FundamentallySound Blog

Today I was thinking about Laurie Anderson's song O Superman. Again. And I reconfirmed, at least to myself, that it is one of the best songs ever written. André Hermann Düne reminded me of this in his cover, strumming an acoustic guitar, delicately squeaking out, "hold me mom, in your petrochemical arms," flatly acknowledging the Cronenberg-esque grotesqueness of the line.

O Superman summarizes so neatly the duality in the American fetishization of armed technological superiority (its love of a big ol' bulging military buildup!) and the culture's trust in the motherly warmth of technology as a protective force (now we will always have enough food with genetically modified crops).

"When force is gone, there's always Mom." In Europe Central, William Vollmann hits on some of these themes, of playing out childish needs and desires in large scale techno-military action, specifically in the Soviet Union and Germany mid-20th century. I think there is something fundamentally irrational in such a strong cultural belief in the powers of technology. The Germans had this, in their secret work on weapons technology that would allow them, well, to control the world I guess. You can see this in the American Project for a New Century with its focus on military superiority and complete domination of the electromagnetic spectrum. The parallels are so numerous it almost goes without saying. I just wonder, after the next presidential elections, are things going to get better? Who knows...