#blowback

Tricky

"If you wanna try to tell me that nobody cares about the politics of the quarterback, then I need you to explain to me why Donald Trump thought it was worth having the quarterback at his rally."

I had an epiphany the other day while I was out walking: Section 31 fairly reliably has never demonstrably "saved" the Federation on screen that I can recall. On the other hand, literally no good ever seems to come from its obsession with its epistemology that only Section 31 can preserve the Federation's wholesomeness and decency through doing the unethical things your average Starfleet officer cannot and must not do.

In modern espionage, there is a much discussed concept called "blowback." Blowback is a euphemism for the unintended consequences of an action or policy that seemed like a good idea at the time, but has ripple effects that may or may not be foreseeable.

The Fourth (?) Borg attack on Earth and the almost certain many thousands of casualties is an example of blow back. Now in Section 31's defense, the chain of consequences meanders quite a bit and heated arguments over whether this constitutes a black swan or gray rhino are not entirely unjustified.

But the fact remains, that without the assistance of Vadek's rogue Changelings, the Borg Queen clearly did not have the assets to execute her plan to infiltrate Starfleet and set conditions for the assimilation via transporter of Starfleet's junior crew.

Vadek and her Changelings were motivated by vengeance. Vengeance for the torturous experiments they were subjected to by Section 31 and, although its not clearly spelled out, almost certainly the near extinction of the Changeling species by a Section 31 bioweapon. This Vadek would have known about when she rejoined the Great Link, if not before when she and her crew killed the researchers experimenting on them and may or may not have had access to other Section 31 files in the process.

Classic blowback.

I may have misjudged the streaming era of Trek and its handling of Section 31, because while it has normalized it in some ways, that so many problems are caused by Section 31 in this era of Trek does not seem to be an accident. I don't like the normalization as a worldbuilding aspect, but I do appreciate its function as the provocation for cautionary tales.

Blowback covers the Iraq war, US involvement in Cuba, Afghanistan occupation, the Korean war, our bombing runs (among other things) in Cambodia, and the US involvment/support of South Africa while Angola fought for their freedom. They put in the work to find sources and interview locals who lived through these occupations, along with politicians and academics.

It was my first into to the scope of US imperialism and it's made very accessible to those just starting out in their political learnings. There were a couple times when I had to google certain events/names because I didn't have much of a leftist education on my first listen, but honestly that just inspired more curiosity and never happened enough to deter me from listening

oh cool what other books has she written or been featured in?

wait is that....

Record Label History: 4AD Records (TAD 2015)

Swallow

Books/Media I’ve read in the past 5 years on US history (at home and abroad):

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn - covers Columbus to W Bush, emphasis on workers/“the people” over “great men in high places”. Everyone will tell you to read it and they’re right.

Stamped from the Beginning: the Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi - structures by 5 consecutive lifetimes of American intellectuals from Cotton Mather to Angela Davis (very interesting portrayal of time), tracking development and evolution of anti-black and anti-racist ideas.

White Trash: the 400-year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg - what it sounds like. Read a people’s history first, but I got a lot out of reading another history of similar time but with different emphases (this is true for all my history reading)

The Inconvenient Indian: a Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King - the title word choice is explained at the start, reads like a knowledgeable uncle is telling you what he knows. Starts from early native/non-native contact and goes to time of publishing (2012). History as example stories/themes (w lists/references for further details)

The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins - the context leading up to, the facts we know/US admits to of US supporting the Indonesian military’s murder of about a million of their civilians in 1965, and the subsequent impact to other countries. Incredible journalism, great introduction to Cold War American global policy and particular focus on Indonesia. Mix of first hand sources and declassified govt docs.

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill - also very good journalism, but more true crime style, starts with a man assigned to find an angle about the Manson murders and then twenty years of pulling loose threads he has a book’s worth of holes in the official story and suspicious coincidences connecting to LA sheriffs, the FBI, and homegrown CIA operations. Very grounded and avoids sensationalism even when he finds a connection to the Kennedy assassination…

[podcast, not a book!] Blowback: seasons 1-3 (I plan to listen to 4-6, only just finished 3) - each season focuses on a country/event that America has villainized, and gives the history with interspersed interview/sound clips (great sound design) up to present day. Season 1 covered the Iraq War, season 2 covered Cuba’s revolution/the Cuban missile crisis, and season 3 covers the Korean War.