I chose to put this recent incident under my relatively new Brushes section because On the Media is aired nationally with numerous NPR affiliates and iTunes offers the podcast.
Last week, they did a piece on SIGMA working with the Dept. of Homeland Security. I don’t consider taking pitches from SIGMA a complete waste of tax dollars, this administration excels at squandering billions on dumber things. But if you listen to the clip or read the transcript, the name Jerry Pournelle comes up. Unlike Heinlein, I have read his books and those of his frequent partner Larry Niven. The details or context of Pournelle being mentioned worried me since his material and Niven’s have usually had undemocratic tendencies with their protagonists. They both like to portray democracies as ineffective in crises, wars or alien invasions. Only swift, brutal action by enlightened hawks can save the day—more violent versions of Plato’s philosopher-kings. I also remember an interview with Niven bragging over his involvement on SDI and how it was a ploy to scare the Soviet Union into foolishly spending on counter measures. Too bad this Reagan-era fraud cost us billions which could’ve been put to better use. I would prefer to get the opinions of authors less inclined to use martial law as the solution to everything. These writers’ concepts contributed to Traveller’s militaristic tone and setting—PCs with military careers get more skills than civilians. GDW founder Loren Wiseman once told me that Pournelle played the game. Made sense to me, GDW’s key members Miller, Chadwick and Wiseman always came off as closet monarchists and shared Niven and Pournelle’s disdain of democracy.
Anyway, I decided to post a comment on OTM‘s site because they mentioned this recent addition. I thought why not, it didn’t seem to receive much traffic and this meant less vitriol, The Nation‘s site is plagued with it. I had no idea my comment would be read aloud by co-host Brooke Gladstone. If I knew this were a possibility, I would’ve given instructions on how to pronounce my name correctly. I figured it would just slip through the cracks and OTM was going to search the comments in the more important stories: the recent Supreme Court decision or the undercover piece on lobbying for dictatorships. Mrs. Gladstone only skipped my last sentence which I didn’t find too important to exclude. The jackass who followed missed my point, especially on how authors don’t have a monopoly on what the future may hold.
First my supportive rebuttal to defend Ann Richards’ bridge is published in the Austin American-Statesman and now my comment is broadcasted on NPR. Could it be my writing is gaining gravitas as I approach 40? Probably not. I chalk it up to practice and persistence even if it was only my second letter to OTM, my first was over South Park conservatives. I found the guest’s claims to be spurious and wishful thinking.