Microwave weapons are no longer a matter of "conspiracy theory"; they are a matter of fact. The Active Denial System, the Marines' new torture toy, is in the public domain. For those who don't know, and are too lazy to Google, it is simply a microwave dish mounted on a Humvee, that causes an intense burning sensation on any who are in its field of fire. Man-portable versions (read: laser guns) are in the works and should hit the field within a decade.
There are those who worry that these new torture toys (which is exactly what they are) herald a new era of techno-tyranny, reminiscient of Orwell's 1984 or THX1134, which portrays a world in which technological and social progress have mostly stagnated, except for technologies designed to control and torment people. This is more or less the world we live in, although people do not realize it; although we have some new tech tools such as iPhones and the Internet (both of which started out as military toys), the greater part of really cutting-edge technology (particularly in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, rocketry and cybernetics) see only military applications.
But in the long run, microwave guns and other new torture toys under development for use by the US Marines and other evildoers won't really make a difference, and here's why:
The microwave gun, like the taser, is at its heart nothing more than a fancy cattle prod. That is it; that is all. If you really want to inflict pain on an individual, the means to do so have always been around. The alleged quality of the microwave gun, that it has the advantage of leaving no scars and can be used at range, and against groups of people, are dubious at best. Realistically, if there is a situation that compels the use of such torture toys, the decisive factor in managing the public's perception will be media coverage and cultural factors.
At best (at worst), the real difference is the technology's capacity to sanitize violence and cruelty, the cost to man's dignity by controlling him only through applying pain. The microwave gun also has the advantage of creating a perceived distance between the inflictor of the pain and the victim (like the creepy Button Assistant experiments at Stanford half a century ago, in which a mock "assistant" was asked to press a button believing it would cause a lethal electric shock to a "test subject" someone in the next room) which serves to lower the threshold for the use of violence against the innocent. The Agony Booth in the classic Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" (which bears a disturbing resemblance to microwave torture) comes to mind.
The real motives for the creation of the microwave gun isn't that it's safer, more effective, etc. It is its capacity to sanitize violence, and, of course, its hideous expense serves to enrich contractors connected to the Bush family.
It is a cornerstone of Judeo-Christian ideology that evil is ultimately self-defeating, and as overly romantic or divine as the argument is made out to be, it is in fact factually correct. As this one princess once pointed out, the more authority relies on fear and pain to enforce its will, the more it guarantees its eventual demise. Reliance on fear and pain corrodes legitimacy, loyalty and ultimately competence, turns an affiliation inherently regressive.
Let me explain here what the term "regressive" really means, as an antonym to "progressive". A progressive movement's fundamental nature is to enfranchise more people. A regressive movement's fundamental nature is to enfranchise fewer people. As soon as a movement must resort to fear and violence to achieve its goals, the movement has become regressive.
This is also why gun rights are stupid and self-defeating. Governments don't lose power when they are overthrown by armed citizens, they lose power when they cease to enjoy the faith and confidence of the citizens. The actual goal of successful terrorists is never to actually overthrow a government by force, it is to undermine government credibility.
The dualism between progressive and regressive is one of the major paradigms of history, and it is fundamental to the natural lifecycle of all Human political movements. All political movements begin with a specific social injustice they seek to correct. The injustice gradually expands as reactionaries refuse to deal with the problem, alienating more people. Eventually the reactionaries lose credibility and are overthrown by the revolutionaries. The revolutionaries then become institutionalized and begin implementing their vision. The flaws and contradictions of their vision gradually become apparent, and the institutional revolution must resort to lies, fear and pain to ensure continued obedience. The revolution has now become reactionary in nature, and is inevitably in turn overthrown.
This is a model for the success and decline of basically every ideological movement in history, from Christianity and Buddhism to Communism and Nazism to Feminism and Black rights. When movements become institutionalized, they sow the seeds of their own obsolescence.
Mao Zedong realized this, and his solution was "perpetual revolution". For very obvious reasons, it didn't work out; the result was spiraling violence, social instability, technological regression; ultimately basically everyone got tired of it and it took some of the bloodiest purges in the history of Communism to finally get things to calm down. More than that, revolutionary ardor, like hipster chic, can't help but become banal after a while. Nothing can't become a social norm. Even revolution.
Anyway, the fact of the matter is, the microwave gun won't save Capitalism any more than the crucifix saved Rome, or the Death Star saved Palpatine. History will have the last word; every day more people will watch life get harder, standard of living plummet, lies grow ever more outrageous, society and economy become ever more unworkable, until gradually the US turns into the USSR in 1989: a jaded, dysfunctional mess. Does anyone really think that the Berlin Wall would still be standing if Gorbachev had microwave guns?
So we should love the microwave gun, because it's just a signpost along the road of history, and, someday, when there is dawn after darkness, the good people of this country will have a chance to see that technology put to better use. Which will be the topic of my next rant.
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