As You May Know By Now
Because I do make mention of it every year, Conrad is a big fan of the old quadrology by James Blish, titled "Cities In Flight", made up of four works that were published in the sequence 3rd, 1st, 4th and 2nd. Blish later went back and made numerous corrections and emendations to his texts, which were published over the space of 15 years. Art!
Very subtly done
Today we are going to be looking at the first by internal chronology and second by date of publication: "They Shall Have Stars". The alternate title in South Canada was "Year 2018!" which seemed futuristic at the time and sadly dated now.
The novel details, with pages of algebra, the discovery of what is later dubbed the 'Dillon-Wagoner Polarity Generator' which is a species of anti-gravity drive. Paige Russell, one of the protagonists, is treated to a short trip to Jupiter aboard a small ferry ship that manages to accelerate up to 1/4 of the speed of light on the way there. The accidental discovery of anti-agathic drugs, which slow down aging to practically nil, is also detailed. Art!
However - first use today! - this Intro isn't about the technical gimcrackery present as the chrome on this story. Rather, we're looking at the political background that Blish imagined for his dystopian future, which may have had a very sidelong referral to the McCarthyism present in South Canada at the time. It also has a rather peculiar reference to contemporary events, which is my sly way of referring to modern P-word events without using the P-word. Art!
Ol' Blishy explains that in the West, this timeframe is known as the 'Age Of Defence', and the opponent is still the Sinister Union. "To know was to be suspect, in the West as in the USSR. The two great nation-complexes had been becoming more and more alike in their treatment of 'security' for the past fifty years."
Ooo-errr matron. We are also introduced to the 'hereditary head of the FBI', one Francis Xavier MacHinery, whom is as tender and forgiving as cholera made out of granite. FXMH's grandfather had persuaded the incumbent Prez to make the position hereditary, and the cunning, malicious and ambitious grandson used the FBI to relentlessly and ruthlessly promote himself. Art!
Not at all similar to Edgar J. Hoover, not at all. No way. MacHinery has a head of white hair, you see. Although to come to the attention of either was potentially ruinous.
From 2018, let us move forward to 2105, which is the date Ol' Blishy selected for the fall of the West. Rather than being an epic and apocalyptic battle between the two power blocs, which as the author citrically points out would have depopulated Planet Earth overnight, the West instead morphs into a political and social landscape indistinguishable from the Sinisters. By trying to prevent the Sinister's irruption into Western civilisation, the West adopted their opponent's very being itself.
Since the Sinisters had a lot more experience of administering a skull-crushing totalitarian dictatorship, they merely moved into run the West in a bloodless change of personnel. "We had to destroy democracy in order to save it", to paraphrase a line from a South Canadian officer. Art!
The end result of this political micro-quake is the 'narrow planar despotism' (great description!) which is dubbed "The Bureaucratic State" and which girdles the planet like a strait-jacket. One can believe this. Let me put up a couple of pictures from PS01 on Twitter that illustrate this point quite well. Art!
One wonders how well this kind of rampant administrative inflation would sit with the South Canadians now under Sinister management, because one of their touchstone beliefs is in 'small government' and this is quite the opposite. Conrad suspects they would hold their tongues, as one of MacHinery's preferred methods of execution was being sent to a nuclear pile waste-dump, a sentence not conducive to long life or good health.
Well, there you have it. One can see the inchings towards this horrid future in the here and now. May we live in interesting times indeed!
Conrad's Feeling Malicious
That is, more malicious than usual. This is an example of low-hanging fruit, being Waste Of Breath Hegseth. Art!
"- hours-long drinking sessions he requires staff to attend in order to brainstorm ideas. Plus he finds it difficult to pronounce or spell 'Judisheri' 'Jewshidery' 'Jisshderisshery' or 'Choodidgery' after half a bottle of Jim Beam."
Every word true.
Remember that urban legend about how you're never more than six feet away from a rat when you're in an urban environment? Heggy is one of those ra politicians who is never more than six feet away from a glass or bottle of whisky.
Matilda Mother
I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong. WRONG! Art?
Song Three? You might also be wondering about track 5, 'Pow R. Toc H', which I'm not going to go off on a tangent about tonight.
ANYWAY none of this is to do with TANK, because we are here about a fascinating thread that Dennis Burns posted on Twitter, all about the British Matilda II Infantry Tank and it's service in the Far East during the Second Unpleasantness. Art!
The Matilda was principally known for it's service in North Africa, where it proved an hideous surprise to the Italians in late 1940, and was equally loathed and detested by the Teutons when they arrived. Both armies cursed it as being a real mother-
By late 1941, though, it was obsolete in this theatre, thanks to the very rapid development of armour* and armoured* warfare. Which is not to say it was totally obsolete, because there was still the Far East theatre, where Japanese tanks were waaaay underdeveloped compared to the Axis ones in Europe. Art!
The most common Jap tank, the Type 95 Ha-Go. It only weighed 7.5 tons and had armour of between 6 to 12 mm, mounting the ubiquitous 37 mm calibre gun that was so common at the start of the Second Unpleasantness. Art!
Here's one of the Matilda's in Ocker service. It fits handily into a Landing Craft Mechanised, which were capable of taking up to 30 tons of cargo. The Matty weighed 28 tons fully fuelled and armed, so no problems there. In comparison to the Ha-Go, it had armour of 78 mm at it's thickest, meaning Japanese tanks and anti-tank guns found it extremely difficult to stop, let alone damage. The 2-pounder it was armed with was, on the other hand, very effective against anything the Japanese had. It remained in service in the Far East up until August 1945, because if it isn't broken, don't fix it.
We will most definitely come back to this. I bet you can hardly wait.
Bad Day For Bit
Ah yes, the bitcoin scamble markets are taking a bit of a bath at present, because the Norks hacked into 'Bybit' and stole $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum coins, which is easy peasy in the world of crypto-currency. Imagine trying to steal $1.5 billion in gold bullion, or even notes. You'd need a fleet of container wagons, which is hardly discreet and might give the game away. Art!
What - What Is This? What's Going On!
I can only append a photograph of Henry Cavill and Timothy Chalamet, and have my eyebrows toboggan into my hairline in surprise. Art!
* NOTE CORRECT SPELLING
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