David Bowie Gone

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

This isn’t about him, it’s about us.  VT is a generational thing, largely born out of the anti-war movement for a war no one even remembers anymore.  As a both public and private organization that includes many now around the world and many more who have drifted into the shadow world, we are like an iceberg, ony 10 percent seen.

We are also growing old, more deaths every year.  We realize, as no other publication does, that death and the human condition are what we are always writing about, talking about, what is there, denied, run from, what defines us, how we view it, how we accept the absurdity of a life lived under imaginary guidelines only to watch everything we love taken from us, how we are shown all is for naught.

Bowie was someone that many of us admired because of what he represented, timelessness.  He never really grew up, he never grew old, he never took himself seriously, he never stopped working and he always looked good.  Elvis, and we love his music, I think of him on the phone, perhaps on the toilet and on the phone, talking to Richard Nixon.  I sit in wonder contemplating that.

As for Bowie, we have his music, not always to everyone’s taste but always iconic and penetrating.

As all is judged on how we are collectively impacted, the we being the subjective reader, those who view these words, we look at the role music has played in our lives, how it is the theme of our culture and, to those of the military,  as Jim Hanke so often states, looking for “truth and beauty,” how those of us who part of the timeless brotherhood of warriors, as expressed by Castaneda, never greater nor lesser than those who came before nor those we kill or are killed by.

Ground Control to Major Tom is an icon to us, those who have technologically moved to the MP3 player and ear bud world, it an the Bowie below, punctuates the playlists that run through our lives.  Without their music, our lives would be not just less, genuinely colorless.  Our music is the only connection to beyond ourselves, always there, radio or in our heads.

Close the door and sing with Bowie.  This is a man who was like few of us or how he worked to appear.  We know better, he was always one of us.

Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.

Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.

Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.

• Gordon’s Archives:  2008-2015
• Gordon’s Archives:  2016-2022