Scarce Authenticity
SENSE
A Field Guide to Science & Culture
Theory . Storytelling . Transformation
Scarce Authenticity. Western Fakes Everywhere.
In the realm of fake cultural storytelling, an American Indian "Wannabe" now works at the National Security Agency. The "Theory of Making It All Up" serves so well, here: The anthropomorphic cartoon character dresses like Brittany Spears, plays lacrosse, and has a "sister" with downs syndrome. The Biligana also speaks Navajo, taught Navajo kids how to speak the "old Navajo language," and borrows the legacy of the WW II Navajo Code Talkers. Say what? The rest is -- history ??
CryptoCat, Age 15, Information Assurance Analyst: "My Family History: When I was three, I lived next to a Navajo reservation in Arizona with my parents who were schoolteachers on the reservation. I learned a lot about the customs and culture of the Navajo Indians from my babysitter who was an elderly Navajo woman. She even taught me how to speak the native Navajo language - pretty cool huh? My family moved away from the reservation right before I entered high school. It was pretty tough moving away from all my friends, but after I adjusted to my new surroundings and high school, I met a lot of great friends that I love hanging out with every day. My BEST Friend: Decipher Dog by far! We've known each other for a few years and became really good friends after I started developing my own codes. He's not very interested in making his own codes, however, he seems to like breaking all of the ciphers I create - so I keep developing new codes in hopes that one day he won't be able to crack it. When I?m not at school: I'm usually hanging out with my friends at the mall or catching the latest movie. I love helping people so I find different ways to help out around the community. Right now, I volunteer as a swim coach for children with special needs. It's a lot of fun AND I get to spend extra time with my sister who has Down's Syndrome. I also like playing field hockey and lacrosse, and I'm learning how to play Ultimate Frisbee with the other CryptoKids. "When a secret needs to be kept, you have to find a way to protect it!" How I became interested in Cryptography: I guess you could say I really got into cryptography at an early age. When I was at school on the reservation, I learned that many of the other children didn't know how to speak the old native language. I thought it would be a lot of fun to teach them the language and we eventually began communicating to each other using Navajo code words. Eventually, our teachers began to figure out our messages and we had to learn new ways to create codes. The only way to break one of our new codes was to know the Navajo word we used as the "key" to crack each message. The encryption was so tough that even our teachers couldn't break them! In high school, I became well known for my code making skills and was asked to enter a cryptography competition with my friend Decipher Dog. We had such a great time and learned so much that D-Dog and I started our own club called the CryptoKids. And the rest is history!"
AND THEN, THERE IS THE NSA ARCHAEOLOGIST ...
"I’m Definitely Not Ordinary -- Being the daughter of two archaeologists, I get to spend every summer with my parents on one of their digs. It sounds kind of boring, but it’s really a lot of fun. While they’re at work, I get to learn about other cultures and how to speak new languages. I have a lot of pen pals from all over the world and I’ve gotten to see some pretty neat sights. My favorites include the pyramids of Egypt, the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the statues of Easter Island, and the ancient Inca fortress city of Macchu Picchu in Peru."
Since the agency seems to encourage employees (and here desires to train kids) to dissemble about the past all in the name of inauthenticity and 'cool,' these cartoon character fakes make one wonder how many dangerous fakes really work at NSA? Pity the phony Western history and imagined indigenous roots with which they strive to attract teenagers.
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