A Day In The Anti-Life - Mucho Sadness!

It might be worse than I thought.

One of the many reasons that Jack Kirby is a hero of mine is not only his utterly earth-shaking creativity in the relatively small world of comic books, but his dedication to promoting themes of individual freedom and his utter rejection of the mindset which makes dictatorships possible. This is most evident in his "Fourth World" material in which the mcguffin that lies at the heart of so much of the action is a dread secret  hidden in the brains of some humans which the deadly Darkseid and his minions scheme to get their cold bloody mitts on called the "Anti-Life Equation".

This symbolic device was for my teenage self a mystery of sorts. I never really grokked what the hubbub was about, but it was sufficient for me that this thing, buried in the subconscious minds of various humans was a proper motivation to make the New Gods fight and supply me with diversion and entertainment. That I didn't understand the complete theme was at the time beside the point. But I've grown up.

The Anti-Life Equation is an arcane formula which gives its handler the power over the minds and wills of other humans, it is the ability to make slaves of others and bend them to your will for whatever purposes you desire. It is the master scheme to make all of humanity slaves, never allow them to realize it, and instead make them relish their fate. It is the willful sacrifice of personal freedom to enter into a pact with an unholy master, to make of oneself a submissive acolyte.

Kirby explored the concept in the New Gods saga and to lesser extents in Captain Victory and elsewhere. The sundry insect armies he created at Marvel, DC, Pacific and elsewhere point back to this notion that individuals can disappear inside an army of drones dedicated to the welfare of an overwhelming master intellect.

That grim reality, so deftly explored by Kirby so many decades ago and informed by his Jewish heritage and experiences before during and after World War II are of great moment to us in America today when we find ourselves once "again" asked to surrender our selves to something "great", to something which promises to a select company the chimera of perfect security if only they will hold at bay all those "others" who threaten the modern myth of perfect tranquility.

Our new Leader is an exceedingly dangerous fellow, callow and glib, and apparently lacking much if any empathy for those who fall outside his immediate family. He is overwhelmed with a need to constantly punch up his degraded self-worth by constantly lying about those who he imagines should adore him. If you fail to fall at his feet, he imagines you are an enemy and are to be sent away. If he cannot corrupt you with is charm, then you are a threat and should, according to his worm-tongued counselor, just "keep [your] mouth shut".

America's foreign policy is now slave to the bottom line of Exxon as its former head man now leads the charge to drop the sanctions on Russia to allow Exxon to exploit the billions of dollars of leases they hold in that distant land. The drive to make Russia our friend is all about the mighty buck as are most things when it comes to this leadership team. As the new Leader pushes the country into a mewling defensive crouch we will fail to even lead from behind as we had been doing. That will inevitably cause problems and then we'll end up on another foreign battlefield somewhere fighting all over again to make America rich again. 

Democrats are at the moment relatively weak and will offer only a token resistance to the whims of his new autocrat who chafes at the limits of constitutional authority. It is up to Republicans to tame the monster they have uncaged and unleashed upon us. But at the moment they are too distracted by the avaricious desire for tax cuts to pay attention to anything else. Once they have secured the fortunes of the rich and mighty then maybe they might deign to pay attention to the problems of the people who find themselves confronted with something relatively new in American history.

I don't want to spend all my time railing against the new order and I will not, but I do feel the need from time to time to get things off my chest and this blog will have to serve so I apologize in advance to those disinterested in that sort of thing. But expect to see "A Day In The Anti-Life" posts from time to time as the destiny of all Americans and the rest of the world spins into all sorts of directions. It's going to be a hair-raising ride I fear.

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