There wasn’t any TV in homes when the D-Day landings in Normandy took place. Listening to radio accounts of this momentous event sixty-three years ago required imagination ever as much as any of the other programs we listened to, but having been at war since December 7, 1941 all of us were aware Americans were dying on those beaches. And the reality of that accentuated by so many homes displaying those small pieces of fabric with their blue and gold stars hanging in windows throughout America only contributed to our imagining the horrors those in our military were facing. But actual events of the war were heavily censored, including the descriptions of battles given us by radio; so imagination filled the void.

With the advent of a TV in every home and instant satellite communications I’ve wondered how D-Day would have been covered for transmission to those of us on the Home Front. Even now with our troops fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq, are we getting the truth of the matter or are we to be left to our imagination. I doubt our government during that Normandy landing would have allowed those of us at home being shown the horrifying slaughter taking place on those beaches. And there is no doubt in my mind the present government is even more reluctant to allow Americans to know the truth, whether about the wars ongoing or anything else. So, we are left to our imagination. However, because of TV imagination is increasingly in short supply, the kind of imagination that can only be engaged, inspired and exercised by other than visual images on a monitor.

But as the candidates of both parties posture and pose, cookie-cutter mannequins none of whom respond to specific questions with specific answers We the People are left to our imagination to fill in the blanks. And as Americans decline in their ability to exercise their imagination, this leaves a void that politicians take full advantage of. This is a danger addressed by SciFi writers such as Ray Bradbury and George Orwell among others.

It isn’t the first example of the genre that leaps to mind, but the earliest SciFi book readily available to me as a child was the Bible. Years later I would recognize this characteristic of the Bible in the stories by Isaac Asimov, who in fact wrote his own commentaries on the Bible that exhibited a high degree of theological scholarship, and I continue to recommend his books on the subject of Biblical studies. Eventually I learned many like Asimov had found SciFi inspiration through their knowledge of the Bible, which credits Psi, other worlds, dimensions, extraterrestrials, the warping of time/space among other staples of science fiction.

As a child growing up reading the stories not only of the Bible, but those of Jules Verne and early SciFi writers of note, though they were few compared with what would follow, such reading did prepare me for appreciating Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and even Dick Tracy would eventually get into the realm of SciFi with such things as a two-way wrist radio and some of the near-extraterrestrial villains for example.

The better writers of SciFi have generally been able to provide stories that have been an adumbration of future events. One such story I read nearly fifty years ago described a planet with an orbiting object the size of a softball whizzing around the planet so near its surface it was used to execute malefactors. Now we read “Oddball planet puzzles astronomers. Mammoth orb whips around parent star in fewer than four days. Space.com. May 31, 2007. HONOLULU - A team of amateur and professional astronomers has discovered a mammoth orb more than 13 times the mass of Jupiter that whips around its parent star in fewer than four days and is considered an ‘oddball’ planet among its exoplanet relatives.”

Whether good SciFi or any other writing of merit the absolute necessity of imagination is of paramount importance, so when I wrote of George Lucas pointing out the mesmerizing “demon TV” toward the end of his story “Radioland Murders” it was in recognition of the harm he knew this medium has done to literacy and imagination. Ray Bradbury thought radio led to people becoming less literary. When I first read Fahrenheit 451 I realized he, as later with Lucas, was really concerned about TV being a far greater threat to a literary America than any form of censorship, though critics early on misinterpreted him and continued to do so. The May 30 article in LA Weekly should disabuse all the critics. Bradbury clearly states his story was concerned with the danger to literacy posed by TV, not censorship.

The reason so many were led to supporting the view Bradbury was telling a story warning of censorship was that of Melville’s comment “The truth, it don’t pay.” Those trying to make Fahrenheit 451 all about censorship were “wolf at the door” mindset writers that had to earn a living; and if this meant prostituting themselves in order to feed the ever widening maw of the mindless entertainment of TV rather than work of literary merit the fearsome bugbear of “censorship” must be held at bay. Comparing TV today with that of fifty years ago shows how successful the purveyors of mindless entertainment including mindless gratuitous sex and violence have been.

Those the age of Bradbury have the experience to realize the dangers to literacy the electronic media and TV pose to America. And expressing his concern back in 1953, Bradbury had America becoming a thoroughly illiterate nation and books were banned and burned because they posed a threat to the established order, an order made possible by illiteracy and TV. We have now come to the point I mentioned in earlier writing where drugs, illiteracy, and TV are the enslaving elements of Big Brother. Having left off reading books, Americans are now held captive by drugs, illiteracy, TV, and a concomitant lack of imagination. And as I was telling parents back in the 60s, there was no way for teachers and books to compete with TV.

Those of us like Bradbury sharing a love of books and libraries are acutely aware of how close we are to actually becoming automatons complete with in-ear radios and interactive TV as he describes in his novel, of the loss of imagination leading to the loss of introspective questioning of the established order as discovered by Montag. “Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine.” The end of the story has those like Montag arising like the Phoenix to rebuild, but in my opinion there will be no opportunity for a Phoenix to arise from the ashes of the nuclear storm now threatening humankind.

The loss of a literary America, the loss of reading books that inspired the imagination of those who built America is inviting the very thing Bradbury feared. Take for example the failure of our leadership to deal with the greatest threat to America, the threat of our lack of secure borders and the invasion by Mexico for the sake of slave labor. Here is a brief note sent by Ron Paul:

Border Security and Immigration Reform. The talk must stop. We must secure our borders now. A nation without secure borders is no nation at all. It makes no sense to fight terrorists abroad when our own front door is left unlocked. This is Ron Paul’s six point plan:

1. Physically secure our borders and coastlines. We must do whatever it takes to control entry into our country before we undertake complicated immigration reform proposals.

2. Enforce visa rules. Immigration officials must track visa holders and deport anyone who overstays their visa or otherwise violates U.S. law. This is especially important when we recall that a number of 9/11 terrorists had expired visas.

3. No amnesty. Estimates suggest that 10 to 20 million people are in our country illegally. That’s a lot of people to reward for breaking our laws.

4. No welfare for illegal aliens. Americans have welcomed immigrants who seek opportunity, work hard, and play by the rules. But taxpayers should not pay for illegal immigrants who use hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, and social services.

5. End birthright citizenship. As long as illegal immigrants know their children born here will be citizens, the incentive to enter the U.S. illegally will remain strong.

6. Pass true immigration reform. The current system is incoherent and unfair. But current reform proposals would allow up to 60 million more immigrants into our country, according to the Heritage Foundation. This is insanity. Legal immigrants from all countries should face the same rules and waiting periods. ronpaul.meetup.com/197/

Here is Fred Thompson’s take on some issues:

Iraq war: We should win it. That radical faction declared war on us a long time ago.

Abortion: Roe v Wade is a classic example of how the courts should NOT be permitted to legislate social policy.

Gun control: The other 9 amendments are all accepted as applying to the rights of an individual. Why do any oppose this being true of the second amendment?

Gay rights: States should make laws regarding this that reflect the will of their people. The federal government should not have a position on it.

Border control: Secure the border, first, before any talk about immigration reform.

Immigration: Start by enforcing the current laws. Continue by penalizing employers and housing providers. If the illegals have no reason to come here, they’ll stop.

Agree or disagree, most of these things need to be done, and despite the obvious need of these things I fear they will not be done because those in power like Bush and the majority in Congress are owned by those profiting from globalization and our treasonously open borders. But a mindless nation lacking imagination enslaved by drugs, illiteracy, and TV is unable to stand up to those like Bush and Congress.

Certainly religions like Islam flourish by keeping people enslaved by ignorance and superstition. Good books such as those Henry Thoreau hoped would enable humankind to at last scale heaven itself have been denied Muslims. But Western Civilization, especially America is facing being enslaved by its own illiteracy as we abandon our great heritage of great literature.