Very interesting. Agent White is arguing with Lois from a standpoint of fear and cynicism. Everybody is just out to protect themselves. Governments are just working their lower anatomies off to make sure that nobody gets anything for free. And everybody is just trying to take advantage of everyone else and make everyone else look bad.
And Superman is horribly dangerous.
“So what happens when China announces that it's acquired the one being on earth who can fly faster than any missile, who can break into any military base and who can presumably be the most effective spy in history, able to listen in on every secret conference, able to steal every piece of technology…a being who is reputedly so unstoppable that using him is nothing short of an act of war.”
I think it was IolantheAlias who first said that the Superman suit had a power of its own, because people know what it stands for and what the man who wears it is all about. Well, clearly the government that Agent White works for doesn't know that. It doesn't dare to trust. Even when the people in that government see that "the man in the Superman suit" is behaving exactly like every child would expect Superman to behave, they only think of how dangerous this flying man can be. Dangerous to them, presumably. So what if this Superman helps ordinary people, if he can be dangerous to them? To the government?
Wow. It's like the old Communist bloc all over again.
I very much appreciated this:
“People have the luxury of compassion,” Agent White said. “Governments don't. Governments are built around suspicion and paranoia and a lust for power.”
“Maybe your government…” Lois began.
The government she'd grown up with hadn't been like that, except in little ways.
That's true! It didn't use to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way!
The descriptions of what Clark had to do at the disaster sites in China were horrible. Particularly when he had to amputate limbs. The very thought of it is almost unbearable. Clark thought so himself, too. I have read so many Superman comic books in my life, but Superman never had to amputate anyone in any of those.
The whole earthquake scene in China was so gripping. Clark was so absolutely human and so completely heroic at the same time.
Back to Lois's situation in the United States. She is being locked up, held in 'protective custody'. :rolleyes: But she suddenly realizes what Agent White has to lose in all this:
If they were looking for a scapegoat, Agent White was a likely candidate. He'd participated in the cover-up, he'd been in charge and he was presumably more easily disposed of than some of the other candidates.
That explains some of Agent White's bad mood, at least. (And things were like that in the old Communist bloc, too, where all these officials tried so hard not to put themselves in positions where they could become scapegoats.)
“They ordered that the whole thing be kept concealed,” Agent White said. “They thought it would lead to panic.”
A flicker on the screen to her right showed MSNBC showing pictures of a major traffic jam in Denver.
A certain portion of the population had suddenly decided to take a vacation all at the same time, despite repeated government statements that the situation had been contained. Unfortunately, the people in the affected areas weren't the ones who were leaving. People living in the shadow of oil refineries usually didn't have the resources to go anywhere else.
“There have already been twelve deaths attributed to the congested traffic,” Agent White said. “And people are talking about resignations and criminal charges.”
Wow. Wow. This reminds me of what happened in 1938, when Orson Wells made a radio dramatization of H. G. Wells' (hi, Herbert) novel War of the Worlds. A lot of people didn't realize that they were listening to a radio dramatization of a novel, and instead they thought that they were listening to the live news coverage of an actual invasion of hostile and super-powerful Martians on the Earth. A lot of people fled back then, too, and several were killed in the panic. At least I think that a lot of people were killed, although I can't swear that that part of the story isn't an urban legend.
“I guess they decided to dress for the occasion,” Mihoshi said.
It took Nelson a moment to realize what she was saying. At least half the crowd was wearing some sort of Superman insignia on their t-shirts. The rest were dressed more normally, but the shirts, mostly white stood out in the dimness of the night.
Wow. I love the tribute these people are paying to Superman.
And they are so well-behaved, too:
In America that sort of mob would have been screaming, loud, raucous. This crowd was eerily silent, a sea of faces and grasping hands that reached out to touch him as though to assure themselves that he was real.
Hmmmm. I read something very interesting on the Newsweek site yesterday. It was an article about today's world leaders and how much confidence they inspire worldwide. Overall, the world has little confidence in its most influential leaders. George Bush, Vladimir Putin, Chinese Prime Minister Hu and a few others - they all got a confidence vote of between 22 and 38% worldwide. Not too good. But an extremely interesting thing was that people in the United States were particularly distrustful of today's leaders, whereas people in China were trusting and hopeful. If I remember correctly, more than 80% of the Chinese had faith in their own leaders. And, interestingly, they generally had faith in other leaders, too. Vladimir Putin was very popular among the Chinese. George Bush, too, scored better in China than he did in most other countries.
Conclusion: In China, people are optimistic and hopeful. In America, they are not, at least not as hopeful and optimistic as they used to be.
And if people in China are optimistic and hopeful, it stands to reason that they would believe in Superman, too.
But some Americans are really beginning to believe, too:
Superman…in Nelson's mind anyone who was literally faster than a speeding bullet pretty much had to be Superman
Yes, if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... Superman!!!! Really!!!
What a fascinating story this is, Shayne!
Ann
