You were there too, Chuck Grimes, at the SF Presidio? ... Michael Pugliese
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Yeah, but just barely. I had to race home from work, change out of shop clothes, then get back on the freeway in rush hour and scream towards the Presidio from the East Bay. I must have driven through the base a couple of times getting lost on the turns and finally arrived steaming mad from the traffic and confusion. So, I went immediately for the food and woofed down as much brie and baguettes as I could, lingering around it. Meanwhile Doug was taken over by his buddy Joel, so I only got in a quick hello.
By the time the panel and first film was over I was dying for a cigarette and still starved to death to so I left.
I just rolled my eyes at the CIA agent stuff. About an instant before I think I hear a conspiracy theory coming, my brain automatically locks into heavy filter mode, so I effectively don't hear what is said and my mind goes blank. It's like junk mail. I suppose ignoring the crack-pot pseudo-left gives me a kind of Pollyanna view.
The part that struck me as extremely strange was the Stanford professor of strategic policy studies (or something) who gave a talk on the threat of nuclear terrorism. I swear this worry is right up there with who wasted Chandra Levy. But I got to thinking about this Stanford guy, and thought about the extreme disconnect between the policy level of government and its theoretical world, and the `real' world of material conditions and ordinary people---what an unfathomable chasm.
Stanford was very concerned, and obviously believed what he was saying. Yet I think he was unaware that he was laying the ground work for exactly what he feared. Through his emphasis on viewing the manifold Muslim world and its infinite spectrum of reactions to the west through a singular and polarizing nuclear lens, he was in effect recapitulating the monolithic model of the cold war.
Chuck Grimes