Page 22 - Twin & Turbine January 2018

20 • TWIN & TURBINE
January 2018
From the Flight Deck
by Kevin R. Dingman
Renewal
An Orwellian Replica
re·new·al noun: The action of extending the period of validity of a license, mandatory in order to verify identity, trustwor- thiness, competence and compliance with mandates.
We get an email or text every time we leave the store, doctor’s office, movie theatre, bank or a restaurant. Someone is always probing us to doublethink our recent visits and activities. George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) would say I told you so. In our monitored and regulated
society, thirtysome years after his dystopian Ministry of Truth forecast for 1984, it seems we need a permit, license, certificate or authorization to do just about everything.
One to drive a car, bus or big-rig, skipper a boat, captain an airplane or to ride a motorcycle. There’s one for scuba diving, hunting, fishing, trapping and to carry a concealed pistol. One to extract teeth, one for removing a gall bladder, one to practice law and another for performing surgery on our pets. There’s one for adding a deck, roof or a water heater to our chateau. And don’t forget the “till death do us part” license and certificate.
It’s a New Year and time to get our taxes ready, work on the New Year’s resolution and to submit reams of renewal documents to The Ministry.
“Who Are You?” The Who, 1978
Add to our Library of Licenses the need to renew and carry a bazillion ID and membership cards, the longevity of which varies from document to document but most expire annually and renewal is compulsory. There’s one for the union, Sam’s Club, AOPA, EAA, the aircraft-type club, health club, country club, the gun range and the marina. There’s a license plate or registration sticker for every machine from our cars, boats, RV’s and airplanes down to our four-wheelers, Wave Runners, snowmobiles and trailers, with a proof of insurance document required for all the above.
There’s a hang-tag for the employee parking lot, hangar, gated community and the time-share. And a passport or visa to enter another country and return to our own. There are company IDs to access the secure area around airplanes, ships, submarines, fissionable materials and corporate secrets. We then add eight-character, alphanumeric passwords, door keys and codes, biometric screening and sometimes, old-school security guards with varying levels of touching, scanning and intimidating weaponry. There’s a transponder for the toll road and the new-fangled ADS-B in our airplane transmits who, what, when, where and why to The Man.
“Who’ll Stop The Rain?” CCR, 1970 mo·ron noun: a stupid person. Synonym: idiot,
dunce, imbecile, simpleton, dip.
Our lack of trustworthiness and the current multitude of regulations that govern registration and licensing began with the bite of an apple, self- awareness, some coverings and expulsion from an idyllic Garden. It appears this was just the beginning