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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He keeps reminding me of photos and news reel footage of Benito Mussolini…Surrounded by acolytes, shaking his head like a cartoon character with his lower jaw thrust forward – and anxious to suck up to an even greater off-the-rails historical contemporary…I don’t know who I’m more angry at though: Trump, Pence and their hand-picked Integang of morally lacking 1%ers – or the clueless, obtuse, K-Mart-shopping American voters who swallowed his shallow line of b.s. and put him where he is now - to the detriment of the rest of the planet.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know what he's thinking when he's watching all the hooplah which he has to go to. I'm sure the interior monologue is quite different than we suspect or maybe even more awful it's not.
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It all seems so unreal. If we had to go down the rabbit hole into a fantasy world why couldn't it have been "the West Wing?"
ReplyDeleteSame Trump time, same Trump channel. Sigh.
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I've been reading your blog for a long time and never commented. THANKS FOR KEEPING IT UP! It is awesome. It is truly a joy to read. Looking forward to all future posts, including Day in the Anti-Life posts.
ReplyDeleteI'm coming to you all from a brand new (to me anyways) computer so hopefully things will continue along for some time. Thanks for the kind words.
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Railing against injustice is good for the sinuses.
ReplyDeleteThe anti-life trend has been ongoing for decades in our politics, but was never fully opposed because of the subtlety of the original gambits. Over the years a kind of success has created a dogma among certain movements that has brought the level of injustice out in the open to the point where it's become blatant enough to not only produce our president but be totally naked to all but those who refuse to see.
A woman in Hawaii was depressed by the election, but she decided to cope with it by going to Washington to protest and she posted it on Facebook. A few sympathetic souls responded and she went to bed feeling a little better. When she woke up the next day, 60,000 people had signed up and by the time the Woman's March had materialized in D.C. there were hundreds of thousands of people who may have felt despair or come in anger, but if you watched any of the coverage what you saw was sheer happiness and relief. Old grannies, children, families came out and for me and others it was the first time I felt good about the political process in a long time. For those participants, it was a revelation: not only were they not alone, they were more powerful in their numbers than anyone would've guessed. Their example has emboldened resistance assemblies virtually daily; any time a member of government makes a move, people will show up and let them know what they think.
Without someone as crude and obvious as Trump, this may have never happened (More than one demonstration has started with the organizers thanking Trump for bringing so many people together).
This is actually a good thing. So rail on, but think of it also as making what Linus Van Pelt would call "a joyful noise."
I take your point and often point out to folks who like myself were fans of the previous administration, many of the things we don't like about Trump, Obama did, but with more cool detachment and apparent competence. It's not so much the substance, though it's that too, but the manner which folks find so off putting.
DeleteThe protests are a good thing and I immediately get that late 60's vibe off them. These are going to be very interesting times indeed.
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I agree that Trump is the greatest existential threat facing the planet this moment. But both parties are pure "establishment," two sides of the same sick coin. Trump was the outsider who won and Sanders the outsider who lost. It's tragically easy to envision a scenario where Big Mouth encourages the extremists in Israel agitating the extremists in Iran or Pakistan which triggers a nuclear response. Likewise with North Korea. The only good thing about Trump supporters is that their life expectancy is going down (literally) due to drugs (opiate overdoses), alcohol (liver sclerosis), and guns (mostly suicides). When the Trump and the Repubs take away their Obama Care health care their life expectancy should go into free fall...
ReplyDeleteThat's a bit harsh maybe, but I understand the vitriol folks feel. The Right has waxed on for decades now about "political correctness" but as I suspected when they get into office they feel differently about scathing critiques of the authorities. What goes around and all that.
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