Philosophy and Faith

Star Trek looks good at 50. Society doesn’t.

I saw a blog post earlier today regarding Star Trek. The core point it made was that Star Trek assumed a post-scarcity world in some respects, while not in others, and that there truly isn’t such a thing as a post-scarcity world possible. The example used was the concept of the Neutral Zone, and that space could be owned in a world where famine was a thing of the past because of replicators.

I don’t think it’s hypocritical to assume that there would still be a need for rules in a society where everybody is fed and housed and actively contributing to society. Gene Roddenberry most definitely modeled the Star Trek universe as one where communism was successful and worked out as Karl Marx envisioned. It’s amongst the things that makes the optimism of Star Trek attractive. However, the concept of ‘ownership’ is still very much alive and well. It’s not “everybody’s uniform”, it’s “Picard’s uniform”. It’s not ‘everybody’s starship’, it’s the Federation Starship Enterprise. Possession hasn’t gone away.

However, Star Trek only works because it operates under the assumption that man is basically good. The series generally reflects this. However, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” is noble when involving self-sacrifice, but easily leads to tyranny of the majority at a societal level.

There were plenty of assumptions about how things would go in a post-scarcity society in Star Trek, and yes, it’s a near-utopian place where there is little want. However, there is another depiction of a post-scarcity society where everyone is taken care of: Wall-E.

Life aboard the Axiom is a life-long vacation, filled with swimming pools and virtual golf and smoothie cups and screens plastered in ads – and they didn’t even have holodecks! Side note: the least believable thing about The Next Generation was that fifteen year old Wesley Crusher had access to a holodeck and used them for scientific simulations…I’ve got some lovely beachfront property in Siberia to sell you.

What stopped the Enterprise from being the Axiom? What stops people from being endless consumers and causes them to desire to contribute and achieve the level of excellence they demonstrate? Because the way the world is right now, there is nothing to demonstrate to me that the level of self-determination evident in the Star Trek universe is any more fictitious than warp drive, inertial dampeners, or transporters.

And after my years of providing tech support, I believe that I’ll see warp drive long before I’ll see a society with an internal drive to better itself.

September 8, 2016 by Philosophy and Faith 1

No sex in the Prayer Room

Back in 1999, comedian Chris Rock did a song entitled ‘No Sex in the Champagne Room’, informing listeners that, despite any claims made by a stripper, that there is no possibility that said act will actually happen. He did, incidentally, give the most accurate horoscope ever given in that song, indicating that each sign was ‘gonna die’.

Now, I’m not saying that I think couples should copulate in a church’s prayer room as a general practice. My thought goes a bit deeper. Those of you who are reading this who grew up in church, think about what most churches say about sex: “Don’t do it independent of marriage”. Now obviously, yes, that is a biblical principle that certainly should be made clear, for plenty of reasons. I don’t dispute that. Here’s the part that I find curiously – and consistently – absent in the church: the other part where married couples are unilaterally encouraged to engage in sex. The youth group is all told ‘don’t have sex’. Married couples are told…not much, because the stipulation no longer applies to them, and…they’ll figure it out, I guess?

Perhaps this is just a limitation of perspective as I’m not married myself, but why isn’t there some form of sex ed in churches with marriage ministries? It’s a cultural catch-22 because it’s both shameful for people to imagine someone having sex with their spouse, and it’s also shameful for people to know that they don’t have sex with their spouse. I’ve yet to step foot in a church that has any sort of specifically assigned ‘time and place’ to discuss sex within marriages, nor have I ever had a discussion with a married couple with regards to their sex life.

Now, the most likely thought being had here is, “but that’s private and personal, just between them!” Well, to be fair to this point, it’s certainly up to a given couple as to whether they would be okay discussing sex with someone who isn’t a part of that marriage, and due to cultural norms, it’s certainly not the kind of topic that is likely to ‘just come up’. However, I’ve somehow managed to speak with married couples about their jobs, their children’s health, their food allergies, their pre-marital dating story, their finances (including a near-foreclosure), their medical problems, their military service, their political inclinations, and in one case, their spouse’s infidelity. Somehow all of those things can ‘just come up’ over the course of a social visit or computer repair, but whether they preferred vaginal penetration or anal penetration has never once come up? Or does the fact that you probably had a response that was something to the effect of “uhm…can you tone it down a bit?” a symptom of the very matter at hand?

Find me one other blessing from God that is as socially repressed as marital sex. Find me one other topic that is as explicitly discussed in the Bible as a God-given gift, that is as ignored by most churches as sex among their married members (and no, interdenominational doctrinal differences about whether the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still a thing doesn’t count). As the Body of Christ, we can do better. God’s wonderful gift of sex deserves better. The Body of Christ itself deserves better.

August 19, 2016 by Philosophy and Faith 5

Cynicism

I get accused of being a cynic. A lot. There’s definitely a level of truth to it.

Yesterday, I was at 7-11, and there was a sign that I could use the mobile app to pay bills with cash. This seemed like an interesting and helpful tool (I frequently receive cash from clients), but I immediately dismissed the idea when I realized that 7-11 would have a list of my bills and when I paid them, something that is already being used by a number of companies for their benefit, not mine. Using such an app would produce additional insight regarding the fact that I’m paying with cash, which store I do it in, what time of day, and how frequently.

I may well be a cynic, but since virtually every app is doing some form of data collection these days, it’s a tough sell for me to get excited about an app anymore. This is coming from someone who used to jailbreak his iPhone to get apps before the App Store opened its intangible doors.
…posted from the WordPress app.

29 things I learned about my 20s before turning 30

This is it: the last day of my twenties. With less than three hours to go, I figured I would reflect on what I’ve learned…

How close friends are is highly elastic…but depth can be determined based on how easily you snap back into being friends after having not seen each other for years.
Travel in your twenties. You’re old enough to see things and try things without other people telling you what to do, while also inherently being amidst a microcosm where “simply making decisions based solely on what you want” is practice you can get. Meet new people, get some perspective on the world, be an outsider.
Barring some sort of windfall, you’ll be paying off your student loans for more than ten years. Stay on top of it, don’t miss a payment, and pay a bit more than the minimum if you can…but don’t let paying your student loans get in the way of traveling. Your debt will be there when you get back.
Three subpoints about drinking:
1. Don’t do it to excess.
2. If you’re going to break the first rule, do it in your early twenties. Its novelty goes downhill very quickly in the second half.
3. Don’t be stupid – have a sober friend who’s got your back and can prevent you from making a bad decision.
Learn to cook. You don’t have to be able to win an episode of Chopped, but have two or three go-to meals you know how to make well enough to make for gatherings.
1. Have some cookware. Doesn’t have to be some thousand dollar massive set, but $75 at Big Lots will get you 2/3 of what you need.
Learn to dance. Specifically, learn to ballroom dance. If you’re half decent at leading, you can pull any person onto the dance floor with you, and you’ll be the life of the party as you ballroom dance to “Party Up”, or some other wildly not-ballroom-dance-music.
Odds are, you’ll probably get into a car accident.
1. Don’t text and drive. It’s a worse habit than smoking.
2. Keep your cool. The other person at the accident site probably won’t…but keep your cool.
3. If nobody is leaving the scene in an ambulance, consider yourself incredibly blessed. You’ll probably have plenty of paperwork and phone calls ahead of you…but you’re in a place where you can make them, and you’re unlikely to be ending up in court.
Learn to debate the side of the argument you disagree with. Second Amendment is sacrosanct? Give me three reasons for gun control. Love your Mac? Come up with three reasons to get a PC. Despite the #FeelTheBern bumper sticker on your car, give me three reasons why Trump might be a good candidate. It’s not always easy, but being able to debate on the side of an argument with which you disagree gives you the ability to go past the rhetoric and oft-repeated talking points, and instead find reasons that resonate with you. It may change your view, or at least change how you discuss these topics with people with whom you disagree.
When you start your twenties, you’ll know that actions speak louder than words. By the end of your twenties, you’ll (hopefully) be able to act accordingly.
If you start your twenties adhering to a particular faith, you’ll likely end it differently. I’m not saying that you’ll walk away from your faith, but your twenties will challenge it tremendously, and the way your faith is implemented at the end if your twenties will look different than when you started. This is not a bad thing.
You might be married. You might not. Either way, you’re fine. The real lesson is not comparing yourself to someone else or allowing someone else’s actions in that respect to be a basis for your own self-acceptance. You probably don’t want to be married to that person’s spouse, anyway.
On the heels of that, your value as a person is not determined by your Facebook likes or Instagram followers.
Depending on your job, you might finally get away from homework and textbooks. Rock on. Some jobs will still saddle you with both of those.
Knowing where your data lives is important. So is making backups. Odds are pretty good that you’ll lose data during your twenties.
You’ll be making lots of very important decisions with a whole lot of data missing. This is unfortunately going to be something you’ll do for the rest of your life, and yes, it’s terrifying. You’ll make it.
Your relationship with your parents will evolve. They’ll always be your parents, but becoming more of an adult means you’ll have different kinds of conversations, and they’ll worry differently. This probably applies to your siblings, too.
Your drawer of deprecated cell phones will accumulate. Your closet of clothes that have gone out of style will accumulate. Set limits and be willing to let go of things you’ll no longer use. Keeping everything that is of sentimental value means that you’ll clutter your living space with things that are of no practical use. Keep some. Donate the rest. Live within your means.
Pick your battles. There are few things in life worse than when a relationship is the cost of “being right”. The corollary to this is that if you opt out of a battle, truly opt out of it. Don’t put it in storage, ready to go when you need examples to win an argument. If you’ve opted out of a battle, commit to that situation being inadmissible in future arguments.
Jobs come and jobs go. Know when to hold and know when to fold, but being unduly loyal to an employer is opening yourself up to being taken advantage of.
Volunteer somewhere. Some of my most well-invested time is the time I gave away. Lots of people need your help, your skills, your hands, your smile.
Splurge on something once in a while that’s really, really worth it – it’s an investment that will keep you from making every impulse purchase you see at Target.
Save some money. No, this isn’t a contradiction with the last point. Keep some money in the bank.
The more time you spend trying to get someone to appreciate you, the less likely it is that you’ll be successful, and the more likely it is that you’ll blow off people who do appreciate you in the process.
Get a good chiropractor. It’s a great way to help your body, and it’s one of the few doctors whose procedures actually feel good when performed.
Take pictures of the people, not the things. Did you see the photo gallery from my last trip? Without referencing it, I’ll bet the two most memorable pictures are the one of me on the beach and the selfie with Jon and Lauren, though perhaps you said the lightning one. There were fifteen images in that gallery. Photos of things are helpful to tell the story, but they’re generally forgettable. There are (literally) millions of images of the Eiffel Tower on the internet…but you will be the only one who takes a picture of you and your friends with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
When you start your twenties, the contacts in your phone will almost entirely consist of friends and family. Use your twenties to make connections. Get the number of an accountant you trust. Get the number of a travel agent, a mechanic, a lawyer, and an insurance rep. These people will help you through life – they can answer the quick and simple questions better than the internet…but return the favor. If they save you a bunch of money or headache without formally billing you, get them a gift card for a nice restaurant, or send a bottle of wine to the office. Don’t take advantage of kindness, but know where to look for it.
Learn when to hold ’em, and when to fold ’em. It’s not always easy to know when to stop pumping time or money into something, cars and relationships being the go-to examples. Like I said, you’ll make some messy decisions with incomplete data sometimes. You can’t always make the right choice, but remember that inaction is still a choice.
Be kind as a matter of course. Hold doors. Help people struggling with heavy packages. Be patient with the old lady at the grocery store who’s trying to win the exact change trophy. Don’t get angry when someone cuts you off in traffic. Let someone else have the last slice of cake. Buy someone a cup of coffee. The simple kindnesses become a habit. That habit means that you will be adding positivity to the world.
Have fun. This is the one decade of your life where you’ll be able to make decisions and mistakes in an environment where you’ll still have time to bounce back. It’s a valuable time. Enjoy every one of the 3,652 days your age starts with a ‘2’.

3,650 days until I write about what it’s like to be in my thirties.

April 14, 2016 by Philosophy and Faith 2

Forgotten Knowledge

A friend of mine asked me to conjure up a working Windows 98 computer for her daughter to use to play some old school edutainment games (y’know…from the good ol’ days where you bought the game on a CD-ROM and that was that, rather than getting nagged to purchase ‘lives’ or ‘coins’ or whatever). I managed to come up with a basically-working one that just needed a bit of work to get prepped for the task, namely, upgrading the hard disk. When I did this, the 200GB drive only detected the first 2GB. I remembered that this computer was from the era when it was required to manually tell the motherboard how much storage space the hard disk would be able to handle…but not in GB’s, in Cylinder/Head/Sector (CHS) format. To further complicate things, the computer only allowed me to reference the first 64GB of the drive, because the motherboard couldn’t address any more than that. Even so, a 64GB hard disk in the Windows 98 era is a bottomless well; I edited video on a tenth of that.

The process of doing all of this dug into the deepest recesses of my memory. This was especially challenging because most of the support information for computers of this era predates Google, and thus, most web pages that Google scours – though notably the Google Groups archive of Usenet was particularly helpful for searching purposes. Other things, I either guessed, simply remembered, was able to piece together, or called my friend Bob who described his 58-year-old self as ‘ancient’, especially when I brought up fixing an issue by “performing a text edit on autoexec.bat”. Ultimately, things are going smoothly; I look forward to completing my work on this machine.

The Washington Post published an article last year about disruptive technologies and how they changed our society. While we tend to think of ‘the internet’ as disruptive (and indeed it was/is), the argument the article makes is that the even more disruptive 20th century technology was the refrigerator. Pre-refrigeration households spent approximately 58 hours a week on housework, in the 1990’s, that was down to 19, for houses that were, on average, about twice the size. More relevant to the point, things like pickling, meat curing, canning, cheese making, and other forms of food preservation were things that were generally part and parcel with cooking, that relatively few people in the western world today need to do – and even those that do (professional meat curers and cheese makers aside), are usually doing so due to personal desire, rather than a requirement to prevent food spoilage.

I haven’t thought about cylinders, heads, and sectors in years. I’m *just* young enough to remember seeing CHS figures on the labels appended to hard disks, but too young to have actually had to configure a BIOS with one. I remember running into a SCSI controller once, and hearing that it was quite the project to set up even a relatively simple SCSI controller with a RAID array, but I’ve never made one – setting up a RAID array with SATA drives and modern controllers is a breeze by contrast. Network cards that used to have their modes and parameters set by DIP switches are now configured entirely in software. I don’t remember the last time I had to manually determine IRQs for my hardware, I’ve never set up a network that used coaxial cabling, I never had to manually install a TCP/IP stack into a computer in order to get it on the internet, and I only barely remember the ire that was “changing the font” within Wordperfect 5.1, especially if you didn’t have a mouse.

How much knowledge has been removed from the general societal consciousness due to its need being abstracted away through technological advancement? What else has been lost because it was “common knowledge” until it wasn’t? It’s amazing how even the banal, everyday things that nobody notices now are noticed later – like the number of people smoking indoors in this gallery of shopping malls from 1989.

Perhaps the fact that I’m less than 30 days from turning 30 has something to do with my pondering about the passage of time. For the first time in my life, I’m seeing a clear delineation between the ‘present’ and the ‘past’. I’m starting to see knowledge I gained become obsolete.

Life itself looks different.

March 17, 2016 by Computers and Tech Philosophy and Faith 0

Minor Differences

“Let it rain” is a common lyric in worship songs, where we petition the Lord to make His will known, and His blessings evident.

“Make it rain” is what rappers do in strip clubs to flaunt their wealth by quickly dispersing stacks of bills.

Words matter.

January 27, 2016 by Microblog Philosophy and Faith 0

“Because I Can” vs. “Because I Should”

A client at work had me build him a home media server. The client asked that I, specifically, build the server for him, and that it be a built machine, rather than a purchased one. Why? Because he knew that I’m the kind of person who still prefers a customized, built computer over an off-the-shelf Optiplex with a four terabyte hard drive hanging off the USB port…but then again, he’s the kind of chap who is just fine with spending four figures on a computer that doesn’t have a glowing fruit on it.

My boss and I have a different relationship with Sonicwall routers – he swears by them, and I swear at them. I’ve become a fan of pfSense as of late. It’s what lives at my house, and at least one of my dear readers also has one – not that she’s consciously aware of it in any meaningful sense, but that was one of its selling points. The problem with pfSense is that it’s generally intended for installation on one whatever hardware you’ve got lying around…which is nice for people like me who have old Optiplex desktops camping out doing nothing, but less of a bargain for people who would need to buy things.

I’ve got somewhere I may need to install a rack-mountable router, which has got me looking into doing a custom build for the project. I was happiest with a $600 build I spec’d out today on Newegg, but given that pfSense sells rack mountable, supported iterations of their firewall for $800, it’s not exactly a huge money saver in the context, and the money that’s saved is lost by the fact that their device takes 8 watts of power when running, whereas mine takes closer to 100W. On the flip side, mine was engineered for silence, there’s no way my build doesn’t run circles around them in raw performance, and it’s trivial(ish) to migrate between pfSense, Untangle, and Smoothwall with nothing more than an hour’s time and an external CD drive.

But there’s a reason I filed this under ‘Philosophy and Faith’, in addition to ‘Computers and Tech’ – I started to think beyond the build, and into the bigger questions involved. There was a scene on The Big Bang Theory several seasons back, where the guys were experimenting with home automation in a manner that involved sending a signal around the world to turn on a lamp. When Penny walks in and asks why they would do something that ridiculous with literally no advantage over a simple light switch, their answer, in unison, was “because we can”. They said it in such a matter-of-fact way that gave the sense that such an answer should have been as obvious to her as it was to them. Although I’ve never done that sort of project, I’ve got my own portfolio of things I’ve done under the heading “because I can” – I’d argue that “installing pfSense at home” would reasonably fall within that category, when there was nothing technically wrong with my Asus RT-N56U that’s still serving as an access point.

For an organization who will never need the gargantuan amount of throughput that will be happily shuffled around via pfSense on a custom build that’s at cost parity when power usage is factored in, why am I pursuing a custom build? Is it because I’m treating it like a grown-up Lego set? Is it because of a desire for the sense of personal investment? Is it because I prefer the responsibility of keeping hardware running over the perceived safety of having that task handled by a third party? Has my deep-rooted hatred for Sonicwall, combined with my luck-of-the-draw experience with calling tech support, given me the default stance of “I want something I can fix, because nobody else will”?

Or, maybe the fact that I refuse to be dependent on a third party is the reason I am good at what I do. Perhaps there is value in the de facto requirement that I alone be responsible for its upkeep. Maybe my sense of security comes from the fact that a showstopping problem on a custom built pfSense appliance could be rectified with a set of procedures that start with “install Untangle”, “install SmoothWall”, or “install Endian”.

Then again, perhaps “because I can” is a phrase that doesn’t make sense to most people, for the sole reason that, for the majority of people, “building a custom made router” is not a task that falls into that category.

January 21, 2016 by Computers and Tech Philosophy and Faith 0

Wisdom from Steve

Not that you’re supposed to have “cheat days” on a fast, as it generally defeats the point…but I swung by Facebook briefly, and loved what my friend Steve Goad had to say…he’s one of the few folks who has insightful, original posts…like this one:

Have you prayed for your enemies today?
Have you prayed for political candidates you disagree with?
Have you prayed for the illegal immigrant?
Have you prayed for the thief, the murderer, the rapist?
Have you prayed for the terrorist?
Jesus said “Love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you.”
Instead of cursing them… pray for God to bless them, and show them love… even as God has shown us love.
If all Christians did this… I believe amazing things would happen in our world.

And y’know what? He’s absolutely right.

January 13, 2016 by Philosophy and Faith 2

The No Fly List and Gun Control: Sounds reasonable, until it isn’t

I do plan on writing blog entries on more things than privacy and liberty soon. I’ll pick another topic for an entry soon, promise…

So, I’m a bit late to the party on this; I’m sorry…but I’d still call it relevant.
Disclaimer: keep the comments civil; no name calling of anyone.

After the San Bernardino massacre, President Obama made a statement regarding the need to extend gun control to the people on the No Fly List, one underscored by Hillary Clinton – and most people on the left, and even a decent number of the moderate-right said, “seems legit” – including myself.

Then, I thought a bit more about it: what does it take to get on and off the no-fly list? Is their oversight? Due process? Transparency? Accountability?

No, nope, nu-uh, and none.

Here is the legalese version, straight from Uncle Sam:
https://theintercept.com/…/march-2013-watchlisting-guidance/

And here is the fairly-bias-free article that summarizes a lot of it:
https://theintercept.com/2014/07/23/blacklisted/

Basically, if any of the three-letter-agencies think you’re a terrorist, related to a terrorist, have the same name of a terrorist, have someone make a clerical error, or fly to Saudi Arabia on a regular basis, you can end up on the No Fly List. You won’t get a letter about it, and you’ll only find out because you’ll have to show documentation to prove you’re not the T. Kennedy they’re looking for, and produce it quickly, in order to avoid missing your flight…and getting OFF the No Fly List involves filing a lawsuit to validate your innocence, rather than a trial to prove your guilt.

Senator Ted Kennedy, Iraq-war-veteran Daniel Brown ended up on it, professor Walter Murphy (critical of the Bush administration during his term), and many children under the age of five have landed on this list.

So, the folks in Washington wish to give the No Fly List power against buying guns…when the criteria for getting on that list involves a 166-page document that was leaked (rather than formally publicized), and has no practical means of due process or accountability to get either on it or off it.

So, at least for me personally, I can’t get behind the notion of giving the No Fly List even more power. Let’s address THAT issue, then discuss whether it should be used to restrict the sales of firearms.

To those who would say, “but firearms should be banned for everyone!”, let’s roll with that for a second. My ultimate concern isn’t whether people should or shouldn’t fly on planes or buy guns. What is an even more grave danger in my mind is this: It seems equally likely that ‘No Fly List people can’t buy guns’ will extend to ‘nobody can buy guns’, as it is for ‘No Fly List people can’t buy guns’ to turn into ‘No Fly List people can’t vote’…

December 27, 2015 by Philosophy and Faith 0

Supergirl, and nuance

Admittedly, I haven’t read the comics that inspired this CBS series, so I don’t know what is “true to the comics”, or what is “CBS doing its thing”. What I’m writing about here has a handful of spoilers regarding things that have happened in episodes up to this time (Season 1, Episode 8), so if you haven’t seen it, you may not want to click ‘Read More’…

So, throughout the series, Kara has taken Clark’s “mild mannered reporter” trend to the next level. Mild-mannered is one thing, but she’s frequently clumsy and “adorkable”. Supergirl, on the other hand, has a whole lot more poise and confidence. Kara is frequently seen being all nervous around her boss Cat Grant, the CEO of National City’s largest media conglomerate with a personality clearly inspired by Miranda Priestly, and gets doe-eyed around her crush and confidant Jimmy Olsen. (side note: “National City” has to be the laziest fictitious city name ever created)

The show has a number of references to things associated with modern feminism: in one episode, Cat makes a comment to Kara about needing to work twice as hard for half the recognition, because she’s a woman. In another, there was a discussion regarding expectations being a double standard. In the most recent episode, the ‘bad guy’ in the episode is a board member, with maybe 20 lines in the whole episode, who Cat describes as “the walking personification of white male privilege”, and those are just the references I can recall off the top of my head. Now, before my comment section blows up, I’ll make it known that I’m not saying that the series is wrong for this slant, but I am indicating that it’s present. On the contrary, I’ve got no problem with a series that depicts Supergirl’s challenges in the world, both being ‘super’, and being a girl. I’m perfectly fine with the exploration of both of these themes.

What I do find interesting is this: It takes a solid amount of confidence to fly Cat to the bluffs where the first interview is conducted, and while Kara is a bit nervous, she still retains control of the situation, despite the fact that if Cat doesn’t like what Supergirl has to say, Kara is having a bad day at work tomorrow. When Cat offers to be the bait to take down LiveWire, Kara again is able to keep it together. Void of her powers in one episode, she talks down an armed robber. Later in that episode, Cat makes an accusation that Supergirl abandoned National City, which Kara expertly deflects (interrupting her mid-sentence, might I add). Again, these are just the examples off the top of my head of Kara being resolute and confident when she’s wearing her cape, while that level of resolution and confidence seems to be absent when the cape is.

Kara is no less bulletproof when she’s wearing business casual attire. Kara is just as capable of flying, just as able to throw a punch, and just as beholden to her burden as a Kryptonian on earth when she’s in fetching Cat’s coffee and cobb salad. She’s shown no personal reason to stay at that particular job (e.g. she’s made no statement about wanting to be a reporter herself), and something tells me that she could request living wages from the DEO – she’s certainly got the clout to get a paycheck from Uncle Sam, and let’s face it – she’s presently the only one who’s working for that organization on a volunteer basis. While her secret gives her the ability to live a double life, everyone she cares about seems to know her secret and be complicit, while those characters find themselves in need of being saved by Supergirl on a regular basis – even if she went full-time Supergirl, her friends and family would be in basically the same place they are now. This raises the question: what gives Kara the confidence to speak to Cat with candor when she’s Supergirl, but not when she’s Kara?

The clothes. That’s about the only thing I can attribute it to. Supergirl can go toe to toe with Cat Grant because she’s wearing her Spandex suit and the cape. Whether it’s intentional or not, I’m hard pressed to come up with anything else that can explain why Kara can be confident, especially with Cat, as Supergirl, but not as Kara.

This saddens me.

For a show that seems to intend to extol the virtues of progressivism and female equality, what gives Kara her confidence is her clothes, rather than her training, her mind, her near-invulnerability, and her selfless concern for the citizens of National City.

I do hope that the series does a better job of addressing this as time goes on; I haven’t heard anything regarding the series’ renewal. Until then, I will remain disappointed that the writers of this series have done injustice to their cause in such a subtle way.

Then again, maybe they’re looking for an advertising deal from Nordstrom.

December 20, 2015 by Philosophy and Faith 0