I wanted to see what it was all about. I found it to be confusing and rambling and very hard to understand. It was the manifesto that was his undoing. His brother recognized the tone of the author as that of his brother. Ted’s brother would tip off the authorities through a private investigator. Ted would never forgive his brother for turning him in, once calling him a Judas Iscariot and claimed David didn’t even have the courage to go hang himself. Ted did have the courage to hang himself, and that’s what they say he did, just over a week ago, at age 81, after being in prison since 1998. 

2006

Pluto’s newly discovered moons are officially named Nix & Hydra. So, how can Pluto not be a planet when we discovered three of it’s moons this week in history?

Phone and email liner

Judy Garland was born June 10th, 1922, 101 years ago. She played the starring role in The Wizard of Oz, with her ruby slippers making her way through a dream with the help of the characters she met along the way, each of which needed a little help of their own.

Despite being an actress, pretending to be somebody else for a living, Judy Garland once said, “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." She died this week in 1969, long before memes were invented. Yet her statement still applies today to a great many of us who have trouble expressing our own feelings. So we share memes that we think are amusing or informative or express a point of view. Those points of view can run the gamut from political to social to societal, pining for the good ol’ days or criticizing the habits and ideals of today. They spread like a slow-burning grass fire on social media among like-minded people, sometimes circulating for enough years to become somewhat relevant again. I have friends and relatives on social media who do nothing but share memes about political and religious issues without ever typing a single word from their own minds. They may add a line to reinforce their agreement with the statement in the meme that some stranger created, but they don’t have the discipline to really think about a subject and put into their own words how they feel. Maybe they don’t have confidence in their ability to share their thoughts in writing. It’s easier to let somebody else do it for you. Here’s the problem: the people who write and create memes don’t do it to help you express how you feel. They do it so you will help them express how they feel. How you feel is being used as a tool to help spread somebody else’s opinion. It may be similar to your own, hell, maybe even spot on. But most of the time, if you look closely, there’s a catch. It’s not entirely how you, too, feel, but it’s close enough for you to share it an claim it as your own. When you share a political meme, you’re replacing your thoughts with somebody else’ thoughts. Now that’s what you believe. You’ve proclaimed it to the world, and there’s no turning back. You might someday change your mind about a subject, but you’ve left a trail behind that may or may not be what you truly believe. If you’ve ever heard a talking head on the television news say, “we’ve got the receipts” that means they have evidence of everything you ever did in the past that contradicts what you’re saying now. Wouldn’t it be a shame if all the receipts they found were actually words that somebody else created? And now because you shared them and proclaimed your agreement, you now have to defend those words? Maybe you’ll never have to. We’re not all politicians who might or might not be closely examined by the media and have to answer to our past in a public way. Maybe your friends and family just think, “Oh, well. That’s just Uncle Chuck.”

While the public servant may have to answer questions, which will also give him the opportunity to change his mind in a public statement. Uncle Chuck won’t get that chance, and his friends and family may never get to know the real Uncle Chuck, because he always let memes speak for him. Memes that were created with another purpose entirely. Memes that were created to foment division, to rile the base, to embolden the lunatic fringe. Unless you made the meme yourself, there’s not a single meme in the world that truly expresses how you feel. Instead of doing the work of the meme creators, put your mind to work figuring out how you would say it. Odds are, it’s a lot deeper than what you can fit on a meme. Plus, you’re not creating it to change other people’s minds, but to find out where your mind is on the subject. There’s little chance when you explore an issue that you’ll find a meme that encapsulates all it’s nuance. Yet, when you help spread a political meme, you label yourself as a liberal or a conservative or a libertarian or a socialist or a communist. You might be some of those things when it comes to certain issues. You might deserve other labels when other issues are involved. That’s why I’m a registered Independent. 

The point is, Judy Garland is still right. So many of us are choosing to be second-rate versions of someone else instead of being first-rate versions of ourselves. We’re spreading other people’s opinions instead of our own. We’re not expressing how we feel, we’re expressing how somebody who may have been paid by a political action committee to create a meme to influence people’s opinions. It won’t look like it came from some political organization. It’ll look like it was posted by some guy who looks like you; somebody to which you can relate, and you’ll think, “Oh, that’s a good one.” and share it.

If only you could put your feelings into such a succinct expression. But alas, you’re not being paid to get people to perpetuate an agenda. You and I are just people trying to figure out what’s going on in the world today. Most of the big news we see on tv doesn’t seem to be the realities we see in our everyday lives. Maybe it would be best if were to rely more on what we see in our own neighborhoods than what we see on the news when it comes to race relations and political division and religious persecution. Are you really subjected to such turmoil on a daily basis? Does that meme really reflect what you’re experiencing? Are you sure it’s accurate?

Instead of being a second-rate version of somebody else, here’s an idea: stop sharing political and other memes with activism at its core. Deny those who seek to use you as a vehicle to transport their views upon the far reaches of social media. But beyond that, use your own words. Think about how you feel about a subject. Any subject, political, religious, social, societal, sexual. Try to draw some of your own conclusions. Take notes. Maybe even write down something that might look good on a meme! But make it yours! Tell us how you feel, not how somebody else feels. You’re opinion is worth being heard if you put some though into it and believe it to be a valid opinion. You don’t have to write it down or make it public, but at least you’ll know exactly how you feel. That way, when a related meme comes along that sort of expresses your feelings, you won’t be so quick to hit share, because what you’ll find out is none of them encompass the depth needed to truly understand the issue. You’ll be able to see past the propaganda value of the meme. Then, when you start expressing your own opinions, your friends and family will start to understand who Uncle Chuck really is. Turns out you’re a nice guy with traditional values who admires charitable organizations who take care of orphans. And that liberal Aunt Clarice is actually a champion of the stock market who embraces capitalism, even though all she ever does on social media is share memes about claims of democrat successes that are helping the economy.

When we share too many memes, we’re projecting to others a picture of ourselves that isn’t really us. It’s a second-rate version of somebody else. Tell the world how you feel. Put it in your own words. Think about how to say it. Feel free to change your mind when you’re presented with more information. Rely on the mind you have to determine how you should interpret the world around you, then tell people how it is for you. If you’re going to share anything on social media, share with us how you interpret the world. Tell us about how world events effect you. Tell us about what’s happening in your neighborhood, your town, your county. Tell us how the politics of the day effect your world, if at all. 

Put more value on your opinion, on how you feel, than on how somebody else feels. Memes aren’t made to express your views. If you really want to have a voice, you have to use the one you have, not somebody else’s voice. If you really want respect for what you believe in, you have to be able to express it in you own words, not somebody else’s. If you really want people to have faith in what you believe, you have to be able to tell them why they should. There’s not a meme in the world that can do that for you once you’ve though about it and have come to your own conclusions. You might even realize you have more to say and want to start your own podcast. If that happens, contact me, and I’ll help you get started.

That’s how you become a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of someone else. Thank you, Judy Garland. Your wisdom has transcended the new medium of the internet’s social media.

The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly. Copyright 2023. Thank you for putting your ear to The Listening Tube! Subscribe today. I’m your host, Bob Woodley for thou ad infinitum.