Why fly in the age of Trump … because sometimes we need to let our hands perspire...
The point of advertising is to destroy markets.” -— Noam Chomsky
Howard Luck Gossage (1917–1969), frequently referred to as "The Socrates of San Francisco,"[1][2] was an advertising innovator and iconoclast during the "Mad Men" era.[3] He is known for having said that, "The object of your advertising should not be to communicate with your consumers or your prospects at all but to terrorize your competition's copywriters."[4] Gossage is credited with introducing the media theorist Marshall McLuhan to media and corporate leaders thereby providing McLuhan his entry into mainstream renown.[5] More widely, Gossage was involved in some of the first environmental campaigning in the USA with the Sierra Club, and in the establishment of Friends of the Earth through his friendship with David Brower.[6]
I live on a helicopter flight path for a major defense contractor that makes a regular weekday morning/afternoon shuttle run between corporate campuses 60 miles apart. It’s a minor noise that happens twice a day, but it reminds me of a time when I traveled regularly between two jobs 400 miles apart for several years.
the joys of DOS 3.0
Those same trips reminded me that my father had in his less lucid moments reminded me because he had made those same kinds of trips regularly for his job that an airline accident could pay out more money in life insurance benefits. I try never to think about those things even as in my more flush days, I took out more insurance for any work-related travel. And I’m still here, so the bet has never paid out.
The new laptop ban made me think about my various attempts then and now to reduce my having to carry laptops and accessories when flying, especially since I then carried-on one of these 20 pound monsters during those 800-1600 mile travel weeks, where most of the weight/bulk was in the AC adapter, as well as all those floppies. It wasn’t so much grabbing my legs in an emergency as worrying about that beast hurtling around the cabin.
The US restrictions apply to flights from eight countries popular with tourists, archeologists and businesses: Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The UK also caused outrage by implementing a similar ban on the same day, impacting Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia (but interestingly not UAE or Qatar...).
All such trips are stressful and yet I still tried to do that a couple of years ago, probably because I liked the scheduling of the trip more than what I had to do. But the new electronics ban aimed at in-bound US flights, based on some intelligence regarding laptop-scaled devices, and coupled with the usual Islamophobia, has made many folks a whole lot more nervous about security theater again.
Royal Jordanian Airlines sent out several hilarious tweets, starting with a rhyme denouncing the ban, to which they added: 'Stay tuned for more fun… we have just begun #electronicban'.
It also published a list of 12 things to do on a 12-hour flight with no laptop or tablet, including: 'Engage in primitive dialogue from the pre-internet era'
Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airlines also produced a video, with the title clearly mocking Trump's infamous election campaign message, 'Make flying great again' to promote its high-end cabins with wifi-service for smartphone users.
But it is about jokes and adverts for me since one of my early heroes was Howard Gossage, although when I got to grad school, it became Noam Chomsky, but not for political reasons. An early Freeman, Mander, & Gossage agency ad concept involved challenging your fear of flying by addressing your sweaty hands.
And in so many ways it is about trying to keep calm even as the usual RWNJs try to make people afraid of illusions with “alternate facts”.
I lost my fear of flying partially because of the probabilistic arguments, but also because of dogged fatalism.