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Sometimes, reality hits you in the face like a 95 MPH fastball off the hand of Dylan Cease (And based off the way he has been pitching, inside pitches leading to walks have been a common occurrence this year). Recently, I had the privilege of diving into the wonderful Netflix documentary on the New Wave, indescribable band known as DEVO on Netflix. As many do not know, the band name is a shortened version of the word Devolution. Based on the usage of that word among the band members, they meant devolution in a cynical way. They perceived a society that ignored history and was getting dumber and stupider which led to freedom slowly being taken away by the government, a population more susceptible to propaganda, and a society more willing to accept an entity controlling their lives. The United States was truly moving to a culture that believed in FREEDOM FROM CHOICE. The 2020 COVID lockdowns proved this when many Americans accepted an untested, controversial “vaccine” without questioning the motivations of the vaccine promoters nor whether the “science” that was quoted ad nauseum on the evening news and social media websites had factual legitimacy. Most Americans went along with what their leaders wanted them to do often caving to centuries old fear tactics when the propaganda and tools of persuasion failed.
Since the ridiculous COVID era is over, I have taken comfort in the pushback that many honest and open-minded Americans made against these genetic compounds. The decline of the boosters into having low uptake is one of the great victories of populism over authoritarianism. But victory is fleeting and the individuals that put billions into trying to control our society continue to build and legislate the digital control grid meant to turn every person on this planet into a slave. As I contemplated all these political issues above, it began to dawn on me to begin asking questions. What is democracy and is it really the best political system available to us right now? Where did the idea of these now almost universal monstrous-sized governments come from? Why is the world filled with quasi-corporate states? Were Hitler and Mussolini right about the future being fascism? While I was raised in Los Angeles County as a child in the late 70s to early 90s, I was always fascinated with our archenemy at the time, the USSR (United Soviet Socialist Republic). The Russian Revolution initially appeared as a revolt of the people against a monarch in a declining and violent society that was dragged into World War I against the people’s will. But as historians learned, the Soviet uprising was never going to be anything other than an authoritarian system. Since Karl Marx wrote his manual in 1848, Communism’s only idea was replacing monarchs and the moneyed elite with the workers who would replace them as the new overlords. The old ideas of understanding how the nature of government corrupts and the quest for power by every human on the planet that was so eloquently reflected in the United States Constitution in the late 18th Century were over. The problem was not the government. The problem was with the people in control of it. As World War I and then World War II followed shortly after, the governments of the world began to grow. The progressive era in the United States under Woodrow Wilson created a private Central Bank and income taxes. The battle of ideas in World War II was not about the defenders of democracy (The Allies) versus the dictators (The Axis). It was about which political system was going to win. To defeat the evil “fascist” forces of Germany, Italy and Japan, the United States allowed its government to grow into a gargantuan entity that was much more like the Communist Soviet State than we wanted to believe. The government shrank its military presence overseas after the war and replaced it with a global empire that required an increasingly large domestic government and a permanent military industrial complex that slowly took over our political system. As World War II ended, defenders of large government took joy in the demonization and eventual declaration of Russia and Communism as the “enemy” which allowed it to continue growing into many other aspects of our lives. For over 40 years, the battle over which large government system was going to win, Democratic Capitalism or Communism, was waged. At the end of 1991, the democratic state-run capitalist system came out ahead. Despite defeating the Soviets in the war of political ideas, the sacrifices needed to ruin the Communist system allowed the United States to grow the government to the largest in human history while violating multiple Constitutional rights along the way. We may have defeated the Soviets, but the threat of authoritarianism from our democratic system became a reality. Keeping this idea in mind, it is possible that Hitler and Mussolini are laughing at us from beyond the grave. Mussolini saw the idea of fascism as: “The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State – a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values – interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people. Fascism is a religious conception in which man is seen in his immanent relationship with a superior law and with an objective Will that transcends the particular individual and raises him to conscious membership of a spiritual society. Whoever has seen in the religious politics of the Fascist regime nothing, but mere opportunism has not understood that Fascism besides being a system of government is also, and above all, a system of thought. “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” Can we really argue that eliminating the outright racism and bigotry of the Nazi and Japanese states at the time, do we not live in a world filled with fascist (Corporatist) states inside a civilization that has been attacking individuality with reckless abandon over the past decade, doing everything in its power to undermine the family, and creating a system of subservience where every human behavior like travelling domestically or internationally requires permission from the authorities?The more I think about the present-day civilization I live in, the more I think Hitler and Mussolini won World War II. Finally, one of the defining aspects of the Russian Revolution was the loss of identity of Russians with their history and culture. There is a wonderful book that discusses this. The takeover of Russia by the Soviets led to over 100 years of Russians trying to regain their identity from the Godless Communists whose impact still fractures their society to this day. When you think about this regarding the present-day United States, look at the small little things that our businesses and government do to destroy our identity. Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney The Woke version of history that turns our national pride into a symbol of disgrace Using a controversial vaccine to create a class of discriminated individuals Now, it is changing the Cracker Barrel logo. A work of art that a five-year-old could design on Adobe. The logo will probably revert to its perfect form created decades ago. But don’t think the assault on this logo was accidental. This was an attack on our culture and history. Another subtle move to destroy our identity which the Soviets did last Century to the Russian people. Bring on our future authoritarianism. Winston Churchill may have said it best regarding democracy and its inevitable failure: “Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
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Recently, I tragically found myself alone in a movie theater in The Woodlands, TX watching EDDINGTON, the next Ari Aster movie. For those who are aware of Aster’s filmography, drop your illusions about liberal Hollywood. Aster has a habit of taking what appears to be normalized circumstances and turning them into horrific parodies in the best way possible. While his first film HEREDITARY is a stone-cold classic, his next two movies about a cult, MIDSOMMAR and whatever the hell BEAU IS AFRAID is about had more of a mixed reaction with critics and the public. The latter two while interesting to watch initially are both unwatchable on a second viewing due to the content. When EDDINGTON was recommended to me, I decided to buy my eleven-dollar ticket and enjoy the film in a completely empty theater. Little did I know that this would become my favorite Aster movie.
What the hell happened to this country five years ago back in March of 2020 when our nation was locked down for a virus that 99.9% of us would survive (Mortality overwhelmingly favored the elderly)? We masked up and found out later that it was not based on any actual scientific study about its effectiveness. We stayed six feet apart, another rule that was seemingly created out of thin air. We limited people inside grocery stores. We locked down schools, businesses, churches, sporting events. Cancelled the NCAA tournament and shortened the NBA, NHL and MLB seasons. We were all forced into a mindset that government funded “science” was going to save us. But the vaccines are even more controversial than the lockdowns. And did you know that the United States was likely responsible for the creation of COVID-19 in the first place? Hollywood which gave up its ability to talk about political issues in a serious way has abandoned this artistic pursuit in favor of pounding us over the head about social issues and forgotten ethnic histories that always focus exclusively on cultural racism. The days of Hollywood analyzing issues like Watergate, The Killing Fields of Cambodia, or the impacts of the Vietnam War are long over. There still has not been a decent movie to explain what the foundation for the 9/11 attacks were. When Eddington starts in May of 2020, I was impressed that all these political issues mentioned above are front and center during the opening part of the movie. WHAT FOLLOWS BELOW IS LIGHT SPOILERS. THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING. Eddington is not actually about COVID-19 though. COVID-19 is the tool used to expose the slow decline of a once healthy small town and community in New Mexico that slides into an Aster-like outbreak of brutal violence. But the movie is so much more than that if you pay close attention. The opening and closing shots of the movie are the key to the entire plot. The mayor of the town is a sleazebag who enforces masking mandates while violating them whenever he wants is played by Pedro Pascal who is being endorsed by a “supporter” who is pushing for a new data center to be built in the middle of the desert. He is opposed by the sheriff of the town, Joaquin Phoenix, who despises masks and believes that the data center will be used as an evil tool for the government and tech industries. The brilliance of the movie is that it does not demonize either side. It does not focus on conspiracy theories. It focuses on the community division that COVID has created and how that anger leads into political battles on the street like the riots caused by the George Floyd incident. As the movie escalates though, it drops a subtle hint to the purpose of this division. Was this violence orchestrated so a specific party gets exactly what it wants at the end? Who are the people that commit massive amounts of violence in the third act? How much does technology play in our political divisions? These are questions you will be asking yourself at the end. The movie is not perfect. I really think you could have removed Austin Butler and Emma Stone’s characters and improved on the movie. I understand the purpose of the characters but if they had been edited out of the picture, the movie still would have been wonderful. When the movie is over, there is only one real winner as the last shot focuses on it when the credits begin to roll. I did not expect a movie from the 2020s version of braindead Hollywood to make me contemplate what it was trying to say. It was a refreshing change from the stupefying norm. For another perspective on this film, please read Michael Tracey’s own thoughts on this as a journalist that found himself front and center among many Floyd and COVID protestors. |
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December 2025
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