 Recently, I started re-visiting a childhood obsession. As a parent to two “Gen Z” kids (Whatever the hell that means), it is fascinating to observe what my children’s generation is fascinated about. YouTube, Japanese Anime, Japanese Video Games, and Streamers are the popular things in my house. For me, growing up in the 80s, I was fascinated by Voltron, GI Joe, the NFL, Oingo Boingo, and PEANUTS (Many of these things are now culturally iconic). While at Catholic School, our teacher would give us library time (If my memory serves me, it was once every two weeks) to check out books. At the time, reading classic American and Russian novels, Sci Fi blockbusters by creators like Heinlein, Clarke and Dick, and political screeds about the Reagan era were not my cup of tea. I was fascinated by two things: World War II history and comic strips. Generation X is the generation long tied to making the superhero comic books of Marvel and DC famous. In the present day, these properties have taken over modern-day cinema. But despite reading lots of these comic books (Especially X-Men), my fascination with comic books never reached my adoration for three comic strips: THE FAR SIDE, PEANUTS, and GARFIELD. While the former was brilliant for creating a world where all creatures had a conscience, and were often put into cultural, political, and absurdly intelligent situations inside of one panel while the latter had more of a cynical absurdist and sometimes stupid theme to it, nothing compared to PEANUTS.  PEANUTS was never an artistic masterpiece. It often was dead serious. But no comic strip even to this day has dived into psychology, depression, the darkness and frustration of life, and the cynicism of the people in your community (With a little bit of philosophy thrown in AKA Linus) like PEANUTS did. So, I decided to reflect on this aspect of my past. What drove me to be so attracted to this specific comic strip as a young child? Going back to my school library in 2019 during the memorial for my father, I realized that my name was inside every single CHARLIE BROWN book that my old school still has inside their “Comedy” section. Something about reading the frustrating adventures of a boy who failed at everything in life but kept getting himself back onto his feet to try and fail again was appealing to my young mind. So lately, I have been going back and reading them again. Two things really stand out when revisiting PEANUTS. 1) The philosophical debates, child-like situations, and observations by these very mature children really hold up in the present day. These kids, especially the philosophizing of Linus who deals with his own insecurities by latching onto a blanket, were intelligent, grounded, down-to-earth, and realistic. Lucy, inside her psychiatry booth (5 cents), would give a cold, hard reality check to many of the kids who had legitimate problems and her advice would provide them no comfort.  2) PEANUTS also never reveals where it takes place inside the United States. The comic strip seems to take place in an imaginary United States that many people believe existed from the late 1940s into the 1980s. The purposeful intent of this artistic decision allows anyone who recognizes themselves in one of these characters to identify more clearly with the most well-written, psychologically developed children ever created inside of any medium.
Re-reading PEANUTS, I have no doubt that Linus is my doppelganger. I have always been philosophical and fascinated by the spiritual. I was attached to a blanket FOR WAY TOO LONG as a child and yes, it was my “security blanket”, and I had a sister who had a very similar personality to Lucy. As I aged and left this comic behind (Especially after Schulz’s death in 2000), I moved onto darker things in my teen years like Tim Burton and horror films and a fascination with punk and goth music. That sense of sadness that permeated my childhood continued and got worse during my teen years. This depression lingered into adulthood. Only seeing the smiling face of my daughter snapped me out of my mental funk. There is something wrong with your head when lyrics from one of your favorite bands bring a smile to your face and years later, you have a recognition about how dark the lyrics are. For instance, the lyrics to Oingo Boingo's NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS TO ME below, Have you heard about the Joneses, my, my, my It happened so quick, and no one knows why Their teenage son, he seemed okay But his suicide ruined everyone's day And I can't believe that anyone would Wanna do such a terrible thing But why should I care? For me, PEANUTS was something I needed at a specific time in my life (Between seven and fifteen years of age). It brought me joy despite the often-depressing content. During the almost 50 years of its existence, PEANUTS continues to be an amazing work of art. It is the greatest comic strip of the 20th Century.
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A couple of months ago, I posted a long, bloviating post about humanity entering a new “era” of history. A new evolution (Or devolution) of mankind that will likely define the next century or two. Even paying attention to the news badly, there is something that is terribly wrong with the world. The most powerful once stable nation states seem to be collapsing. Institutions are breaking. Governments are corrupted beyond saving, and people are unhappy and struggling to maintain their lifestyles. Rule by the people thru the democratic system is in serious decline. As these institutions decline, various “new” philosophies have sprung up in hopes of leading and guiding the people of this planet into a new direction.
The first is THE GREAT RESET, a collection of “ideas” being promoted by some of the richest men on the planet. Through strategic capture of the political systems in nation states throughout the world and help from NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that give tax free money to help propagandize, manipulate, and force governments and corporations into a new social and political direction (Through a manufactured word called ‘governance’), the decline of the nation state can be partially blamed on these self-interested billionaires and their insatiable thirst for total control. But the weakness in our country was also caused by our own arrogance and naivete by continuing to elect corrupt, evil politicians who passed one terrible law at a time that slowly broke down this country’s foundations. When evaluating all the videos and documents related to this plan, no one can really explain what THE GREAT RESET is. The philosophy of this idea is explained with vague information that is spewed out in soulless corporate lingo. It appears to have three main foundations. 1) Create a blending of corporations and governments through globalized entities to rule the planet. 2) Force authoritarianism on the people through the globalist’s own interests in topics like climate change, equity, and central digital bank currencies. 3) Modify human beings for the upcoming technocracy by controlling their bodies and minds. No one really knows what is being accomplished or what the final solution of this RESET will be. But freedom and human rights will probably not survive this transition. The second is authoritarian capitalism best represented by China and Russia. This new political system resembles fascism by design. The difference is that authoritarian capitalists do not actively engage in multiple genocides like Hitler’s Germany did. In comparison, authoritarian capitalists do violate Civil Rights, engage in repression, and participate in propaganda and manipulation for the benefit of the state. But even though the state has strong control over its people, the economic system is more capitalistic and freer than the authoritarian system that the citizens live under, and it mostly benefits chosen elites who have the proper personal government connections with the regular people getting the financial leftovers. Unfortunately, the “success” of China and Russia has led many other nations to pursue this freedom destroying political ideology even though the majority of the wealth goes to the upper echelon. When viewed through an analytical lens, both these new political systems have one thing in common. They both restore the once failed idea of oligarchy. Oligarchy was the foundation of feudalism which was the established political ideology of the Dark and Middle Ages. Throughout the globe, an emperor, king, or queen ruled with a court of nobles who controlled most of the country through their own massive fortunes while keeping the common man under control through taxation, slavery, and religion. Religious leaders along with the nobles often had political power in the king’s court. And if the “monarchy” got out of hand, it was not uncommon for the nobles to put some “magic juice” into the king’s meal to bring about the next hereditary ruler. Even a democratic republic like the United States has been badly damaged and has begun to resemble an oligarchical, feudalistic system. As the tech industry has grown powerful, the hope that this new technology would increase knowledge and lead to freedom movements around the globe has created a new reality where privacy is non-existent, basic human rights are under attack, and an authoritarian system with limited opportunities for the average man is being implemented. The evil tech investor Peter Thiel reflects this common, underlying attitude by saying, “democracy—based on the fundamental principles of individual responsibility and agency—does not fit comfortably with a technocratic mindset that believes superior software can address and modulate every problem.” Before understanding this transition, we need to go back to the rise of the present-day nation state. Many historians believe this new era of political ideology began with the Treaty of Westphalia signed in 1648 by various “nation states.” The treaty ended the Thirty Year’s War which was primarily a battle between Protestants and Catholics and the long running Bringing this into the present day, recent studies have been peer reviewed and published on this technocratic, neo-medievalism/feudalism that the people of this Earth are being guided into. This has especially been brought to the attention of the right as the left-wing Democrats seem to be the biggest promoters of this “new world.” Globalist and technocratic psychopath Dr. Harari agrees on this new direction. “None of these things [laws, justice, human rights, money] exists outside the stories that people invent and tell one another. There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings.” And Mattias Desmet has warned us in his new book, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TOTALITARIANISM, “Totalitarianism and technocracy like to present themselves as the pinnacle of rationality and science but this could not be further from the truth. It is a form of control.” These articles on feudalism serve a very defined purpose, conditioning. They are preparing us for a future that a very small, but incredibly wealthy, group of people through their funding of academic research, capture of governments, and media control wants to begin imposing on the entire globe. Feudalism failed because people started educating themselves. The printing press invented around 1436 AD was the first step that helped unlock the human mind. The next was the cultural, scientific, artistic, and philosophical advancements and re-discoveries of ancient teachings during the Renaissance. Starting around the end of the 14th Century, the ideals of the Renaissance took hold into the 17th Century when the “nation state” and sovereignty became the next step in human evolution. This bleak future can be stopped. But turning to history, this lesson can be missed. Many historians believe that humans evolve in a mostly upward direction with the occasional setback. New inventions and ideas always move our species forward. After a specific period of war or political turmoil, we usually find ourselves on the right path again. But what if this foundational teaching about human development is false. The Egyptian, Greek and Roman Empires were impressive displays of human innovation and intellectual thought. But as the Roman Empire began to collapse and human beings began to decentralize into tribes with traditions and their own religions, humanity took a large step back progressively. It took almost a thousand years to re-discover the ideas of these ancient Imperial thinkers and start moving the evolution of humanity forward again. Today, we have the technology, scientific inventions, engineering knowledge, a more evolved social understanding, and a motivated individuality to again push this species upward. But if we don’t unite and take this threat of the potential of feudalism or neo-medievalism seriously, it won’t be long until the 1200s return with technological upgrades becoming our new reality. |
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October 2024
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