tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38723320913941630022024-03-26T23:37:21.015-07:00Salt City SinnerPolitics, food, horror, art, Satan... all the good stuff!Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.comBlogger549125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-38983548741555442442023-10-02T10:57:00.002-07:002023-10-02T11:10:54.807-07:00G(o)od Versus (d)Evil: Exorcism Horror<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEoiZ-Qx67UMsDzVdMVzDiCXrg_1fFmofcrz8Dokyi0ibKRAhnLi0fZwa__3_686TIsKv2bEsdCFVR9OFJq4BYYDMPWr-ezLdTCroSI4U0n89D8YxpZheB-MOhf0o3C8Tkdkfk-0C42BRomNMbsKTYoB-bSxJJNjlGBfMVtex3OIJ6YWFS05snN7xlb0Y/s1080/Satanic%200.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1080" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEoiZ-Qx67UMsDzVdMVzDiCXrg_1fFmofcrz8Dokyi0ibKRAhnLi0fZwa__3_686TIsKv2bEsdCFVR9OFJq4BYYDMPWr-ezLdTCroSI4U0n89D8YxpZheB-MOhf0o3C8Tkdkfk-0C42BRomNMbsKTYoB-bSxJJNjlGBfMVtex3OIJ6YWFS05snN7xlb0Y/w400-h225/Satanic%200.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />G(o)od versus (d)Evil is a trite, boring horror conceit.<span><a name='more'></a></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I say this as a person interested in religion, as an author
whose work often touches on themes of religious horror, and as a reader. In
recent posts including <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2023/09/holly-review.html">my review
of Stephen King’s <i>Holly</i></a>, I’ve poured scorn on the normative framing present
in most traditional horror. It’s a familiar formula; normality is interrupted
by a monstrous event or presence, a hero or heroes reassert normality, and the
status quo is resumed. In these tales, the monster or disaster is often either
a direct or symbolic representation of some <a href="https://movieweb.com/horror-why-it-has-always-been-political/">perceived
threat to the social order</a>. This framework is, in a word, reactionary.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisToZ_oNIeSOzvUPft5Yce9Muh51VkzquABx_f0atBnwb_KMwG3cLg9sO1aH2_p1tHYxwfQ569My7FSOq4tRnF4Tl3gn95Eo89yS_zjDrML_QlecoKn6PYgb15DoFpSDIxWzkr8ZO-KvCOXuBDJhupjzCS-fELsouHMVsTceQ-TLA3FvFQKJuh2OekABs/s1188/the%20stand%20cover.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="760" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisToZ_oNIeSOzvUPft5Yce9Muh51VkzquABx_f0atBnwb_KMwG3cLg9sO1aH2_p1tHYxwfQ569My7FSOq4tRnF4Tl3gn95Eo89yS_zjDrML_QlecoKn6PYgb15DoFpSDIxWzkr8ZO-KvCOXuBDJhupjzCS-fELsouHMVsTceQ-TLA3FvFQKJuh2OekABs/s320/the%20stand%20cover.png" width="205" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I<span style="font-size: xx-small;">t is rarely noted that Stephen King's "The Stand" is a Christian novel</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Traditional horror isn’t the only game in town; nor, despite
its recent resurgence in popularity, is religious horror. Some subgenres reject
this framework entirely. These range from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatterpunk#:~:text=Splatterpunk%20is%20a%20movement%20within,in%201986%20by%20David%20J.">splatterpunk</a>
and extreme horror to cosmic horror, queer horror, and anarchist/<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Antifa-Splatterpunk-Eric-Raglin/dp/1736953249/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">anti-fascist
horror</a>. These are worthy niches, and I’d strongly encourage any horror
reader or horror-curious person to explore.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, traditional horror is the format that sells.
Stephen King’s <a href="https://wordsrated.com/stephen-king-statistics/">sales
figures</a> alone indicate this, as do the <a href="https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/horror-best-sellers-july-2023">horror
charts</a> more generally. The exorcism story in particular is as common as
dirt these days (more on that in a moment). So much so that I’m comfortable
classifying it as both traditional <i>and</i> religious. Which is amusing,
because traditional and religious – in the normative sense – are exactly what
these stories are. To be blunt, that just plain sucks.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Stephens King and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nick-Cutter/author/B00E6ZYOSY?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true">Nicks
Cutter</a> of this world have turned a tidy profit playing to normie fears and
insecurities, but they wouldn’t have the careers they do if the protagonists in
those stories didn’t prevail. When G(o)od prevails, those fears and
insecurities wind up safely locked away by the end of the narrative. That’s all
well and good if you view the established social order as desirable, but what
if the social order itself is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/My-Work-Not-Yet-Done/dp/0753516888">the true
horror</a>? Authors like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Harvest-Home-Novel-Thomas-Tryon/dp/1504056191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VPWVS6TNMG73&keywords=harvest+home&qid=1696089990&s=books&sprefix=harvest+home%2Cstripbooks%2C120&sr=1-1">Thomas
Tryon</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Moon-Fiction-Without-Frontiers/dp/1787581993/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZTAMQDCOBZXE&keywords=the+hungry+moon&qid=1696090012&s=books&sprefix=the+hungry+moon%2Cstripbooks%2C116&sr=1-1">Ramsey
Campbell</a> have spun fantastic tales on this very theme, as have legends like
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lottery-Tale-Blazers-Shirley-Jackson/dp/1563127873/ref=sr_1_1?crid=O6GQ0BF04U7U&keywords=the+lottery&qid=1696090036&s=books&sprefix=the+lottery%2Cstripbooks%2C147&sr=1-1">Shirley
Jackson</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/King-Yellow-Robert-W-Chambers/dp/1706958749/ref=sr_1_5?crid=8G2UD4RUD0M8&keywords=the+king+in+yellow&qid=1696090072&s=books&sprefix=the+king+in+yello%2Cstripbooks%2C115&sr=1-5">Robert
W. Chambers</a>. My personal favorite entry in this genre is the exceptionally
disturbing film <a href="https://youtu.be/U3Xy2x9NDrw?si=7uWccBQu_s7A5Hkd">Vivarium</a>,
which is an underappreciated gem.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3qPVcAYRqjsEdbxOtTVjYHTLCVuiFaJgoRx7HAPNuL7tsFnMONmO7SL_SMTcpdpywDPfNCb7ZpT-pZ3PqvWoKxnPzteFrvJ15Vmz2Uc81t5GWizEzh4OJkz_pA_ob93o8oa_Ha_83fo5BcytsW_SCfPjUtf3qsHJTMhODHiLBMPDgOcIU-4Z60sfj_iE/s1000/Satanic%203.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3qPVcAYRqjsEdbxOtTVjYHTLCVuiFaJgoRx7HAPNuL7tsFnMONmO7SL_SMTcpdpywDPfNCb7ZpT-pZ3PqvWoKxnPzteFrvJ15Vmz2Uc81t5GWizEzh4OJkz_pA_ob93o8oa_Ha_83fo5BcytsW_SCfPjUtf3qsHJTMhODHiLBMPDgOcIU-4Z60sfj_iE/w400-h200/Satanic%203.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The work of Jeff Vandermeer is among the best horror out there</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Even if one confines one’s preferred horror to the
traditional camp, more and better things could be done with the tried and true
framework pioneered by authors like Stephen King, Peter Straub, et. al. For an example
of what not to do, consider this: even authors who aren’t overtly religious
fall back on “God” as a representation of all that is good. This Sunday-simple
idea of a godhead is the one fed to children, but such a flimsy, flaccid
philosophy can’t endure even a moment of scrutiny. Theodicy – the riddle posed
by evil and suffering (“Why does an all-powerful, benevolent God allow evil to
flourish?”) – is never satisfactorily addressed in any of these narratives.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even more disappointingly, purveyors of traditional horror
don’t give evil the respect it deserves. What motive drives supernatural or
theological antagonists? Invariably, Satan is invoked as the enemy. That’s fine
– I often write fiction in which <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Arcanum-Initiation-Charles-R-Bernard/dp/B0B2V23V7H/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1696090449&sr=8-1">godblown
true believers</a> are the antagonists. However, I give those characters
believable motivation. When Satan is invoked in fiction, the <i>why</i> of
Satan is rarely if ever addressed. <i>Why</i> are demons out to get humanity?
Because that’s their nature? Fair enough, if you address what that nature is. Alligators,
for example, don’t eat Florida toddlers out of an irrational, bone-deep hatred
of mankind. They do it because they’re hungry and toddlers are delicious. In
fact, one could even blame God for that situation, for He hath made a world in
which universal suffering is common currency and the satisfaction of
irrepressible needs is the order of the day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The nadir of modern religious horror is the exorcism story.
This subgenre was launched into regrettable mainstream popularity with the book
and subsequent movie <i>The Exorcist</i>, a nasty, sexually rancid little piece
of Catholic propaganda whose closest ancestor is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bas-Down-There-Joris-Huysmans/dp/0486228371/ref=sr_1_1?crid=26935Y1QS6MOH&keywords=la+bas&qid=1696090553&sprefix=la+ba%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-1"><i>Là-Bas</i>
by Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans</a>. <i>Là-Bas</i> is the novel that gave us
the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mass">Black Mass</a>, a
Satanic inversion of the Catholic Mass. While France has a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affair_of_the_Poisons">more complicated
relationship with Satanism</a> than most cultures, I don’t think It’s necessary
to point out that no Satanic conspiracy as described by Huysman has ever
existed, nor was the Black Mass a thing before Huysman cooked it up for his
book. That has never stopped Christians from slandering real or fictional
Satanists before, nor is it likely to in the future.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbqPrAt3ASC-iC7MafZs4W_TY5L8_PiT3V3cO6XdD5yl47ReDh8jHmpmMgNsFM6Nhsd_xLYxhsQWEVfKAVCA2CDuA5peEBVWOnImvfRl4D4tlg9uAfECLvH6hfIxESSMbK505NxaE2Ba1abEjygDCaB_xVodT895BEvRy8lmbS2g8OJX_WHhcKOUat688/s1450/Satanic%202.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1450" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbqPrAt3ASC-iC7MafZs4W_TY5L8_PiT3V3cO6XdD5yl47ReDh8jHmpmMgNsFM6Nhsd_xLYxhsQWEVfKAVCA2CDuA5peEBVWOnImvfRl4D4tlg9uAfECLvH6hfIxESSMbK505NxaE2Ba1abEjygDCaB_xVodT895BEvRy8lmbS2g8OJX_WHhcKOUat688/s320/Satanic%202.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">An exorcism committed against a woman in Bogota</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Some well-reviewed (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Whisper-Down-Lane-Clay-Chapman/dp/168369306X/ref=sr_1_1?hvadid=557270392007&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9029755&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6972557615339720852&hvtargid=kwd-533676108712&hydadcr=7472_13183978&keywords=whisper+down+the+lane&qid=1696103206&sr=8-1"><i>Whisper
Down the Lane</i></a> by Clay Chapman) and well-selling (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chills-Mary-SanGiovanni/dp/1601837496"><i>Chills</i></a>
by Mary SanGiovanni) books not only fall back on this tired, worthless framework;
they do so while perpetuating <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/159529/qanon-blood-libel-satanic-panic">blood
libel against Satanists</a>. This is the oft-repeated slur/conspiracy theory
that a vast network of secret Satanists are involved in Satanic Ritual Abuse, a
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180521193259/https:/www.nytimes.com/1994/10/31/us/proof-lacking-for-ritual-abuse-by-satanists.html?sq=satanic+ritual+abuse&scp=1&st=nyt">nonexistent</a>
practice that fueled the so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_panic">Satanic Panic</a> throughout
the 1980s and 1990s. Any and all allegations raised during this time have been
disproven and/or thoroughly <a href="https://theconversation.com/satanism-ritual-cults-and-hollywood-debunking-satanic-panic-conspiracy-theories-203453">debunked</a>,
but evidently that hasn’t trickled down to horror writers.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For Lucifer’s sweet sake, Clay Chapman opens <i>Whisper Down
the Laner</i> with a quote from Geraldo Rivera’s infamous “<a href="https://youtu.be/9CBZ65PW1Kc?si=qQIVo9NJtvoLP80d">Devil Worship, Exposing
Satan’s Underground</a>” episode. Like most forms of bigotry, this phenomenon isn’t
just a matter of repeating churlish slurs against those one doesn’t understand.
Satanic blood libel has real world consequences. If you doubt me, just ask <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/28/us/7-years-later-mcmartin-case-ends-in-a-mistrial.html">those
jailed during the McMartin preschool hysteria</a>, or ask the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three">West Memphis Three</a>.
During the height of the 80s/90s Satanic Panic, 12,000 accusations of child
sexual abuse and Satanism were tied together and used to slander innocent
people. Not one case was ever substantiated. Not one. Ever.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdt7D9uRvkP9TFNv4mfyG8rMMvGdP467MWuBpFUh4yNG3Xj67ha4YQss4haT_mYaU_NnGcp4A8KnOUL9sLVvuiT4Hw7tpwyizRSZpygr8-JzyC_bJZpuDYQAv6ssRsqILPSaIi2IlfSL1H8VM-s9r82TJJYqk6aDA9I3BP9TlpEuLOKebCl5mlVI1-r_k/s2048/Satanic%201.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdt7D9uRvkP9TFNv4mfyG8rMMvGdP467MWuBpFUh4yNG3Xj67ha4YQss4haT_mYaU_NnGcp4A8KnOUL9sLVvuiT4Hw7tpwyizRSZpygr8-JzyC_bJZpuDYQAv6ssRsqILPSaIi2IlfSL1H8VM-s9r82TJJYqk6aDA9I3BP9TlpEuLOKebCl5mlVI1-r_k/w400-h225/Satanic%201.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A place where lies ruined lives</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">And yet this nonsense has gone on for roughly 2,200 years. The
question no one ever seems to ask is, as I pointed out earlier, <i>why</i>? <i>Why</i>
would a Satanic underground perform a meticulous, point-by-point inversion of
Mass? Why would a Satanic underground dedicate itself to child abuse? To mock
God and perpetuate evil, “just because?” That begs the question of why an
omnipotent and omniscient God would allow such mockery, not to mention the
perverse torture of the innocent and His devoted servants. There are complex
questions which could be explored in such fiction, but they rarely are</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fiction in which the menace which drives the narrative is
human evil rarely falls short in this department. Since John Fowles’ <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+collector+john+fowles&hvadid=580692323947&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9029755&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=14403212192335653314&hvtargid=kwd-59418586&hydadcr=10025_13483852&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_9c6mox7oky_e"><i>The
Collector</i></a> (not to mention the watershed novel <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Silence-Lambs-Hannibal-Lecter/dp/0312924585/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2OBDAC7B0EOED&keywords=the+silence+of+the+lambs+thomas+harris&qid=1696104430&sprefix=the+silence+of+the+lambs+thomas+harr%2Caps%2C185&sr=8-1"><i>The
Silence of the Lambs</i></a> by Thomas Harris), fiction hasn’t lacked for
motivation when portraying murderers and sadists. Cosmic horror is, in my
opinion, the best approach to questions of supernormal evil because it both
acknowledges and ignores the question. Why are incomprehensible beings from
beyond our cosmos tormenting us? We don’t know because they are, by definition,
incomprehensible.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Whether you believe in supernatural evil or merely in human
loneliness and depravity, evil should never be given short shrift. Not only
because the question of what drives harmful human action is fascinating, but
because horror that deals with evil in a dumbed-down manner is, well, dumb.<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-9002462968404146382023-09-07T16:26:00.003-07:002023-09-17T12:42:02.072-07:00Holly: A Review<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidlVcuqSvCpcD6DoQyo631wIkk_VWRfaKsSlqq4LKP-swsWmPEEuKl0HzLaaWf2M5ezo2zM2GLU9sS5943JIrVf5KWLWkjngVDsVLUNdtIMY0K7HkBnVMboesRVBDxdMJn0-dVoLflItGlD4Suv00losbS7PDdmW92vOqbSIFxJpZ8Ax6SVTj24rmFGuE/s1000/hol.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidlVcuqSvCpcD6DoQyo631wIkk_VWRfaKsSlqq4LKP-swsWmPEEuKl0HzLaaWf2M5ezo2zM2GLU9sS5943JIrVf5KWLWkjngVDsVLUNdtIMY0K7HkBnVMboesRVBDxdMJn0-dVoLflItGlD4Suv00losbS7PDdmW92vOqbSIFxJpZ8Ax6SVTj24rmFGuE/w400-h225/hol.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Steve paced the halls of his mansion, hands bunched behind
his back.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a> <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That’s how you could tell he was giving this new book a lot
of thought. Pacing back and forth. It’s the sort of mannerism that really <i>makes</i>
a character, and by happenstance he had a character on his mind.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Had Steve intended Holly Gibney to be his most popular
character ever? He had not. Was he going to give the fans what they wanted? He
was.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Holly, though</i>, Steve thought as he paced pacingly. He
cracked open a diet RC Cola and a packet of Smokehouse Almonds. <i>Boy, I might
have pooped the bed on that one. When Joe texted me what a ‘Karen’ was, I
thought I might be fracked. But Jack and Jill Six-Pack just <b>love</b> her.
What’s a woke millionaire to do?</i> Fan service would be risky business this
time around. The danger zone. Threading the needle. Other cliches. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Step one, Steve decided, pacing to his <a href="https://www.paletteandparlor.com/products/arne-jacobsen-society-table-writing-desk">Arne
Jacobsen writing desk</a>, should be to demonstrate what he cared about. For the
purposes of this book, that would be progressive Democratic politics. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnpO_RTSNmQ">President Drumpf</a> type,
you know? Just dumb as a sack of shit. Woke but not <i>too</i> woke. A smile
spread across Steve’s strangely <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_Grinch_Stole_Christmas!">Grinch</a>-like
features. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVlMx1GXmWMYdjA8Avshe_8PUq4f-2jm6kjL7L6paRfzLMj13--XtX0wG3oPcFH7mi6ddZf0L8PZTxXlA8yvQkCcFSj6GpT5IwCznKbKnWjr1SQhv7FM3puU0k5CPxqgkRMdWhdH8Ym-k7w67GFHGuTRTH0cfPTVxLEYeeONKfNf-to5R0T3g4p_eH1b0/s2000/Kingrinch.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="2000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVlMx1GXmWMYdjA8Avshe_8PUq4f-2jm6kjL7L6paRfzLMj13--XtX0wG3oPcFH7mi6ddZf0L8PZTxXlA8yvQkCcFSj6GpT5IwCznKbKnWjr1SQhv7FM3puU0k5CPxqgkRMdWhdH8Ym-k7w67GFHGuTRTH0cfPTVxLEYeeONKfNf-to5R0T3g4p_eH1b0/w400-h200/Kingrinch.png" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Steve had an idea. An awful idea. Steve had a wonderful,
awful idea. COVID-19! Donald Trump! Now <i>that’s</i> the way to separate the
heroes from the villains, he realized. Black hats and white hats were sort of
his thing, after all: none of that poopy ambiguity stuff. This whole ‘fuck the
police’ thing, for example? He didn’t get it.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“In fact,” Steve wrote later that day in his secret journal
(which is where bad people write secret, bad things), “I can’t seem to stop equivocating
on the cops. I built the character of Holly Gibney around <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CopsAndDetectives">police
tropes</a>, and suddenly the <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2021/08/cops-god-and-stephen-king.html">boys
in blue</a> gunning down the bad guys is a problem? Boy, do times change fast!
Good thing I’m so fracking nimble!” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Steve paced back to his desk. There, he fictionally murdered an
innocent Black man in an off-POV traffic stop. This provides one of the good, now ex-cops surrounding Holly the opportunity to make the remarkable statement that "policing has changed for the worse and I'm glad I'm not in it any more." That's it - the cops had never been aggressive, poopy frack-heads before, right? Like, say, <a href="https://thenationaltriallawyers.org/article/the-history-of-american-police-brutality/">throughout history</a>? Good.</p><p class="MsoNormal">If poking at the trauma of killer cops provided a prop, well, it was for a good cause!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And in the end, justice was served in the narrative; albeit a <i>bit</i> imperfectly. </span>The cop who shot the innocent Black man doesn’t
face charges, Steve wrote, but the killer cop <i>does</i> lose his job. "Oh," Steve wrote to himself on a Post-It brand note stuck to his corkboard, "and don't worry. The whole affair doesn't have to be germane to the plot in the least; mention it, if at all, in
passing." </p><p class="MsoNormal">He stroked his chin and squinted. That's how you knew that Steve was really <i>grokking </i>this, hepcats. Like how he learned the superfetch backfliptrip slang of Gen Brie (did he have that right?), and all. The chin-stroking was another <i>mannerism</i>. Steve looked at his efforts on the page so far. Preachy? Yessir. Full of weird, judgey-even-for-AA moralizing and outdated attitudes regarding drugs? You bet. Godblown with the hot 'n holy spirit of The Go(o)d? Checkaroonie. Full of virtue signals, hip, but still essentially conservative? Hmm, how to get that attitude to jibe with Twitter Steve. Maybe <i>Holly</i> wasn't quite <i>workin'-man</i> enough. After
pacing at his <a href="https://www.arhaus.com/products/malone-oval-writing-desk?variant=42002030461099&gclid=CjwKCAjw6eWnBhAKEiwADpnw9rwVrKz42Dkfd9McsGQQ4V8D3vtOB268vM8VkVcG5eLMHM9vhuq07RoC3ysQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">Arhaus
Malone pacing desk</a> for a while, Steve was struck by inspiration.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBbPlcLaz4FfhtqW8EiqGWEjNj-keNf7Lx3eOd1yMRZHt4bt5b7vknDptLESRntRCxIHDynyOfNyj-Ee7YTLORROJPJyqIIAnNysmST5Jy1uxv0bVgLrfzcbbFhCrReKicRlphuCCKsSP2fvZ5jSRtYDHIKekupSPa89hSxkE3SfU4Fv7hZvx93O6P2nY/s1000/skingy.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="1000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBbPlcLaz4FfhtqW8EiqGWEjNj-keNf7Lx3eOd1yMRZHt4bt5b7vknDptLESRntRCxIHDynyOfNyj-Ee7YTLORROJPJyqIIAnNysmST5Jy1uxv0bVgLrfzcbbFhCrReKicRlphuCCKsSP2fvZ5jSRtYDHIKekupSPa89hSxkE3SfU4Fv7hZvx93O6P2nY/w400-h225/skingy.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy DreadCentral</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">“My Faithful Readers love Netflix and Hulu!” Steve exclaimed aloud. “<i>I</i>
love Netflix and Hulu (and the checks they send me)! That’s it!” He performed a
small, peculiar dance of joy at his <a href="https://midcenturywarehouse.com/bodil-kjaer-for-e-pedersen-son-mid-century-brazilian-rosewood-and-chrome-desk/?gclid=CjwKCAjw6eWnBhAKEiwADpnw9oMu_hLb-9awLLugNB_VH6hdyggXV3eSJiddFUSVivAFHTDYW1JfNhoCIu0QAvD_BwE">Bodil
Kjaer dancing desk</a> and got to work. Steve had found his link to common folk again; the brand names and TV shows that the rich and bored can sometimes mistake for real points of commonality (but not him, no siree Bill)! </p><p class="MsoNormal">Burger King! Ozark! His fingers flitted like
fluttering, febrile flies. A monster, maybe? Those <i>It</i> movies sure had
him sweating to make <i>Holly</i> a little more horror. But what villain would
serve? Steve went back to the same wellspring that so many horror writers
plumb: “what am <i>I</i> afraid of?” Steve looked in his <a href="https://us.baccarat.com/en/decoration/exceptional-pieces/heritage-sun-mirror-2806377.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwjOunBhB4EiwA94JWsKkVEm7YDDsfvVVFGK5pFh9NiAxfUAzLJJ1G3mbKlXBEDPCx3Q9ruRoCA-AQAvD_BwE">Baccarat looking mirror</a> and realized the answer was as plain as his face – literally.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Old people, Steve wrote with chills coursing through his
blood, are old and gross. They have failing bodies and they look different from
young people and they’re often conservative (but not me)! Ha! FUCK the olds!
The kids will love this, right? Tippity-tap, went Steve’s digits. Still, the characters
felt wooden and the plot too simple, too sparse, and too chronologically widespread
(to the point where, after publication, he would have to acknowledge a
continuity error in his newly released book). Something was still absent. <i>Holly</i>’s
Holly didn’t seem relatable <i>at all</i> to Steve. What was she missing?<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSG0CFV5iUZ7ycq8oqlQKUu_wJgPq4LwdsxphX4n0Ss19eu9NGJ5On49qxp95o_FxRKPGhE-ddxiw9jimt-o4DacPKBahVIrJVykzgOUCB3iyKTSxorScl5VGVChFWaBTfR16jsgxFPCnCuxmRb7jWWREPmQ4i5NZhQMTgw3jePdufp76x52Xi88Nz0nM/s1000/skingy2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="1000" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSG0CFV5iUZ7ycq8oqlQKUu_wJgPq4LwdsxphX4n0Ss19eu9NGJ5On49qxp95o_FxRKPGhE-ddxiw9jimt-o4DacPKBahVIrJVykzgOUCB3iyKTSxorScl5VGVChFWaBTfR16jsgxFPCnCuxmRb7jWWREPmQ4i5NZhQMTgw3jePdufp76x52Xi88Nz0nM/w400-h294/skingy2.png" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">The answer hit Steve’s brain like a dead walleye pike
dropped from the roof of a four-story parking garage. For quite a while (at
least since 2004’s <i>The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah</i>, if not before)
Steve suspected that he was a god. Not a God like the one from AA that Steve
(and Holly) incessantly pray to. Rather, a little-g god of his fictional
universes. What was Holly Gibney missing – what would make her more relatable?
And how to make that happen?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Easy! Steve reached into the narrative, a <i>deus ex libro</i>,
if you will, and showered Holly with between six and nine million dollars! Readers **L-O-V-E** to see virtue rewarded and vice punished Plus, <i>now
</i>he could relate to Holly. But what to do about Holly’s supporting cast of lovable,
uncomplicated Black characters? The God of Derry and Castle Rock manifested his will again. <i>You</i> get half a million, he thought regarding one such character! And <i>you</i>
get twenty-five grand and a publishing contract, he whispered to another! And <i>you</i> get…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Steve’s book sucked.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">THE END<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-35034240171623852132023-08-24T13:42:00.000-07:002023-08-24T13:42:39.435-07:00Ten Thousand Chairs Can't Be Wrong<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFT7DPSXCe10NZI1f0tef48nUWPwQZbRnsBZdbnqc1M9wDRc5uD46bPizN2VtnwyQxTuYZXrgg4Pi2ZdiF_-x_zDIOoAFy8l9NnmnQb6UqCqOiBeyCbpkrQQARbrtFCna0wylalw0dYMuAscUnD3ZZEmxPwSEbzPBvHKJoaULPsBfXMm_ilXt09FiWadE/s800/chairs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFT7DPSXCe10NZI1f0tef48nUWPwQZbRnsBZdbnqc1M9wDRc5uD46bPizN2VtnwyQxTuYZXrgg4Pi2ZdiF_-x_zDIOoAFy8l9NnmnQb6UqCqOiBeyCbpkrQQARbrtFCna0wylalw0dYMuAscUnD3ZZEmxPwSEbzPBvHKJoaULPsBfXMm_ilXt09FiWadE/w400-h300/chairs.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A WISE INVESTMENT!</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Business owners! Do they ever shut the fuck up?<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If Salt Lake City’s Scott Evans, owner of Euro Treasure
Antiques, is any indication, then no they do not. It’s not just Evans, mind
you; nor is it only Utah business owners like InfoWars asylum escapee <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/2019/08/22/the-exclusive-inside-story-of-the-fall-of-overstocks-mad-king-patrick-byrne/?sh=1ec2436a53a5">Patrick
Michael<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Byrne</a>, founder of Overstock,
“deep state” nut, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/business/overstock-paul-byrne-maria-butina-affair.html">fuckbuddy
of Russian agent Marina Butina</a>. Utah has a long, storied history of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Sparks">charlatans</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/11/us/dealer-in-mormon-fraud-called-a-master-forger.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all">frauds</a>,
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/18/politics/fact-check-mike-lee-january-6-texts/index.html">treasonous
liars</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/31/673851375/how-sen-orrin-hatch-shaped-americas-health-care-in-controversial-ways">cheats</a>,
<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64727764#:~:text=The%20Mormon%20Church%2C%20officially%20known,a%20huge%20cache%20of%20shares.">thieves</a>,
and other varieties of <a href="https://kutv.com/news/local/follow-the-profit-how-mormon-culture-made-utah-a-hotbed-for-multi-level-marketers">parasite</a>
eager to exploit the deep social ties which are a supposed benefit of devout
Mormon culture.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today though, beloved, we are gathered to pour scorn upon
the brow of local old-stuff tycoon Scott Evans. Evans is the type of
businesshuman who is willing to blame any and everything but himself for the
impending (or is it?) failure of his shop. Let’s turn the clocks back a bit,
and see what “outside factors” have prevented Evans from enjoying the success
he thinks he deserves.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglT8dshgwNeIz1SPKMFFWfM5sTSoi7Foa9a-kB3BkYBbtQ0zSyWasg62jzlzud_JXog2uLR8bYtcOj0K6rJGENQqCYsr8WFw1XrZkTwx8FRkYbeQnMYjs1tPfD0wXb-9BtJjgTn3-9Ro68Jp3a29ZS1qKDm7lTbsNBmnql4QBKbCwHZu_o2C9xvYOa1q0/s1000/Blank%201000%20x%20500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglT8dshgwNeIz1SPKMFFWfM5sTSoi7Foa9a-kB3BkYBbtQ0zSyWasg62jzlzud_JXog2uLR8bYtcOj0K6rJGENQqCYsr8WFw1XrZkTwx8FRkYbeQnMYjs1tPfD0wXb-9BtJjgTn3-9Ro68Jp3a29ZS1qKDm7lTbsNBmnql4QBKbCwHZu_o2C9xvYOa1q0/w400-h200/Blank%201000%20x%20500.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Scott Evans (L) and Bill Dauterive (R)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Evans has received an inexplicable number of plaudits,
peans, and passes from Utah’s local press. For example, there was <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2006/2/8/19937055/utahn-acquires-a-treasure-trove">this
Deseret News hagiography</a> from 2007 when Evans purchased a hubristic
quantity of antique furniture from an ailing, elderly hoarder in Britain.
According to the Deseret News, “he says it’s the largest collection ever sold
at one time, and he figures he now owns the biggest antique store in the United
States.” He <i>SAYS</i>, Deseret News? He <i>FIGURES</i>? I know fact-checking
isn’t a service your paper provides anymore, D-News, but god <i>damn</i>. Both
of those superlatives seem super easy to check with either a company like
Sotheby’s or, in a pinch, the Internet. Taking a profiteer’s word for those
claims demonstrates an alarming (but typically Utahn) level of credulousness.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, soon after that story, Evans faced challenges while
trying to dispense his chair hoard. Had Evans cited difficulties in the domain of
brick-and-mortar retail, the vicissitudes of the world economy, or other
factors in his business going through hard times, I wouldn’t bother with this
post. However, Evans’ specifics whines about his store have the fetid whiff of
a distinct political agenda to them.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDUrcrFp07k8BSNbJLIS-nxWWkvsPzTmykP16he0fAZKiD_Rj2HPYAs7FDGBz8n67ellUlYuBV3iXKrC7jiKIJ-pKCPF4b0BuJ_KCMyPvncZ52qFM4WD-4C2yQOGJ7iCrYjM-INe5NiLfp8pjPj6-KEoui-FLTc8UJjJuhSRGeB0LfNP66GX9wKNx0DE/s590/marlin.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="590" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDUrcrFp07k8BSNbJLIS-nxWWkvsPzTmykP16he0fAZKiD_Rj2HPYAs7FDGBz8n67ellUlYuBV3iXKrC7jiKIJ-pKCPF4b0BuJ_KCMyPvncZ52qFM4WD-4C2yQOGJ7iCrYjM-INe5NiLfp8pjPj6-KEoui-FLTc8UJjJuhSRGeB0LfNP66GX9wKNx0DE/w400-h261/marlin.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Everyone loves a marlin!</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">For example! In 2020, Evans began <a href="https://www.abc4.com/news/local-news/antique-store-closes-after-40-years-due-to-pandemic-struggles/">shrieking
like</a> a <a href="https://www.fox13now.com/news/coronavirus/local-coronavirus-news/with-customers-staying-home-salt-lake-antique-store-forced-to-close">hungry
baby</a> about the impact to his business from COVID-19 pandemic restrictions
(few as they were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Utah#:~:text=In%20May%202020%2C%20the%20%22yellow,distancing%20was%20difficult%20to%20maintain.">in
Utah</a>; and, weirdly, he was <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2017/6/12/20614076/the-once-biggest-antique-store-in-the-u-s-struggles-to-make-ends-meet-after-13-years">blaming
other factors</a> three years before it was COVID ruining his fun). Had he
expressed his thoughts in a nuanced, balanced way, I also wouldn’t bother with
this post. COVID restrictions (which, again, were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Utah#:~:text=In%20May%202020%2C%20the%20%22yellow,distancing%20was%20difficult%20to%20maintain.">nigh-nonexistent</a>
in Utah in 2020) did pose challenges to certain businesses. A businessperson
with their head not firmly up their ass may have balanced the economic impact
of those restrictions against the potential democide of immunosuppressed
persons (full disclosure: such as myself). Evans’ response was to post a series
of crude, premature “going out of business” signs, including this one:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAcGrVXZmIP-fyVUwR-vuMBFc1SHUCsTTfuC_FhAb2zq0YIiCj0JJ4RlBgonFGcWuDVUcsIBC1vkGtNZdLNsnLMoPiE3ahknU_m9ufk1dcWgkbzU0ghgJBI_x421Q5tLiYRf23Fm1_Gd8OOdfcDzxwCYndTA1hzsxZC-mNHDX_aFi7Fl1QA0DuhhrDmpM/s843/giveup.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="843" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAcGrVXZmIP-fyVUwR-vuMBFc1SHUCsTTfuC_FhAb2zq0YIiCj0JJ4RlBgonFGcWuDVUcsIBC1vkGtNZdLNsnLMoPiE3ahknU_m9ufk1dcWgkbzU0ghgJBI_x421Q5tLiYRf23Fm1_Gd8OOdfcDzxwCYndTA1hzsxZC-mNHDX_aFi7Fl1QA0DuhhrDmpM/w400-h191/giveup.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Charming. Also, not at <i>all</i> complete bullshit, given
that Euro Treasure Antiques has survived COVID just fine so far. How do I know?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I know because <i>now</i> Scott Evans says that <a href="https://www.ksl.com/article/50712963/slc-businessman-says-homeless-problems-in-his-neighborhood-worst-since-operation-rio-grande">it’s
Utah’s unhoused population</a> who are ruining his business. This time around, Evans
was sure to walk reporters through the sort of unsightly debris that fascist
and other right wing commentators use to describe cities ranging from San
Francisco to Denver as “urban hellscapes.” The same <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/08/health/poverty-porn-danger-feat/index.html">poverty
porn</a> visuals which, it just so happens, local news stations <i>love</i>. Could
Evans be taking advantage of Utahns’ (even many Salt Lake “liberals”)
prejudices against homeless persons the same way he, let’s say, made use of
public sentiment against COVID restrictions to whine and beg for cash in 2020?
I’m not a mind reader, but golly! It sure <i>seems</i> so!<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRPej9rdERvxHirgZVmHasqDwH4rWb-wTuksKzFULpAQEFETmblTwaCwsCPuHthij3HqFOkEpwPBfOwM1DUdGXu0k7nA1P4xnnO2GV0Zn7fjTZ2eCpGqRgoDrmrMSJgyqXTNnGPnJln_Nq7nxZZZKGKovbsRk9pPhH79yd1NfYrBf1sHxB-3em1UyxXcQ/s648/sadclown.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="648" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRPej9rdERvxHirgZVmHasqDwH4rWb-wTuksKzFULpAQEFETmblTwaCwsCPuHthij3HqFOkEpwPBfOwM1DUdGXu0k7nA1P4xnnO2GV0Zn7fjTZ2eCpGqRgoDrmrMSJgyqXTNnGPnJln_Nq7nxZZZKGKovbsRk9pPhH79yd1NfYrBf1sHxB-3em1UyxXcQ/s320/sadclown.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Grifters gonna grift, and local small-business tyrants gonna
tyrant. That’s no surprise, and were Evans the only guilty party here, he’d
have to take a number to merit my opprobrium. But this is a criminal level of
right wing down-punching from the Utah news media, who have – predictably but
disgustingly – acted as Evans’ private press-agency-cum-conservative-opinion-page.
Furthermore, it’s genuinely bizarre how often local media flock to this dipshit
to desperately check the health of his business as though it were some
bellwether for the local economy (take, for example, Salt Lake City’s 2020
earthquake – <a href="https://ksltv.com/433446/local-antique-store-faces-200000-in-damage-following-earthquake/">guess
who got an interview out of it!</a>).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s a real shame that Scott Evans, owner of Euro Treasure
Antiques, did such an admirable job of convincing me he’s a mountebank (or, as
KSL called him in his earthquake interview, “mercurial”). I just happen to be
in the market for 25,000 antique chairs and a freighter’s worth of armoires.
His loss!</p><p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-6155591883076813382023-08-18T10:38:00.001-07:002023-08-18T11:04:10.544-07:00Stephen King’s Cop Fetish (Part 2)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjOUzJ9cxXKV8eI4wRo-Ey4IzHPfIn0yt-VoIXJyZyyeAhHsFVjl9PPsbNyKbdjZvSfzp4xP2PLvZARV93Bz27CxkygqUz-iSvVGIvjlo4JXNP16ZBmBB1esSIJz56x5ogmQT-dq15zuo-DTuQweBwzJmjNO9N0ygnHOZ7L2ZkNDAB2XQpPS_X9HD4O4Y/s500/SKtop.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjOUzJ9cxXKV8eI4wRo-Ey4IzHPfIn0yt-VoIXJyZyyeAhHsFVjl9PPsbNyKbdjZvSfzp4xP2PLvZARV93Bz27CxkygqUz-iSvVGIvjlo4JXNP16ZBmBB1esSIJz56x5ogmQT-dq15zuo-DTuQweBwzJmjNO9N0ygnHOZ7L2ZkNDAB2XQpPS_X9HD4O4Y/s320/SKtop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Why does Stephen King get a pass on his role as a police apologist? </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span></span></o:p></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Stephen King is one of the most prominent, uncredited – and
ostensibly “<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/stephen-king-donald-trump-is-a-sociopath-202806679.html">liberal</a>”
– purveyors of pro-cop propaganda and crypto-authoritarian “common sense” in
the US. I’ve written on this subject before (see <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2021/08/cops-god-and-stephen-king.html">here</a>),
but King’s blue balls (so to speak) have been on my mind lately. This is
because his latest detective novel, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Holly/Stephen-King/9781668016138"><i>Holly</i></a>,
is due out next month, and you can expect a review from me when it arrives.
Probably a savage review, given my feelings regarding King’s creation Holly
Gibney, a character who is the heroine of roughly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Gibney#:~:text=Originally%20appearing%20in%20the%20Bill,collection%20of%20the%20same%20name.">half
a dozen books and two TV series</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I hate Holly Gibney a good deal more than most fictional
characters I’ve encountered, so <i>Holly</i> ought to be a real blast. In
preparation for this blessed arrival, I’ve been digging through King’s
voluminous output to explore my thesis that Maine’s most celebrated son (and a
favorite of <a href="https://news.google.com/search?q=stephen%20king%20twitter%20politics&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen">mainstream
liberal Twitter</a>) is, consciously or not, a “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_blue_line">thin blue line</a>”
authoritarian. Banging on about King’s ideological sins from 40 years ago (<i>The
Stand</i>, <i>Cujo</i>, etc.) seemed unfair for the purposes of this post, so I
sampled a more recent novel*: 2002’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Buick-8-Stephen-King/dp/0743417682"><i>From a
Buick 8</i></a>, which is, allegedly, slowly making its way into <a href="https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3627690/stake-land-filmmaker-jim-mickle-directing-adaptation-stephen-kings-buick-8/">a
film adaptation</a>. <br /><i>*I’m aware that this is still a decades-old novel: see <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2021/08/cops-god-and-stephen-king.html">my other post</a> on King and cops for very recent work, and watch for my review of Holly in September.</i><o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7b3II1tJINMwGYQ9bsqrxzq7ATUMOFjYhd2xx5BcZ3meEu433ScOaUD31UiFoKkf7LTZlz_3A9mutF2oeW9mIype6oFYMo65NdV3JgqjXefkf8bRd9MUv8ekT9LkXyT73IFS4yZBak6vkX1aACL6iG2XirZjOKNJiw8dAbDIfbH8JPqWeyMjOGoZKi4/s1000/SK2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7b3II1tJINMwGYQ9bsqrxzq7ATUMOFjYhd2xx5BcZ3meEu433ScOaUD31UiFoKkf7LTZlz_3A9mutF2oeW9mIype6oFYMo65NdV3JgqjXefkf8bRd9MUv8ekT9LkXyT73IFS4yZBak6vkX1aACL6iG2XirZjOKNJiw8dAbDIfbH8JPqWeyMjOGoZKi4/w400-h400/SK2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Justice Lupe (left) and Cynthia Erivo (right), both of whom have played Holly Gibney</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>From a Buick 8</i>, for those who haven’t read it, is a
cosmic horror novel about a mysterious, possibly interdimensional object’s
appearance in western Pennsylvania and the events that follow. As a cosmic
horror novel, it’s extremely thin gruel. The story is told from the collective
perspectives of a troop of Pennsylvania State Police (“Troop D”), who take it
upon themselves to conceal and research the object. I use the words “conceal”
and “research” deliberately, and I’ll explain why that’s important.</div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWAAkcbbUo6KjkcU9YteOtwiUONKm2w5zw1Lg7N0Cuo0OL3NcYNmkNmYrwXLEIWVNiNSGQbwrOejThWEl2rV5hmClfLi5y6MWDg53B1pPMNUl8vvE1oVlHrWMAkejs5o-52-4TG8bLPxYCKZFuzol0IvcJUlmyQBZtAfcV7XufV3uZKBPQaLAGg-zn0Q/s1200/sk3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWAAkcbbUo6KjkcU9YteOtwiUONKm2w5zw1Lg7N0Cuo0OL3NcYNmkNmYrwXLEIWVNiNSGQbwrOejThWEl2rV5hmClfLi5y6MWDg53B1pPMNUl8vvE1oVlHrWMAkejs5o-52-4TG8bLPxYCKZFuzol0IvcJUlmyQBZtAfcV7XufV3uZKBPQaLAGg-zn0Q/w400-h225/sk3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">The action in <i>From a Buick 8</i> unfolds when Troop D
decides to extralegally and, through conspiracy, steal a weird, nonfunctioning
car. This decision is the point from which all subsequent events in the book
originate, and I think it’s worth noting the fact that what kicks off <i>From a
Buick 8</i> is unethical police conduct, though it’s framed as noble. It’s not.
Police conceal many things; <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-pr/pr/four-police-officers-charged-conspiracy-commit-robbery">property
theft</a>, <a href="https://mappingpoliceviolence.us/?gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwxOymBhAFEiwAnodBLF1SIUfCRWFIVyIqrQhRoCQ0Ar2asti0pAOcetEViUdcg40EC2uihBoCYKIQAvD_BwE">murder</a>,
<a href="https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/police/uspo53.htm">torture</a>, <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/law-enforcement-information-drug-related-police-corruption">drug
trafficking</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LASD_deputy_gangs">gang activity</a>,
and other forms of jackbooted, thuggish bullshit. In King’s apologetics in <i>From
a Buick 8</i>, Troop D promises themselves to tell literally nobody outside of
their inner circle about the potentially apocalyptic item they’ve purloined and
kept off the books.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The book is wretchedly of its time. I remember the year 2002
quite well; the frothing, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/09/9-11-when-pop-culture-went-into-patriotic-overdrive/">dead-brained
patriotic fervor</a>, the push to <a href="https://www.aclu.org/documents/surveillance-under-usapatriot-act#:~:text=Allows%20for%20the%20indefinite%20detention,non%2Dcitizen%20endangers%20national%20security.">roll
back rights</a> and protections against <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/nyregion/nypd-9-11-police-surveillance.html">police
depredation</a>, the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police/police-militarization">tanks
bought from the US Army</a> on the cheap by Podunk police departments, and much
more soul-crushing fun. 2002 was also only three years after Stephen King was <a href="https://screenrant.com/stephen-king-near-fatal-accident-20-years-ago/#:~:text=On%20June%2019th%2C%201999%20I,since%20has%20been%20a%20gift.">run
down by a drunk driver</a> and severely injured; almost killed. I can’t read
minds and I don’t know King personally, but I would wager that this experience
a) solidified his longstanding <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2022/03/27/stephen-king-opens-up-on-being-33-years-sober-his-faith-and-regrets-16350435/">preoccupation
with alcoholism</a>, and b) painted the authority figures who would have dealt
with such a disaster (police, EMTs, etc.) in the best possible light. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even so, <i>authentic</i> leftists didn’t get swept up in
the post-9/11 fervor. Hillary Clinton <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/27/hillary-the-hawk-a-history-clinton-2016-military-intervention-libya-iraq-syria/">failed
this test</a>. So did <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/15/20849072/joe-biden-iraq-history-democrats-election-2020">Joe
Biden</a>. Barack Obama, fortunately for his political career, was not a member
of the US Congress at the time. The fact that America’s so-called left
succumbed to patriotism and even a reactionary embrace of <a href="https://www.911memorial.org/learn/resources/911-primer/module-4-solidarity-after-911">the
local police</a> and “America’s Mayor” <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/09/rudy-giuliani-911-was-in-some-ways-the-greatest-day-of-my-life">Rudolph
Giuliani</a> exposes its essential bankruptcy, to my way of thinking. But I’m
willing to cut King’s novel slack, given his mindset at the time.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyBHcZsnoH0A9C03LASpJASXpZrlXbnwZzKISiS4DpjHY3yAK7SX6-_P0t9iG-tIKSa_wwioOGoKHnMWo_PQzWvaoOgVVbrdibvFaLcEM98wdDekQ_teuJC0cq75AGZeH53uSU1bZfoCKvwPMtEZHQHb0p71y0onaxMeTbojvM_CqpriESdQavtkUqyPI/s1092/SK1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1092" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyBHcZsnoH0A9C03LASpJASXpZrlXbnwZzKISiS4DpjHY3yAK7SX6-_P0t9iG-tIKSa_wwioOGoKHnMWo_PQzWvaoOgVVbrdibvFaLcEM98wdDekQ_teuJC0cq75AGZeH53uSU1bZfoCKvwPMtEZHQHb0p71y0onaxMeTbojvM_CqpriESdQavtkUqyPI/s320/SK1.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Slack dispensed, <i>From a Buick 8</i> is fucking
inexcusable. I was particularly pissed off at the idiotic justification
King/the protagonists articulate for keeping the mystery of their
interdimensional gizmo to themselves (note: not just the cops, not just the
Pennsylvania State Police, but Troop D alone). In their/King’s telling,
“scientists are death’s crop dusters.” What the fuck does that mean? With some
vague hand-waving about Three Mile Island (itself a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tommyknockers-Stephen-King/dp/1501143840">longstanding
King fixation</a>) and nuclear weapons, readers are told that scientists can’t
be trusted. This is where the word “research” comes into play.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">QAnon – everyone’s favorite fascist religious cult – has a
variety of catchphrases, some of which have spread to the Far Right more
widely. One of them is “do your research.” When a Q person says “do your
research,” they don’t want someone to read books and peer-reviewed articles.
What they mostly mean by “research” is watching indoctrinating, low-budget,
fact-free YouTube videos – preferably hours of them. What Troop D in <i>From a
Buick 8</i> decides to do to “research” their find does not involve gas chromatographs,
magnetometers, or robotic probes. It involves Polaroids, a video camera, a
half-assed alien autopsy performed by someone with zero background in biology
or anatomy, and a cheap thermometer stuck in the window of a shed. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Contact-Novel-Carl-Sagan/dp/1501197983"><i>Contact</i></a>,
this ain’t.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu4xP5FMr4Nvey2I93OUS-kSsqh9CFI9ZwmP9ngkqU_WgyaNF6f_HCcQAVOLmAfBMvb-1b7JFrPhDs_N_HZlgHe1s1j3559uGyzFu0zXBlH1OGm3lJi-_gMG5jL5omEf7cOqofYBHoOlBanfREU5dLyfIWFxxY3pmvbNYzKGxu4Z8zKnYT_BY0M6Hsd0U/s500/aaaa.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu4xP5FMr4Nvey2I93OUS-kSsqh9CFI9ZwmP9ngkqU_WgyaNF6f_HCcQAVOLmAfBMvb-1b7JFrPhDs_N_HZlgHe1s1j3559uGyzFu0zXBlH1OGm3lJi-_gMG5jL5omEf7cOqofYBHoOlBanfREU5dLyfIWFxxY3pmvbNYzKGxu4Z8zKnYT_BY0M6Hsd0U/s320/aaaa.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Is <i>From a Buick 8</i> intended as a subtle critique of the
police, a Greek meta-chorus in which readers are invited to take a critical
look at the life of Troop D and the mistakes they’ve made? Don’t bullshit a
bullshitter, Stephen King apologists. This is not an author who does shades of
gray well, when he even bothers with such niceties. King’s books draw clear,
jarring lines between big-g Good (often interwoven with big-g God,
incidentally) and big-e Evil (even in the case of <i>From a Buick 8</i>, which
features King’s second big-e <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Christine-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B018ER7LLQ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1692207629&sr=1-1">Evil
automobile</a>). Troop D is portrayed as imperfect but lovable; a family of
good-hearted, mostly male working stiffs. This good-ol’-boy characterization is
used to justify the following:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Using a police dog to maul and terrify people
(King has the blue-line balls to name this dog “Mister Dylan,” the book’s
second reference to Bob Dylan, including the title. It’s said that if a suspect
shakes a finger at a cop, they’ll wind up “picking their nose with a pencil.”
This is not a particularly funny joke, given the </span><a href="https://www.insider.com/guard-dogs-attack-prison-inmates-abu-ghraib-torture-trauma-2023-7#:~:text=At%20least%2023%20prisons%20in,have%20been%20bitten%20or%20mauled." style="text-indent: -0.25in;">abuses
of police dogs in real life</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_ride_(police_brutality)" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Rough riding</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">”
a prisoner.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">An incredibly disgusting, victim-blaming
attitude (“I wanted to hit her… A language she would actually understand.”)
toward a prisoner of domestic violence – an extremely troubling depiction,
given the record of </span><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-officers-who-hit-their-wives-or-girlfriends/380329/" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">domestic
violence in police departments</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The characterization of the Pennsylvania State
Police as “good men doing bad chores,” an excuse for brutality that </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_brutality#:~:text=Early%20records%20suggest%20that%20labor,of%201919%2C%20and%20the%20Hanapepe" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">goes
all the way</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> back to the emergence of modern policing, and</span><br /><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Open contempt for civilians. In fact, the terms
“civilian” and “citizen” are rarely – if ever – used. Instead, Troop D uses the
terms “John Q” and “looky-loo” and sneers at the idea of such peons worrying
about “how their tax dollars are spent.” Speaking personally as a police
abolitionist, my “tax dollars” are literally last on the list of my grievances.</span><!--[if !supportLists]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Stephen King’s horror fiction is highly normative – even, as
<a href="https://www.iwf.org/2015/10/30/are-horror-movies-actually-conservative/">he
has acknowledged</a>, conservative. The premise of most of his stories is a
disruption of the status quo followed by a struggle to restore it. In such a
framework, police are often representatives of authority and normality. This
perspective is, in short, small town bullshit and consistently excludes or
excuses the brutality and excesses of authority.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I predict that <i>Holly</i> will continue King’s love affair
with police and his slide from horror author to detective fiction author. We’ll
see if my prediction plays out soon enough – and you can expect a review from
me then.<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-52064373888158294952023-07-22T11:42:00.001-07:002023-07-22T14:29:36.213-07:00Happily Ever After<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRRdbDf0dfVFq1LlNrXRWRSDgh7vqhOSaDHY4rhvW8IaXW05fN30v1HWXqLKL9WZEC7zBpHaWvNFBlj4j0UrXPnhzgFHluNd4xJW-4dgNVcGtRn8oHUO6fmO_TrgmRjEwhpUJOYuqtIca8zaUj7z8VMyAzPcuXb4_Vtx5FtXR53XEZEeVRsYKlmaWTvh4/s630/body%20snatchers.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="630" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRRdbDf0dfVFq1LlNrXRWRSDgh7vqhOSaDHY4rhvW8IaXW05fN30v1HWXqLKL9WZEC7zBpHaWvNFBlj4j0UrXPnhzgFHluNd4xJW-4dgNVcGtRn8oHUO6fmO_TrgmRjEwhpUJOYuqtIca8zaUj7z8VMyAzPcuXb4_Vtx5FtXR53XEZEeVRsYKlmaWTvh4/w320-h320/body%20snatchers.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Should we embrace truth or positivity?<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My little sister and I watched a lot of horror on VHS as
latchkey kids. Often grabbing items recommended by our folks, we plowed through
the classics. After watching the 1978 remake of <i>Invasion of the Body
Snatchers</i> (starring the magnificent Donald Sutherland), we developed a
shorthand for horror stories that eschewed “happily ever after” in favor of
deeply unsettling, profoundly bleak, or discouraging conclusions. We called the
finales of such films – finales in which evil is victorious – “Body Snatcher
endings.” While I think that my sister had an ambivalent relationship with such
miscarriages of closure, I’ll admit to a grim, bird-in-the-snake’s-gaze fascination
with them at the time.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This, along with my innate attraction to other morbid
stimuli, formed the foundation atop which my appreciation of horror was built
one bloody brick at a time. At first, Body Snatcher endings weren’t necessarily
a selling point for me. Just like, I think, the majority of young people – for
whom the future sprawls in luxury and for whom death seems distant – I liked my
horror heavily leavened by assertions of normative valuation (“the monster is
evil because it violates Universal Human Moral Law X”) and a sort of
morally-balanced universe based on what I would later learn is called a
dialectic. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg8ptL4RRXsNZ_EGvHBNxr9iASz5xjQLRLyTK0yDnCtoXVsavy0IxzoCjwusn5tJYMh9w-rI-lmQqyq9-DYFrHN-k2GWopJVh72GmXw3YD3f60m0z3Ev35UpOxYr6CIJA9GgiIuNWf6PiadwvNJL_uFR7zRU10Ja3yaT_ATMHDbvuExLizB10kPhbh_Fg/s600/georgie.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="600" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg8ptL4RRXsNZ_EGvHBNxr9iASz5xjQLRLyTK0yDnCtoXVsavy0IxzoCjwusn5tJYMh9w-rI-lmQqyq9-DYFrHN-k2GWopJVh72GmXw3YD3f60m0z3Ev35UpOxYr6CIJA9GgiIuNWf6PiadwvNJL_uFR7zRU10Ja3yaT_ATMHDbvuExLizB10kPhbh_Fg/s320/georgie.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">By dialectic I mean this: the monster/peril, merely by
appearing in most horror tales, renders a response inevitable. This might mean the
intervention of a virtuous, opposing power (a heroic badass of some kind) or
the empowerment of a previously unremarkable person (an ordinary soul must rise
above their flaws to become a heroic badass of some kind). In the course of the
hero’s journey, friends might be lost or precious things sacrificed, but the
evil will be vanquished. The reality that reasserts itself is built on the same
moral foundation as the original, pre-crisis scene, but changed by contact with
the malign. The hero and their surviving loved ones may be scarred, but they
have also been made wise by virtue of their brush with the unspeakable.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You probably don’t need a college diploma (hell, <i>I</i>
don’t have one) to identify this arrangement as the famous Hegelian Dialectic; a
thesis met by its antithesis, followed by a resulting synthesis. You <i>definitely</i>
don’t need a college diploma to realize the following (in fact, it might hurt
your chances): Georg Friedrich Hegel was woefully, disastrously wrong in nearly
everything he wrote. I wouldn’t hold such a grudge were it not for those who
were most influenced by Hegel: Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger,
specifically. This is the side of Hegel you won’t hear about from philosophy or
political science professors: two out of three of Hegel’s greatest students
went on to provide the philosophical framework that undergirded the rise of
Nazi Germany.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I recently completed writing a nonfiction book about 21<sup>st</sup>
century fascism, nihilism, and the occult (<i>Black Sunrise on Piss Earth</i>) that
will be released in 2024. In it, I spend one full chapter on this subject. I
needn’t reiterate my beef with continental philosophy here in full, but I will
say this much; Hegel’s wildly ahistorical “logic of history” doesn’t help us
understand social processes, but it does provide an insight into human
psychology. The process of oppositional growth that Hegel lays out appeals to
the least rational faculty in humans, a faculty that’s also our most powerful:
our love of storytelling.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">If you’re going to force reality’s unspeakable,
sanity-shredding shape into the framework of a story, as I see it, it had
better not have a goddamned happy ending. The entirety of human existence –
from a single life to that of the species writ large – has always had and
always will have only one ending: death. Some lives are overstuffed with pain
while others only swim in the shallows of the ambient agony of organic life, an
inescapable arrangement in which all participants must 1) suffer, 2) desire not
to suffer, and 3) fleetingly fulfill that desire by feeding on the death of
other life. As a friend of mine once said, even algae feeds on death: the
entropy of our local star, which sheds life-and-death-giving radiation in its
own slow, entropic throes.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs1Z2e-JJ7cLI7gpW8yGFVMsXLzmOWrV80Z937UiOiQG4zJS-ESO-zfEjL8vs4_g12p51QU6jfZgsQ7fTHe4gjNmLWXmmlMJReE_SR6zepRnIPK4NuuPOd7eXxSGWE6r1f_R5IgjxuN5xI7taOgLAn8Ql_L5mbOlX-5FRUeUvACFsdg6HCBR0JPGjJtAM/s608/food%20chain.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="608" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs1Z2e-JJ7cLI7gpW8yGFVMsXLzmOWrV80Z937UiOiQG4zJS-ESO-zfEjL8vs4_g12p51QU6jfZgsQ7fTHe4gjNmLWXmmlMJReE_SR6zepRnIPK4NuuPOd7eXxSGWE6r1f_R5IgjxuN5xI7taOgLAn8Ql_L5mbOlX-5FRUeUvACFsdg6HCBR0JPGjJtAM/s320/food%20chain.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Humanity’s fixation on “happy endings” isn’t just absurd; it
is obscene. Every “happily ever after,” every heavenly reunion with one’s dead
friends and family, and every “it will be all right” is, at its core, a
wretched lie. And therein lies the subtly ideological importance of happy
endings in horror fiction. Stephen King <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/87844780/Stephen-King-Why-We-Crave-Horror-Movies#scribd">famously
observed</a> that horror is inherently conservative; that it relies on the
violation of – and subsequent return to – normality. The harrowing journey from
pre- to post-horror makes the humdrum hearth of home seem, well, homelier. That
specific story framework in horror <i>is</i> conservative. One might even call
it reactionary. It rests on a belief that a vigorous defense of the status quo
can magically expel the interloper; the Other as messenger of chaos. People are
afraid of chaos because of what it acknowledges and even celebrates. Isn’t
every monster, every manic killer, every unbound beast from nature’s darker
reaches a stand-in for the inevitable and irresistible? A mask which hides the
ever-grinning face of death?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To end things on a slightly lighter note: there are as many
ways to end a story as there are stories (more, even). There’s a middle path
between the good, old-fashioned Body Snatcher ending and the Stephen King,
reactionary school of thought. Ambiguous, ambitious, and (at times) amoral as
the world itself, some stories artfully reframe horror’s very meaning. Rather
than eliciting thrills through some perverse monstrosity that lurches through
our beloved norms, these stories emphasize the horror of reality itself and in
some cases (the stories of Thomas Ligotti or Laird Bannon, for example) offer
no escape. In others (<i>The Witch</i>, <i>Midsomnar</i>) escape is not an
option, but resolution is. No stale, Hegelian synthesis, but a reconciliation of
the seemingly irreconcilable: the very things we fear. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As a nontheistic Satanist, I’m an advocate of the
reconciliation of supposed opposites and the rejection of binary thinking.
Ambitious horror offers us the same look at the unspeakable face of reality
that reactionary horror does, and does so without lying to its readers.
Normality is – and always has been – an illusion. Monsters are the truth.<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-47477721177637490972023-06-18T19:30:00.000-07:002023-06-18T19:30:59.109-07:00Garbage Thoughts and Unwanted Reality<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3h_kybewmPnxP6pBtTH4a-OARKtkAonh65XXy3mnN1YshW9xnskaYhz085IVr5otx2JA5x51QHEwuAtLTltbC1qw9KJBqBjB3yWWJ-SZ4StYtJCGjqBV42viff_CE4_20BkVlsPkNTlVwNt3glDoFPRSIjhEI9xkzg3eQ3rZvwvYGlW8Od1ihVD2k/s500/death3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3h_kybewmPnxP6pBtTH4a-OARKtkAonh65XXy3mnN1YshW9xnskaYhz085IVr5otx2JA5x51QHEwuAtLTltbC1qw9KJBqBjB3yWWJ-SZ4StYtJCGjqBV42viff_CE4_20BkVlsPkNTlVwNt3glDoFPRSIjhEI9xkzg3eQ3rZvwvYGlW8Od1ihVD2k/s320/death3.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When thoughts pass through your mind, are they <i>your</i>
thoughts?<span><a name='more'></a></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is a question that few people ask themselves unless or
until they’ve experienced a mental health crisis. The regulation and/or elimination
of “unwanted thoughts” is a central part of therapies used to treat a variety
of disorders, but for the purpose of this discussion, let’s look specifically
at obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Almost everyone has heard of OCD. It has
become a staple of pop culture punchlines, and the premise of at least one
execrable show (“Monk”) that treated the disorder as a quirky personality
trait, one which may cause mild distress but is the source of much amusement
for others. Tony Shalhoub’s Monk is, in essence, a clown; a jester with a
schtick based on a real disorder. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In reality, as any mental health professional or trainee
will tell you, OCD isn’t funny. It isn’t quirky. It’s a serious disorder that,
in severe cases, can be so debilitating that sufferers can’t leave their homes,
let alone work or form healthy relationships. These dismal effects can cause
severe damage to what cognitive-behavioral therapists refer to as important
elements of one’s “life domain.” I recently read Monica T. Williams and Chad T.
Wetterneck’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sexual-Obsessions-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-Step/dp/0190624795/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1686424654&sr=1-1"><i>Sexual
Obsessions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder</i></a> (2019), and found it
unexpectedly revealing.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When most people think of OCD, they think of either
contamination compulsions (hand-washing and doorknob avoidance, for example) or
symmetry compulsions (straightening and arranging items, for example). Some
might be aware of checking compulsions (repeatedly ensuring that the stove is
off) or counting compulsions (touching an object a specified number of times,
counting one’s steps, etc.). These are valid ways to think of OCD, but awareness
of these specific rituals constitutes a shallow and limited conception of the
illness – and of what OCD can tell us about those who are supposedly mentally
healthy. As mental health professionals see it, obsessive thoughts and
compulsive rituals are “disorders” because they disrupt the function of a
healthy human mind and cause distress and inability to function. No
psychologist or psychiatrist would dispute that statement.</div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here's a slightly more controversial statement: obsessive
thoughts and compulsive rituals disrupt the function of a “healthy” human mind in
that they jar the machinery of illusion, the mechanisms buried in our brains which
let us maintain the myth of an independent, free-willed self. Thomas
Metzinger’s excellent <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ego-Tunnel-Science-Mind-Myth/dp/0465020690/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1686424521&sr=1-1"><i>The
Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self</i></a> is a
deconstruction of that illusory self from the standpoint of neuroscience,
cognition, and philosophy. I cannot recommend it strongly enough. He’s hardly
alone, either. The demolition of the long- and deeply-cherished illusion of
selfhood is now being carried out by other bleeding-edge philosophers and
scientists like Gregory Berns (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Self-Delusion-Neuroscience-Invent_and-Reinvent_Our/dp/1541602293/ref=asc_df_1541602293/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598249994043&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11252647910065336718&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029755&hvtargid=pla-1654931034471&psc=1"><i>The
Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent – and Reinvent – Our
Identities</i></a>), Thomas Ligotti (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-against-Human-Race-Contrivance/dp/0143133144/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1686424446&sr=1-1">The
Conspiracy Against the Human Race</a>), and Bruce Hood (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Self-Illusion-Social-Creates-Identity/dp/0199988781/ref=asc_df_0199988781/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312168166316&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11252647910065336718&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029755&hvtargid=pla-569254358320&psc=1"><i>The
Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity</i></a>). The illusion of
the self allows us to feel that we are in control of our destiny: that we, as
concrete and unchanging personalities, <i>decide</i> things for <i>ourselves</i>
– including what and how we think. Nothing could be further from the truth, but
the machinery of illusory selfhood swaddles us in the merciful unawareness of
our nature. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnbKxDx20PVaCHZ14PInXuDAzHRVVYlSg8td2F3LtIC-seTZ1P3JLKMMM_0v9MXJsisJABJ5jlS-WPW4JeYES_6K7wM1eATLGx3C5PxxGxEz5dXVXZHgemOoRqVpX8FmpPp_KZgfj2zcXbLj-r89tg0fuTJvIopyiZndu56c3-THAP4PQ2sKIES5B/s954/death2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="954" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnbKxDx20PVaCHZ14PInXuDAzHRVVYlSg8td2F3LtIC-seTZ1P3JLKMMM_0v9MXJsisJABJ5jlS-WPW4JeYES_6K7wM1eATLGx3C5PxxGxEz5dXVXZHgemOoRqVpX8FmpPp_KZgfj2zcXbLj-r89tg0fuTJvIopyiZndu56c3-THAP4PQ2sKIES5B/w400-h210/death2.png" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Even mentally “healthy” people experience negative thoughts
that seem alien to their interests and desires. These are variously called garbage
thoughts, intrusive thoughts, or unwanted thoughts. In high-functioning humans,
these fleeting and unpleasant notions are quickly dispatched from their minds.
Everybody has them, but not everyone can so easily dispose of them.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Regrettably, for those suffering from obsessive-compulsive
disorder, such garbage thoughts become obsessive thoughts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I find the concept of intrusive or unwanted thoughts utterly
fascinating. First of all, why do these thoughts cause such distress? In part,
it is their content – especially, I’d imagine, for the unfortunate people
suffering from pedophilia obsessive-compulsive disorder (POCD), a subtype of
sexual obsessive-compulsive disorder. People with POCD are not pedophiles; I
can’t emphasize that enough. The thoughts that intrude, however, are. You can
imagine how awful this would be Other types of OCD intrusive thoughts might
involve unsanitary acts, horrific violence, or self-harm. The rituals (compulsions)
lampooned by wacky old Monk are parasitical thoughtforms that develop in a
sufferer’s psyche in order to banish, mitigate, or prevent these deeply
unsettling invasions. The vile and durable nature of these thoughts underscores
their perceived alienness. Alien thoughts, both fleeting and tormentingly
persistent, should give us pause when we consider thoughts of <i>all</i> sorts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Take sexual orientation obsessive-compulsive disorder
(SOOCD), for example. In SOOCD, people who self-identify as heterosexual are
tormented by persistent homosexual thoughts, or vice-versa. These aren’t the
titillating thoughts which might occur to one exploring a forbidden realm,
like, say, a closeted fundamentalist Christian. These thoughts cause the
sufferer intense distress and anxiety. The difference between gay fantasies in
a gay person or in a person with SOOCD is this: in the former, such thoughts are
ego syntonic, and in the latter, ego dystonic. Ego syntonic is a fancy way of
saying that a thought or activity is compatible with one’s self-image at the
time; ego dystonic thoughts and behaviors, on the other hand, are not
compatible with one’s self-image at the time. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thoughts that feel alien, intrusive, and opposed to our
self-image and our self-known mental processes: where do they come from?<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR4BqzPbQB5OQoE_tefOuj48xJu2Equ_OnZJVx86ViIl-GGjRbzFZCMUMAOPv6KmcSNcuPMOlNJyaTiUr2T2EdnhT9o--fyLS450wmULyuqMyLzRaQ8SMfQsHgsJvqXCZ1aTc-5mu7TWVFAhrBIOTYnQVF43BKPbxXhcc0tVCabSAnpTDmCBGxHvPt/s1080/death1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1073" data-original-width="1080" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR4BqzPbQB5OQoE_tefOuj48xJu2Equ_OnZJVx86ViIl-GGjRbzFZCMUMAOPv6KmcSNcuPMOlNJyaTiUr2T2EdnhT9o--fyLS450wmULyuqMyLzRaQ8SMfQsHgsJvqXCZ1aTc-5mu7TWVFAhrBIOTYnQVF43BKPbxXhcc0tVCabSAnpTDmCBGxHvPt/s320/death1.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">According to Edgar Allen Poe, such thoughts may be
attributed to a semi-metaphorical “<a href="https://poestories.com/read/imp">imp
of the perverse</a>.” To theists, they may be attributed to lack of
self-mastery (Buddhism), demonic forces (most religions), humanity’s
spiritually fallen nature (Christianity), or any number of external factors. In
such cases, these intrusive thoughts are framed as <i>literally</i> intrusive,
and any number of obsessions (rituals) may be recommended, many of which do
more harm than good. Someone whose severe obsessive-compulsive disorder
manifests itself in counting obsessions, for example, will hardly benefit from
sacred numerology or performing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novena">a
novena</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For nontheists, particularly staunch materialists, the
answer might seem simple: some combination of brain abnormality, genetics, and
environmental factors. I’ll gladly cede that much, since I don’t believe that
mental illness is born of the muttering of demons or <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201206/brief-history-psychiatry#:~:text=Hippocrates%20thought%20that%20madness%20resulted,purgatives%2C%20and%20blood%2Dlettings.">imbalanced
humours</a>. That still doesn’t resolve the real question. If “you” don’t
“want” those garbage thoughts, who does?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Psychology has a hell of a long way to go as a science. Its protestations
of pragmatism are a major weakness. While I endorse evidence-based treatment,
I’m also aware of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis">the
replication crisis</a> and thus reticent to put too much faith in psychology’s
evidence, at least its evidence thus far. My dissatisfaction with behavioral
psychology stems from the fact that its stated intention is to tame one’s
anxieties, and to do so while spending little time exploring their form or
substance. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Think of a child who has, somehow, realized that death
exists (“<a href="https://youtu.be/ldEh0cyGVm4">a fish not flapping on the
carpet</a>”). The natural response to such unwelcome knowledge on the child’s
part is to panic. <i>That means my caretaker(s) will die one day! That means I
will, too!</i> The child might ask what comes after death, and so begin the
lies. Alternately, an “honest” parent might respond with minimizing
reassurances. <i>Don’t worry, honey, I’m not going to be going anywhere for a
long time.</i> This is a dishonest answer without being outright fantasy. Sure,
by some measures, the caretaker(s) might not die for “a long time.” Alternately,
they might die of an undiagnosed cerebral aneurysm moments after issuing their
reassurance. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The problem is, that child has seen the truth. Immediately,
the machinery of illusion must be constructed and, at all times, kept engaged.
The consciousness of death is, quite simply, too much for our illusory egos to
cope with. And even worse; death hardly represents the worst of life.
Unfulfilled desire. Suffering. Unrequited love. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To live as a sentient organic being is to be an object which
thinks that it’s a subject. We’re driven by complicated internal processes
we’re only just beginning to understand, and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/brain/article-abstract/106/3/623/271932?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false">plenty
of research shows</a> that free will and independent self-determination aren’t
part of reality so much as a shroud wound ‘round reality to shelter us from its
cadaverous leer. Some obsessions – such as those concerned with harm befalling
one’s loved ones – aren’t necessarily as irrational as psychiatry and
psychology make them seem. They may consist of unwanted thoughts, true, but
that doesn’t mean <i>untrue</i> thoughts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Unwanted thoughts? Or glimpses of unwanted reality? <o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-41659067601907421802023-03-03T15:36:00.000-08:002023-03-03T15:36:03.832-08:00Stephen King's Thin Blue Line<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Q3aCa9N_k0XqqUH1XnxhPOXkCL7tA2zmYge_92XHZaQ8Qji07YDl1dLOyeCoj6DsaJ2bkHMhnCUpjcAtKOD0GZcBtOvDds2JIyBRDSTXxumtnPd_M-S-9M99Jdm0w-zens6ISnqOT0RhKclSUmiYCbmit__PsYcY9SXTkZL4ZdswoTSKjRUauAOX/s750/sking.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="750" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Q3aCa9N_k0XqqUH1XnxhPOXkCL7tA2zmYge_92XHZaQ8Qji07YDl1dLOyeCoj6DsaJ2bkHMhnCUpjcAtKOD0GZcBtOvDds2JIyBRDSTXxumtnPd_M-S-9M99Jdm0w-zens6ISnqOT0RhKclSUmiYCbmit__PsYcY9SXTkZL4ZdswoTSKjRUauAOX/s320/sking.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In two previous posts at Madness Heart Press
(“Cops, God, and Stephen King,” <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2021/08/cops-god-and-stephen-king.html">posted in one chunk here</a>), I delved into my long
history as a Stephen King fan and touched on a few of the misgivings I’ve had
about his recent forays into vaguely horror-adjacent detective fiction,
especially his stories featuring the irredeemable Holly Gibney. <i>Holly </i>is, in fact,
the name of subject of his newest novel (due on September 5<sup>th</sup>). When
I wrote those posts about King and cops/PIs, his cuddly relationship with
murderous police officers and self-appointed snoops struck me as a (forgive the
pun) novel development. Having now revisited some of King’s 1980s-1990s oeuvre,
I now believe that this has been the case all along.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a> <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now, I should issue a disclaimer right out of the gate that
I grew up as and remain a Stephen King fan, although my appreciation now is
marbled with criticism and caveats like a fine cut of beef. I recently took it
upon myself to revisit a few King titles I hadn’t read in some time (read: at
least 15 years) to see if I noticed anything new to appreciate and learn from.
The answer to that question turned out to be “yes, absolutely,” but I also
noticed an unsettling trend, and one that might initially seem hard to square
with King’s Trump-trashing, Twitter Liberal persona.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The texts I chose to revisit weren’t precisely random; all
take place within King’s tiny universe of fictional Maine. The fictional topography
encompasses Castle Rock, Derry, and Haven, and has birthed countless short
stories, novels, miniseries, films, and shows. As a representative sample of
King’s 1980s-and-90s-era work, I chose to re-read <i>It</i> (1986), <i>The
Tommyknockers</i> (1987), and <i>Needful Things</i> (1991). All three books had
troubling elements, some of which can be excused by time and changing social
mores and some of which were viler than an average insensitivity of the time.
Before I proceed, a note: I’m aware that even the most well-intentioned
liberals can look retrograde in retrospect. I’m also aware that when authors
write a character, that character’s voice does not necessarily represent the
author’s views (and, sweet Lucifer, I hope readers apply this latter bit of
knowledge to my own work). Even so, it’s worth examining where things go wrong
in fiction, the better to make sure that we learn from our mistakes. Holly Gibney,
by far King’s most popular and recurring modern character, tells me that King’s
views on the police have regrettably changed little, despite his superficial expressions
of opinion (read: his tweets).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If King won’t or can’t change, let us learn from his
mistakes. We’ll do this in chronological order.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyEDdJLLqRN6YieLRImunXgrdqIyrfdlqJ7KxypmFnkC6V1KFYgSPT8F6i_wqrQEUQd7FbiqwK_ZORqweC95YEMa93Pz3jG55g59haFJDbkr1n_O5SBt6iTr5ItA0FauBlX2UlAB74QpiOThZa75jGY49MJZNxpHwWQ2t5L7it3z3H_YwfkYKkX1Oa" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="199" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyEDdJLLqRN6YieLRImunXgrdqIyrfdlqJ7KxypmFnkC6V1KFYgSPT8F6i_wqrQEUQd7FbiqwK_ZORqweC95YEMa93Pz3jG55g59haFJDbkr1n_O5SBt6iTr5ItA0FauBlX2UlAB74QpiOThZa75jGY49MJZNxpHwWQ2t5L7it3z3H_YwfkYKkX1Oa" width="163" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>It</i> (1986)</b><br />
The most troubling part of <i>It</i>, by far, is a depiction of 11-year-old
children’s, um… “activities” in the sewers of Derry after their first tangle
with the titular cosmic horror. Leaving that (and the novel’s ambient misogyny)
aside, <i>It</i> presents a slightly mixed view of policing. On the one hand, the
text recognizes police participation in public acts of vigilante brutality, and
implies (if it doesn’t outright state) that the police of Derry are involved in
the conspiracy that runs Derry’s affairs on It’s behalf.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It's a saner view of the police than I usually see in King’s
books, but there are still things that should jar a reader, even keeping in
mind that the book was written nearly 40 years ago. After all, the 1980s were
the era in which the “War on Drugs” started by Richard Nixon and
enthusiastically flogged by “Bonzo” Reagan became a <i>literal</i> war against
this country’s residents. While pop culture and the news media wrung their
hands about crime, police in storm trooper outfits regularly used machine guns and
nigh-unlimited authority to rob, murder, and imprison a shocking number of Americans,
most especially Black people. In such an atmosphere, where does one turn for a
model of compassionate policing? How about 1958?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s a little disturbing to read King’s lionization of the
1950s as a time when you “could trust the police officer to get you safely
home,” and in which the character Richie Tozier whips a cosmic horror’s ass by
channeling “the voice of every Irish beat cop ever to walk a street after dark,
checking the locks on the storefronts as he twirled his baton.” Stephen, if
that cop is checking storefronts’ locks and he finds one unlocked, he was just
as likely in 1958 as in 1986 to rob the shit out of the storeowner instead of protecting
their “property” (a dubious normative model of policing to begin with).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgycQswuYWsZyIGJqc01cfBYae_kFRjYVH4zp98zjs9A-uNpmr3Bk95TFcu1C4mRcki0fYdYnjj36kq-vA-LJlaexX_xIHmtnm5gxD4sef4eVLOw1rXi1DkONiZTaUcANK0Zd_YCKOmhe2suJW7Sez0UCNREV5b8VL5RgwLUMwxKl05dyqyO_JBGX7m" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="273" data-original-width="185" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgycQswuYWsZyIGJqc01cfBYae_kFRjYVH4zp98zjs9A-uNpmr3Bk95TFcu1C4mRcki0fYdYnjj36kq-vA-LJlaexX_xIHmtnm5gxD4sef4eVLOw1rXi1DkONiZTaUcANK0Zd_YCKOmhe2suJW7Sez0UCNREV5b8VL5RgwLUMwxKl05dyqyO_JBGX7m" width="163" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>The Tommyknockers</i> (1987)</b><br />
Evidently, <i>The Tommyknockers</i> was the last book King wrote before
recovering from drug and alcohol addiction (good!) through popular American cult
Alcoholics Anonymous (bad!). The primary protagonist of <i>The Tommyknockers</i>
is an unlikable and unstable late-stage alcoholic and part time poet named
James “Gard” Gardener, but the story is long and contains a number of minor
protagonists in the form of the townspeople of Haven who resist or outright
reject “the Becoming.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of these miniboss protagonists is Ruth McCausland, the
Haven town constable. <a href="https://youtu.be/ZEWGyyLiqY4">There’s a magnificently
shitty Blake Shelton song</a> where good ol’ Blake lauds the virtues of a
“one-church town.” The tiny fictional community of Haven is a one-cop town. You
might think that my reaction to that would be <i>Hey! The fewer cops the
better! Why not make it a </i>no-cop <i>town?</i> Firstly, I’d like every town
to be a no-cop town! Secondly, the thing I hate about a one-church or one-cop
town is the consolidation of power in a monolithic and unaccountable institution.
Power corrupts, and all that. My corollary to that statement would be that the
more massively distributed and diluted power is, the better.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>T</o:p>ake Ruth McCausland, for example. King describes her
particular way of using small-town gumption (and mindless, small-town
brutality) to solve a problem: specifically, the problem of a working-class man
whom Ruth and the rest of Haven suspect of abusing his daughters. Does Ruth
call social services, or perhaps file charges against the man? What are you,
some kind of fancy city-boy? No, Ruth gets a seven-foot-tall, uniformed pile of
testosterone named “Monster” Dugan to beat the man within an inch of his life,
then banish him from town. Because <i>fuck</i> due process as long as we “know
someone is guilty.” Isn’t that right, Twitter Liberal Stephen King?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLArEicYseupTNcsRawfyvb1q8mgnMjsFPvBKYdtYjidieIurtcMLSQbM1s2wsiijhrzDb712GVPDhn8bjNZGYjwpwaGrPO6KCBMsVv2oTk0cxA7WpDfBYi4UF4_cG4LtOu2NwMZIDfRu016mLNVAIhipJ3tJiOBZId9BPYR6f3kvei9VRZ6h3skOx" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="237" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLArEicYseupTNcsRawfyvb1q8mgnMjsFPvBKYdtYjidieIurtcMLSQbM1s2wsiijhrzDb712GVPDhn8bjNZGYjwpwaGrPO6KCBMsVv2oTk0cxA7WpDfBYi4UF4_cG4LtOu2NwMZIDfRu016mLNVAIhipJ3tJiOBZId9BPYR6f3kvei9VRZ6h3skOx" width="163" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Needful Things</i> (1991)<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of the primary protagonists of Needful Things is a “good
cop.” Right out of the gate, my suspension of disbelief is shattered. In fact,
Sherriff Alan Pangborn is more than just a “good cop:” along with another King
cop, Bill Hodges, he’s held up as one of the moral exemplars of Castle Rock,
perhaps the only individual in town whom the demon Leland Gaunt not only
avoids, but fears. (Note this in addition to Richhie Tozier’s magic cop
impression, and one could build a theory that King views authority – a priest,
a cop, &c. – as the natural antidote to the uncanny.) This is supposedly
due to Pangborn’s night-incorruptibility and willingness to cut through red
tape and speak plain truth to good ol’ country <s>fucks</s> folks.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Pangborn lectures and cross-examines his girlfriend, Polly,
nigh-constantly about her rheumatoid arthritis, going so far as to scowl at her
use of Percodan to treat her pain. In a grotesque metaphor that only a
newly-sober Stephen King could have thought up, Polly’s monkey’s-paw pain
relief pact with Leland Gaunt turns out to be a loathsome spider nestled
against her breast. Which is to say: don’t take anything stronger than aspirin,
kids, no matter how much pain you’re in! Sherriff Good Guy wouldn’t approve,
and besides, drugs are Satan’s spiders!</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">His literary heroine Holly Gibney, a low-tipping, Karen-ass
character who’s like a human version of a Neighborly thread is, in short, not
an aberration. Despite his public feuds with Paul LePage (which, like every
public feud, produced nothing but clickbait publicity for both hand puppets),
despite his no-doubt noble intentions, Stephen King very much stands behind the
odious thin blue line. His authorial drift from horror into detective fiction
is disappointing, but par for our cop-worshiping, death-obsessed culture.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Who can blame him? (Me.) ACAB doesn’t move volume on
e-readers.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-1718695987035934572022-12-17T22:25:00.006-08:002022-12-17T22:25:47.916-08:00MINDGRIFTERS!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCdt0amjiQf-HBVu4jm-H_I7ROOReEmtMapolb-rokmw_l_KVsrjdwnQdg6deOreQ54iS256ofL3TNJBrXYqgXpmh-Bb_rX_ENhBlugK6l4LSL4-emZctQrxsBFA3ImNvGJ6wfuqxOJt2uig3FbfPBi0DnZy5tHYrsb7CVr_Vb1eIR7PgHKDgnuTry/s500/mind1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="500" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCdt0amjiQf-HBVu4jm-H_I7ROOReEmtMapolb-rokmw_l_KVsrjdwnQdg6deOreQ54iS256ofL3TNJBrXYqgXpmh-Bb_rX_ENhBlugK6l4LSL4-emZctQrxsBFA3ImNvGJ6wfuqxOJt2uig3FbfPBi0DnZy5tHYrsb7CVr_Vb1eIR7PgHKDgnuTry/s320/mind1.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Roy
Hazelwood and the Rise of Mind-Reading Police Wizards</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most of what people think they know about so-called
“forensic science” is bullshit, and that fact leads to terrible law enforcement outcomes.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>It’s not their fault. I can’t even lay the blame at the feet
of the unending torrent of procedural <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copaganda">copaganda</a> that floods
popular culture, from <i>Dexter</i> to <i>CSI</i> to <i>Silence of the Lambs</i>
(and my beloved <i>Hannibal</i>). No, I blame the wellspring itself. What
people think they know about forensic science is bullshit because an
astonishing amount of forensic science is, as it turns out, <a href="https://thecrimereport.org/2021/08/11/whats-wrong-with-forensic-science-everything-says-paper/">pseudoscientific
bullshit</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>We can go into bullshit like <a href="https://innocenceproject.org/what-is-bite-mark-evidence-forensic-science/">bite
mark analysis</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_hypnosis">“forensic
hypnosis”</a> another time. For the moment, I’d like to focus specifically on
the art of <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/12/18044688/criminal-profilers-mindhunter-hannibal-criminal-minds">behavioral
profiling</a>; arguably the biggest scam the FBI ever pulled (and that is
saying something, given the FBI’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FBI_controversies">impressive
record of scams</a>). As you may have seen on Netflix’s <i>Mindhunter</i>, based
on the book of the same name by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker, the FBI’s
Behavioral Science Unit spent the late 1970s metastasizing from a relatively
benign nodule of the Bureau’s Training Division into <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/sep/14/psychological-profile-behavioural-psychology">a
magical cabal of wizards and psychics</a> whose <a href="https://debunkingdenialism.com/2013/07/23/the-criminal-profiling-deception/">uselessness</a>
was only outstripped by their <a href="https://www.crimelibrary.org/criminal_mind/profiling/hazelwood/2.html">undeserved
self-assurance</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDU30s2Juspv1AjpksXmazCof8Tjsw36qtI_HgS-BAxBHTgF-pRlkkgD83z_Tu1B8BOQY-XDgpIrAg6F91boZdHZbSlz-UstEb3xVorzwpLnh4-BWY7Ut97THAyx0A2tm7sx-7VRAK60j3POUOzH7JdYNTVZ4OqwwJeX8q7gBrmv3TQbSJTxU7HpQC/s1024/mind2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDU30s2Juspv1AjpksXmazCof8Tjsw36qtI_HgS-BAxBHTgF-pRlkkgD83z_Tu1B8BOQY-XDgpIrAg6F91boZdHZbSlz-UstEb3xVorzwpLnh4-BWY7Ut97THAyx0A2tm7sx-7VRAK60j3POUOzH7JdYNTVZ4OqwwJeX8q7gBrmv3TQbSJTxU7HpQC/w400-h266/mind2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graphic courtesy of The Innocence Project</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s get this out of the way right up front: much of what
the FBI and other law enforcement agencies call “science” is <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/04/fbis-flawed-forensics-expert-testimony-hair-analysis-bite-marks-fingerprints-arson.html">not
science at all</a>. One of the questionable techniques employed by the FBI is
criminal profiling; the mystical art of conjuring a criminal’s identity out of clues
left at crime scenes. You no doubt know exactly what this supposedly looks
like, thanks to brilliant author Thomas Harris. His books (specifically <i>Red
Dragon</i>, <i>The Silence of the Lambs</i>, and <i>Hannibal</i>) gave us one
of fiction’s greatest villains; serial killer, cannibal, role model, and bon
vivant Hannibal Lecter. I love Harris’ books, which are erudite and beautifully
written. Here’s an important thing to keep in mind when enjoying Harris’
characters or their numberless imitations over the years, however: <i>Thomas
Harris writes fiction</i>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>The same cannot be said for John E. Douglas or – more
importantly – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Hazelwood">Roy Hazelwood</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGe62V0lZ-9HNVHMRXhmTAsnQQckAaRRQpp6sERhsaEDsnnZ34aS7w80KJjT7Mr9Jd2M11X_lKp8OZ5pSMNauGRaPcvnmbsBxSGX-MrEiVG2U4-xr3Ws5UsU1r6WO6Y5pQR6kYbXoOeivc_rXoXzIPk17PBqmjo4zTNqT5eENhVwMcAFgh7eYw-itw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="299" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGe62V0lZ-9HNVHMRXhmTAsnQQckAaRRQpp6sERhsaEDsnnZ34aS7w80KJjT7Mr9Jd2M11X_lKp8OZ5pSMNauGRaPcvnmbsBxSGX-MrEiVG2U4-xr3Ws5UsU1r6WO6Y5pQR6kYbXoOeivc_rXoXzIPk17PBqmjo4zTNqT5eENhVwMcAFgh7eYw-itw=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Both John Douglas and Roy Hazelwood are former FBI employees
who have written extensively about behavioral profiling, from its early
development (<i>Mindhunter</i>) to its formal codification as a pseudoscience
with its own particular logic and lurid allure (<i>Dark Dreams</i>, <i>The Evil
That Men Do</i>). While Douglas’ <i>Mindhunter</i> is better known due to its
extremely decent Netflix adaptation, Douglas’ is not the name that law
enforcement professionals invoke when discussing behavioral profiling. That
honor goes to opportunistic entrepreneur, braggart, puritanical racist, and
staple of abnormal psychology courses nationwide: Mr. (<b>note: <i>not</i> Dr.)</b>
Robert Roy Hazelwood.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Roy Hazelwood, who retired in the 1990s and died in 2016,
spent the salad years of his career at the FBI burnishing his “expertise” in
sex crimes; particularly accidental death by autoerotic asphyxiation and crimes
by sexual sadists. It’s interesting that the process of acquiring said
“expertise” involved literally zero psychiatric or psychological study. Let me
repeat that. Roy, the “world’s leading expert” on a subfield of psychology, had
zero book learning and zero degrees when it came to the topic about which he
was considered so learned.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhF-q99ynHH0fk_NhQR-3Kf7IomcT7TZHxEnvLB3WSlfXUU6YzTHQThgk7evts6rDc1DIz5V3oICSwOWJsmRUkSvq7Dgcn9BY9UlRB3oR49qcLsVhiNuVDzPyxjD0bf7Xya9MHyAdBnMBOh7qh-5_TAgDLBg4MScEoz_ESZtZinRbzvUD5C_R5qVPMY" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2322" data-original-width="1400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhF-q99ynHH0fk_NhQR-3Kf7IomcT7TZHxEnvLB3WSlfXUU6YzTHQThgk7evts6rDc1DIz5V3oICSwOWJsmRUkSvq7Dgcn9BY9UlRB3oR49qcLsVhiNuVDzPyxjD0bf7Xya9MHyAdBnMBOh7qh-5_TAgDLBg4MScEoz_ESZtZinRbzvUD5C_R5qVPMY=w242-h400" width="242" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">Of Roy’s two specialties (autoerotic asphyxiation and sexual
sadism), it’s his work in the latter field that I find flabbergasting. The
entire art of so-called forensic profiling consists of speculation, assumption,
conjecture, and “gut feeling.” This last should give one pause, given that “gut
feeling” or “instinct” is the name that humans, barely rational to begin with,
give their bias, fear, paranoia, ignorance, and bigotry. The fact that these
are standard elements of policework to begin with does not excuse an attempt to
sneak “gut feeling” <a href="https://features.propublica.org/blood-spatter/blood-spatter-criminal-justice-courts-forensic-evidence/">past
the gates of science</a>.</div></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p>Roy’s own thoughts on intuition are self-contradictory and inadvertently
quite telling. In <i>The Evil That Men Do</i>, he writes:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></o:p></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p>"</o:p>I just don’t believe there’s such a thing as intuition… I
believe that what we call intuition is simply stored and forgotten experiences
that the conscious mind somehow can instantaneously retrieve, combine, and
process in a way that, superficially at least, seems miraculous or
preternatural."</span></blockquote><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>If there’s one thing that the world doesn’t need, it’s
miraculous or preternatural cops. Remember, these are the people – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-officers-who-hit-their-wives-or-girlfriends/380329/">often
themselves violent</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/19/us/police-sexual-assaults-maryland-scope/index.html">often
themselves inclined to sexual villainy</a> – empowered by the State to
imprison, torture, or murder citizens with near-total impunity. A perfect
example of why Hazelwood’s “intuition-based” profiling is so troubling comes at
the very end of Roy Hazelwood’s <i>The Evil That Men Do</i>. Roy describes a
crime scene at which he freely admits that, upon his first look at the
evidence, he told a coworker “Our unsub [unknown subject] is black. I don’t
know how I know it, I just know it.” Frankly, that sentence alone should have
been enough to open a Justice Department investigation into profiling practices
at the FBI going all the way back to the mid-70s.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I’ve read the entirety of Roy Hazelwood’s oeuvre. His two most
notable books, <a href="file:///C:/Users/Charles/Desktop/amazon.com/Evil-That-Men-Hazelwoods-Predators/dp/0312970609"><i>The Evil
That Men Do</i></a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Dreams-Legendary-Profiler-Examines/dp/0312980116/ref=sr_1_1?crid=A2SL4P3R2BX2&keywords=dark+dreams&qid=1671306908&s=books&sprefix=dark+drea%2Cstripbooks%2C206&sr=1-1"><i>Dark
Dreams</i></a>, proffer some flaccid observations on the practical side of
investigating violent sexual crimes, and even a few psychological insights that
aren’t entirely worthless (for example: Hazelwood claims, and I have no reason
to dispute, that he invented the useful-if-unbelievably-basic distinction
between “organized” and “disorganized” criminals). A few of his psychological
observations are, while unoriginal, not without merit; the power dynamic of
rape being more important than the sexual aspect, for example.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgfvk0rViOslEJTKSb0lqe8SO-GIPQZi1p4qHzoTA2mOzioaC-w6rf_Dc_qqaJm_Q_BPvjfmMoKZg7DrHx7AVL9mTrnqnyIW8nQ-ux6bX4mg_fH0Z9LiMUZfLDMalR4ViXSzULwakFHNzjqbi5bvvICB6TYL_fIEoY5Ud1BIDedFW7GI9cRu-4xbI-m" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="646" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgfvk0rViOslEJTKSb0lqe8SO-GIPQZi1p4qHzoTA2mOzioaC-w6rf_Dc_qqaJm_Q_BPvjfmMoKZg7DrHx7AVL9mTrnqnyIW8nQ-ux6bX4mg_fH0Z9LiMUZfLDMalR4ViXSzULwakFHNzjqbi5bvvICB6TYL_fIEoY5Ud1BIDedFW7GI9cRu-4xbI-m=w400-h398" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of <i>The New Yorker</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, Roy strays very far from his remit nearly
constantly, and with a consistent puritanical bent. According to Roy, both <a href="https://canadiancrc.com/Newspaper_Articles/FBI_USA_Disturbed_Mind_-Compliant_Victims_of_Sexual_Sadist.aspx">anal
sex and BDSM</a> are sexual gateway drugs, a KY-greased slope into Roy’s quite overtly
Christian hell. Am I leaping to conclusions when I label Roy a sexually uptight
G-man? You be the judge. <a href="https://vk.com/wall-81605444_103787?lang=en">On
one occasion</a>, Roy told journalists: “We live in a terrible time where the
relationship between a man and a woman living under the same roof is built on
hatred and mutual humiliation.” Roy has also repeated, ad nauseum, that
pedophiles should be executed out of hand, “for which I was repeatedly called
an executioner and even a fascist.” There’s also the minor quibble that <i>Dark
Dreams</i> is intentionally structured on what Roy considers an unchanging
standard of criminal behavior; namely, that laid down in Augustine’s <i>Confessions</i>,
which starts the journey at “sin begins as an intention.” Some time between 397
and 400. And Roy, adopting Augustine’s <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unconscious-branding/202012/our-brains-make-our-minds-we-know-it">scientifically
invalid model</a>, openly conflates “crime” with “sin” in his formulation;
unsurprising from the sort of crusader who consistently called for the
execution of sex offenders throughout his long, influential life.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I plan on writing more about the differences between crime,
sin, and wrongdoing in the future, but I believe that the above, along with <a href="https://crimereads.com/criminal-profiling-eric-barker/">the abysmal
record</a> of the field he helped to pioneer, suffice to demonstrate that Roy
“Not a Dr.” Hazelwood doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about – but
nothing I’ve read regarding Roy’s lack of self-examination or self-correction
indicates to me that he <i>cares</i> if he knows what he’s talking about. And therein
lies my biggest problem with Roy and the culture of “forensic science” and
“forensic profiling.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqbVLdywfUef_Y80iAwYQccdVMjLT4sMGUpx94ClKHKvLd9qhp9pg-sirMBHHb9CB3Bf3RLnH769d4-_Ht3cUwECOBL8DVlLHLK4kvGnVFC6b3oIxtAZZRSgVDYX-nzMP68YRzC-MxnfVdsh_gTkJFSKxsW3N2oB9SyQ45g5oOO5NPFVwngOp_NUmF" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="350" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqbVLdywfUef_Y80iAwYQccdVMjLT4sMGUpx94ClKHKvLd9qhp9pg-sirMBHHb9CB3Bf3RLnH769d4-_Ht3cUwECOBL8DVlLHLK4kvGnVFC6b3oIxtAZZRSgVDYX-nzMP68YRzC-MxnfVdsh_gTkJFSKxsW3N2oB9SyQ45g5oOO5NPFVwngOp_NUmF=w400-h268" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of Wikipedia</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It doesn’t matter if truth gets mangled and dismembered by
courts too <a href="https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/history-lynching-america">malicious</a>,
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three">ignorant</a>, or <a href="https://www.mylawquestions.com/what-is-a-rocket-docket.htm#:~:text=A%20rocket%20docket%20is%20a,ruling%20on%20motions%20without%20deliberating.">overworked</a>
to fact-check things like bite-mark evidence and forensic profiling. The truth <i>doesn’t
matter</i> to Roy, the FBI, or any of the other numberless predators,
scavengers, and parasites who comprise the criminal justice system. <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/prisondivestment/the-pic-and-mass-incarceration/">Justice
is an industry</a>, not a sacred calling, despite the priestly rhetoric and
holy nonsense that assholes like Roy drape over it like a rotting chasuble.
That should be obvious from the evidence provided by Roy’s own post-FBI career.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Roy, like so many higher-ups in the security state, never
missed a meal thanks to his reputation as a punisher of “bad guys.” Starting
with his time with the Academy Group, Roy made a living selling his “expertise”
to cops, one sold-out hotel conference room and bar tab picked up by a starry-eyed
police lieutenant at a time. Roy was as capitalistically tireless in his
retirement as assholes like George W. Bush or Barack Obama, though I doubt one
of Roy’s little speeches ever clocked $750,000 (<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/former-presidents-speaking-fees-3368127#:~:text=Bill%20Clinton%20%2D%20%24750%2C000">Bill
Clinton</a>) or $400,000 (<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/former-presidents-speaking-fees-3368127#:~:text=Barack%20Obama%20%2D%20%24400%2C000">Barack
Obama</a>). Zoom out, however, and you can see that Roy “my powers told me the
suspect was black” Hazelwood helped spawn an entire <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/fbi-profiler">police-entertainment
industrial complex</a>, a world of police-wizards where brilliant policework (<a href="https://innocenceproject.org/?causes=misapplication-forensic-science">HAHAHA</a>)
allows quirky cop heroes to gaze into mental crystal balls and see into the
minds of perpetrators.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh8TmIprr4mgFpe6LM_Bgj3cdnbUuGjzsTu2GHA1pBC862z-qcOKu5PMVMb9jHuBpiXR2cXONrBdGtMq9mAuaX_FeBgqiBznRpqs5g-0fzSEoitvW0lI4S0BQhUswlLpkn_SmBqS6vD88EnEwuZrdFGYkrPbKHZonpW7cn2uSyLh0oxtJTKs_onk1PL" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1241" data-original-width="1600" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh8TmIprr4mgFpe6LM_Bgj3cdnbUuGjzsTu2GHA1pBC862z-qcOKu5PMVMb9jHuBpiXR2cXONrBdGtMq9mAuaX_FeBgqiBznRpqs5g-0fzSEoitvW0lI4S0BQhUswlLpkn_SmBqS6vD88EnEwuZrdFGYkrPbKHZonpW7cn2uSyLh0oxtJTKs_onk1PL=w400-h311" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That’s what Roy’s “science” and the copaganda of police
profiling amounts to, in the end; psychic cops. I will say this much: while Roy
Hazelwood and his ilk might be grifters, that’s not the worst possible
scenario. The worst possible scenario would be one in which Roy <i>wasn’t</i>
completely full of shit; one in which the minds of malefactors (which includes <a href="https://nicic.gov/growth-incarceration-united-states-exploring-causes-and-consequences">a
hell of a lot of us</a>, by the system’s standards) are legible to our
increasingly murderous and authoritarian security state. I’d rather have
mindgrifters on the case than actual mindhunters. <o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-80443888781636650532022-12-08T13:57:00.002-08:002022-12-08T13:57:47.492-08:00Four Faiths Fractured (Part One)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXrv3EAQzmcou3fmVvQwATaMk5ixG4yt3lLYvvaLLzLn_64GHgGjzB4DD2taB6oqBZtXGHbghuSSCAEn5atAI5K1Tzhhe_rCg3izmE-FU1CdaLebap8AmBvUlm1unwM4DYz5z0kmS0OwhR9nobkvmf0PObwpbmZkz7w4F6OMueLXNlldmNaDrDfkAg/s540/godless.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXrv3EAQzmcou3fmVvQwATaMk5ixG4yt3lLYvvaLLzLn_64GHgGjzB4DD2taB6oqBZtXGHbghuSSCAEn5atAI5K1Tzhhe_rCg3izmE-FU1CdaLebap8AmBvUlm1unwM4DYz5z0kmS0OwhR9nobkvmf0PObwpbmZkz7w4F6OMueLXNlldmNaDrDfkAg/s320/godless.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The very stupidest piece of common wisdom regarding religion
is a hard pick to make. There are many worthy contenders. For my money, “there
are no atheists in foxholes” may be the winner. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">The contention is that, in
times of mortal peril or strain, even snobbish intellectuals must resort to a
bone-deep belief in god(s) whom they would normally deny. “Sure,” this pearl of
wisdom sneers, “you might <i>think</i> with your <i>big old brain</i>, but how
about when I / the State / a foreign army beats the shit out of you and scares
you witless? How smart are you <i>then</i>, Einstein?” If you think that I’m
being too harsh, contemplate why this expression employs “foxholes.” Why not
say that there are no unemployed atheists, or no atheists who are behind
deadline, or no starving atheists? Easy. It’s because the traumatic violence
implied by “foxhole” is central to the threat buried in the expression.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Some no doubt will turn to god(s) in times of crisis. Much
more frequently than they cure snobs of atheism, however, foxholes <i>forge</i>
atheists. The body of literature on the religious crises that followed the
First World War, the detonation of the first atomic bombs, and the other uncounted
horrors of the twentieth century (not to mention <a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/01/26/religion-attitudes-study/">the horrors
of the twenty-first</a>) does <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/september/christian-decline-inexorable-nones-rise-pew-study.html">not
speak highly</a> of religion’s innate ability to help people through a crisis,
though there are always perspectives cherry-picked for their value to the
theist cause.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let me tell you a story about atheists and foxholes. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1nEIJVb3nWYezkpBF5MSbH0xv6sZt-MQCWoslQ6a1Trk_rFJsbNdAafdE0_fNL-Rxflg4BJUW6zX7APnXZzVArplnrdywGKMDk5oKQI1knIsjMf2cm1etl4Le2GKAnQ7YqzG4YJ_JoQae-dcvlIGdL4fTvcUkq05Qm73LAyZPc6Cr9-btB0eIGALU/s720/boom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="720" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1nEIJVb3nWYezkpBF5MSbH0xv6sZt-MQCWoslQ6a1Trk_rFJsbNdAafdE0_fNL-Rxflg4BJUW6zX7APnXZzVArplnrdywGKMDk5oKQI1knIsjMf2cm1etl4Le2GKAnQ7YqzG4YJ_JoQae-dcvlIGdL4fTvcUkq05Qm73LAyZPc6Cr9-btB0eIGALU/w400-h225/boom.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NOT Fallout: New Vegas - possibly one of the blasts my grandfather was a test subject for</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My maternal grandfather, who died a few years ago, spent a
career in the military before retiring. He served in the Second World War in
the Pacific theater. He served in Korea. He served in Vietnam. Throughout the
entirety of his storied career, which involved both time as a paratrooper and
as a test subject for live Army tests of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/590299/atomic-soldiers/">atomic
explosions in Nevada</a> (a true and terrifying story), he was a staunch
atheist. Not a tepid agnostic; he was more of a New Atheist in the mold of
Richard Dawkins. Keep in mind that he publicly and unapologetically took this
stance <i>in the 1940s</i>. Throughout my grandfather’s long life, the
separation of church and state was the single political issue about which he
cared the most. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I would think about my grandfather, atheism, and foxholes quite a bit in later years. I was raised devoutly Catholic and held to that faith
throughout my youth, which was spent in a town that was crushingly,
overwhelmingly, aggressively Mormon. I was young for my grade and not particularly
cool (shocking, I know), and faith in God was a way I sought, and sometimes
found, solace. I still remember managing my social anxiety before I knew there
was such a diagnosis before the first day of middle school by obsessively
repeating <a href="https://allpoetry.com/desiderata---words-for-life">Desiderata</a>
to myself. Throughout grade school and into my early middle school years, I
attended Catholic Sunday school each Sunday, served as an altar boy, and was
eventually <a href="https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and-sacramentals/confirmation">confirmed</a>.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLgQn_R3wvhqV5SHHVP9-OfU1qLeNbYMXJ_rnvnLtsY7CAmEXPJpV6EwlJbKZoLmrvkkAZtQxcIO5BThoP4aTUyU6IGrIJSuKgsqYU3xOJ7-KM0uF8YMjrvNWuHewcxsu-_c_pHDO3gCAxBXl_2VX5GV182fd0X_Yqpiql6Niy0EpWEnmhANZBWKnr/s1600/st%20olafs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1071" data-original-width="1600" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLgQn_R3wvhqV5SHHVP9-OfU1qLeNbYMXJ_rnvnLtsY7CAmEXPJpV6EwlJbKZoLmrvkkAZtQxcIO5BThoP4aTUyU6IGrIJSuKgsqYU3xOJ7-KM0uF8YMjrvNWuHewcxsu-_c_pHDO3gCAxBXl_2VX5GV182fd0X_Yqpiql6Niy0EpWEnmhANZBWKnr/w400-h268/st%20olafs.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Olaf's Catholic Church in Bountiful, Utah</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A friend of mine was raised without any religion at all. Her
parents were professors, and her disconnection from the ambient theology of
America has always seemed remarkable to me. She wasn’t even familiar with the
essentials of the Jesus story until she was in her 30s. When I learned this, I
wondered briefly if my personal belief system(s) might be different had <i>I</i>
been raised without the idea of God. It’s impossible to tell, but I find it
hard to believe that I would be the same lovable soul without the religious
trauma that helped shape me. God, sin, capital-e Evil, hell; the whole horrible
nine yards of Catholicism was folded into my mental material early. At the
time, that grim theology seemed like a tremendous comfort, and of late, I’ve
wondered why. Throughout my life, through both theism and nontheism, I’ve never
understood people for whom religion is “no big deal,” or “something they don’t
think about.” Casual atheism strikes me as ludicrous, as does casual theism.
Why is this the case, though? Why do I consider religion such an important
question?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To start with, the questions that underpin religious truths
or lies apply to more than just theology. I agree with theists on one important
point: faith is more than mere belief without proof. It’s a property of the
human mind as vital to our sane survival as it is illusory, irrational,
destructive, and poisonous. It is a trait that we can’t live without, but which
amounts to the denial of reality on the grounds that it is simply too hard to
accept the unspeakable vacancy of existence. Faith is not a phenomenon limited
to religion, although it is often relegated to that category with vague scorn.
Those who do so – whether they have faith in human progress, Marxism, liberal
democracy, or “a better tomorrow” through continued scientific innovation –
might do well to pause and examine their own belief systems for faith. They may
be surprised to find how much they have in common with theists, since all ideologies,
including those I just listed, rest upon the irreplaceable load-bearing column
of faith. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">God was my first loss of faith, but it wasn’t my last. In
the case of the non/existence of an omnibenevolent, omniscient, omnipotent
deity, what did me in was the ancient unsquarable circle of suffering.
Christianity is a uniquely morbid and hateful faith to be brought up in (though
every faith or ideology is hateful in its own unique way). I say this because
it lays the entire sodden, shrieking meat-load of human suffering at humanity’s
own feet and chalks it up to “immorality.” It quite literally claims that
suffering is a result of an ancient, unforgivable sin, not to mention the
uncountable sins we accumulate by acting the way that human beings are <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Dawn-Stray-Modern-Relationships-ebook/dp/B007679QTG">biologically
programmed to act</a>. Entire libraries of apologia have been written regarding
the questions of “evil” and suffering, and while I won’t claim to have read
them all (even a doctor of theology couldn’t credibly make such a boast), I’ve
read my Aquinas, my Augustine, and even my John Paul II.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the end, however, pulling on the thread of evil revealed
a new, more important question. The question was not whether God would forgive
me my sins: it was whether I could or would forgive God His. My faith began to
unravel with the expansion of my base of knowledge about the conditions of
human existence in the broader world beyond my own small circle of suffering.
I’ve been a Tyle I Diabetic since I was two years old and, as a result, my own
suffering was not small. It was personal, though, and thus it was easier to
plumb the depths of my own behavior in search of that which might justify the
pain, the fear, the seizures, the whole horrible gift basket handed to some
humans to celebrate the occasion of their birth. I had no illusions that I had
it worse than anyone in particular, but as I began to comprehend the depth of
atrocity and unmitigated pain that forms the base strata of all life (not just
human life), two explanations appeared plausible.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9jarSShCL4StDByvH-Sg-IVlc_CUQoCWCJy1wvgP4ImX1RzVU0hZ4qWZOE3Ob30PknCVsR2OPoeqiYeq1QjbeWN1mCokkaZGrFyZ4Db6dkbm-kQwutyiJNZSplyyM74PvOfJP_bI0SAvCMBIai5CZ42qWmC_f-M7C9Za8qX9Hb7NVAIAHBBDwV-9/s1798/aug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1798" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9jarSShCL4StDByvH-Sg-IVlc_CUQoCWCJy1wvgP4ImX1RzVU0hZ4qWZOE3Ob30PknCVsR2OPoeqiYeq1QjbeWN1mCokkaZGrFyZ4Db6dkbm-kQwutyiJNZSplyyM74PvOfJP_bI0SAvCMBIai5CZ42qWmC_f-M7C9Za8qX9Hb7NVAIAHBBDwV-9/w268-h400/aug.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The first explanation was that there <i>was</i> a God, and
that, in the succinct formulation offered by Slayer, “<a href="https://youtu.be/khTw53g5Xmk">God hates us all</a>.” This is a
perspective known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystheism">dystheism</a>,
and includes characterizations of God or the gods as evil, incompetent,
negligent, or otherwise dedicated to ends other than capital-g Good. The second
possibility was that there was, in fact, no god or gods. It did not take me
long to discard the first possibility, which seemed like a paranoid’s delusion
or something <a href="https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Elder_God">out of H.P.
Lovecraft</a>. When I realized that belief in an <i>evil</i> God was absurd, I
realized that the converse was also true; to wit, the perspective that “it’s
all part of God’s plan” or that “everything happens for a reason” is just as
delusional. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The difference between the Happy God delusion and the
Monster God delusion, as any psychologist will tell you, is in the social
acceptability and <i>utility</i> of the delusion.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nontheism is only one portion of this strand of
faithlessness, if one wishes to remain true to one’s reason and principles.
There are any number of people who don’t posit a deity, per se, but believe in similarly
comforting, similarly immaterial things like karma, reincarnation, astral
projection, or other “paranormal” phenomenon. Real, rock-bottom-truth
rationality lends one to a perspective stricter than nontheism; the point of
view known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialism">materialism</a>,
which holds that reality is that which can be measured and observed. This
perspective precludes the idea that our reality is merely an illusion, a
hateful veil of tears through which we must pass on our way to a better, realer
reality*. World-as-hateful-illusion is an interesting form of faith, one which
doesn’t dispute the horrors of reality so much as acknowledge them as the work
of a malign <i>but not all-powerful</i> force (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge">the demiurge</a> in some Gnostic
Christian and Neoplatonic traditions; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_(demon)">Mara</a> in Buddhism; Satan
as “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%204%3A4&version=NLT">the
god of this world</a>” in Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRouV_xvGNReDaWv7QZEv_K6_Ms75zmY23UGRJNS2M5DsADSM3BqHgxojvUX1RUibQ4q2aXbiOF0lJDbJDd4NuYhNH1TXwz-DMItU3etAmZHKKGRs_ql9IfPxgdmcxyeq1CANrizlQnhOlUFKn3U2PCLLNsgoxtcDeCe_YuENKUqnjdKogXRSQSzUN/s184/demi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="184" data-original-width="150" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRouV_xvGNReDaWv7QZEv_K6_Ms75zmY23UGRJNS2M5DsADSM3BqHgxojvUX1RUibQ4q2aXbiOF0lJDbJDd4NuYhNH1TXwz-DMItU3etAmZHKKGRs_ql9IfPxgdmcxyeq1CANrizlQnhOlUFKn3U2PCLLNsgoxtcDeCe_YuENKUqnjdKogXRSQSzUN/w326-h400/demi.jpg" width="326" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Representation of the demiurge</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For me, the death of God didn’t <i>really</i> hit home for
some time. I was among those whom I now call “glib atheists” for a long time; throughout
my teen years and into my early twenties, in fact. Like most people, I dealt
with the harsh realities of a godless universe in the easiest way imaginable: I
did whatever I could not to think about it. Once I <i>did</i> begin to think
about it, I couldn’t seem to stop. With no God to guide events or the conduct
of humanity, we were simply another half-bright species temporarily infesting a
rock in the midst of a universe so vast and uncaring that to fully comprehend
it is to undergo what psychiatric professionals would call <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociation_(psychology)">dissociation</a>.
<br />
<br />
“All right,” I told myself when I could wriggle on the end of the hook no
longer. “There is and never has been a god or gods, nor the reassurance of a
divine or transcendent plan or plane. Moving forward, any truths must account
for a godless cosmos governed by chance and natural law, in which we are who
and what we are due to evolution and the environment in which our species rose
to sapience.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“<i>But</i>,” I argued at that stage in the death of my
faith(s), “we are <i>humankind</i>; we <i>are</i> the gods of this cosmos. If
we put our minds and hearts to good use, surely we can claim the stars one day,
or at least improve our lot on this planet significantly.” In other words,
there were other fires by which I could still warm myself in the frozen darkness
of a godless universe. There was, in a word, <i>ideology</i>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At least, for a while.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">CONTINUED IN PART TWO<o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-49769213269030307172022-11-23T09:47:00.002-08:002022-11-23T10:12:57.165-08:00Art the Clown Sucks<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq68BWFi2IvCkzoqULVNWIwllwY05k9K97cQasrY7eyeeQWughILGmTZs7LKa8PYdarh3nb4Bfpg1boM5RMnO8nX5voyGsz9qFY5KLJ7nrrRTLQ5fD3GyzLOJJXhlDv2mOksdM6BFv2he_AjzBNxw-RB5hA5F4XAHi6vE-FBvcSKTrSu8T7QWDpZ_l/s500/Art1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq68BWFi2IvCkzoqULVNWIwllwY05k9K97cQasrY7eyeeQWughILGmTZs7LKa8PYdarh3nb4Bfpg1boM5RMnO8nX5voyGsz9qFY5KLJ7nrrRTLQ5fD3GyzLOJJXhlDv2mOksdM6BFv2he_AjzBNxw-RB5hA5F4XAHi6vE-FBvcSKTrSu8T7QWDpZ_l/s320/Art1.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Stephen King <a href="https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/blog/stephen-king-3-levels-of-horror#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20acclaimed%20author,but%20in%20cinema%20as%20well.">once
said</a> that there are three levels of horror: “The Gross-Out,” “Horror,” and
“Terror.” Another, perhaps more accessible way to frame these would be to
describe them as body horror, traditional horror, and existential horror.
However, all of these types of horror rely upon a common theme, one articulated
best by the person who I believe crafts the best horror prose in the history of
English literature: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ligotti">Thomas
Ligotti</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span></span></o:p></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ligotti, like many theoreticians and academicians of horror,
notes that the specific violation horror relies on is the revealed existence of
that which, by its intrinsic or acquired nature, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny">should and must not be</a>. This
is most frequently accomplished by inventing or emphasizing a paradox. Our
orderly minds, which believe that we inhabit an orderly world, flee from
paradox and contradiction, whether that contradiction is a living corpse, a
self-propelled puppet, or the invasion of a creature from another realm inimical
to our own. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8i5OT2Y2emmD-OGI6S6m9kQRg54dt1JSVFKGCG_CRQu-iDVtQFArj595eT-k8OLn57uUrXu5Q0xXEGTN-uLOjyix2Sxr_VWOnBNTppk7dMOmcuf0itT0MeSewuPDFz7fCksIPPwP4AnXWXnV92VpP093kEGaUPYYttVcMy_1qK4q9QI_XulroApn/s622/king2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="622" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8i5OT2Y2emmD-OGI6S6m9kQRg54dt1JSVFKGCG_CRQu-iDVtQFArj595eT-k8OLn57uUrXu5Q0xXEGTN-uLOjyix2Sxr_VWOnBNTppk7dMOmcuf0itT0MeSewuPDFz7fCksIPPwP4AnXWXnV92VpP093kEGaUPYYttVcMy_1qK4q9QI_XulroApn/s320/king2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><b>The Tragicomedy of Stephen King</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">
Stephen King, <a href="https://thedarkartsjournal.wordpress.com/ligotti-post-truth/professor-nobodys-little-lectures-on-thomas-ligottis-supernatural-fiction/#:~:text=Ligotti%3A%20the%20reclusive,Detective%20in%202014%3F">in
marked contrast to Ligotti</a>, never tires of <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenKing">offering opinions</a> on horror (and
politics, and culture, and television, and…). As with anything produced en
masse, his opinions are occasionally defective. One of the tropes Stephen King
is most famous for advancing – one might even say originating or significantly
reinventing – is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Novel-Stephen-King/dp/1501142976">the scary clown</a>.
It is therefore odd that one of the things King is most consistently wrong
about is scary clowns. Now, King isn’t wrong about scary clowns in a literary
sense. Pennywise, the titular monster of his 1986 bestseller <i>It</i>, is
without a doubt the archetypical evil clown, and remains one of the greatest
horror villains of all time. What King is wrong about, specifically, is the <i>cinema</i>
of scary clowns.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’ll cite two examples. The first are the television and
film adaptations of <i>It</i>. King – and legions of his fans – went bonkers
for <a href="https://youtu.be/DJWJ6RP55nU">Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise</a>, and
not without reason. Skarsgård did one hell of a job being manic and creepy. The
problem lay in Pennywise’s character design in <i>It: Chapter One</i> and <i>Chapter
Two</i> versus the character design in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_(miniseries)">the 1990 miniseries
adaptation</a>, in which Pennywise was played to <a href="https://youtu.be/4NQrK_MqdJw">brilliant, unequaled perfection</a> by Tim
Curry. King has been as effusive in his praise of the new <i>It</i> movies as
he was in <a href="file:///C:/Users/Charles/Desktop/slashfilm.com/782506/why-stephen-king-hated-stanley-kubricks-adaptation-of-the-shining-so-much/">his
condemnation</a> of Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant adaptation of <i>The Shining</i>,
and that strikes me as odd. Bear with me.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">King criticized Kubrick for directing Jack Nicholson to play
Jack Torrance as more or less unbalanced from the get-go (Kubrick focused on
the <a href="https://youtu.be/UjxQQ5PGSFU">oppressive and disturbing atmosphere</a>
of the Overlook Hotel), and insisted that it was Torrance’s slide from sanity
to madness that presented the story’s true horror. In other words, King didn’t
simply want to display that-which-should-not-be, but to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>juxtapose normality or that which is normally
acceptable with that-which-should-not-be. While I love Kubrick’s film, I think
it’s a fair point.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJx9Dts3hU2rRLJ4vydHwUkYAaidBU9xOh0ZzNINazLfo_zIcgaJNjt8gBgGQz1itRYWFD7p1V9MW3Pc7s-JXzUVw2MIVPQAMSWILjxdZH9tQtEAXQLB0PGWQpYgOMp9DrZTZKK7nvoJb09V6MdKAvd8ECLMJQQHNnpufnGvy8nKoiG6hTORkcySHF/s700/penny.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="700" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJx9Dts3hU2rRLJ4vydHwUkYAaidBU9xOh0ZzNINazLfo_zIcgaJNjt8gBgGQz1itRYWFD7p1V9MW3Pc7s-JXzUVw2MIVPQAMSWILjxdZH9tQtEAXQLB0PGWQpYgOMp9DrZTZKK7nvoJb09V6MdKAvd8ECLMJQQHNnpufnGvy8nKoiG6hTORkcySHF/s320/penny.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is why Pennywise’s <a href="https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/183767/exclusive-original-pennywise-makeup-designer-comments-new-character-design/">character
design</a> in <i>It: Chapters One</i> and <i>Chapter Two</i> is, in my opinion,
not great. From moment one, Pennywise looks like a murderous thing from under a
bridge (which, in fairness, he is). This presents a problem. In King’s text, the
entire reason that the titular galactic horror sometimes dons the persona of
Pennywise the Dancing Clown is to disarm children and lure them to their doom. <a href="https://youtu.be/OPdDdC4go6c">Tim Curry plays this up brilliantly</a>. His
costume would not look out of place at an old-timey circus or on <a href="https://youtu.be/IRLPW8RlUvE?t=58">a 1950s television show</a>. Curry’s
Pennywise cracks jokes. He mugs <i>exactly</i> the way a clown does. Then,
turning on a dime, he's a terrifyingly toothy, monstrous entity wearing the
same skin. It’s the contrast that makes the scary clown scary. Clowns, while
always figures of mixed motives and often destructive designs, have not always
been the <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=scary+clown+mask&crid=3VOVRDNJH395X&sprefix=scary+clown+mask%2Caps%2C198&ref=nb_sb_noss_1">Halloween
horror masks</a> they have become.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This brings me to Stephen King’s second, less forgivable,
and more recent sin: heaping praise on Damien Leone for <a href="https://youtu.be/6KkONLf_ZKU"><i>Terrifier 2</i></a>, about which King tweeted:
“<a href="https://twitter.com/stephenking/status/1583203975351836672?lang=en">TERRIFIER
2: Grossin’ you out old school</a>.” Now, that might not <i>sound</i> like high
praise, but remember the tripartite horror categorization that King elaborated
and I quoted in the opening paragraph of this post. Coming from King, “old school
gross out” is, indeed, praise worthy of going on the movie poster (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj847Pmpl9T/">according to Leone</a>). In my
most forgiving appraisal, this is just an attempt by an aging master of the
horror genre to stay relevant and (again, in my forgiving fantasy) he <i>definitely</i>
hasn’t seen Leone’s other, somewhat less excusable work. That’s my exculpatory
fantasy, because the <i>Terrifier</i> franchise’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_the_Clown">Art the Clown</a> is, put
simply, a bad, lazy character in an inexplicably successful, bad, and lazy string
of literally and figuratively shitty movies.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhW4vQLxSTs8tiz3tvb7FYjTQJ98mOMlpaxB4PsAsjFTtdNBW-YjrUZgM3_EUballcUo_GVMTpqHmlA5LOFfcGjHhRpfn0yiPn3XA8BasUfPibaTOzDlWqi-vkaqNkESkGDkoN0CI_9dMC4ugC8URhxrmoSbmx0mPU79Eqp19EAvddCT97c8FNMvjr/s506/art2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="506" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhW4vQLxSTs8tiz3tvb7FYjTQJ98mOMlpaxB4PsAsjFTtdNBW-YjrUZgM3_EUballcUo_GVMTpqHmlA5LOFfcGjHhRpfn0yiPn3XA8BasUfPibaTOzDlWqi-vkaqNkESkGDkoN0CI_9dMC4ugC8URhxrmoSbmx0mPU79Eqp19EAvddCT97c8FNMvjr/s320/art2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Art the Clown Fucking Sucks</b><br />
In case I haven’t made my feelings clear (<a href="https://madnessheart.press/a-rough-taxonomy-of-evil-clowns-part-one/?v=7516fd43adaa">and
I have</a>, <a href="https://madnessheart.press/a-rough-taxonomy-of-evil-clowns-part-two/?v=7516fd43adaa">in
detail</a>), Art the Clown fucking sucks. <i>Terrifier 2</i> fucking sucked. <i>All
Hallows Eve</i> fucking sucked, and <i>Terrifier</i> fucking sucked,
too. In fact, the first <i>Terrifier</i> more than fucking sucked: I consider it
little better than a slightly higher-budget version of the simulated snuff
films that now-defunct, Tampa-based Internet porn company Electric Chair Productions
used to crank out in the 90s and 00s for would-be serial rapists or murderers
to masturbate to (true story; Pepperidge Farm remembers <a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=googlescholar&id=GALE|A214204999&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=ea4b3fc8">the
unarchived portions of the “wild west” Internet</a>, and so do I). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Terrifier</i> is in the rare category of material that I
consider legitimately antisocial. This is a category which, in my taxonomy, is limited
to “art” like albums from white pride outfits or pornography that simulates
rape, abuse, and incest. Some of that shit is illegal, and some of it is just
hard to find anywhere but the dark web. Art the fucking Clown, on the other
hand, is a runaway success. So much so that, of late, I hear the following question:
“Hey Charles! You like scary clowns, right? Why does Art bug you so much?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOMqD2wTKtqhKVew2_XeiPaAyNqwBW5FM-UmSozRi1P7hF8hOfHkmupYMY1NArwEEDeeKKO-p81fgBv3oBPTGRdm9cyBitDD16Q_v6fHelXfAHtu5zEGf5PwIIMyV5QS4CWXHQmLgrYCHpxbUgfUgNRFyve5QUKDNLRh4WHPdyOZAKWUXFsH1Bg5N/s472/lots%20of%20clowns.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="472" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOMqD2wTKtqhKVew2_XeiPaAyNqwBW5FM-UmSozRi1P7hF8hOfHkmupYMY1NArwEEDeeKKO-p81fgBv3oBPTGRdm9cyBitDD16Q_v6fHelXfAHtu5zEGf5PwIIMyV5QS4CWXHQmLgrYCHpxbUgfUgNRFyve5QUKDNLRh4WHPdyOZAKWUXFsH1Bg5N/s320/lots%20of%20clowns.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">First of all, a minor correction: I like clowns, period. The
<a href="https://youtu.be/GIL3Wkh0a1E?t=197">non-scary ones make me laugh</a>,
the violent anarchistic kind <a href="https://youtu.be/G5jQwy5YGqM">fill my
heart with a song of purest joy</a>, and the scary ones <a href="https://youtu.be/GkwHXxcBr1A">ain’t bad, either</a> (especially in the
hands of aforementioned horror auteur Thomas Ligotti in his “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Songs-Dreamer-Grimscribe-Thomas-Ligotti/dp/0143107763/ref=pd_lpo_2?pd_rd_w=Bub9J&content-id=amzn1.sym.116f529c-aa4d-4763-b2b6-4d614ec7dc00&pf_rd_p=116f529c-aa4d-4763-b2b6-4d614ec7dc00&pf_rd_r=KYTYQBGAX75H174QK7ZM&pd_rd_wg=21Sza&pd_rd_r=8f1abb30-4d62-4a40-a010-a5b36a8f93d6&pd_rd_i=0143107763&psc=1">The
Last Feast of Harlequin</a>”). With that cleared up, allow me to present a list
of my major complaints with the oeuvre of Damien Leone.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>One Sorta-Scary Image Does Not a Franchise Make</b><br />
Who is Art? What drives his murderous lifestyle? Is he alive? If not, is he some
sort of demon? A science experiment run amuck? Is he a serial killer in the
sense of Michael Myers (quasi-mortal), or Jason Voorhees (immortal)? Some of
these questions were answered (clumsily) in <i>Terrifier 2</i>, but dig this:
from Art’s first appearance in a short film in 2008 up until <i>Terrifier 2</i>
– <i>fourteen fucking years</i> – Leone had no cogent answer to any of those
questions, nor did he seem particularly interested in pursuing them.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Some stories can be told in media res (indeed, should be),
and some horror doesn’t need a plot. But there is just no meat on the
unappetizing bone that is Art. Is he mysterious? Sort of, I guess. He kills, he
laughs, he loves. No, actually, he just kills and sort of mimes laughter, and…
that’s it. King’s Pennywise had a very simple motive (it eats fear and likes
the fear of children best), and that fueled an epic, intense, and intensely
well-written book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-King/dp/0670813028#:~:text=Item%20Weight%20%E2%80%8F%20%3A%20%E2%80%8E%203.5%20pounds">that
weighed as much as a prize cheese</a>. All Leone has is an image of a monster;
not even a steady collaborator (Art has been played by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls509020688/">at least two actors</a> so far).
There’s no “why,” and no particular variation in setting or scenario. We’re
always trapped in a dank, crumbling location, usually (literally) painted in
Art’s shit, and Art has some sort of unsanitary-looking torture device. Then Art
just tortures, kills, poorly mimes laughter, and on he goes. Oh, and he's
gross. I suppose that’s a leitmotif, too. Which leads me to…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ15f5WLXm5qdXNnIITecC-lRQfBWeqsTltWyhxVwhxzYyGTL_xAcAsoDVPoyncOIQLzODy6slSzzRIvc0-LNCPmRarVKf7bGCUnfB8sSa6HyQ3AVUuf7XBhHVTRDaSur9VNpPE-4R44hKC28Ls4dfvTqBgQGgrAsThf8weWUghY9jnRYzzcjole2v/s1600/artshit.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1600" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ15f5WLXm5qdXNnIITecC-lRQfBWeqsTltWyhxVwhxzYyGTL_xAcAsoDVPoyncOIQLzODy6slSzzRIvc0-LNCPmRarVKf7bGCUnfB8sSa6HyQ3AVUuf7XBhHVTRDaSur9VNpPE-4R44hKC28Ls4dfvTqBgQGgrAsThf8weWUghY9jnRYzzcjole2v/w400-h166/artshit.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>A Matter of Taste</b><br />
Look, I acknowledge that this second point is highly subjective. Different
people have different “yuck” and “yum” factors, especially when it comes to
horror. But man, oh man, does Art the Clown like to play with his own shit. He
paints a pizzeria in his shit in <i>Terrifier</i>, in <i>Terrifier 2</i> his
little clown-girl friend shits for no evident reason whatsoever on a laundromat
floor and, later, he crafts a whole haunted house room dedicated to shit: you
get the picture. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have been labeled coprophobic before, but after mulling it
over, I don’t think that’s accurate. In fact, reading just <i>one</i> of the
short stories I have published in magazines or anthologies (specifically, my
story <a href="file:///C:/Users/Charles/Desktop/viewbook.at/Baptism">“stuffed” from <i>American Cult</i></a>) will
put the lie to that. However, when I invoke shit, I do it for a reason; one
might even say that I only put it in my work when nature calls. It seems like
Art’s coprophilia is just another random piece of junk plucked from the “yuck”
pile and thrown into the disordered messes that are writer/director Damien Leone’s
attempts to make horror films. And I say “attempt” because…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Haven’t I Seen This Before?</b><br />
Four. I just want to remind you of that fact. <i>Four times</i>, Leone has
taken a bite at this same rotten apple. Of the <i>three</i> preceding films
that featured Art (short film “The 9<sup>th</sup> Circle,” <i>All Hallows Eve</i>,
and <i>Terrifier</i>) none of them advanced the character or pushed toward any
sort of plot in any sense I can recognize. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Other than a few minor variations in manner and degree of
torture-murder, it’s all just plot-free gore porn with a bichrome demon-jester taking
his turn at hell’s bellows this time. If you are intrigued by <i>Terrifier</i>
franchise and haven’t seen any of the preceding films, honest to Satan, please feel
free to skip straight to <i>Terrifier 2</i>. Better yet, skip all of them! Now,
on the subject of <i>Terrifier 2</i> itself…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlGvl9sbrvav7RWb2eOAMwAgg70J98hghcZyqYM1y2U_PJJ0yw4TVltSDY5BxjUM6zZgtVLhGRs0GL-YBx7iaaWNpMl17MwwTqWvLOUhVqn1zgb9_TnztmWF4Dbb7_ljfEzQqjc-cCAj1c0nA7usNyElp7Sc-6-BASC5WKyQPGkE6QXRIZJX3P-St/s780/art3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="780" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlGvl9sbrvav7RWb2eOAMwAgg70J98hghcZyqYM1y2U_PJJ0yw4TVltSDY5BxjUM6zZgtVLhGRs0GL-YBx7iaaWNpMl17MwwTqWvLOUhVqn1zgb9_TnztmWF4Dbb7_ljfEzQqjc-cCAj1c0nA7usNyElp7Sc-6-BASC5WKyQPGkE6QXRIZJX3P-St/w400-h225/art3.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Terrifier 2 *is* Slightly Better. Slightly.</b><br />
Put that on your fucking poster, Leone! <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Terrifier 2</i> marks an innovation in the franchise in a few
important ways. First: Art made me laugh! Twice! (Spoilers ahoy) When, at the
beginning of <i>Terrifier 2</i>, Art unzips his clown suit for the first time,
I literally said to myself out loud: “If Art is naked under that thing, I’ve
got to give this movie at least a <i>little</i> love.” Well, damn me if Art
wasn’t starkers beneath his clown suit (which, really, is the only way to <i>properly</i>
wear a clown suit). Big props to Leone for that, and I don’t mean that as faint
praise. It was incredibly funny. Also, and in the same scene, when Art picks up
a newspaper and does his mime-laugh at the headline <b>FAMILY OF FOUR KILLED IN
HEAD-ON COLLISION</b>, I laughed out loud at that, too. That was downright
Jokeresque. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Second, the film’s “Clown Café” dream sequence is a gem. Funny,
scary, and bless me if the commercial jingle wasn’t clever and catchy. I may
hate Art, but I can’t hate the very decent, very short film buried inside of
the larger failure that is <i>Terrifier 2</i>, and the atrocity that is the
franchise as a whole. If you can excise and watch just this part of just this <i>Terrifier</i>
movie, I would recommend that this be the sum total of your whole experience
with the films.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Third, before filming on <i>Terrifier 2</i> commenced,
Damien Leone discovered the existence of a strange species of Hollywood
wildlife called “a protagonist.” Don’t misunderstand me; I don’t mean a <i>hero</i>.
A monster or villain can be and has been the protagonist of many a fiction.
What I mean by “protagonist” is a character upon whom the action is centered
but who also advances a plot. In many horror films, you even have a
protagonist, an antagonist, and a foil – in fact, <i>Terrifier 2</i> has all three!
<i>Terrifier 2</i> is the first Art the Clown movie that hasn’t simply killed
one introduce-and-dispose character after another with no attempt to
differentiate between different shrieking meat-playthings. While this previous
structure does avoid <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl#:~:text=It%20refers%20to%20the%20last,Scream%20and%20Train%20to%20Busan.">final
girl syndrome</a>, it does so in arguably the worst way possible.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSlr9usMVvydN4Z0SoE4Flt6JCmns255AQ3pUVG0ZtQ4DJIITxyf8ErlkLUNjNaCoXURAtigaDX-BvWVSGutN9xTJm6hGL-aELhYruqMHHNWT5kdN1xdtAvfzzqoVJKnnmXl8ZQAeiLrn-Tbmb19IYP9DFjb6GG5CK7KTDcmccvHIp1mSSBgdCxSK/s394/sienna.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="394" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSlr9usMVvydN4Z0SoE4Flt6JCmns255AQ3pUVG0ZtQ4DJIITxyf8ErlkLUNjNaCoXURAtigaDX-BvWVSGutN9xTJm6hGL-aELhYruqMHHNWT5kdN1xdtAvfzzqoVJKnnmXl8ZQAeiLrn-Tbmb19IYP9DFjb6GG5CK7KTDcmccvHIp1mSSBgdCxSK/s320/sienna.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While the female protagonist of <i>Terrifier 2</i> is a
pretty wretched example of the species, it’s a step. I can’t say it’s a step in
the right direction, as the character seems cobbled together from little more
than daddy issues, chillwave, LARP props, and creepy ephebophilic fan service.
In fact, while we’re on <i>that</i> subject, let’s just get right to it.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>There Never Should Have Been a Terrifier 2</b><br />
The first <i>Terrifier</i> film sort of pissed me off. That’s not something I
can say of very many films. <i>Terrifier</i> did not piss me off with its
transgressive content, nearly all of which was too retrograde to really be
transgressive so. It pissed me off because it had the single most jaw-droppingly
misogynistic, hypersexualized, grand-guignol-level-gore, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Parker_Ray">Toybox-Killer-esque</a> sexual
assault and murder scene that I’ve seen in a “mainstream” horror film. The
scene itself didn’t shock me: not only am I regrettably a student of real-life
atrocity and a product of the 90s/00s Internet, I’ve also trawled the depths of
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryona"><i>ryona</i></a> and 60’s- and 70s-era
grindhouse hits like <a href="https://youtu.be/Dy2At9VOFgM"><i>Blood Feast</i></a>
and <a href="https://youtu.be/P1WtqIkB_7g"><i>Blood Sucking Freaks</i></a>
(often at <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2021/10/mondo.html">Mondo’s
house</a>, for my longtime readers). It did, however, make me feel the way the
revivification of certain “debates” recently has: really? Still? <i>This</i>
shit?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Without getting too deeply into the weeds of abnormal
psychology, the scene in which Art bisects Tara in <i>Terrifier</i> is beyond mere
grotesque misogyny, which remains regrettably common in horror, the genre I
love and to which I have devoted my life. The Art-Tara scene sails straight past
misogyny and into the toxic, lifeless waters of pornographic sexual sadism. Not
only that, it does so without even a fig leaf of character psychology (as is
the case in everything from <a href="https://youtu.be/PBDbeoxHpow"><i>Henry
Portrait of a Serial Killer</i></a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Collector-Back-Bay-Books/dp/0316290238"><i>The
Collector</i></a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Exquisite-Corpse-Poppy-Z-Brite/dp/0684836270/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=exquisite+corpse&qid=1669163808&s=books&sprefix=exquisit%2Cstripbooks%2C189&sr=1-1"><i>Exquisite
Corpse</i></a>). I don’t mind strong stuff when it has a purpose or provides a
glimpse of utter darkness in human form (<a href="https://youtu.be/T5ke9IPTIJQ"><i>Halloween</i></a>,
<a href="https://youtu.be/poxddLZq2k0"><i>The Devil’s Rejects</i></a>). However,
when a scene is, as far as I can tell, only meant to excite a specific brand of
<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10372350/">defective human psyche</a>,
I feel well within my rights to say that while I get what Damien Leone is
“getting at,” I think it – much like Art’s sole non-murderous pastime – amounts
to shit smeared on a bathroom wall. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So! Taking all of the above arguments into account and
reflecting on Art’s lack of depth, maybe you can see why, in my opinion…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBh3bDI6TML8CBrbPAd-ZGP77IZDHlB5UjsanNj7F1YNZSTtI3PyUTJgZgMyoPJnhGqgs6YvRDOurC1lEihL3pZLUhvwmlbFU8ls56f_WQ5l--4hYUlD7EtKwderYukeMs_xa9Y5yjWwL6j6DXjc6gofYSNkjvIVKsHuJ90mPvfTXsC-1-9ldKw4Ox/s455/artsad.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="455" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBh3bDI6TML8CBrbPAd-ZGP77IZDHlB5UjsanNj7F1YNZSTtI3PyUTJgZgMyoPJnhGqgs6YvRDOurC1lEihL3pZLUhvwmlbFU8ls56f_WQ5l--4hYUlD7EtKwderYukeMs_xa9Y5yjWwL6j6DXjc6gofYSNkjvIVKsHuJ90mPvfTXsC-1-9ldKw4Ox/s320/artsad.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>No Contrast, No Color, No Point: Art the Clown Fucking
Sucks</b><br />
When Tim Curry flips from charming clown to toothy monster, we are presented
with that-which-should-not-exist: a contradiction in the form of humor and
horror. In both “The Last Feast of Harlequin” and Ramsey Campbell’s <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Grin-Dark-Paperback-RAMSEY-CAMPBELL/dp/0753513811/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ONQY4ZR87QKD&keywords=grin+of+the+dark&qid=1669164320&sprefix=grin+of+the+dar%2Caps%2C248&sr=8-1"><i>The</i>
<i>Grin of the Dark</i></a>, clowns are treated as like-but-unlike human forms;
grublike or vaguely balloon-like and immaterial, respectively. In my own
contribution to the scary clown subgenre, a short story called “auguste” that
appeared in British anthology <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Deadman-Humour-Thirteen-Fears-Clown/dp/1912674068/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3ILM7FNVVDS8M&keywords=deadman+humour&qid=1669164385&sprefix=deadman+humour%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-1"><i>Deadman
Humour: 13 Fears of a Clown</i></a>, the tale’s murderous clown is contrasted
with his former scruffy-but-loving self in a manner not dissimilar to the way a
character might transform from an ally to a zombie adversary in a living dead
tale.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Art the Clown has no true “before,” not even in the slapdash
backstory that’s half-articulated in a mangled fashion in <i>Terrifier 2</i>.
There’s no contrast, no color: literally or figuratively. Art’s physiognomy is
demoniacal due to prosthetics we see him apply in <i>Terrifier</i>, and there’s
no variation. His face is <i>always</i> grotesque, his teeth black, his eyes
bulging. Art the Clown has one gear and one gear only and that is, frankly,
boring. Gross, misogynistic, dumb, and boring.<br />
<br />
I am a longtime fan of all things clown-related, including disturbing and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>scary clowns. I remain firmly in the camp that
is not jumping aboard Art the coprophiliac Clown’s circus-car bandwagon.<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-46791874227504258812022-05-11T16:57:00.002-07:002022-05-11T16:57:26.090-07:00Cult Books: One Good, One Terrible<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_fOQ0uXaq1S0p8pfNqRx_wuJUCC8cJ2ZKlfeDxJh74OA5DFZea6HQB7G8fHE5JxCNb7VKA-bx44gRl0G7tG0FW-hT2p5MsXeEZwWKp7Amkiz1c1reF7KjXy-oGAVq9e4CTJrPm9MQQz_cWwOT28W5IgS45jXDXIKGW7EGmA-AEnTBfEbiuJCxF-5g/s500/Blank%20500%20x%20500%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_fOQ0uXaq1S0p8pfNqRx_wuJUCC8cJ2ZKlfeDxJh74OA5DFZea6HQB7G8fHE5JxCNb7VKA-bx44gRl0G7tG0FW-hT2p5MsXeEZwWKp7Amkiz1c1reF7KjXy-oGAVq9e4CTJrPm9MQQz_cWwOT28W5IgS45jXDXIKGW7EGmA-AEnTBfEbiuJCxF-5g/s320/Blank%20500%20x%20500%20(2).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">I’ve finished writing a new novel (stay tuned for details) in
which the massacre at Jonestown in November 1978 plays a pivotal role. Both to
research it and because the phenomenon interests me, I’ve read more than a few
books on cults and cultic ideology over the last year.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Some of these I’ve already written about, either to <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-five-best-books-i-read-in-2021.html">praise
them</a> (Tim Reiterman’s <i>Raven</i>) or <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-5-worst-books-i-read-in-2021.html">pan
them</a> (Jeff Guinn’s <i>The Road to Jonestown</i>), but there are a lot more
of them that I haven’t addressed yet. I thought I’d take a moment out of my
busy schedule (eating locusts and wild honey while I mutter to desert ghosts,
mainly) to highlight two that I consider particularly noteworthy. One of them
is quite good, and the other is a perfect example of a terrible author and
thinker at their very worst. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQIUic6YxVnwMpFI_zdgEt8KLwP5RykJN5OUiK5NhR_zv4cjmFbNzOhkU1YuecXWfwWLbCvrcAH7x00u95KDm8erMqv4dk74J5HYPbmcGmrRYZmWfsVn2CDIGF5oYGR73xm9IwAjU8jLgLvUlN2vEW68GV3Wv2UN6M7vnbOSJlfgOG6_CCvMcq6S32/s2386/the%20girls.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2386" data-original-width="1555" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQIUic6YxVnwMpFI_zdgEt8KLwP5RykJN5OUiK5NhR_zv4cjmFbNzOhkU1YuecXWfwWLbCvrcAH7x00u95KDm8erMqv4dk74J5HYPbmcGmrRYZmWfsVn2CDIGF5oYGR73xm9IwAjU8jLgLvUlN2vEW68GV3Wv2UN6M7vnbOSJlfgOG6_CCvMcq6S32/w418-h640/the%20girls.png" width="418" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">First up is Emma Cline’s striking novel <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Novel-Emma-Cline/dp/0812988027"><i>The Girls</i></a>,
which is based on a fictionalized version of the Manson Family and the
Tate-LaBianca killings that rotted out the summer of 1969 and cast a shadow
that continues to blanket North America to this day. Cline’s novel is aptly
named. It focuses on the girls (and a few young women) who surrounded a
middle-aged pimp/guru, and the dynamics that bound them to their grim destiny.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>The action in <i>The Girls</i> takes place from the
perspective of Evie Boyd, an ex-member of the Family, now living in obscurity
and looking back on the events that led her to the very brink of an
irreversible course of action. Primarily, we learn of Evie’s upbringing in a
family of former Hollywood royalty in decline and the alienation and isolation her
dysfunctional family fosters in her. Evie’s attraction to “the ranch” and the
Family is almost entirely based on her sexual awakening by way of an
infatuation with Suzanne, a character based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Atkins">Susan “Sexy Sadie” Atkins</a>,
arguably the most infamous and <a href="https://www.cielodrive.com/susan-atkins-grand-jury-testimony.php">flamboyantly
damaged</a> of the “Manson girls.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>What I love most about <i>The Girls</i> is that it sets up
cultic initiation in the most realistic manner of any novel I’ve read recently.
There’s no “mind control,” no hypnotism, and no dark, incomprehensible forces
at play. Simply people; people living in a California struggling under the
weight of youthful unrest and idealism, and in a country tottering atop the
rotten foundations of American power. It’s a story of young people; primarily
young women struggling with predatory men, and with a patriarchal and
militaristic society that has rejected them as much as they’ve rejected it. As
a character study, it is exquisite. As a look into malignant cults and the
anything-but-malignant motives that draw in most of their adherents, it is impeccable.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Emma Cline’s <i>The Girls</i> won the Shirley Jackson Award
for Best Novel in 2016, and you should <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Novel-Emma-Cline/dp/0812988027">read it for
yourself</a>!</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Now, regrettably, we turn to Steven Hassan’s 2020 nonfiction
work <i>The Cult of Trump</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7Ad3uhz8ZEa4A_AOVGid98AkwFNaJENUIasS4pfaacSW3vLFe2J5ubc74CwCZYwAQXFV5_zldBpdKMwoY1q4pHGAFjxl3lv3SkOMD1K2eNmr2NXlGF1OeRfyuOgqWN07ScsSCBLtzdIzV9FIefLq3Agp2qIaRHhULO7ZXyOz4_CMTjq2aIYwLbHg/s2113/cult%20of%20trump.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2113" data-original-width="1400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7Ad3uhz8ZEa4A_AOVGid98AkwFNaJENUIasS4pfaacSW3vLFe2J5ubc74CwCZYwAQXFV5_zldBpdKMwoY1q4pHGAFjxl3lv3SkOMD1K2eNmr2NXlGF1OeRfyuOgqWN07ScsSCBLtzdIzV9FIefLq3Agp2qIaRHhULO7ZXyOz4_CMTjq2aIYwLbHg/w424-h640/cult%20of%20trump.png" width="424" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Hassan">Steven
Hassan</a> is a curious fellow, and one for whom I feel a commensurately
curious loathing. His “claim to fame” is that he was a member of the Reverend
Sun Myung Moon’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCfvGOeBJtw&ab_channel=ABCNews">Unification
Church</a>; the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, <a href="https://youtu.be/-s1fHtIVqiQ">if you’re nasty</a>. The Unification Church
is one of the world’s better-known and longer-lived religious cults. Hassan was
a Moonie (as followers of Moon are popularly known) for “more than two years”
according to him, and even acted as a recruiter. Once he was “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprogramming#Procedures">deprogrammed</a>,”
he became a “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprogramming#Effectiveness_and_harm">deprogrammer</a>”
himself, although he has distanced himself from that movement’s more crazed,
barbaric methods since 1980. Those methods, by the way, have included
kidnapping, assault, criminal conspiracy, and other criminal acts, and
prominent “deprogrammers” like the so-called father of deprogramming, Ted
Patrick, have done time for it. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>The problems don’t stop there. Steven Hassan claims to be <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/01/hypnosis">a hypnotist</a>, believes
in the debunked pseudoscience of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20scientific%20evidence,and%20contain%20numerous%20factual%20errors.">neurolinguistic
programming</a> (or NLP), and, furthermore, believes in the outdated and
thoroughly unscientific concept of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing#:~:text=On%2011%20May,issue.%22%5B64%5D">mind
control</a>. This thumbnail sketch should amply illustrate why I detest Hassan
as much as I detest other media staple public pseudointellectuals like <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/scaachikoul/dr-phil-mcgraw-mental-health-danielle-bregoli">Doctor
Phil</a> or Glenn Beck’s pet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Barton_(author)#:~:text=In%20August%202012,had%20been%20sold">not-a-historian
David Barton</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cult-Trump-Leading-Explains-President/dp/1982127341/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1652293660&sr=8-1"><i>The
Cult of Trump</i></a> is the type of “explainer” book that became a boom
industry after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. For a good chunk of
Americans, the election of a game-show host and proudly ignorant fascist was
inexplicable instead of the inevitable culmination of forces that have been
gathering in American politics and social mores <a href="http://www.thewaroneveryone.com/">for a century</a>. How could so many
people vote for Trump? Was it misguided anti-elite sentiment? Racism? The
product of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/closure-epistemic/">epistemic
closure</a>? (Hint: probably all of these factors and more.) Not to Steve
Hassan! To him, Trump’s repetition and mid-sentence self-contradictions aren’t
signs of a poor vocabulary and cognitive decline, but brilliant hypnotic
techniques (to back up this claim he cites - I shit you not - <i>Dilbert </i>creator and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/qanonanonymous/episode-43-scott-adams">widely-mocked dim bulb</a> Scott Adams). The Trump fervor of outlets like Fox News and Breitbart aren’t just
items in the long history of party newspapers, they’re “mind control.” And,
just as the title of his book states so matter-of-factly, Trump supporters aren’t
people with different values from Hassan and other Boomer libs; they’re cult
members.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>It’s difficult to pick where to begin with this
loosely-packed gunny sack of total and complete bullshit. There’s the fact that
it minimizes individual choices by voters, not to mention different conceptions
of morality and value hierarchies. It simplifies a complicated interplay of
political, economic, and social forces into something scary-sounding that
pathologizes, minimizes, and belittles, all while pretending to a scientific
rigor that is utterly lacking in anything Hassan has ever written (this is a
guy who thinks that <a href="https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/royal-family-meghan-markle-prince-harry-cult-opinion">Great
Britain’s royal family is a cult</a>, by the way). He cites <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17449118/stanford-prison-experiment-fraud-psychology-replication">fraudulent</a>
and <a href="https://www.psypost.org/2019/11/unpublished-data-from-stanley-milgrams-experiments-casts-doubts-on-his-claims-about-obedience-54921">debunked</a>
sources. He thinks that the CIA’s grotesque MKULTRA clusterfuck was a
masterpiece of secret government at its most devious, instead of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Ashes-History-Tim-Weiner/dp/0307389006">a
total failure perpetuated by an agency that was better at convincing people it
was scary than at actually succeeding in any of its missions</a> (other than
two; a coup in Guatemala and the installation of the Shah in Iran). He exhibits
the paranoia, lack of skepticism, and starry-eyed belief in the world as a
better place than it is that characterize the worst tendencies of Baby Boomer
liberalism. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUd4wC_oo6qikfW0eIiudyLlX8t_On1PvePs4c_C7Uz1lteDW3xd0OZoHEenmi4BzYTJ-802sBgJIW3u8D1g1xCyUnu4RsnEx_yHPs5EE6z8btSr4c435Wle3UEZ4LsIj484D5i0-nhou68HzGnHKdn9RWF8jPPZo_0JSuY8a5HotdnYwnM3zgtvBd/s640/giphy.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUd4wC_oo6qikfW0eIiudyLlX8t_On1PvePs4c_C7Uz1lteDW3xd0OZoHEenmi4BzYTJ-802sBgJIW3u8D1g1xCyUnu4RsnEx_yHPs5EE6z8btSr4c435Wle3UEZ4LsIj484D5i0-nhou68HzGnHKdn9RWF8jPPZo_0JSuY8a5HotdnYwnM3zgtvBd/s320/giphy.gif" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here's a tip based on my own experience that you may find
helpful. If someone starts to talk about “CIA mind control” and “hypnotic
programming,” I suggest you do two things. 1. Listen intently, because what
they are about to say is probably going to be a wild fucking ride. But while
you do this: 2. Feel free to discount the speaker’s opinions in their entirety.
The saddest thing about <i>The Cult of Trump</i> is that it isn’t a wild ride;
no adrenochrome, ala QAnon, or even weather control machines. Just the same
tired fucking “false consciousness” narrative that drives 99% of the books in
the highly-profitable Trump-explainer subgenre of bad pop-politics.<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-71279310387511267132022-03-31T08:53:00.000-07:002022-03-31T08:53:59.405-07:00Horror, Conspiracists, and Politics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii61kVUhXgC02NBXszBT_fmDnKdZCMgL93sm45P2mM3MKK0Ldr57vIkaGug5IFIIZC5M99x2-JFqxB__NfzIwDOztswc0Df7xCFtl6OftVnlixh-l23xlZoiPoP2Iwpw2RKAZvcrzG_ADR0KQDooFREjHFMh7eOKWKJVhZzEOchNpRhJqRJOXgDnK0/s500/Blank%20500%20x%20500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii61kVUhXgC02NBXszBT_fmDnKdZCMgL93sm45P2mM3MKK0Ldr57vIkaGug5IFIIZC5M99x2-JFqxB__NfzIwDOztswc0Df7xCFtl6OftVnlixh-l23xlZoiPoP2Iwpw2RKAZvcrzG_ADR0KQDooFREjHFMh7eOKWKJVhZzEOchNpRhJqRJOXgDnK0/s320/Blank%20500%20x%20500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Humans tell stories constantly: to ourselves, about
ourselves, and about the world. Collectively, the stories we tell and are told
make up culture. It is thus worth noting which stories we choose to tell and, vitally,
how closely those stories map the real, material world. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a>This checking of our
narratives with verifiable reality is a vitally important exercise that has
become increasingly rare, and the effects have been especially pernicious in
American politics. From the disastrous and counterproductive “War on Drugs”
(driven more by <i>Scarface</i> and <i>Miami Vice</i> than
by data and research) to the anti-scientific information illiteracy preached by
programs like <i>Ancient Aliens</i> and <i>The 700 Club</i>,
some fantastical political fables have bled into American culture in ways that
make us, to be blunt, dumber, meaner, and crazier.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wfLzyhQoPOYP616XHb8Hgfzba_WK0gTrxETVDwJrKjYImDUxIwcAomBlLFe2ehMAX6y0fDTLVGUNFZN-0tZDbhKJYChcDIYYAvIErKZEDPOdgcNlJ4m85YB3bfiHaDWgGX_qnvwNOtCSj5t_Cmgmw9BExPeXc2oslUoPkQnW2sntczlYtlSBwJUU/s500/mARX.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="375" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wfLzyhQoPOYP616XHb8Hgfzba_WK0gTrxETVDwJrKjYImDUxIwcAomBlLFe2ehMAX6y0fDTLVGUNFZN-0tZDbhKJYChcDIYYAvIErKZEDPOdgcNlJ4m85YB3bfiHaDWgGX_qnvwNOtCSj5t_Cmgmw9BExPeXc2oslUoPkQnW2sntczlYtlSBwJUU/w300-h400/mARX.png" width="300" /></a></div><p>Stories of devils, monsters, and witches are much older than
America, of course, but we seem unusually given to believe that such fantasies
are factually true. In our history we’ve conjured up fearsome (and fictitious)
adversaries ranging from Salem all the way to Joseph McCarthy. However, just as
both “pop culture” and “horror movies” can be understood as products of
modernity, the political weaponization of horror has been the subject of modern
innovation; more specifically, innovation by the American Christian Right. This
process began in the 1960s and by the Trump era it culminated in its logical
terminus; <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnK36BRBVEiwAsMT8WOjTMgHjMuwwWCYOL2fkfado5OQs9hbTcCUqDZvBun3G0hGFVusrgBoC7JYQAvD_BwE" target="_blank">the apocalyptic death cult called QAnon</a>.</p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When one digs just below the surface of American conspiracy
culture, it’s remarkable how much of it is unapologetically cribbed from Hollywood.
Alex Jones contends that the science fiction movie <i>Oblivion</i> literally
contains “<a href="https://www.infowars.com/alex-praises-anti-illuminati-film-oblivion/" target="_blank">the globalist playbook for their endgame</a>.” Similarly, much
of QAnon’s mythology is based on <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-qanon-became-obsessed-with-adrenochrome-an-imaginary-drug-hollywood-is-harvesting-from-kids" target="_blank">an outlandish blood libel</a>, itself based on a fictional
drug <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6kFCNsnQpQ" target="_blank">invented
by Hunter S. Thompson</a> for <i>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas</i>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_William_Cooper">Milton “Bill” Cooper</a>,
an OG UFO weirdo and the man whose original radio gimmicks were stolen wholesale
by Alex Jones thought that the “Luciferian New World Order” could be understood
through <i>Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey</i>. Most conspiracists, when
confronted with the reasonable query “you know that’s <i>fiction</i>, right?”
respond with the remarkable assertion that, due to some cosmic/theological
loophole or another, the Enemy must hide their plans in plain sight. All the
better to beguile and pacify the populace that way, too (I guess?). <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeC9LATQ50_n4mYZ7U-XCWMwl50Taq-ITTN057pHw4TuVvIU5jav3DzDYr35A_5PezDG6Aw-KFvvEVB2i9kLqGm8wpSpWSS64AIF1uLqWLUq-04kLxgNjY6oMs6qBYGi4Late0PyWD3yCylZfNyp25r86qY0CnxdDIB0aUV4WTpt6hYckdu8vMDB51/s585/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="388" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeC9LATQ50_n4mYZ7U-XCWMwl50Taq-ITTN057pHw4TuVvIU5jav3DzDYr35A_5PezDG6Aw-KFvvEVB2i9kLqGm8wpSpWSS64AIF1uLqWLUq-04kLxgNjY6oMs6qBYGi4Late0PyWD3yCylZfNyp25r86qY0CnxdDIB0aUV4WTpt6hYckdu8vMDB51/w265-h400/1.png" width="265" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">No genre of fiction – not even sci-fi – has had a deeper
impact on conspiracist thinking than horror. While in the past <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein" target="_blank">anti-scientific</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cask_of_Amontillado" target="_blank">anti-Masonic</a>,
and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula" target="_blank">anti-European</a> themes
had been explored by horror, it was horror’s modern embrace of diabolism (beginning
with <i>Rosemary’s Baby</i>) that proved to have the most lasting
(and pernicious) effect. <i>Rosemary’s Baby</i> is a tale whose
outlines should be familiar to anyone acquainted with the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/24/accused-of-satanism-they-spent-21-years-in-prison-they-were-just-declared-innocent-and-were-paid-millions/" target="_blank">long, horrible history</a> of <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/tony-norman/2020/08/25/QAnon-conspiracy-theory-Elders-Zion-blood-libel-cannibalism-pedophile-Democrats-Trump/stories/202008250020">blood
libel</a>, lies, and <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/why-are-right-wing-conspiracies-so-obsessed-with-pedophilia/">calumny</a> that
surround <a href="https://theconversation.com/demons-of-the-deep-state-how-evangelicals-and-conspiracy-theories-combine-in-trumps-america-144898" target="_blank">ideas of Satanic conspiracy</a>. Rosemary, a young mother-to-be
used as an incubator by a network of Satanists that includes her husband and
their neighbors. This secret cabal conspires to corrupt Rosemary and bring
about the birth of the Antichrist, ringing in a new Satanic era. One could
argue that <i>Rosemary’s Baby</i> was the first modern <a href="https://twitter.com/qanoncomrade/status/1264321084289175553" target="_blank">proto-QAnon story</a>. It’s essentially all there save for the
harvesting of <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-dark-virality-of-a-hollywood-blood-harvesting-conspiracy/" target="_blank">adrenochrome</a> and <a href="https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/qanon-gop/" target="_blank">Donald J.
Trump busting in</a> at the last moment like the Kool-Aid Man to save
Rosemary from peril.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I remember a time when even political junkies didn’t know
what QAnon was. Those days are, regrettably, behind us. Now, even most <i>Time</i>
or <i>Newsweek</i> readers know the basics, if not the more grotesque details.
The QAnon cult – complete with its stories of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-children-rescued-tunnels/fact-check-35000-malnourished-and-caged-children-were-not-recently-rescued-from-tunnels-by-u-s-military-idUSKBN23M2EL" target="_blank">mole children</a>, blood-drinking Satanists*, and
“frazzledrip”** – has grown beyond my most pessimistic predictions. A movement
that is essentially <a href="https://argcourse.com/2019/03/08/netprovs-vs-args-vs-larps/" target="_blank">a horror LARP (live-action role playing game) or ARG
(alternate-reality game)</a> for unbalanced people and shut-ins would be fucking
hilarious if it hadn’t already <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/anthony-comello-gambino-mob-boss-shooting-suspect-radicalized-by-qanon-far-right-sites-even-trump-lawyer-says" target="_blank">racked up a body count</a> and <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/08/14/colorad-mom-qanon-kidnapping-plot/" target="_blank">led to kidnappings</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/us/pizzagate-attack-sentence.html" target="_blank">shootings</a>. QAnon is on the FBI’s list of <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-trump-qanon-conspiracy-theory-20200820-m6oeff7wojf77dyeupvl7u6xbu-story.html" target="_blank">domestic extremist threats</a>. In its apocalypticism, its
growing number of adherents, its cultic freneticism, and its encroachment into
the realm of legitimate political power, QAnon is deeply reminiscent of another
cult: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleph_(Japanese_cult)" target="_blank">Aum Shinrikyo</a> (now rebranded as Aleph, and still <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/russia-detains-dozens-suspected-members-japanese-doomsday-cult/story?id=38160952" target="_blank">a presence in Russia</a>). Shoko Asahara, the madman at the helm
of Aum, was hanged to death in 2018 for the mass murder of commuters in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35975069" target="_blank">a 1995
subway gas attack</a>, but before his arrest, Aum/Aleph tried to make inroads
into <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/aum-shinrikyo-the-japanese-killer-cult-that-wanted-to-rule-the-world" target="_blank">legitimate political power</a> in Japan, despite the
horror movie beliefs of its members and the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/aum-shinrikyo#:~:text=Introduction,on%20the%20Tokyo%20subway%20system." target="_blank">overt doomsday fixation</a> of its ideology. Aum also had
a weird relationship with mass media, promoting their beliefs through the
popular Japanese media of <a href="https://youtu.be/yO_ewrEc820">anime</a> and <a href="http://www.japansubculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/aum_comics_1.jpg">manga</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOIbPiixhyKNfmLewyqiAfBfnQ8otG067A1tC8CFcKlbwvKxNC7EsgVLoZwfROrs2eIgPG15cUII0i8J_pHxmalnVV4Frmb0kogt-qt1unVZu-6srQSgkv1d1r68-TNfncxCxSI_-ryw0UGJ0ACSKWt1gb8WGJ8w0RtY2TXXC7oa9dSJlBLgantd2/s360/93503.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="360" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOIbPiixhyKNfmLewyqiAfBfnQ8otG067A1tC8CFcKlbwvKxNC7EsgVLoZwfROrs2eIgPG15cUII0i8J_pHxmalnVV4Frmb0kogt-qt1unVZu-6srQSgkv1d1r68-TNfncxCxSI_-ryw0UGJ0ACSKWt1gb8WGJ8w0RtY2TXXC7oa9dSJlBLgantd2/w400-h400/93503.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Obviously, I <i>love</i> horror. More than that, I
love political horror; stories which examine the social issues that
face us in real life, but do so through an exaggerated and Gothic lens.
I’ve <a href="https://madnessheart.press/american-cult-part-two-a-few-words-in-praise-of-the-purge/?v=7516fd43adaa" target="_blank">written</a> on the <a href="https://madnessheart.press/american-cult-part-three-whose-stories-get-told/?v=7516fd43adaa" target="_blank">subject</a> at Madness Heart Press, and have written
political horror myself (if you’d like to read an example, my short story
“stuffed” is a good place to start, and is available in <a href="https://madnessheart.press/product/american-cult-anthology/?v=7516fd43adaa" target="_blank">the anthology <i>American Cult</i></a>). That said, it is
vitally important to remember a few things when approaching the genre: When
horror stories infect politics in real life, when myths, hysteria, and outright
fearmongering are fomented for ideological purposes, the results <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/salem-witch-trials" target="_blank">are inevitably catastrophic</a>. Worth noting, too, is the
short and brutal history of <a href="https://lawandreligion.com/sites/law-religion/files/Alexander_0.pdf" target="_blank">fascism’s relationship to such narratives</a>. What we are
seeing now is an unholy (or, rather, an <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/the-bottom-line/2020/09/unholy-alliance-trump-evangelicals-qanon-200916070227251.html" target="_blank">all too holy</a>) union between the religious-political cultic
milieu and the horror milieu. Right-wing and conservative politics have become
a fantasy world in which horror movie monsters are literally real and fear
lurks in every shadow and beneath every bed. It would, like so much during the
Trump/QAnon era, be <i>fucking hilarious</i> if we didn’t have to actually live
through it ourselves.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At its most basic level, government is not about convoluted
theory or flowery speeches. It’s a matter of resource (re)distribution, public health,
infrastructure, and other mundane, wonky concerns. The injection of religion
into this arena <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/29/health/utah-abortion-law-fetal-pain/index.html" target="_blank">has been heinous enough</a> to this point. The threat that
modern conspiracy culture represents is even worse; a degradation of theocracy
into <a href="https://time.com/5771920/trump-paula-white-miscarriage-satanic-pregnancies/" target="_blank">an overtly fascistic death cult</a> with actual, literal
witch-hunts as its goal. We’ve been here before, and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JVVsAAAAIAAJ&q" target="_blank">“Michelle”
isn’t the only one who remembers</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">*: I am a Satanist. I have been to – get this – <i>many</i>
Satanic rituals. I have yet to see someone consume human blood.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">**: This is a warning before you Google that word. No,
really. QAnon goes to some places darker than you could possibly imagine. <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2018/12/12/18136132/google-youtube-congress-conspiracy-theories" target="_blank">You were warned</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-20783193775826379732022-01-18T08:20:00.001-08:002022-01-18T08:34:02.159-08:00The Unlightable Bareness of the Bonneville Salt Flats<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjohxLw7SIajuKJ28LCxiy76qvvCIjuOXncKBHJ1Tj_GYD31apjUz3KRf3lzFx1hb9TDWkLOK8kRzsUJXPK08NxWl7Srfs_yMcBekXmnKi1m3eYpvyz_SIzXE4njYhUR3QQeb_F9myElBzWheRycU8POHp5f2A0kMjhmLhazYafNjQqyHF9lM2mp5Ig=s2000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjohxLw7SIajuKJ28LCxiy76qvvCIjuOXncKBHJ1Tj_GYD31apjUz3KRf3lzFx1hb9TDWkLOK8kRzsUJXPK08NxWl7Srfs_yMcBekXmnKi1m3eYpvyz_SIzXE4njYhUR3QQeb_F9myElBzWheRycU8POHp5f2A0kMjhmLhazYafNjQqyHF9lM2mp5Ig=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Titled with <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/376191375095240958/?nic_v2=1aXgp3f94">apologies
to Max Cannon</a>)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Stand just about anywhere in the Salt Lake Valley and cast
your gaze up at the Wasatch Mountains. You will be greeted by a series of
sedimentary shelves that mark the feet of the mountains like rings in a
bathtub, or the shadow left on the concrete by a puddle when it dries. When the
light hits the Wasatch at just the right angle it’s a beautiful sight, a rich
layer cake of color and texture. The Wasatch Mountains are only <i>one</i> of
the innumerable natural wonders of my home state.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrJRWlcc7HFEupdoiXaX2oyb-uiEiXBRQsyhkzWf_bR8tTeRmMb8WsxGYoic7cG21Y-0zhdHf3VCoNSx2cr1eR0MhhIpiG86Mms6U6zS36-NoHOspwSnsIMYZ9wBHcxD5TBR00KxjX4HNvo0ri9z18ewfjideLLnYo4I4OeESSUqV6W4AseY9v84jm=s750" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="750" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrJRWlcc7HFEupdoiXaX2oyb-uiEiXBRQsyhkzWf_bR8tTeRmMb8WsxGYoic7cG21Y-0zhdHf3VCoNSx2cr1eR0MhhIpiG86Mms6U6zS36-NoHOspwSnsIMYZ9wBHcxD5TBR00KxjX4HNvo0ri9z18ewfjideLLnYo4I4OeESSUqV6W4AseY9v84jm=w400-h266" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">This spectacle is the geological fingerprint of <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f5011189bdc94545b9231d56e4ffc1e4">Lake
Bonneville</a>, a late Pleistocene-era paleolake that once shrouded most of
Utah in its chilly depths. At its largest, about 15,000 years ago, Lake Bonneville
was 1,000 feet deep and covered 20,000 square miles, making it easily the
largest inland lake in North America at the time. As the geologic eras ambled
by and the Bonneville Flood unleashed the ancient lake, draining it forever, it
left sediment on more than the walls of the Wasatch. One gift that this
sediment gave the world is an expanse of nothingness known as <a href="https://utah.com/bonneville-salt-flats">the Bonneville Salt Flats</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a previous post at Madness Heart Press (“<a href="https://madnessheart.press/american-cult-part-one-the-empty-places/?v=7516fd43adaa">The
Empty Places</a>”), I addressed the specific horror of rural America, of the
forgotten places behind twists of barbed wire where few know what goes on. The
Salt Flats certainly qualify as rural – beyond rural, I’d call them downright
desolate. They’re located in northwestern Utah, far from human habitation.
But the Salt Flats represent a natural horror that is unique in its nullity,
its utter <i>lack</i>. There is a horror peculiar to emptiness; we feel it
when faced with darkness, whether that darkness exists in the depths of a
cavern, in a lightless wood, or in a musty basement. But there’s
a different horror specific to the salt flats’ brutal brand of
nothing that goes beyond darkness; it’s an emptiness that you can <i>see</i>.
An emptiness, in fact, you can even taste (should you be so inclined).<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEig0AfUMQUvA8AHf5LZ0SUauA61UYXV0JJp_ffmHcHuFETAPNg0Csi9RjKvyqrvRFltN3Vgc-L4_1QnerKxykZxuMLnsbHzLeEtmbg3bvcCuSRkhUat-atSFXsjXwq3GnEA0ooEziEJlyqQPXzMMYIL0gFHidv_l106syUyQGZp5G4BDn0hm5mMb-8f=s768" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="768" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEig0AfUMQUvA8AHf5LZ0SUauA61UYXV0JJp_ffmHcHuFETAPNg0Csi9RjKvyqrvRFltN3Vgc-L4_1QnerKxykZxuMLnsbHzLeEtmbg3bvcCuSRkhUat-atSFXsjXwq3GnEA0ooEziEJlyqQPXzMMYIL0gFHidv_l106syUyQGZp5G4BDn0hm5mMb-8f=w400-h299" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">On a sunny day the Salt Flats put me in mind of my Catholic
upbringing and the concept of Purgatory (or Limbo). Purgatory is supposedly a
murky place trapped in the grey area between heaven and hell, a place for dead
souls neither good enough for Paradise nor bad enough for the Inferno. There,
they while away the eons until Judgement Day. Purgatory frightened me in a way
that the stories I absorbed about eternal suffering and torment did not; at
least in hell, you’ve got something to do, people to hang out with,
interesting things to look at. Limbo, in a way, is the mythological equivalent
of the Salt Flats, a vast erasure that is the result of a bygone
theological/geological event that left the landscape permanently scarred.</p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhViZPBmzrSxQW978KVD3t1Oti9TfhKdH-FzpUDh8ziJHoufzegm1_LFfL7EzcEo5Fhzu5ixnYc-008OiQs8_cBA20y_El7Yul0ookBtmdWPn-WVoyUTSC3Dm-4dJf0nsg0f5D7GOl5Nj4iagUSVR87genciooY141c6JAc9OiyhtDMWorlUqijt-_w=s800"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhViZPBmzrSxQW978KVD3t1Oti9TfhKdH-FzpUDh8ziJHoufzegm1_LFfL7EzcEo5Fhzu5ixnYc-008OiQs8_cBA20y_El7Yul0ookBtmdWPn-WVoyUTSC3Dm-4dJf0nsg0f5D7GOl5Nj4iagUSVR87genciooY141c6JAc9OiyhtDMWorlUqijt-_w=w400-h268" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">There is no Satan of the Salt Flats. But as with so
much, the Devil’s absence shouldn’t reassure you too much. All that is
necessary to experience the full lethality of the salt desert is time,
distance, and heat; all of which the Flats are more than happy to provide in
abundance. Sometimes horror has no face, no form but a vast and endless
nothing, a place for abandoned souls to wander.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-38926571260323510422021-12-31T11:02:00.000-08:002021-12-31T11:02:10.008-08:00The Five Best Books I Read in 2021<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzBYkHpmfe23I2d88msJhdvyRvy7NnjvibCxzHaNc1x34I2CvfY1d2R0NbpW3sorA_H4P8FWhz_w3Ltxo9hI2E9JnBH_4G_j5G5zJC5sOJcGvJFzr8JqCBqo5jcPWBIwEnT7Rkx3tq4Trj7OUepSMWGlQELxFSJp14SuPc6n0vpzH_TNKf0MJi5_EJ=s500" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzBYkHpmfe23I2d88msJhdvyRvy7NnjvibCxzHaNc1x34I2CvfY1d2R0NbpW3sorA_H4P8FWhz_w3Ltxo9hI2E9JnBH_4G_j5G5zJC5sOJcGvJFzr8JqCBqo5jcPWBIwEnT7Rkx3tq4Trj7OUepSMWGlQELxFSJp14SuPc6n0vpzH_TNKf0MJi5_EJ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">As 2021 slides gently into oblivion like a moonlit funeral
barge on a wine-dark sea, let’s reflect! 2021 was a complicated year for me but
even in the midst of the madness, books were – as they always are – a tremendous
comfort. Let’s have a fond look back at the cream of the crop; the five best
books I read this year!<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Have you ever had a friend who is preternaturally good at
recommending books? I’ve got one of those! Credit where credit is due: my
friend <a href="https://www.instagram.com/offermoser/">Astrid</a> brought more
than one of these to my attention, as well as others that I did not include
because of space constraints. Thus, she has earned a special “thanks, buddy!”
from me in this post. With that slovenly act of praise out of the way, let’s
get to it!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigYBoVPEk2y8SWk--NzUl4O1wULMZpqgqMCNqvcrvfFKeWLjcuKRYipe0DW_L0iZN09ZSc6L6zJBRewrXkgT2Yh-d4HRmA3qhbGKthmRPYv4hIr7Uppm3mYpcjt0fQFhAyBUQSDNVx2GnOxRTUYVnxNb_E5gNzLh89ieQKQs5fEgCd0SXDf-9K0dPL=s396" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="246" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigYBoVPEk2y8SWk--NzUl4O1wULMZpqgqMCNqvcrvfFKeWLjcuKRYipe0DW_L0iZN09ZSc6L6zJBRewrXkgT2Yh-d4HRmA3qhbGKthmRPYv4hIr7Uppm3mYpcjt0fQFhAyBUQSDNVx2GnOxRTUYVnxNb_E5gNzLh89ieQKQs5fEgCd0SXDf-9K0dPL=s320" width="199" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">5) <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/King-Vagabonds-Baroque-Cycle-2/dp/0060833173">King
of the Vagabonds</a></i> by Neal Stephenson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Neal Stephenson is a monstrously talented writer. Before <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle">The Baroque Cycle</a></i>,
I’d read <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Crash-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0553380958">Snow
Crash</a></i> (as everyone ought to), but I hadn’t dipped a toe into his sprawling
historical series until good ol’ AKM recommended I do so. <i>The Baroque Cycle</i>
takes place during the dawn of the Enlightenment, and features a cornucopia of
real historical figures ranging from King Louis XIV (the Sun King) to Isaac
Newton. The books are, collectively, so good that I was in awe of Stephenson’s
erudition, wit, and eclectic areas of interest and research – and that was <i>before</i>
I learned that he wrote the whole thing longhand!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgeUMa9hQW0TC3s56IkkkyzzxgGyKTsimfmanbiiYDLSAvnDCWmFcGMDlYTOrE5qAsahdTAprPoHTdwfdN48p4KFmSUNM2QtQzvY4e1MIcgLlLfF0pOs2wwlQKQDG-1Isjd-tTNNThx5ReeQ3RGwHzR_YvuzLVyPaVtCjPz-SCyp6GA71PCrm5fiNu3=s300" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="300" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgeUMa9hQW0TC3s56IkkkyzzxgGyKTsimfmanbiiYDLSAvnDCWmFcGMDlYTOrE5qAsahdTAprPoHTdwfdN48p4KFmSUNM2QtQzvY4e1MIcgLlLfF0pOs2wwlQKQDG-1Isjd-tTNNThx5ReeQ3RGwHzR_YvuzLVyPaVtCjPz-SCyp6GA71PCrm5fiNu3" width="300" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><i>King of the Vagabonds</i> focuses on one of the series’ main
protagonists, a wastrel, thief, occasional soldier, occasional bandit, and all-around
scoundrel “Half-Cocked” Jack Shaftoe, AKA King of the Vagabonds, AKA L'Emmerdeur,
AKA my favorite literary character in recent memory. <i>Vagabonds</i> places a
lot of focus on Jack, and while my favorite Jack Shaftoe adventures take place during
the books that track his travels through late-17<sup>th</sup> to early-18<sup>th</sup>
century India, Japan, and points beyond, <i>King of the Vagabonds</i> gives readers
the best distillation of Jack’s lovable but amoral characteristics. The whole
series is amazing – give it a go!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPL-wbaV1SvvSA9sVsBqa4y4V3QYONEsOIX6OsR1HS4ZXPxDNfVN84LUN4evlDl48Kz8npJ2W_sBS-rw7qSU-BRd0E9p9jFNzpwzAQyzDBrWBRZaqjNWEFdKYce5hvvfgDItz6UMZSlfd6T4t1wM-n_4Ij8tOn2StFQT5V5Jm4L5LjnOeLtjMHtzOE=s2127" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2127" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPL-wbaV1SvvSA9sVsBqa4y4V3QYONEsOIX6OsR1HS4ZXPxDNfVN84LUN4evlDl48Kz8npJ2W_sBS-rw7qSU-BRd0E9p9jFNzpwzAQyzDBrWBRZaqjNWEFdKYce5hvvfgDItz6UMZSlfd6T4t1wM-n_4Ij8tOn2StFQT5V5Jm4L5LjnOeLtjMHtzOE=s320" width="211" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">4) <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Slaves-Darkness-Horus-Heresy-French/dp/1784968595">Slaves
to Darkness</a></i> by John French<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://warhammer40000.com/">Warhammer 40K</a>! The
grimmest, darkest grimdark tabletop role-playing game – or, at least, the
original grimdark TTRPG! But let’s spin the clock of the 40K universe back a
mere ten thousand years to the year 30,000 (or so), an age of civil war among <a href="https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Marines">posthuman supersoldiers</a>
and their <a href="https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Primarch">demigod
warlords</a>! Sound over the top? You have no idea. The novelizations of this
civil war are part of a sprawling series (60 main books, with 30+ books of
additional apocrypha) known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horus_Heresy">the Horus Heresy</a>, and
I read the whole. Goddamn. Thing. I’ll be writing about that experience in
depth, so stay tuned, but for now let’s focus on the volume with the best
necromancy and black magick: <i>Slaves to Darkness</i>!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/John_French">John
French</a> is one of the better Horus Heresy authors (along with reigning
champion <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Abnett">Dan Abnett</a>, runner-up
<a href="https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Aaron_Dembski-Bowden">Aaron Dembski-Bowden</a>,
and even the ever-problematic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_McNeill">Graham McNeill</a>), and <i>Darkness</i>
has some top-notch sorcery in it. If you can get past (or, in fact, relish) all
of the flaying, human sacrifice, blood drinking, candles made of human fat, and
other delightful atmospheric touches, the tale of <a href="https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Lorgar">Lorgar Aurelian</a>’s quest
for apotheosis and his brother <a href="https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Perturabo">Perturabo</a>’s quest to
bring the demon-prince <a href="https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Angron">Angron</a>
to heel is fascinating and full of heavy-duty (and very weird!) metaphysics. I
loved it!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj6yggPelGbJe7-5RfiCDOjAoxkQaJpcetrZOOOK8E3orxYz2tABB6ony-PfbtocANmZpbRBXF407H36KBGPmTPKol6a_rSj4CNtgJDmS-k1odiXhmGfVG9MCCPCB0sLQbhvhe2jbYT_rgeEL5_RpWlxy5TXMzEVof_ioEJ-VJjHMaC4zjEVuxoAAqN=s500" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj6yggPelGbJe7-5RfiCDOjAoxkQaJpcetrZOOOK8E3orxYz2tABB6ony-PfbtocANmZpbRBXF407H36KBGPmTPKol6a_rSj4CNtgJDmS-k1odiXhmGfVG9MCCPCB0sLQbhvhe2jbYT_rgeEL5_RpWlxy5TXMzEVof_ioEJ-VJjHMaC4zjEVuxoAAqN=s320" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjw44CHNeZoWoS0vh2Dm1aOT2clrzhA4VCUk5vnhwFM5SbB4_45kCwnN2wpuq22uGLjP6C6rNtpaSdDWneu7mm3bB8YMwRCAkaPYl6LBciOY0HW9C6c0G17hN_ERo5oleqCHcIRZDXuq95mvlpur57bA9QUNCNfc7HvHwyLjPc7W9X2k7aM7l80AGDW=s500" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjw44CHNeZoWoS0vh2Dm1aOT2clrzhA4VCUk5vnhwFM5SbB4_45kCwnN2wpuq22uGLjP6C6rNtpaSdDWneu7mm3bB8YMwRCAkaPYl6LBciOY0HW9C6c0G17hN_ERo5oleqCHcIRZDXuq95mvlpur57bA9QUNCNfc7HvHwyLjPc7W9X2k7aM7l80AGDW=s320" width="213" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">3) <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Children-Time-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/0316452505">Children
of Time</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Children-Ruin-Time-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/031645253X">Children
of Ruin</a></i> by Adrian Tchaikovsky</div></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This was another Astrid recommendation, and I know,
including two books as one entry is cheating, but guess what? You are correct –
I make the rules on this blog, motherfucker! This duology by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky">Adrian Tchaikovsky</a> answers
questions that I’ve posed to fans of both science and science fiction for years.
Questions, to keep it brief, about alien species and how different they would
be from Earth life. The way I usually phrase my trepidation about
extraterrestrials goes something like this: “Humanity has more in common with a
cockroach or single-celled organism than we would have in common with <i>any</i>
species that visited us. At least the roach has a common ancestor with humanity
somewhere back in the primordial past. The roach has DNA just like we do…” and
so on. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Not to spoil anything in the plot of either book, but <i>Children
of Time</i> and <i>Children of Ruin</i> chart the parallel evolution of other
life forms <i>from</i> Earth, and asks intriguing and illuminating questions
about the varied nature of consciousness among different neurological and
social arrangements in other forms of highly evolved intelligent life. They
feature meditations on artificial intelligence, cognitive enhancement,
linguistics, biology, and just about every other subject you can imagine. I <b>strongly</b>
recommend them for nerds of all stripes: biology nerds, philosophy nerds,
sociology or anthropology nerds, you name it!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh8NPrRqnH_6zbPPsFAeJmE64rU9JON8nzDQcWLmKDs6L-leJs1e1QedZiqQo3DcfL8NUTvwFpCmlPrgUS1jf8dDxXvNWO0WvBqsuPJv5tMpSg5cZGXkI2Pum5jD858hYTGidkzBixMIa0LFjbgabIbXf0AuSJPZiba78gq5Z-fRQ7_5bvlxdc1z0h5=s499" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="322" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh8NPrRqnH_6zbPPsFAeJmE64rU9JON8nzDQcWLmKDs6L-leJs1e1QedZiqQo3DcfL8NUTvwFpCmlPrgUS1jf8dDxXvNWO0WvBqsuPJv5tMpSg5cZGXkI2Pum5jD858hYTGidkzBixMIa0LFjbgabIbXf0AuSJPZiba78gq5Z-fRQ7_5bvlxdc1z0h5=s320" width="206" /></a></div> 2) <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Minds-Nietzsche-Heidegger-Return/dp/0812250591">Dangerous
Minds: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Return of the Far Right</a></i> by Dr. Ronald
Beiner<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As I mentioned in <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-5-worst-books-i-read-in-2021.html">yesterday’s
post</a>, I’m working on a nonfiction project (don’t get too excited – I aim to
have it finished by 2024 or, at the very latest, 2025). <i>Dangerous Minds</i>
has been indispensable in refining the thesis of my project, and is invaluable
to anyone who wants to understand where the current rise of far right groups
(AKA “Nazi pigfuckers”) originated. When I was a political science student
specializing in political theory, I was taught both Nietzsche and Heidegger. I
read the latter in a graduate-level course called “The Concept of Ideology,”
which is one of the best classes I ever took. Despite the overall excellence of
the course and the impeccable lefty and intellectual credentials of the
professor teaching it (he was a mentor to me), he taught Heidegger in an
irresponsible way. To be fair to him, this is my sole criticism of him or the
way he taught any thinker.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/political-science/people/ronald-beiner">Dr.
Beiner</a>’s book digs into why the intellectual left has a love affair with
Nietzsche and Heidegger, despite the content of their philosophy and the <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-04062A%2C_N%C3%BCrnberg%2C_Reichsparteitag%2C_SA-_und_SS-Appell.jpg">ruinous
consequences</a> of their theories’ application. Both Nietzsche and Heidegger
were beloved of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi bigwigs, and Heidegger himself <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Heidegger_and_Nazism">was <i>literally</i>
a Nazi</a>, and what’s worse, <a href="https://thewire.in/history/heidegger-nazism-german-university-philosophy">was
unrepentant</a> about his party membership and support until the day he died.
As late as the 1960s, Heidegger was still unwilling to apologize – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Heidegger_and_Nazism#Meeting_with_Paul_Celan">to
a Holocaust survivor</a>! Fuck Martin Heidegger. <i>Dangerous Minds</i> does an
exquisite job of illustrating where the ideas of these “great thinkers” led and
still lead, and how they’ve been misinterpreted, excused, and generally whitewashed,
masking the poisonous content of their work. Give it a read, even if you haven’t
read either philosopher – Beiner’s book is quite readable to laypeople and theory
nerds alike. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8RUw_GbWj7B_gnJ66B0JOAlOd87_M8ghDYw9D5eTtpjZyqCEhHf8t0Qrl74EFJQIrBesfjVHjZBkay8c-SSJDE-gcLHTwmjDL1wGfy4cfY4aWwDjthYj6MuaTUPXSFkXXcLZoY2BHqV0CiPq997lI-evbHlrdHqq8W0n81ReNoGMs206vxaYCl69l=s450" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8RUw_GbWj7B_gnJ66B0JOAlOd87_M8ghDYw9D5eTtpjZyqCEhHf8t0Qrl74EFJQIrBesfjVHjZBkay8c-SSJDE-gcLHTwmjDL1wGfy4cfY4aWwDjthYj6MuaTUPXSFkXXcLZoY2BHqV0CiPq997lI-evbHlrdHqq8W0n81ReNoGMs206vxaYCl69l=s320" width="213" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">1) <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Star-Rising-Magick-Power/dp/0143132067">Dark
Star Rising</a></i> by Gary Lachman<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lachman">Gary
Lachman</a> is, as I pointed out in <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-5-worst-books-i-read-in-2021.html#:~:text=Gary%20was%20also%20the%20first%20bass%20player%20for%20Blondie!">yesterday’s
post</a>, not only a scholar of Western Esotericism and the occult, he’s also
the OG (i.e., before they made it big) bass player for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondie_(band)">Blondie</a>, among other
New Wave bands. He is a renaissance man! He’s also one of the few authors of
whom it can be said that he saw the bizarre 4/8Chan-magick conjunction coming
in advance (a warning about this type of confluence was included in his 2008
book <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Occult-Right-Radically-Unseen/dp/0835608573">Politics
and the Occult: The Left, the Right, and the Radically Unseen</a></i>). Lachman’s
thesis – that magick and the occult are deeply intertwined with political power
and always have been – holds, whether you believe in “the unseen” (i.e., the
supernatural) or not. As <a href="https://mashable.com/article/alex-jones-chili-infowars">noted elk-chili amnesiac</a>
Alex Jones so often says, “It doesn’t matter if <i>you</i> believe it. <i>They</i>
believe it.” While Jones’ “they” refers to a ridiculous supposed cabal of “Luciferian”
liberals, if you interpret “they” as politically active and influential people
from the halls of power to the very turf of the grass roots, it’s more or less
true. What people believe, what thoughtforms they pass to and fro amongst
themselves, matters.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Dark Star Rising</i> freaked me out at first, to be
honest. Not because of its description of the role that magick and the occult
played in the rise of Donald Trump, but because he came within striking
distance of the thesis of my own upcoming project. Fortunately for me, Lachman
left something for the rest of us! His analysis of postmodern magick and a “post-truth”
political culture is spot-on. Lachman, however, is separated from me by a generation.
He wasn’t there on <a href="https://forums.somethingawful.com/index.php">the
forums where</a> racist shit-website <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4chan#:~:text=4chan%20is%20an%20anonymous%20English,%2C%20and%20sports%2C%20among%20others.">4chan</a>
was born (not to mention subsequent child-porn and mass murder manifesto
cesspool 8chan/kun). <a href="https://forums.somethingawful.com/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=63366">I
was</a>. He also wasn’t (as fa as I know) neck-deep in online Chaos Magick
culture during Trump’s rise. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/chaosmagic/">I was</a>. <i>Dark Star
Rising</i> will, without a doubt, inform much of what I have to say on this
subject – Lachman is, after all, a much more accomplished student of the occult
than I am. If you have no idea what the fuck I’m talking about, it’s worth
picking up <i>Dark Star Rising</i>. It’s accessible, informative, and doesn’t
wander far enough into high weirdness that it will scare casual readers away.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There you have it! Wave a fond farewell to 2021 (or kick it
in the ass on its way out the door – dealer’s choice) and buckle up for 2022!
New year, new books, and new adventures! I say we embrace the possibilities and
potential!<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-8435423938916158182021-12-30T15:18:00.001-08:002022-01-03T09:06:46.540-08:00The 5 Worst Books I Read in 2021<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqClCubOPL73aMpMQLhRtV6ELXddtVD4dF-9FFmEw9oI3ReYAuUQY4OrHkLzaloF7LXn07o54go3YC5Kbi30z_x2fVZmdCoUUq40FpDQCC6mncFZpESz76PJJb9DZOvJen8_LER1GuVYCH7taVIP6III7RP1NXVQ7a14cJBsEKRSZXn7RU9dGwQUkO=s500" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqClCubOPL73aMpMQLhRtV6ELXddtVD4dF-9FFmEw9oI3ReYAuUQY4OrHkLzaloF7LXn07o54go3YC5Kbi30z_x2fVZmdCoUUq40FpDQCC6mncFZpESz76PJJb9DZOvJen8_LER1GuVYCH7taVIP6III7RP1NXVQ7a14cJBsEKRSZXn7RU9dGwQUkO=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /> As 2021 crashes and caterwauls its course to a conclusion, I
am obligated as a blogger (blogligated, if you will) to reflect on the year in
review. I spent more time than usual in the hospital over the last 12 months,
and as a result I had a chance to do even <i>more</i> reading than normal!
Regrettably, not every book I dragged myself through was a winner.<span><a name='more'></a></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In fact, because I am doing research for a forthcoming (by
2025 at the latest) nonfiction book, much of what I read was either directly or
tangentially related to fascism and harmful new religious movements / cults!
That meant an unusually high proportion of terrible bullshit in my literary
diet. Consider this post the bezoar removed from one of my four stomachs by a
surgeon-priest. For the sake of picking five and not sending everyone shrieking
for the exits, I’ve confined myself to books that *are not overtly fascist.*
That’s why, say, Julius Evola’s <i>Handbook for Right-Wing Youth</i> or literally
anything by Freidrich Nietzsche aren't addressed here. Without further ado: the five worst books I
read this year!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh2xhukbrGzY82G-RPJc26WOCjJnr5xvMHhQp3e6B7vkbY-vvoKxLlPj5Jg6g1qF0J_o6aO6PAGxUzVZa1HqXqQcVNSDtV7yriDJf-qofT4EZirTk_zjoBweSEADqwsplX5pNhcpWu16xgqh7NVe168wWuWaJxy8vJZnS-Sdwf-QFWh0RDr-i6-DV7s=s2113" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2113" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh2xhukbrGzY82G-RPJc26WOCjJnr5xvMHhQp3e6B7vkbY-vvoKxLlPj5Jg6g1qF0J_o6aO6PAGxUzVZa1HqXqQcVNSDtV7yriDJf-qofT4EZirTk_zjoBweSEADqwsplX5pNhcpWu16xgqh7NVe168wWuWaJxy8vJZnS-Sdwf-QFWh0RDr-i6-DV7s=s320" width="212" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">5) <i>The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple</i>,
by Jeff Guinn<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with this general
survey of the life of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple or its description of the
nauseating, murderous nightmare of November 18, 1978. And that’s exactly what’s
wrong with it; it passes for a proper, well-researched history. I’d taken
extensive notes from Guinn’s book and, essentially, trusted that he had his
facts right. His solid prose, occasionally morbid and fascinating descriptive
passages, and supposed reference to many sources of information made me believe
Guinn’s narrative of Jonestown.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is unfortunate, because (as I found out by reading other
Jonestown books) Guinn gets some <i>very</i> basic facts wrong in an utterly
damning fashion. What year did Jones move from the United States to the Peoples
Temple Agricultural Project in Guyana (AKA Jonestown)? Not the year Guinn says!
What about the chronology of Peoples Temple activities in Redwood, Los Angeles,
and San Francisco in California? Or Jones’ relative success or failure in
wriggling his way into Bay Area politics? Guinn fucks that up too! I imagine
that Guinn’s justification for these errors would be that he was trying to
provide a brief, punchy summary rather than an exhaustive retelling.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well, fuck you, Jeff Guinn, and the big-ass royalty checks
you rode in on! <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(NOTE: If you want to learn about this topic, there is still
no better book than Tim Reiterman’s <i>Raven</i>. Not only was Reiterman there –
he was one of the survivors of the airstrip shooting that killed Congressman
Leo Ryan and touched off the massacre – he was also one of the few journalists dedicated
to figuring Jones out in the years before the disastrous 1978 Guyana visit by
Ryan, Reiterman, and company. It’s a hell of a book, one of the best nonfiction
accounts of a tragedy I’ve ever read. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Raven-Untold-Story-Jones-People/dp/1585426784">Pick
it up today</a>.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7PsFcjtMGfGkWzvT5LAQTbwatlWBBsYnYWGgYghmyQxv90WeZgthwRa1L9BckVKKJR00npXmM5ygn8Pob2Qigtu1LpRfquwANfn70wMjyHrQp0G8N4PDQ1ow0JmlnHrZ9N3NbnIGksOHRdDw-C-Mod6RQT6Mg9Vq1cjGEb3_NfDcpTKVS2R54sboN=s500" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7PsFcjtMGfGkWzvT5LAQTbwatlWBBsYnYWGgYghmyQxv90WeZgthwRa1L9BckVKKJR00npXmM5ygn8Pob2Qigtu1LpRfquwANfn70wMjyHrQp0G8N4PDQ1ow0JmlnHrZ9N3NbnIGksOHRdDw-C-Mod6RQT6Mg9Vq1cjGEb3_NfDcpTKVS2R54sboN=s320" width="200" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">4) <i>Black Magic in Science</i> by Helena P. Blavatsky<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Holy <i>cow</i> can Helena Blavatsky go fuck herself! While
I consider the entirety of her oeuvre to be noxious bullshit with ruinous
consequences for cultures the world over (seriously – from Adolf Hitler to
Shoko Asahara, the now-executed former head of Aum Shinrikyo and the mastermind
of the Tokyo Subway sarin attacks, you’ll find Blavatsky’s fingerprints on a
baffling number and variety of atrocities). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Not only was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy">Theosophy</a> (her creation)
responsible for the mainstreaming of the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_race">secret subterranean society</a>”
and “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascended_master">ascended masters</a>”
myths, the movement also brought the concept of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperborea#Hyperborea_in_neo-Nazi_imagery">Hyperboria</a>”
(land of magical white people) to Western thinkers, along with Blavatsky’s
appropriative, simplistic, and mangled version of Eastern thought. Scratch a New
Age cult – <i>any</i> New Age cult – and Blavatsky is likely to be right there
beneath the surface.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Black Magic in Science</i> is one of her shorter and
punchier offerings (properly considered, it’s more of a longform essay than a
book, but I’ve included it here because who’s going to stop me – you?). It’s
exactly the sort of snide, intentionally dumb misunderstanding of science and
wholesale rejection of same that you’ll find in the subsequent work of assholes
ranging from Aleksandr Dugin to top-notch “channeler of ancient spirits and
ascended masters” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Z._Knight">J.Z.
Knight</a>. Thanks a boatload, Helena!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyKEO4S0jsY0D6dwcUcynU70qoKiuHoKMPz24H4wrIcIt7VxPe3lGFMLGnpWnxqO3on2lolvHZSG24jqOfyDWfkIiFroJRBCVsZq8s8FacJxaUJiJqab2QAMdme6hCVV2GiJXcZrAWY8w6P3O2Ukp-X0mYa0Cir_coFaTr66Zov1uceNEwYJNhLjrZ=s2560" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1696" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyKEO4S0jsY0D6dwcUcynU70qoKiuHoKMPz24H4wrIcIt7VxPe3lGFMLGnpWnxqO3on2lolvHZSG24jqOfyDWfkIiFroJRBCVsZq8s8FacJxaUJiJqab2QAMdme6hCVV2GiJXcZrAWY8w6P3O2Ukp-X0mYa0Cir_coFaTr66Zov1uceNEwYJNhLjrZ=s320" width="212" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">3) <i>Pale Horse Rider</i> by Marc Jacobson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s rare that I feel a book has betrayed me. I think most
readers are familiar with this phenomenon. Unless you are aware that what you’re
reading is pure poison (which, to be honest, is the case with <i>most</i> of my
reading these days), reading is to some extent an act of trust. You let an
author take your hand and lead you where they will. I’m not saying that reading
means one must abandon one’s critical faculties; quite the contrary, I think
the biggest betrayals writers perpetrate involve keeping <i>most</i> of one’s
cards on the table to numb a reader’s critical faculties, and then sneaking a
nasty surprise out of one’s sleeve at the last moment.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This can be appropriate and, indeed, effective in <i>fiction</i>.
Where you don’t want it is in <i>nonfiction</i> books about extremely
controversial or toxic subject matter. This is the case with Marc Jacobson’s
execrable <i>Pale Horse Rider</i>, a backhanded hagiography of a violent,
physically abusive alcoholic, paranoid fool, and destroyer of American
democracy named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_William_Cooper">Milton
“William” Cooper</a>. Cooper was a pathological liar, unstable weirdo, and UFO
/ NWO freak, and the best and most accurate summary of him I can give is this:
literally – <i>literally</i> – every trick in Alex Jones’ book was stolen wholesale
from Bill Cooper. Jacobson’s book touches glancingly on all of these factors
while engaging in standard paranoid Boomer whining about JFK and tiresome postmodern
“<i>quid est veritas?</i>” sophistry.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even so, I didn’t expect Jacobson to more or less accurately
describe the life of a monster and then conclude the text with (to paraphrase) “so
I guess I’m a fan now and it turns out Bill Cooper was a <i>pretty cool dude</i>.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjn6py8nSVVAURtSi2qAqbhpIo1OEfg5qMC8fL3Wclh5RoVldOWFT1MTOxP43jVKJaGIaiwMGCRh3iBaY3usTJ-4GfTajXGqM7WSZ_-eWpOePSgTUT9SPV0F1tdwMhDbZGmskhhEdpSkr2iSgZWHC9QY1-CRi1bCjUd4V4NkvQmwgpbgdDwYogkCEn0=s475" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="285" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjn6py8nSVVAURtSi2qAqbhpIo1OEfg5qMC8fL3Wclh5RoVldOWFT1MTOxP43jVKJaGIaiwMGCRh3iBaY3usTJ-4GfTajXGqM7WSZ_-eWpOePSgTUT9SPV0F1tdwMhDbZGmskhhEdpSkr2iSgZWHC9QY1-CRi1bCjUd4V4NkvQmwgpbgdDwYogkCEn0=s320" width="192" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">2) <i>A Rage for Revenge</i> by David Gerrold<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Weird story! Before this year, I’d read exactly one book in
Gerrold’s “War Against the Chtorr” science fiction series. This was the fourth
(and, so far, last) volume, <i>A Season for Slaughter</i>. I read <i>Slaughter</i>
for the first and only time when I was, I don’t know, somewhere between age 11
and age 13. When I recently decided to re-read Gerrold as an adult, I spoke to
my parents and tried to figure out where the hell I might have acquired Gerrold’s
book, and none of us have any idea. It’s as though it just appeared on my shelf
one day like a sleeve of poisoned Oreos smuggled into a hated enemy’s pantry.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>A Rage for Revenge</i> is the third and (so far) worst
book in the tetralogy. Sure, the other volumes are chockablock with casual
racism and eye-blistering misogyny. Sure, they’re all very poorly written and rife
with thunderously unfunny jokes that you can tell Gerrold thought were absolutely
<i>hilarious</i> as he wrote them. They all contain abusive pedantry delivered
with the subtlety of a brick to the forehead, and they are all obviously
modeled (poorly) on noted fucknut Robert Heinlein’s already-objectionable <i>Starship
Troopers</i>. But only <i>Rage for Revenge</i> required an actual disclaimer
from the author at the beginning saying “no, really, I’m not trying to
brainwash you. No, stop laughing. Seriously, I’m not.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This fixation on indoctrination is too bad, because if
Gerrold stuck to the Cthorran ecological invasion of Earth – what the series <i>claims</i>
to be about – he wouldn’t be on this list! His ideas on the potential variety
of alien life and even his meditations on consciousness are fairly compelling.
Those gems, however, lie buried deep at the bottom of a septic tank of weird,
half-Scientology half-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training">Erhard Seminars
Training</a> propaganda delivered in a Randian shriek. In fact, in the books
this cultish claptrap is often delivered <i>literally</i> <i>at gunpoint</i>,
which is not a bad metaphor for the experience of reading David Gerrold.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-5hobLfLwYntdWoDD2TyIxSDrZaNBT2htXNgbTTXI1pPwOh-gg4bcVa6Oftr-JOHWgLSZq3oVQki3JGVW7SSjSfNysBDoiRlvrvRf6_EEhzTNZo5zY2JPBx5fNpUt73VS2bL3peqj0Bi5M2xTPNibWIxDbeu92IcNvcwa1GT-1vOk7XfAIPPWQBsw=s2100" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2100" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-5hobLfLwYntdWoDD2TyIxSDrZaNBT2htXNgbTTXI1pPwOh-gg4bcVa6Oftr-JOHWgLSZq3oVQki3JGVW7SSjSfNysBDoiRlvrvRf6_EEhzTNZo5zY2JPBx5fNpUt73VS2bL3peqj0Bi5M2xTPNibWIxDbeu92IcNvcwa1GT-1vOk7XfAIPPWQBsw=s320" width="213" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">1 <i>The King in Orange</i> by John Michael “Archdruid” Greer<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>FUCK. THIS. BOOK.</i></b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m used to reading things I hate. Because I have a
masochistic tendency to deeply research and/or engage with ideas I think are
dangerous or disgusting, books that I detest vastly outnumber those I enjoy on
my average reading list. No doubt this is part of why I am such a jolly and
enjoyable fellow! Even so, <i>King in Orange</i> was the “mainstream” book I
hated more than any other I read this year. Perhaps in the last <i>five</i>
years, but let’s not be hasty.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">John Michael Greer is a writer who focuses primarily on
Western Esotericism and the occult. He’s written several very decent books on
the topic, one or two of which I’ve read. He also self-identifies as a “Druid,”
which is dumb as fuck, and he ran a blog called <a href="http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/">The Archdruid Report</a>, which
is even dumber (but hilarious – it sounds like the world’s worst investment
newsletter. <i>“The runes say tech stocks will make a comeback!”</i>). Trust
me, if I have a problem with Gerald Gardner <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-27782244">fabricating an “ancient
connection”</a> between his invention, Wicca, and a nonexistent centralized
European heathenry of the past, I have a <i>much</i> bigger problem with anyone
who claims to be a “Druid,” or even to understand what Druidism was or may have
been. It’s like claiming you practice the shamanic religion of Australopithecus
africanus; it’s meaningless. A claim like “Druidism” is nothing more than a
blank screen onto which you can project your beliefs while claiming an ancient
lineage that lends them authenticity. Not only that, in theory such pseudohistory
forces many people to think twice before stating the obvious: you’re just
making shit up. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is even the case
with antique “high magick” (I prefer “ceremonial” or “traditional” magick as nomenclatures
go). Much of Western Esotericism and occultism was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_of_Solomon">manufactured wholesale</a>
and then fraudulently attributed after the fact to some ancient source, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89liphas_L%C3%A9vi">usually appropriated
from Judaism</a>. This was, mind you, while these same Westerners were doing
everything in their power to make life for Jews impossible and miserable. For
more about that, <a href="https://twitter.com/sheydgarden/status/1474075650000568330">click here</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s leave all of that aside. <i>King in Orange</i>
purports to be an exploration of (as the subtitle puts it) “the magical and
occult roots of political power.” Sorry, my druidic little friend, but that
book is actually called <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Occult-Right-Radically-Unseen/dp/0835608573">Politics
and the Occult: The Left, the Right, and the Radically Unseen</a></i> and was
written by Gary Lachman, a much more talented and well-read researcher of the
subject than Greer. Gary was also the first bass player for Blondie! The title
of <i>King in Orange</i> comes from the fact that John Michael Greer is a Trump
supporter. He claims that his book examines the role magick (in particular,
chaos magick) played in right-wing netroots support for Trump in 2016. Sorry
again, friend, but that book is <i>also</i> by Gary Lachman, and is called <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Star-Rising-Magick-Power/dp/0143132067">Dark
Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump</a></i>! In fact, I’ll touch
on <i>Dark Star</i> in my “Best 5 Books” post tomorrow!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Greer’s analysis of American politics is intentionally
obnoxious, glib, and facile. He starts from a promising enough premise: the
idea that class analysis is missing from most examinations of the Trump
phenomenon. Greer then demonstrates the most warped misunderstanding of class
analysis I’ve ever seen, totally disengaging from any attempt to justify the
accumulation of wealth by the top 1% (and top 1/10<sup>th</sup> of 1%) of people
in this country by setting up a mock class struggle between “the salaried class”
and “the wage class.” To hear Greer tell it, <i>how much</i> <i>money</i> you
have is not nearly as important as <i>how you are paid</i>. According to his
calculus, my boss – a person of color earning a salary that can’t possibly
average out to more than $25 an hour – is more “privileged” than a white physician’s
assistant clearing $40 an hour, but paid by the hour rather than salary. He
also makes the laugh-out-loud claim that the investment class has “seen rough
times lately” compared to the “salaried class.” I’m pretty sure that’s news to
the countless salaried workers laid off to support massive bonuses for
executives. He makes no attempt whatsoever to claim that Trump’s presidency
benefited this oh-so-precious “wage class” (of which I am a member, by the by).
The obvious explanation for this salad of mostly-sarcastic idiocy is that Greer
(not acquainted with economics <i>or</i> political science) reasoned backwards
from the conclusion that liberals constitute an economic class in and of
themselves, one in conflict with the economic class constituted by
conservatives in and of themselves. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2015/04/07/a-deep-dive-into-party-affiliation/">This
is complete horseshit</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">John Michael Greer is at least half a fascist. He tells on
himself in subtle ways. He loves <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Evola">Julius Evola</a>, and treats
the fascist intellectual’s writings as charming and cheeky rather than outright
calls to the rejection of society (AKA humanity) and an engagement in street
violence. He cribs liberally from Aleksandr Dugin’s <i>Geopolitics</i> and <i>The
Fourth Political Ideology</i> without crediting the Rasputin-looking
motherfucker at all. The only reason I know this is because (Lucifer help me) I’ve
<i>read</i> Dugin. I’ll give Greer this much: unlike any other modern fascist I’ve
read so far, I believe that Greer has actually ploughed through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Spengler">Oswald Spengler</a>’s <i>Decline
of the West</i>. This is not an accomplishment one should sneer at, subject
matter notwithstanding. I’m only 1/3 of the way through Spengler’s vast,
pompous, shitty, subjective, and thoroughly factually inaccurate magnum dope-us
myself, and it is <i>not</i> an easy read. Then again, a lazy fascist is probably
preferable to a hardworking fascist.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All right, those are your top five bad books! Come back
tomorrow as I go into the five BEST books I read in 2021!<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-58101561368198095642021-12-12T16:55:00.002-08:002021-12-19T19:33:18.955-08:00There’s Gristle in my Epistle: S/Paul of Tarsus Committed Grand Theft Religion<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbuBaRojfYgV59tjSws1u99ber1x2rO_eIsbyXGjo5Z-5AERVkgbzhRKcbdprPnC1rmqFJ7p9rEZ8y6bzFs4DL_hL4T8MFUGW-lxhWRs5KuYxxJxoQ0m7vd20vRWWvY_w4Iv3dMUBo7IVzmivujHwhAuw0fgzG3aCQPS1O_23ZsHSL5qd_W8FiTYpm=s500" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbuBaRojfYgV59tjSws1u99ber1x2rO_eIsbyXGjo5Z-5AERVkgbzhRKcbdprPnC1rmqFJ7p9rEZ8y6bzFs4DL_hL4T8MFUGW-lxhWRs5KuYxxJxoQ0m7vd20vRWWvY_w4Iv3dMUBo7IVzmivujHwhAuw0fgzG3aCQPS1O_23ZsHSL5qd_W8FiTYpm=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Perhaps you were lucky enough to grow up without a religious
background. Perhaps your guardians were either hardened, borscht-swilling
atheist Marxists or the type of enlightened freethinkers one might find at a
local Universalist Unitarian meeting – you know, the type who let their
children name themselves and pick their own spiritual path. Perhaps you <i>did</i>
grow up with a hand-me-down religion, but perhaps it was Judaism, Islam, Hinduism,
Buddhism, or any other religion available in this great big world.</div><p class="MsoNormal"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a> <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Whatever the reason, if one comes unindoctrinated to the
story of Jesus of Nazareth, AKA Jesus Christ, AKA Lil Chri$ty (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/CHRISTDILLINGER">shouts to CHRI$T DILLINGER</a>),
portions of it may seem rather odd. You may note contradictions, obtuse and
damn-near-impenetrable story problems or riddles, and quite a bit more exorcism
and casting out of demons than you may have expected. <o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjU9QMTCKm-QOSVotKhN6lye8bJU3eN55D39MbrXl77Lz8TC83ZaJvhV2Wvbz9r9IViBm3z2W_itMqVVRv0yI2sNi7zZroWyPwPWdK7iTwJ4ccnDqU_dRR54gel6rKII8PThxVq6SBj08ftkM1TvC_zQ9PuNt5VDdrJThOQN-9IvXEY9x-lzwpqUMq7=s360" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="343" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjU9QMTCKm-QOSVotKhN6lye8bJU3eN55D39MbrXl77Lz8TC83ZaJvhV2Wvbz9r9IViBm3z2W_itMqVVRv0yI2sNi7zZroWyPwPWdK7iTwJ4ccnDqU_dRR54gel6rKII8PThxVq6SBj08ftkM1TvC_zQ9PuNt5VDdrJThOQN-9IvXEY9x-lzwpqUMq7=s320" width="305" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">more like "front kick me Jesus," <a href="https://youtu.be/SO5Y1OuQIxo">right Bobby Bare?</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">The story of Jesus is probably the murkiest, most muddled
mess of a “world religion” to bleed out of the MENA region. In part, this is
because the transition from one loose-knit, tiny group of apocalyptic Jewish
oddballs to a rigidly codified (and <a href="https://antisemitism.adl.org/deicide/">aggressively anti-Semitic</a>)
religion was incredibly rapid, taking place in less than three centuries. Yes,
Islam developed much more quickly, but Islam was a single-source religion. The
Quran was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran">recited by a single
individual</a>, and written in its complete form by one of Mohammed’s original
scribes <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran#:~:text=over%20a%20period%20of%20some%2023%20years%2C%20beginning%20in%20the%20month%20of%20Ramadan%2C%5B18%5D%20when%20Muhammad%20was%2040%3B%20and%20concluding%20in%20632%2C%20the%20year%20of%20his%20death.%5B11%5D%5B19%5D%5B20%5D">within
20 years of the religious leader’s death</a>. Christianity was a religion that
could have been single-source: like Islam, Christianity was based (supposedly)
on the words of a single person. However also ike Islam, Christianity’s single
source of revelation was illiterate: neither Jesus nor Mohammed could read or
write. Unlike Islam, the closest Christianity came to an accurate compilation
of Jesus’ teachings was the hypothetical collection of Jesus’ sayings referred
to as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_source">the Q source</a>. The
Gospel of Mark (which is <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/may-web-only/mark-manuscript-earliest-not-first-century-fcm.html">the
earliest Gospel put to paper</a>) was written somewhere around the time of
Jerusalem’s destruction, which would place it within decades of Jesus’
execution. The Q source is a theoretical bridge that explains the similarities
between Mark’s and Matthew’s Gospels (but not the scattershot, incoherent mess
of the Christian Bible as a whole).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You may have heard of the so-called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library">Gnostic Gospels</a>,”
a collection of soon-to-be-heretical Christian works that reflected the wide
diversity of the religion at the time. “Christianity” did not exist; what existed
instead was a broad panoply of mystical and philosophical interpretations of
the life and death of one of many would-be messiahs: Jesus of Nazareth. The
Gnostic Christians viewed Jesus’ life and death through the lens of paganism
and - more importantly - <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/gnostic/">Greek
philosophy</a>. This is absolutely an effect of Christianity’s contact with
Rome and its greater imperial holdings. In Rome, Greek philosophy, like Greek
theater, was both popular and deeply influential (o the dismay of <a href="https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2017/09/21/catos-opposition-to-greek/">assholes
like Cato</a>.) There was no “Gnostic Christianity” at the time, just as in the
early days there was no “Christianity” at all – only an eccentric movement
within Judaism that declared Jesus of Nazareth to be the messiah, despite the
fact that he neither led Israel to global dominion nor ushered in a golden age
of plenty (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%209%3A7&version=NIV">Isaiah
9:7</a>) before his ignominious execution. The Gnostic Gospels are essentially
the Christian scripture that wound up on the cutting room floor rather than
integrated into one or more of what would come to be known as <a href="https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/common-misconceptions/catholic-and-protestant-bibles-what-is-the-difference.html">the
more-or-less official Christian Bible</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhx_vnodKDSPNlbeqqS9djxz5wcsoNCSrJ7kjorCQ4CsngQYmyXDMf8KAy9OcDWk8R-HL2YhXmZSlR_3VqSfugJhR0bRZvINk3nBFdu4H9s7vR5muWDeHU-zuDp0v4VvZHY_AKk6pOxt9IHcsPrjsDAyGijfDm2l_fBRxio1L1MUx1HobiD0EwQad9e=s580" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="410" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhx_vnodKDSPNlbeqqS9djxz5wcsoNCSrJ7kjorCQ4CsngQYmyXDMf8KAy9OcDWk8R-HL2YhXmZSlR_3VqSfugJhR0bRZvINk3nBFdu4H9s7vR5muWDeHU-zuDp0v4VvZHY_AKk6pOxt9IHcsPrjsDAyGijfDm2l_fBRxio1L1MUx1HobiD0EwQad9e=w283-h400" width="283" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">good times at the Laughing J Ranch</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">The Greek philosophy of the Gnostics is as tragic as the
mishmash of propaganda, biography, outright lies, and inconsistencies that
became the standard Christian Bible. Tragic because in no way, shape, or form
did Jesus think that his message (such as it was) would be contaminated by what
he doubtlessly would have considered a corrupt foreign philosophy. Jesus did <i>not</i>
intend his teachings to apply to – or even be heard by – gentiles (by
“gentiles,” Mormons, I mean non-Jews -sorry, but your use of the term is <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/gs/gentiles?lang=eng">both
dumb and fucking offensive</a>). Jesus’ low-key declarations that he was the
messiah came with the unspoken shorthand that he was the <i>Jewish</i> messiah,
the scion of David (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidic_line">doubtful</a>)
who would lead the nation of Israel to glory. Here, of course, I don’t mean the
modern country of Israel, but “nation” in an archaic sense. All of Jesus’
disciples agreed with this point of view. In fact, the most instructive example
of this is Jesus’ apostle and brother James the Just (yes, Jesus’ actual <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_brother_of_Jesus">brother-from-the-same-mother</a>).
James led the movement after Jesus met the fate of <a href="https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub408/entry-6360.html">all
would-be revolutionaries who defied Rome</a>. By all accounts, he was
well-loved by Jesus-believers and Jews alike, and James was based in Jerusalem,
not Rome. James, like all of the apostles at the time, thought that the Jesus
movement was for Jews and Jews alone.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The one person who, it seems, did not get along with James
was the so-called “Apostle Paul” (hereafter referred to as Paul, since he never
met Jesus and appeared on the scene fairly late in the game for Apostolic
adoration). Paul was, to put it bluntly, a grifter, a dilletante, a liar, and a
malignant narcissist. Paul got his start as Saul, supposedly a Pharisee (one of
Second Temple Judaism’s priestly classes), and made his reputation ruthlessly
persecuting early followers of Jesus (if you trust the word of an anti-Semite,
which he absolutely was). At one point, Saul had a vision. It was not the
blinding vision of a resurrected Jesus, as he claimed: it was a vision of the
wide-open potential for a <i>somewhat</i> Jesus-based faith to make major
inroads among the Greek-speaking populace of the Roman world. Saul, after his
“vision” of Jesus, became Paul and set about spreading the Good News, i.e.,
wriggling his way into VIP status in a potentially up-and-coming movement.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_E8iH3CUEZDOdVhv_jQkJO-SiIlPra5imRjDoc2qnGk0iC7ljrf4Ojen5heoglUZEPEw8ccuFxjNwBfSmWkfdLWGudLt7J4g78V3NSncJztlW8iUHD5lULzgnJXInVilV8rZNXISw2dZ7a6muWhc8bu1qcrhRbzJMqyyPtMljLinoTNemYKv_iJkm=s640" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="427" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_E8iH3CUEZDOdVhv_jQkJO-SiIlPra5imRjDoc2qnGk0iC7ljrf4Ojen5heoglUZEPEw8ccuFxjNwBfSmWkfdLWGudLt7J4g78V3NSncJztlW8iUHD5lULzgnJXInVilV8rZNXISw2dZ7a6muWhc8bu1qcrhRbzJMqyyPtMljLinoTNemYKv_iJkm=w268-h400" width="268" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">not gonna lie, I'd buy this comic on first sight</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">The problem is that Paul seemed to have no interest in Jesus
whatsoever. He never met Jesus (despite his “vision”), but claimed equal
standing with the men who had traveled, broken bread, and held conversations
with Jesus of Nazareth – the <i>actual</i> failed messiah, not some goofy and
convenient “vision.” Paul had no patience for learning from the apostles. He
was not based in Jerusalem: he was a Roman citizen, something that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_citizenship">not all Romans</a> could
claim at the time. Paul traveled the Mediterranean, spreading <i>his</i>
version of Christianity to various gentile communities. There, he set up
churches and chose church leaders. Among the many heresies that Paul taught was
that Christians did not have to convert to Judaism to be Christian: i.e. (and
most importantly to many penis-having gentiles) they did not have to be
circumcised. To believers who were as deeply steeped in Judaism as Jesus was,
this was a monstrous blasphemy, committed by an unlikable dissembling upstart. Worse
than that, an upstart engaged in aggressive evangelism and spreading spun-from-straw
theology. Quite rightly, the real apostles thought that Paul represented a
legitimate threat to the integrity of their new faith.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As a young, bookish, and enthusiastic Catholic, I was
curious who Paul was. His fingerprints were all over the Christian Gospel, and
selections from his letters were frequently the subject of homilies by my local
priest, the more-or-less affable Rudolph Daz (AKA Father Daz). Paul’s epistles
were a bit of a mystery to me at the time. Even as an adolescent, I found
Paul’s harangues needlessly hostile, even shrill. Little did I know it, but I
was on to something. Paul was pissed off, and the events that explain his
umbrage are a perfect illustration of what an asshole he was. They also provide
an illuminating look at the theft of a religious movement by a charlatan,
virtually in real time.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Paul was, as I previously mentioned, a Roman citizen. The
apostles and earliest converts to the Jesus movement were not, and more importantly
for the religion they were based in Jerusalem, where his follows expected him
to return. James, Peter, and the rest of the gang believed Jesus’ return to be
imminent. After all, hadn’t the eccentric healer and exorcist told them that “Truly,
I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they
see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom”? (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/matthew/16/28">Matthew 16:28</a>) Paul, on
the other hand, traveled hither and yon. Paul had some strange ideas, and the
Jesus whose religion <i>he</i> spread bore little resemblance to the one the
apostles had personally known.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To boil a complicated conflict down to its most salient
points, I think it would be fair to call Paul the first “Christian.” Before
him, those who joined the Jesus sect considered themselves Jews, whatever the
larger Jewish community might think, and observed halakha: “the way,” or Jewish
law. Paul was also a Jew, though he renounced his Judaism in the same sentence
that he used it to batter others with his authority (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%203%3A1-7&version=NIV">Philippians
3:1-7</a>). He even claimed to be a former Pharisee (“a Pharisee born of
Pharisees,” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2023%3A6&version=NIV">Acts
23:6</a>), but I’d take that with a grain of salt. Most importantly for our
purposes, Paul taught Jews and gentiles alike that Jesus’ coming had more or
less rendered halakha obsolete (refer again to Philippians 3:7). When the
formal leadership of the movement in Jerusalem heard of this, they were
outraged. They sent emissaries to many of the congregations that Paul had
started in order to “clarify” his heretical teachings and let gentile converts
know that to become a follower of Jesus, one first had to become a Jew.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjASLMTKZBwbdX9iXcoqsxnwYr--3MWPmlt5FI1Ys9QzCfTI7PfUsj6l_KiMf4OI07cJLGGrhlhDjz7N0ricH7Z6_qpJRYNslQ3nEponglQUY_PwT2vo_CMvqM6Ydx4j2y8pgexDecTSHAFu5FFl8GLUBRWasT7Shs0-LksGUMkBAH-4hkk5WIMc6E-=s711" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="570" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjASLMTKZBwbdX9iXcoqsxnwYr--3MWPmlt5FI1Ys9QzCfTI7PfUsj6l_KiMf4OI07cJLGGrhlhDjz7N0ricH7Z6_qpJRYNslQ3nEponglQUY_PwT2vo_CMvqM6Ydx4j2y8pgexDecTSHAFu5FFl8GLUBRWasT7Shs0-LksGUMkBAH-4hkk5WIMc6E-=s320" width="257" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">this fuckin guy and his scrolls</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Here’s the bit they don’t teach in Sunday school. Start with
a question: why did Paul write his epistles? Why so many letters, and to such
wide-flung congregations? The answer is that Paul was engaged in an Iron Age
version of an internet forum flame war. His epistles were a re; to the re; the
apostles had left on his teachings to his various congregations. He was
correcting the people correcting him, despite the fact that they had actually
known the real Jesus of Nazareth, a man Paul had never met.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s leave aside the question of whether one can claim to
be the follower of an undead would-be messiah who fulfilled <a href="https://www.aish.com/jw/s/48892792.html#:~:text=What%20is%20the,Zechariah%2014%3A9).">none
of the requirements set forth by the prophets of Judaism</a> and still claim to
be Jewish (leave it aside for the purposes of this post, at any rate, though my
personal opinion is “fuck no”). Jesus <i>himself</i> likely would have
considered Paul’s reconfiguration of his theology to be a violation of first
principles, blasphemous, and an abomination. Remember, Jesus was the guy who
started a small riot over the inclusion of gentiles in the ritual cleansing of
currency, even though they were barred from the Temple proper and had their own
“court of gentiles” (which is where Jesus handed out ass-kickings)*.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Gospels of Jesus, like much of written and oral
religious teachings the world over, is a complicated mishmash of contradictory
and difficult-to-parse messages. It also, like many of the world’s religions, requires
a hell of a lot of bad, irrational sophistry to sand away the bumps and make
the text seem like a cohesive whole. Even so, the exegetical contortions that
Christian apologists go through to parse the Gospel of Matthew in particular rank
among my favorites. Here’s Matthew’s Jesus on the subject of preaching to gentiles
(Matthew 10:5-6): <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following
instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the
Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.”<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those who are curious and want to read more about the
adventures of Paul, the world’s first shitty Christian hypocrite, should read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/ZEALOT-Life-Times-Jesus-Nazareth/dp/140006922X">Reza
Aslan’s <i>Zealot</i></a>, which I have used a source for much of the
background information here. It’s a fantastic resource, and those interested in
religion(s) should definitely pick it up. Anyone in a huff about my characterization
of Paul (or anything else here), I invite you to leave a comment, message me,
or (better yet) read your Bible!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>*: Christian revisionism of this event is so grotesque and
obscene that one source I consulted literally referred to the gentile
moneychangers in the Court of Gentiles as “shysters.”</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-41042025099963005232021-12-04T10:51:00.000-08:002021-12-04T10:51:01.680-08:00A Modest Conspiracy Proposal<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7wtNwae8MTs/YauwSygGG-I/AAAAAAAAGSo/F_kzugCfv1EREz6JgWd-GRkw-Ms6uBx-gCNcBGAsYHQ/s500/title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7wtNwae8MTs/YauwSygGG-I/AAAAAAAAGSo/F_kzugCfv1EREz6JgWd-GRkw-Ms6uBx-gCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/title.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>(<b>Author’s note:</b> once one has spent enough time
studying conspiracy theories, it’s inevitable that one feels the urge to conceive
of a crazy-ass conspiracy theory of one’s own – just ask <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Illuminatus-Trilogy-Pyramid-Golden-Leviathan/dp/0440539811">Robert
Anton Wilson</a>! This is one such attempt.)</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The dread, black-clad soldiers of Antifa are known for their
anarcho-communist claptrap as much as for beating up helpless old ladies,
helpless old men, and (in general) helpless supporters of heroic underdog and
TRUE President of the United States Donald J. Trump.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What most good-hearted <i>real</i> Americans may NOT know is
SCANDALOUS and TERRIBLE and TOTALLY worth your time. Start by clicking on our
sponsor:<o:p></o:p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/rOH37W0jPpA" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="543" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F-yqo4yxi80/Yauz9k9dQ4I/AAAAAAAAGS4/HpxZdW19m1c21HWLLTBc_7wcIeJ540TvQCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/ew.png" width="242" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thanks for the financial support, <s>suckers</s> patriots!</div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now, SPEAKING of financial support, let’s get back to those
fascist anti-fascists. Oh, they’d LIKE for the American public to think of them
as communists and anarchists (two political philosophies well-known for
attracting mass popular support in this sad, declining, sinful, socialist country
of ours). The truth is MUCH MORE DAMNING.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We <i>all</i> hate the big banks. WE KNOW who runs them (the
Illuminati posing as lizard people who are actually Freemasons - OBVIOUSLY). We
also know the big banks are one of the primary manufacturers of “quiet weapons”
- you know, the type used in “quiet wars.” Surely, a lowbrow bunch of anti-capitalists
like the dregs that make up Antifa wouldn’t have <i>anything</i> to do with them,
right?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">WRONG! You have to understand the symbology, the coded
messages that these sinister forces hide in plain sight. That’s part of their
Luciferian ideology and their Satanic, occult aspect, after all: consent must
be given by THE SHEEPLE and thus they hide their connections, alliances, and intentions
in PLAIN SIGHT. Just look at Disney’s Marvel movies, or Superbowl commercials,
or graffiti in the men’s room at JFK airport (NATURALLY).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Let’s examine the symbology of George Soros’ useful shock idiot
troops. AFTER you click on our generous sponsor:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://knowledgefight.com/people/2018/8/22/ted-anderson" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="1110" height="130" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7-NOgZnIIKY/Yau3URUGC_I/AAAAAAAAGTI/8BDB0KP0nlwiUu_Z5rWBlffO0surJ1y6gCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/aaa.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal">Thanks again, <s>dumbass</s> Friend of the Constitution!</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now, the unwashed, hairy losers of so-called “antifascism”
(which is really ANTI-AMERICANISM and ANTI-TRUMPISM) will tell you that they
adopted their primary symbol, the three arrows, from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Front#Legacy">the Iron Front</a>, an anti-totalitarian
militia that engaged in street fights with Nazi brownshirts. HA-HA, “antifascists.”
I know the TRUTH, and now other Real Americans will know the TRUTH too.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">BEHOLD:<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2GlSaIFQBtc/Yau3sIWw3bI/AAAAAAAAGTQ/jhmh-DNJosMVYEsTZ0-7-S3mjU6aNXoEgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1000/dumb%2B%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2GlSaIFQBtc/Yau3sIWw3bI/AAAAAAAAGTQ/jhmh-DNJosMVYEsTZ0-7-S3mjU6aNXoEgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/dumb%2B%25281%2529.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">You won’t hear this anywhere else, folks - CERTAINLY not in the lamestream media. <b>ANTIFA IS A
FRONT FOR BANK OF AMERICA</b>. It’s that simple. When they say they are
fighting “fascism,” remember that what they’re REALLY fighting is capitalism on
behalf of the banks! It makes TOO MUCH SENSE!</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now go, patriots. Fly, my pretties! And spread the word.<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-77443525933978792282021-11-28T12:35:00.000-08:002021-11-28T12:35:28.410-08:00Defeat the Far Right: Embrace Passion<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e77rD1gscHE/YaPS_qdz7VI/AAAAAAAAGRA/XBTnlMUSMfoVzLVRi-3PXTJgaCN68ZBTQCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/DFR%2Bheadline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e77rD1gscHE/YaPS_qdz7VI/AAAAAAAAGRA/XBTnlMUSMfoVzLVRi-3PXTJgaCN68ZBTQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h400/DFR%2Bheadline.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In a parallel universe, a popular thinker like Thomas Frank correctly
identified the problem currently tearing the US and much of the world apart. In
this alternate reality, this thinker may have even been able to proffer a
solution, given a keen enough intellect or the right insight. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Instead, in our
reality Thomas Frank (like many turn-of-the-21<sup>st</sup>-century American
liberal public intellectuals) noted a strange phenomenon in conservative
states. If you’ll pardon an eye-rolling pun, he saw that blue collar folks were
reliably voting red. That is to say: poor and working people were voting
against their economic self-interest by electing politicians who promised to
(and then proceeded to) dismantle the very safety nets and regulations that
most benefited their voters. Frank’s treatment of this issue, the widely-read
and well-regarded <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America/dp/080507774X"><i>What’s
the Matter with Kansas?</i></a>, was published in 2004.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Frank’s answer to his book’s titular question is,
essentially, “culture wars.” <i>Kansas</i> maintains that conservative
politicians appeal to voters’ base and easily-manipulated prejudices through
issues like abortion, gun control, etc. A more advanced and thoughtful version
of this basic thesis can be found in the Marxist concept of <a href="https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/f/a.htm#:~:text=%E2%80%9CFalse%20Consciousness%E2%80%9D%20refers%20to%20ideology%20dominating%20the%20consciousness%20of%20exploited%20groups%20and%20classes%20which%20at%20the%20same%20time%20justifies%20and%20perpetuates%20their%20exploitation.">false
consciousness</a>, the idea that capitalist institutional power generates an
ideological fog that blinds the proletariat to the dire economic circumstances
of their day-to-day life. Television, “common sense,” the political
dog-and-pony show: all exist to distract and confuse the working class and
provide ersatz contentment. In <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm#:~:text=Criticism%20has%20plucked,revolve%20around%20himself.">one
passage</a>, Marx referred to religious ideology in particular as flowers placed upon and
concealing the chains that bind us to our place in an exploitative system. <o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-92yWQHse0eE/YaPVIaEFh3I/AAAAAAAAGRI/2ruQ0mtxkZwWxZWnwsbqN47kR5Xk8pLzQCLcBGAsYHQ/s556/GettyImages-50694879-3ef5dda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="556" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-92yWQHse0eE/YaPVIaEFh3I/AAAAAAAAGRI/2ruQ0mtxkZwWxZWnwsbqN47kR5Xk8pLzQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/GettyImages-50694879-3ef5dda.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karl Marx</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Marx wrote in a very specific and interesting theoretical
milieu: 19<sup>th</sup>-century Germany. This was before the first rise of
fascism, though proto-fascist philosophical strains had already started to wrap
themselves around European thought. When <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/">Friedrich Nietzsche</a>
put pen to paper, he gave shrill voice to a strange form of reactionary
thinking born as the shadow cast by the Enlightenment. The father of
conservative thought, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/burke/">Edmund
Burke</a>, made his own contribution. Burke wrote <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Revolution-France-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140432043/ref=asc_df_0140432043/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312009828129&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13199163252037490999&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029755&hvtargid=pla-426747731699&psc=1"><i>Reflections
on the Revolution in France</i></a> back in 1790. His rejection of <i>liberté,
égalité, fraternité</i> was couched in language about the slow, organic nature
of society and the superiority of gradual change guided by elites to the idea
of revolution. He buttressed his opposition to the French Revolution by
advancing a theory of the individual as subordinate to the institutions vital
to human identity. Churches and the like were “<a href="https://www.bartleby.com/24/3/4.html">little platoons</a>,” valuable
because they metaphorically whipped us into shape, providing us with our sense
of “I.” Burke’s reaction to the political advances of the Enlightenment were <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conservatism/"><i>conservative</i></a>,
however, and mild compared to the <a href="https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/FNmod.htm">contempt
poured on modernity</a> by Nietzsche and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/88483.Oswald_Spengler#:~:text=%E2%80%9CFor%20the%20Age,gives%20the%20tone.%E2%80%9D">other
proto-fascist</a> German thinkers.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To Nietzsche, “God is dead” wasn’t a celebration, but a shrill
wail of lamentation. Nietzsche wasn’t anti-religion in the least, despite what
his disciples among college freshmen might think. He wanted that <i>old</i>
time religion, preferably something akin to the <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/pr/01/nietzsche66.html#:~:text=And%20in%20The,show%20any%20progress.">era
of Moses</a> or the religious caste system in India. He was a violent
reactionary, raging against the rising tide of equality, democracy,
rationalism, and individuality. Another example of this coagulating German thoughtform
can be found in historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler’s 1918 whopper <i><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/countering-radical-right/ups-and-downs-and-clashes-western-civilization/">The
Decline of the West</a></i>. Spengler, like Nietzsche, despised both modernity
and liberalism. Spengler thought “the West” was in the dread state of
“civilization,” which he defined (oddly) as the terminal stage of a culture.
“The West” and modernity were both on their way out, Spengler believed, as a
function of repeating cycles that followed a pattern (this “history as a
predictable process” framework was also central to the ideas of Hegel and Marx,
not coincidentally). <o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2ird2IYxVIk/YaPVmUBFDbI/AAAAAAAAGRQ/_eJeAeqxBMQ5yVY4VGFAklPyhTplSvcLgCLcBGAsYHQ/s712/blavatsky_360x450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="570" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2ird2IYxVIk/YaPVmUBFDbI/AAAAAAAAGRQ/_eJeAeqxBMQ5yVY4VGFAklPyhTplSvcLgCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h640/blavatsky_360x450.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Helena Blavatsky</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Other bizarre currents were present in the Germany of this
era as well; strange strains of esotericism and what we would now call new
religious movements (or “cults,” to be crude). Helena Blavatsky, for example,
stole, bastardized, counterfeited, and exploited sources ranging from traditional
Western Esotericism to “Eastern thought.” After she commenced her schtick, our
poor planet had <a href="https://www.theosophical.org/">Theosophy</a> to
contend with. A few spores from this new family of religions and philosophies
thrived with particular vigor in Germany, including so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariosophy">Ariosophy</a>. My point in
sketching this thumbnail of the pre-fascist pseudo-philosophical milieu of that
time and place – one that appears engaged (at least in our century) in what
Nietzsche would call “the eternal return” – is to provide context for the
following statement:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of the three major political theories that went to war in
the mid-20<sup>th</sup>-century – communism, liberalism*, and fascism –
liberalism is by far the weakest when it comes to understanding the true nature
of what drives humanity. Liberalism views human <i>desire</i> as more powerful
than other drives, and as more or less benign and materialistic to boot. To
capitalist democracies like the United States, the mainstream political bargain
goes something like this: support our institutions and in exchange we offer you
comfort, safety, freedom to do what you like, and stability. A chicken in every
pot, a college education for those who can either afford it or go into debt for
it, a mortgage for every hardworking family unit, and contented evenings of time
in the company of one’s choosing. Whether capitalism actually provides these
things is relevant to a broader discussion of all three ideologies, but not for
this piece, in which we are only looking at the specific question of what
motivates political decisions that seem irrational.<br /><i>
(* - Liberalism in the political theory sense, not the American electoral
sense. In theory, liberalism refers to a combination of democratic or
republican governance, a more or less regulated market system, individual
rights and liberties, a legalistic approach to citizenship, etc.)</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Who on Earth <i>wouldn’t</i> want that?” Thomas Frank, in
essence, asks. “What has hypnotized and bewitched these people? Why aren’t they
acting rationally to fulfill their material needs and desires?”<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iPmZx8Tw9JU/YaPWOwm0vcI/AAAAAAAAGRY/TOMgoX9cEdgusrMD1N0K0_CAjF74AegvQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/breadline_2015.19.2950%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iPmZx8Tw9JU/YaPWOwm0vcI/AAAAAAAAGRY/TOMgoX9cEdgusrMD1N0K0_CAjF74AegvQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/breadline_2015.19.2950%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Breadline </i>by George Luks, 1900</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">The answer to “who” is easy: quite a few people, actually. Why?
For reasons that are complicated, sad, and a little mysterious. Abraham Maslow’s
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Human-Motivation-Abraham-Maslow/dp/1515424960/ref=asc_df_1515424960/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312674808447&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14812927146888338058&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029755&hvtargid=pla-525340042723&psc=1">hierarchy
of human needs</a> (first articulated in a 1943 paper and then fleshed out in
1954’s <i>Motivation and Personality</i>) is not a biological law. It is not a scientific
theory that has been experimentally tested, nor is it particularly
philosophically rigorous. It is, to boil it down, a theoretical outline for
psychology and, most often, a tool used in <a href="https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newldr_92.htm">management
training</a>. In the 70-odd years since Dr. Maslow conceived of this hierarchy,
quite a few assumptions in psychology have quite rightly been challenged and,
in many cases, toppled. Maslow’s hierarchy has unfortunately not been
overthrown (yet), and remains a major conceptual framework used to teach
generations of therapists, managers, sociologists, and other representatives of
the administrative/bureaucratic class.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To Thomas Frank’s eyes, the entranced voters of Kansas are
behaving counter to Maslow’s hierarchy, and their behavior can be explained by
crafty Republican exploitation of the so-called American “culture war.” What
they should be focused on is their own rational self-interest. This certainly
lines up with the liberal conception of the human animal. What is best for
citizens materially has been at the center of ideological sub-types ranging from
early thinkers like John Locke and John Stuart Mill right up to small-d
democratic small-l liberal modernity (including everyone from libertarians to
centrists like Barack Obama and Joe Biden). Liberal governance is a peaceable
affair (if it isn’t and includes election tampering or even, as in the case of
Russia, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-56695489">assassination
of critics and opponents</a>, it is by definition not liberal governance). It
promises rational debate, pluralism, material comfort, social progress, and
stability. Again, whether it actually provides those things is up for debate. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Friedrich Nietzsche, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/02/julius-evola-alt-right/517326/">Julius
Evola</a> (an Italian fascist philosopher), and even drunken, half-bright slobs
like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/book-steve-bannon-is-obsessed-with-the-fourth-turning-2017-2">Steve
Bannon</a> understand something about the human animal that the great thinkers
of liberal modernity do not. They understand that many citizens of liberal
democracies feel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomie">in some way
unfulfilled</a>. The Marxian critic in me would chalk this up to the widening
gap between classes, the decline of labor unions, and the atomization of
sociality inherent to capitalism and consumer culture. What created the hole,
so to speak, doesn’t matter as much as how a society fills it.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TW2netDSSQY/YaPYPOiESnI/AAAAAAAAGRg/Ba9rvudIYhs81me4ZD9eauhBYOTm8K24ACLcBGAsYHQ/s767/anomie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="767" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TW2netDSSQY/YaPYPOiESnI/AAAAAAAAGRg/Ba9rvudIYhs81me4ZD9eauhBYOTm8K24ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/anomie.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Scream</i>, Edvard Munch 1893</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Discrete right-wing movements like Evangelical Christianity
approach this problem with a combination of the mystical-political (universal
salvation, the Kingdom of God and the Second Coming / Apocalypse, etc.) and the
practical. The practical comfort that Evangelical culture produces is twofold,
and serves as a perfect example of the double-edged blade of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital">social capital</a> (in a
nutshell: the collective bonds and sociability demonstrated by participation in
civic and community-building activities including service clubs, collective
recreational activity like bowling leagues, etc.). On the one hand, Evangelical
churches provide a very real and hugely beneficial community for the in-group. “Community”
is more than an abstract: it represents a group of humans who care about one’s
well-being in a non-transactional way. On the other hand, the dark side of in-group
social capital is even more in evidence in Evangelical congregations than its
benefits. This is also the case with organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-american-bund">the
German-American Bund</a>, and other violent, nightmarish groups. The dual
nature of such groups was on display in, for example, Klan gatherings at which
they shared a family picnic meal at the site of a lynching – an incomprehensibly
obscene juxtaposition of both the vilest and the most normal of human behaviors.
The in-group’s contempt for the out-group was so pronounced that “very fine
people” felt comfortable dining while enjoying the spectacle of murder.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In other words, the ability to form an “us” in liberal
democracy seems to rely on (or at least be most reliably expressed through)
fear, anger, and hatred*. In the absence of class-based solidarity, and with
the emptiness of much that has been commodified, commercialized, or privatized,
little else is left. One can root for a sports team, especially a local one –
and there is <a href="http://seippel.no/Seippel_SportAndSocialCapital.pdf">some
intriguing research</a> being done that indicates that sports fandom produces
an especially fierce <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17430430701388723">and
unpredictable</a> form of social capital (it does, however, also have <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1014485-most-violent-fan-incidents-in-sports">the
violent downsides</a> mentioned above). Alternately, if one is seeking
connection to an “us” in the liberal democracy, one can assume a stake in a
political party, a form of participation that, frankly, has a lot in common
with sports fandom. These identities provide a goal to strive for, a group to
strongly identify with, and (perhaps most importantly) a common enemy at whom
one can direct the liberating and intoxicating emotions of anger and hatred.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>(* - Rebecca Solnit makes a convincing case in </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Built-Hell-Extraordinary-Communities/dp/0143118072">A Paradise Builtin Hell</a><i> that strong, social-capital-based communities also develop in the wake
of disasters or crises such as Hurricane Katrina or the San Francisco earthquake
of 1906. However, this follows the thesis of this essay, as such bonding is
triggered by disruptive, deadly, and catastrophic conditions.)</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If those components sound familiar, and if the chanting,
flag-waving, and violence at sports events remind you of <a href="https://youtu.be/Ml22txWypJE">Nuremburg circa 1939</a> a little bit, I’d
argue that you’re on the right track. That isn’t to say that sports fandom is
inherently fascistic; only that sports fandom satisfies the same essential
human drives that fascism parasitizes. Fandom engages the same props essential
to the metaphorical “play” that mass events like these almost always rely on: <a href="https://www.usflags.com/sports-team-flags.html">flags</a>, <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2025054-power-ranking-the-best-logos-in-sports">symbols</a>,
<a href="https://www.liveenhanced.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Wearing-Team-Apparel-2.jpeg">uniforms</a>,
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_colours">colors with special
significance</a>, and – through jeering, booing, and the like – even <a href="https://youtu.be/5mFwQjCemzM">a real-life version</a> of the <a href="https://youtu.be/XvGmOZ5T6_Y">“two minute hate”</a> that George Orwell so
chillingly wrote about in <i>1984</i>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mYhb2IhTnbs/YaPZoO7RK7I/AAAAAAAAGRo/9SvqRdJJ4VE5fDT21Fjtii3FsovU6qGQACLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/redhats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mYhb2IhTnbs/YaPZoO7RK7I/AAAAAAAAGRo/9SvqRdJJ4VE5fDT21Fjtii3FsovU6qGQACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/redhats.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">So – with all this in mind, let’s examine Thomas Frank’s
question again. What’s the matter with Kansas? Why do they vote against their
economic self-interest?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">First: because the promises of material improvement and “the
good life” have, for the most part, failed to materialize in any substantial
way in broad swaths of the liberal democratic world. Second: because in the
absence of such prosperity, liberal democracy gives citizens <i>very little</i>
to take social or political sustenance from. Currently and in the United States,
this vacuum of meaning has largely been filled by Evangelical Christianity,
which has failed to improve people’s material circumstances but has provided an
element of community lacking in the decaying civil life of the US – but modern,
politically-engaged Evangelical Christianity <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/05/the-religious-right-formed-around-support-for-segregation-not-against-abortion.html">has
evil, poisonous roots</a> in racist authoritarianism, and predictably it has
trended more and more toward a sort of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/02/christ-church-idaho-theocracy-us-america">theocratic
quasi-fascism</a>. For the purposes of this essay, modern Evangelical
Christianity in the US may thus be thought of as a sub-type of America’s
current fascist upswell. Third (and perhaps most importantly), “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/anomie">the hole in one’s soul</a>” and the
feeling of unfulfillment which seem to accompany capitalistic / materialistic
liberal democracies has found resolution. Much off America (from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/23/portland-oregon-clashes-protests-proud-boys-antifascist">Washington
state</a> all the way <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/states/florida">to
Florida</a>) have passed through what Max Weber called <i><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/disenchantment-sociology">Entzauberung</a></i>
(“disenchantment”) and have found the results wanting. In their desperation,
many have turned to the hyper-reactionary philosophy called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment">the Dark Enlightenment</a>.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IJb67NwYImQ/YaPaW5n6W0I/AAAAAAAAGRw/LqxPfEKB5MYVz0lMzZ8IrxoML4t1PZ6mACLcBGAsYHQ/s540/thisguy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="540" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IJb67NwYImQ/YaPaW5n6W0I/AAAAAAAAGRw/LqxPfEKB5MYVz0lMzZ8IrxoML4t1PZ6mACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h400/thisguy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Mencius Moldbug," the king without a kingdom</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">“The Dark Enlightenment” is a 21<sup>st</sup> century
movement of counter-rationalism, anti-individualism, anti-democratic anti-egalitarianism,
and a rejection of the scientific worldview. It was first articulated by <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190877583.001.0001/oso-9780190877583-chapter-12">Mencius
Moldbug</a> (real name Curtis Yavin) and his disciple Nick Land. If these names
and concepts sound cartoonish, irrational, or perhaps even absurd, that is
intentional. Such antics are <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/20/fascists-know-how-to-turn-mockery-into-power/">part
of the defense mechanisms</a> of this loose coalition of ideologies. They prefer,
for the most part, to be dismissed by “serious thinkers” or – better yet – to remain
anonymous and distribute their work where it will find purchase. Inevitably,
Moldbug’s spores grew best in the fertile and feces-fertilized soil of online alienation and internet nihilism. The fruit
of Moldbug’s labors isn’t a monocultural crop: his writing has born fruits
ranging from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/oct/01/the-rise-of-monarchism">a resurgence
of Catholic Monarchism</a> to <i>völkisch Ásatrú</i>, a racist revival of Norse
and Germanic heathenry that is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-permit-approved-whites-only-church-small-minnesota-town-insists-n1251838">making
inroads</a> in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-small-town-congregation-sold-its-church-a-whites-only-group-moved-in/2021/03/06/ac5b65de-7e02-11eb-85cd-9b7fa90c8873_story.html">small-town
America</a>. To anyone with a passing acquaintance with the history of bloody
and protracted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_Scandinavia">death-struggles</a>
between the Roman Catholic Church and heathenry in old Norse and Germanic regions,
the revival of the two ideologies from a common root source is puzzling, if not
incomprehensible*.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>(* - The specific rabbit hole of neo-reactionary religious
syncretism and the 21<sup>st</sup>-century magick revival is one I’ll be
writing about quite a bit in the near future, so if that subject interests you
stay tuned.)</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The lodestone of this bumper crop of neo-reactionary
movements is telling, because it is the foundation stone of fascism. What these
superficially diverse anti-Enlightenment ideologies share is a deep,
foundational commitment to <i><a href="https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/conflict-and-contest-in-nietzsches-philosophy/introduction">Kampf
und Streit</a></i>: struggle and strife. They are, in essence, fascist at their
core, whether they dress the concept up in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-41757047">Indian mysticism</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-capitol-riot-the-myths-behind-the-tattoos-worn-by-qanon-shaman-jake-angeli-152996">Norse
revivalism</a>, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/christian-identity">Evangelical
Christianity</a> (by way of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Israelism">British Israelism</a>),
or materialistic and atheistic National Socialism. The appeal of violent
struggle in the name of a fundamentalist ideology, whether that ideology is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction">revolutionary Communism</a>
or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Order">revolutionary Fascism</a>,
should not be underestimated. However, where revolutionary Communism, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_Revolution">revolutionary
democratization</a>, and even revolutionary political Islam have end states
(which Eric Hoffman’s <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/True-Believer-Thoughts-Movements-Perennial/dp/0060505915">The
True Believer</a></i> referred to as the “end of the active phase” of a mass
movement), fascism has no such end state. In part, this stems from fascism’s
conception of time – an essay or book in and of itself – but it’s also part of
fascism’s sneaky tactical brilliance. Fascism’s natural state is strife,
struggle, war, and death. Any proffered “golden age” (such as the ever-imminent,
never-realized <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich#:~:text=The%20term%20Altreich%20was%20also,would%20last%20a%20thousand%20years.">Tausendjähriges
Reich</a></i>) is window dressing at best and certainly not key to its appeal. <o:p></o:p></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8_7z1VTm1cM/YaPbPwvW6JI/AAAAAAAAGR4/MP-2B5GqsS0QuImZVoLd2LulVbw6p-gOACLcBGAsYHQ/s674/gross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="473" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8_7z1VTm1cM/YaPbPwvW6JI/AAAAAAAAGR4/MP-2B5GqsS0QuImZVoLd2LulVbw6p-gOACLcBGAsYHQ/w450-h640/gross.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Consummattum Est</i>, Matthias Grünewald 1512-1516(?)</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">The appeal of <i>Kampf und Streit</i> to Christians is
obvious: Christianity is a religion founded on the <a href="https://www.catholic.org/prayers/station.php">strife, struggle,
suffering, and death</a> of its titular messiah. In an incalculable number of
Catholic churches and cathedrals, for example, artistic portrayals of the
agonizing death of Jesus <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/blog/christ-is-risen-so-why-is-there-a-crucifix-in-every-church">are
prominently displayed</a>. Through sculpture, stained glass, or paint,
Catholics are reminded on a weekly basis that their salvation and eternal life
were bought with terrible pain and struggle. Christianity’s fixation on the
torture and death of Jesus of Nazareth produces a flock of the faithful who
are, from childhood, taught the virtues of violent death and struggle against a
fallen and corrupt world that is out to get them.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My point here is not to cast Christianity as a fascist
doctrine: that would be foolish, discriminatory, and factually impossible to
reconcile. What I <i>am</i> saying, however, is that Christianity uses the same
potent cocktail of fear, aggression, longing, and disenchantment to bind its
followers together that fascism – and many other reactionary ideologies – also
use. Fascism is the most potent of these neo-reactionary ideologies, having
been custom-built in the 20<sup>th</sup> century to hijack the alienation of
post-Enlightenment humanity. One of the earliest and most effective tactics it
deployed was to cast postwar life in the Germany of the 1920s and 30s as impoverished.
They meant not so much the absence of prosperity (although the Nazi Party did
speak to that a little) as the absence of the <i>real</i> keys to an authentic
life: struggle, suffering, and death in the name of something greater than
one’s self. Naziism provided a pre-built worldview that met these strange
desires. They provided enemies (Jews, communists, etc.), a mighty and united
effort (to expand Germany’s borders through aggressive military action), a
place in that very same united effort (either military service, Party
membership, or involvement in any of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksgemeinschaft#Nazi_Volksgemeinschaft">startling
abundance</a> of Nazi civic and Party clubs, training regimes, etc.), and –
perhaps most importantly - <i>Kampf und Streit</i>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H_8TTfvXqaY/YaPcNil30uI/AAAAAAAAGSA/ku2q0hQ0DSw8juWq9PIsVbkKEpObDHf-QCLcBGAsYHQ/s340/sis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H_8TTfvXqaY/YaPcNil30uI/AAAAAAAAGSA/ku2q0hQ0DSw8juWq9PIsVbkKEpObDHf-QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/sis.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sisyphus</i>, Titian 1549</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">In conclusion, then, let’s reexamine our imaginary question
from Thomas Frank regarding the reactionary nature of many working-class people
in the United States.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Who on Earth wouldn’t want prosperity?” In theory, nobody –
but proponents of Enlightenment values, capitalism, and liberal democracy have
vastly overestimated the appeal of <i>mere</i> prosperity.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“What do people want if they don’t want prosperity, freedom,
and individual self-actualization?” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Death, Mr. Frank. Struggle, strife, and death in the name of
a grand, epochal cause. It’s not logical, it’s not pretty, and it’s not likely
to make one optimistic, but as a proud product of the Enlightenment and a
proponent of its virtues, I am committed to the truth as I can best know it –
and the truth is that there’s nothing wrong with Kansas. At least, nothing that
hasn’t been wrong with humanity for at least the last century, and in all
likelihood millennia longer than that.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fortunately for the future of humanity, death isn’t the only
(or even primary) impulse that drives social and political behavior. If it
were, we would have self-immolated long ago. The primal need that underlies the
<i>Sturm und Drang</i> of late-19<sup>th</sup> to early-20<sup>th</sup> century
German proto-fascism, the need that hides behind flags, slogans, violence, and
struggle, is the need for <i>meaning</i>. In his typically acerbic and off-kilter
manner, Eric Hoffman derided this as “the true believer’s need to be relieved
of the terrible burden of self.” Nietzsche was terrified by modernity’s lack of
“horizons” (limits, definitions, established roles, etc.) because of the
terrible freedom such a lack represented. Said freedom is only terrifying if
one has no meaning; no metaphorical flame to cast light and lead one through
the darkness of one’s frail and insignificant life. There are countless
meanings to give one’s life to and, at the moment, liberal democracy seems to
be losing its appeal. One possible solution (or, at least, strategy) is for
liberal theorists and politicians to eschew the patronizing and moralistic
practice of condemning perfectly natural and vitally important human drives.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The left (in American political terms) has, of late, modeled
itself after the moral code of the Jedi Order, to use a particularly geeky
metaphor. Anger, hate, fear – all “negative emotions” are backgrounded in order
to foreground the “superior emotions” of love, solidarity, etc. Those who
advocate this approach should take note of how easily and often the Jedi were
dismantled by the Sith, who (unlike their goody two shoes counterparts)
embraced their passions, including anger. Learning to expand one’s moral palate
doesn’t mean descending into aggressive lunacy. Quite the opposite: tempered,
controlled anger can sustain a pacifistic protest longer than “love.” Hatred of
war or racism or other social ills is a much more motivating impulse than is
usually acknowledged by the left – and that’s too bad. Movements like the mid-20<sup>th</sup>-Century
Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter, opposition to the Vietnam War, etc.
were animated by a full spectrum of emotional needs and expressions, not just
the safe, polite ones pre-selected by the political or theoretical elite. Those emotions we consider "negative" are, by and large, rooted in passion - that which also drives love, loyalty, and the like.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mufAFxdRJrg/YaPdzdZS7nI/AAAAAAAAGSI/VgotiSOHgYYwNBsE5FgsvOA4Ai5FaF2qgCLcBGAsYHQ/s750/2002-1-1.jpg%2521Large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="750" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mufAFxdRJrg/YaPdzdZS7nI/AAAAAAAAGSI/VgotiSOHgYYwNBsE5FgsvOA4Ai5FaF2qgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h400/2002-1-1.jpg%2521Large.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Worker's Holiday - Coney Island</i>, Ralph Fasanella 1965</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Not only that, these leftist movements provide strife and
struggle, but provide them in a constructive, progressive, largely-peaceful
way. What’s more, where right-wing and/or fascist ideologies stoke passions
against minority communities who are largely powerless and oppressed, leftist
rage is most often directed at those who wield an outsized influence over the
lives of working people due to their wealth and/or institutional prominence. To
put it another way, right-wing anger punches down while left-wing anger punches
up.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anger, struggle, strife: these are concepts that make
bourgeoise liberals uncomfortable. Some of whom remember the 1960s through the
distorted and largely-useless lens of nostalgia and the light of sanitized historical
narrative rather than that of true history. We forget the “nasty” parts of
political progress at our peril. The most dangerous, poisonous, destructive,
and anti-human ideology that our world has thus far produced remembers these
lessons. To combat the rising tide of the Fascist Internationale, liberal
democracies need to do some soul-searching about what they do and do not offer
their citizens. Such conversations are taking place already, whether the left
wants to participate or not.<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-11645333828958099522021-11-13T15:20:00.002-08:002021-11-13T15:20:29.456-08:00Your Metaphor Sucks (Vol. 1)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ezYlR-J155Y/YZBEbYxc2KI/AAAAAAAAGPw/gAHSEOQo0WEttsXqf_bby-o0sD6rMD9iACLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/Metaphor%2BInsta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ezYlR-J155Y/YZBEbYxc2KI/AAAAAAAAGPw/gAHSEOQo0WEttsXqf_bby-o0sD6rMD9iACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/Metaphor%2BInsta.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Metaphors! You know them, you love them, you <i>need</i>
them – but much like motor vehicles, semiautomatic rifles, and pet chinchillas,
they are easily abused! <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">While some form of half-assed licensing is required for
cars, guns, and exotic pets, the idea of licensing metaphors or tagging them
with some kind of warning is absurd. Right, Grant Morrison’s <i>The Filth</i>?<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XYXQrBS_tuA/YZBE1IxVe0I/AAAAAAAAGP4/usBwlC_HJDQD6-bliFgRTJSwockKZxjRACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/the_filth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1606" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XYXQrBS_tuA/YZBE1IxVe0I/AAAAAAAAGP4/usBwlC_HJDQD6-bliFgRTJSwockKZxjRACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/the_filth.jpg" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Don’t tell that to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2018/nov/01/pity-jordan-peterson-lobster-analogy-replace-sense-humour">human
lobster</a> and alt right <s>professor of semiotics</s> clinical psychologist <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/26/17144166/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-life">Jordan
Peterson</a>! In fairness, he’s dumbest when he talks about culture or
politics: his book <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=maps+of+meaning&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4b2MBhD2ARIsAIrcB-RHAUggZA11UV4lwMDCZvCGsUJDYbyeUhvwRaSXlQ-z3MgUkUC9tfAaAkgoEALw_wcB&hvadid=241623437889&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9029755&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12347635136813962028&hvtargid=kwd-756351875&hydadcr=3174_10390928&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_1emfkuyd0a_e">Maps
of Meaning</a></i> just seems like another contribution to the niche carved by
books like George Lakoff’s excellent <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Metaphors-We-Live-George-Lakoff/dp/0226468011/ref=asc_df_0226468011/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=344004377702&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6784405513490822362&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029755&hvtargid=pla-436532303495&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=69543897592&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=344004377702&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6784405513490822362&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029755&hvtargid=pla-436532303495">Metaphors
We Live By</a></i>. My favorite exploration of this theme was penned by Jorge
Luis Borges. His <i><a href="https://kwarc.info/teaching/TDM/Borges.pdf">On
Exactitude in Science</a></i>, originally published in 1946, is staggeringly
brilliant. It’s a one-paragraph short story in the form of a literary forgery,
and explores the so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation">map-territory
relation</a> (a term coined by Alfred Korzybski in a 1931 paper called “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Non_Aristotelian_System_and_Its_Necess/Ml-hswEACAAJ?hl=en">A
Non-Aristotelian System and Its Necessity for Rigor in Mathematics and Physics</a>”
– obviously the inspiration for Borges’ piece, given that <i>Exactitude</i>’s
original Spanish title <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Exactitude_in_Science#:~:text=or%20%22On%20Rigor%20in%20Science%22%20(the%20original%20Spanish-language%20title%20is%20%22Del%20rigor%20en%20la%20ciencia%22">translates
better as “Rigor” than “Exactitude”</a>).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We need metaphors because the world is incomprehensible. It’s
far too vast and interrelated across time and space for a puny human mind (or
even the best supercomputer we can build) to comprehend as a unified, singular
system. Unified systems, however, are how humans attempt to manage the world
and our relationship to it and each other. Thus, metaphors simplify and render
legible processes which otherwise would remain mysterious. Our species’
earliest attempts to think about reality were expressed in metaphors that took
the form of <a href="https://www.jcf.org/works/quote/gods-are-metaphors/">gods,
spirits, and legends</a>. Unfortunately, our pre-scientific efforts made
reality “comprehensible,” in a sense, but failed to give us control over it or
a way to interact with it (since gods, spirits, and legends aren’t real and do
not explain material reality or physical processes in a useful way). <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GgYbezt0TBo/YZBF5yyyGQI/AAAAAAAAGQA/jDld3pC_N2Q86gqJVVNOXY_AKylnFNN0gCLcBGAsYHQ/s962/gods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="962" height="254" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GgYbezt0TBo/YZBF5yyyGQI/AAAAAAAAGQA/jDld3pC_N2Q86gqJVVNOXY_AKylnFNN0gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h254/gods.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Did god-metaphors and mystical thoughtforms “set us back,”
in terms of technological progress? It’s impossible to know. It’s difficult to
disregard them completely: such thoughtforms were extremely useful in <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-sociology/chapter/the-functionalist-perspective-on-religion/">maintaining
social control and cohesion</a>. Even so, some god-metaphors took on a destructive
and terrifying life of their own (such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Council-of-Clermont">Jesus Christ of the
Crusades</a>, for example). In other words, we need metaphors to understand the
world - as long as those metaphors are 1) useful in comprehending material
reality or social processes, and/or 2) beneficial rather than destructive.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bad metaphors breed an inaccurate or fanciful understanding
of reality, both our material existence and the relationships and dynamics between
humans and the world. I have a white-hot, burning hatred of the widespread and
widely-believed metaphor at <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dualism/#:~:text=In%20the%20philosophy%20of%20mind%2C%20dualism%20is%20the%20theory%20that,radically%20different%20kinds%20of%20thing.">the
heart of dualism</a> (a metaphor I would express as “world-as-separate” or “world-as-death”),
but that’s an extended discussion for another day. Today, we pick the
low-hanging fruit of mangled metaphors that lead to mangled thinking. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By “mangled” I mean a trite metaphor or idiom mis-expressed
as its exact opposite or inversion – i.e., “what goes down must come up”
instead of “what goes up must come down.” The former is based on life inside the
Earth’s velvety gravity; the latter is, I don’t know, maybe <a href="https://youtu.be/VV-pKHpJ62w?t=7">true for Aquaman</a>? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The mangled metaphor I hate most has become commonplace on the
political right, especially as a dimwitted encapsulation of the issue of police
malfeasance. In cases ranging from corruption to outright murder, you will
often hear the following: “Don’t let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch,”
or (as shorthand for that version of the expression) “a few bad apples.” The
original saying is actually “A few bad apples spoil the whole bunch” –
literally the opposite of the thin-blue-line, I-love-the-cops, asshole version.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pcH4u1xgwp4/YZBHYSs1VtI/AAAAAAAAGQI/ZHeT5xMiw-8lEw3NPqQr-QvWvKhZPC9gACLcBGAsYHQ/s720/bad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="720" height="250" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pcH4u1xgwp4/YZBHYSs1VtI/AAAAAAAAGQI/ZHeT5xMiw-8lEw3NPqQr-QvWvKhZPC9gACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h250/bad.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">This misunderstanding of an old saying is telling. In the
original (and <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31666/does-one-bad-apple-really-spoil-whole-bunch#:~:text=Given%20the%20right%20conditions%20and,to%20ripen%E2%80%94and%20eventually%20rot.&text=In%20both%20cases%2C%20it%20actually,the%20rest%20of%20the%20bunch.">agriculturally
accurate</a>) expression, the “apples” were people engaged in a given activity.
The warning that a “few bad apples” would ruin the entire barrel was based on
material reality, in which corruption spreads from fruit to fruit until – by association
– all of the fruit becomes corrupt. The idea of the expression is that, like
apples, <a href="humans%20can%20pick%20up%20negative%20ethical%20habits%20from%20each%20other">humans
can pick up negative ethical habits from each other</a>*. The message is that
people must be vigilant and stamp out bad behavior before it spreads to others,
because such corruption is inevitable.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the mangled version, the apples are still people and the
rot is still corruption – but we are told to disregard (rather than seek out
and reject) the “bad apples,” because, hey, just a few corrupt people doesn’t <i>really</i>
say anything about a department, organization, or other group, right? It’s an
inversion of reality intended to dismiss or explain away corruption as a series
of isolated incidents, when in all likelihood <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/the-problem-of-systematic-corruption/">corruption
is a systemic problem</a>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Znp5s2MM8ho/YZBHxjIJQ_I/AAAAAAAAGQQ/iRiDDimGK50ydSzfZ9MrLQ2BtY2tx5GKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s608/realbad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="608" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Znp5s2MM8ho/YZBHxjIJQ_I/AAAAAAAAGQQ/iRiDDimGK50ydSzfZ9MrLQ2BtY2tx5GKwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/realbad.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Two examples of this metaphor in action spring immediately
to mind. One of them is, in fact, police corruption: the “bad apples” idiom is
an incorrect (and totally wrongheaded) understanding of both problem and
solution. When “bad apples” appear in a police department, the cops’ answer is
often to swiftly and quietly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/16/what-happens-when-police-officer-gets-fired-very-often-another-police-agency-hires-them/">transfer
them rather than take their badge and gun</a>. The correct understanding of “bad
apples” would lead departments to reject bad cops outright with the knowledge
that laxity in self-regulation inevitably leads to the spread of ethical rot.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another example is the way in which the Catholic Church has dealt
with pedophile priests since at least the 20<sup>th</sup> Century (when records
of such things began to be kept – I suspect it has been a problem for, oh, two
millennia before that?). The correct understanding of “bad apples” would have
led the church to immediately fire and file charges against such men. The
mangled understanding excuses the church’s actual reaction which was to shuffle
said priests from location to location as quickly and quietly as possible. As a
result, countless thousands of children were abused by oft-excused,
oft-transferred “bad apples,” because, hey – doesn’t spoil the whole bunch,
right? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Metaphors matter – as do the specific words we use, the
affect we adopt when kicking ideas around, and many other phenomena that are
not <i>directly related</i> to language so much as they <i>underpin</i> it. In
this occasional series, I’ll continue to explore mangled metaphors and great metaphors
alike – if you’re a semiotics nerd like me, I hope you will enjoy it!<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-18112077945330200792021-11-03T10:31:00.002-07:002021-11-03T10:31:33.490-07:00Hot Sauce, Horror, and Maraṇasati: the Truth of Meat<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cGPCTqbqPbo/YYLCTH-3zrI/AAAAAAAAGO0/mu7D6MGeX9kSaWJCNWZLh3Edmpnzaxs0ACLcBGAsYHQ/s822/bonepile%2B16x9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="822" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cGPCTqbqPbo/YYLCTH-3zrI/AAAAAAAAGO0/mu7D6MGeX9kSaWJCNWZLh3Edmpnzaxs0ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/bonepile%2B16x9.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Why do people love horror? It seems like a bland enough
question; we might as well ask why people like kimchi, or ghost peppers. Humans
are endlessly delighted by stimulation, and as even a casual fan of BDSM can
tell you, sometimes pleasure is sweeter when it’s been spiked (so to speak)
with a little pain. Is that all it is? Are fans of horror indulging our taste
for having our neurons flogged? Are horror nerds high on adrenaline the way an
extreme sports enthusiast or roller coaster fanatic is? Or is there
a deeper attraction – cold metaphorical bones beneath the twitchy
flesh of scares-as-thrills?<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In some cases, scares are just harmless fun. I clearly
remember – from the days before the plague- the feeling of watching a horror
movie in a theater on Friday night: the giggles, the whispers, and the collective
feelings of tension and release. And while we’re on the subject of tension and
release, it’s worth noting in the era of “Netflix ‘n chill” that the use
of <a href="https://www.mixcloud.com/StuffToBlowYourMind/the-horror-movie-aphrodisiac/">horror
film as an aphrodisiac</a> has a long and storied history, and with scary
fare streaming in the comfort of one’s own bedroom, there has never been a
better time to snuggle close with a loved one and let horror work its magic.
There’s nothing wrong with going to a horror movie with your friends (once
COVID has been brought under control) – and certainly nothing wrong with
watching one with your spouse or partner. That’s all well and good.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1rruNdX_-oA/YYLG5D4yjvI/AAAAAAAAGPU/IpPVJA8nC8Eyeh0o89E9UmyJFG8pvuptgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/drivein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1rruNdX_-oA/YYLG5D4yjvI/AAAAAAAAGPU/IpPVJA8nC8Eyeh0o89E9UmyJFG8pvuptgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h336/drivein.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">It’s worth narrowing the focus of the question and
personalizing it, then. Why do <i>I</i> love horror? The answer to that
question is a little more complex. Since before my adolescence, I’ve been
attracted to the morbid, monstrous, and fantastic in fiction – not unusual for
a human produced by the decades that saw Stephen King, Wes Craven, and even RL
Stine rise to hyper-fame. I wasn't just a casual fan, however. My love of horror was
hatched early, and as I fed it a steady diet of novels and movies it grew into
a constant companion. At this point, some time in my early teen years, I began
to notice something about the horror fiction that so moved and engrossed me.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Spicy food reacts the way it does on our tongue due to
notably high levels of compounds that, interestingly enough, <i>actually hur</i>t
us. Unlike the <a href="https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Gom_Jabbar">ordeal of
the gom jabbbar</a>, the pain produced by a ghost pepper is real because the
harm is real (although temporary and intentionally self-inflicted). Eat one, and the chemical compounds it holds in its benign-looking flesh go to work on your tongue just like battery acid would. Spicy food
allows us to experience in a safe way the same neurological effects we would
get from being, say, burned alive. In a sense, food that bites back is a sort
of culinary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara%E1%B9%87asati">Maraṇasati</a>,
a lip-sizzling sensory version of <a href="http://www.thlib.org/static/reprints/jiats/01/pdfs/germanoJIATS_01_2005.pdf">the
funerary thread of the Tibetan Buddhist Great Perfection</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UbVIjNADcrw/YYLDisfSrFI/AAAAAAAAGPE/oOOEVhm7NkIZwkmLcfgs6YgATbOr760NQCLcBGAsYHQ/s309/A%2BMeat%2BSinner%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="309" height="249" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UbVIjNADcrw/YYLDisfSrFI/AAAAAAAAGPE/oOOEVhm7NkIZwkmLcfgs6YgATbOr760NQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h249/A%2BMeat%2BSinner%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Maraṇasati ("death-mind") is the Buddhist practice of awareness and contemplation of death. In its recognition of human frailty and the finite nature of our bodies, Buddhism (in my personal opinion) comes very close to the mark when it comes to the reality of the human condition. Regrettably, like most major world religions Buddhism teaches that we survive death, in a sense, by reincarnating through the transmigration of something called a "soul." Even so, from <o:p></o:p>Maraṇasati to <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori">memento mori</a></i>, horror fans are hardly alone in contemplating the impermanence and fragility of human life.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Just as spicy food allows us to physically embody pain and
destruction, to feel as though we are being burned alive when we are not, a
gory, nihilistic horror film allows us to experience in a safe environment the
bodily trauma that will one day happen to us, whether before or (perhaps, if
we’re lucky) after we expire. Horror presents us with a truth that
would be unspeakable in other contexts: the truth of meat.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r0eVDlpTNIE/YYLFyh0BfrI/AAAAAAAAGPM/9mqLL17PiV4qvfA8srZVLvOK-LjSZ1pXACLcBGAsYHQ/s406/A%2BMeat%2BSinner%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="305" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r0eVDlpTNIE/YYLFyh0BfrI/AAAAAAAAGPM/9mqLL17PiV4qvfA8srZVLvOK-LjSZ1pXACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/A%2BMeat%2BSinner%2B1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">By “the truth of meat,” I mean the nasty, blood-and-guts
nature of human existence, the all-too embodied body. When we watch a monster
decapitate and munch on a hapless villager, we are presented with an image – a
shadow – of our own inevitable destruction, the total dissolution of our self.
We can experience outside of ourselves what we will experience in reality and
in ourselves only once. The reason, in short, that I love horror is
because it has allowed me to confront my fear of death and nonexistence in a
direct, visceral way before I am presented with my own terminus.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So drench your nachos in ghost pepper hot sauce, feel the
burn, and watch some helpless teenagers get torn to bits by a demented
psychopath. There’s nothing wrong with you (at least, nothing that isn’t also wrong with me and a great many people). You’re just smart enough to rehearse and to mentally and
physically prepare yourself for the inevitable.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-21269577986860125252021-10-30T12:05:00.002-07:002021-10-30T12:07:30.901-07:00Review: "Dune" (2021)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UyCigZwWNF0/YX2XpuuCQfI/AAAAAAAAGOY/102s1YlXJ38qW5Nbkl36CVLtN9iMljXzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s658/dunesaskatoon.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="658" data-original-width="658" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UyCigZwWNF0/YX2XpuuCQfI/AAAAAAAAGOY/102s1YlXJ38qW5Nbkl36CVLtN9iMljXzwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/dunesaskatoon.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> A story set in an unimaginably distant future. Psychedelic
exploration of one’s inner landscape. Religion. Politics – and political
religion. Prophecy, genetics, and nigh-unlimited untapped human potential: what
in the hell, exactly, is going on in <i>Dune</i>? I’m glad you asked! I am a
self-described <i>Dune</i> fanatic. Having watched the newest film adaptation,
I am awed and overjoyed at the vision that Dennis Villeneuve’s film presents,
and I think I can help explain what casual viewers may have missed and why
people ought to see the film and/or read the books.</div><span><a name='more'></a></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(Note: As the Dennis Villeneuve adaptation of Frank
Herbert’s <i>Dune</i> has only been in theaters for a short time; and as the
1984 David Lynch adaptation is strange and divisive; and as the 1969 novel can
be a challenge for folks reading it for the first time – I am going to keep
this review as spoiler-free as possible, and tag the paragraphs that reveal
significant plot points or notes about the Duneiverse.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Frank Herbert’s <i>Dune</i> weaves together many themes, and
one of them – one that permeates the first three books of the series, in
particular – is the relationship between fathers and sons, and the inheritance
(metaphorical and literal) that accompanies those relationships. This is
particularly interesting to me because <i>Dune</i> – like Johnny Cash’s <i>At
Folsom Prison</i>, the art of shooting pool, and an unquenchable thirst for
Louisiana-style hot sauce – is something I inherited from <i>my</i> father. I
was an advanced and voracious reader as a kid, and dad passed many an excellent
book my way.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I will freely admit that the first time I read it, <i>Dune</i>
was over my head (which is different than above my reading level). I lacked the
life experience and knowledge to fully comprehend what Frank Herbert had
cleverly built. Still, I plowed on and read <i>Dune Messiah </i>and <i>Children
of Dune</i>, the books that constitute the “trilogy” where even the most
extended adaptation (SyFy’s 2000 miniseries <i>Frank Herbert’s Dune</i> and the
follow-up, 2003’s <i>Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune</i>) stop. However, a few
years ago I decided to reacquaint myself with the Duneiverse (or the Frank
Herbert Extended Universe, if you will). This time, I rode the sandworm as far
into the deep desert as I could. I even choked down about half Son-of-Frank
(Brian) Herbert’s prequels and sequels, most of which are pretty awful.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wvJJ81zdUrU/YX2PqrMccMI/AAAAAAAAGOI/53AfPGStBnklg7kPWg9ZNTSSKxnItR2aACLcBGAsYHQ/s530/dune3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="530" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wvJJ81zdUrU/YX2PqrMccMI/AAAAAAAAGOI/53AfPGStBnklg7kPWg9ZNTSSKxnItR2aACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/dune3.png" width="640" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">In total, I’ve read a dozen <i>Dune</i> books; all six of
Frank’s, plus the six prequel novels by Brian. This means that I still haven’t
read the “entire” series, but I consider Brian Herbert’s work to be at best a
poor execution of his father’s notes and legacy, and at worst an act akin to
graverobbing. All of this is to say that I came to Dennis Villeneuve’s <i>Dune</i>
(2021) with more lore crammed into my skull than your average viewer. Thus, I
did not have an “average” reaction to <i>Dune</i> – I had a fan’s reaction.
Keep that in mind as you read on.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Dune</i> is considered a towering classic of science
fiction for many reasons. One of them is that <i>Dune</i> seemed to arrive out
of nowhere in one fully-assembled and seamless whole, an entirely original
vision that wasn’t a derivation or continuation of standard trends in science
fiction (beyond, I suppose, space travel and laser beams). <i>Dune</i>
presented a vision of the future that’s extraordinarily dark; a reactionary
far-flung time in which humanity, having even mastered interstellar travel and
other technological wonders, had nonetheless reverted to feudalism. This is a
future rife with slavery, exploitation, and genocide, overseen by the lords of
“Great Houses” and a longstanding galactic imperial dynasty (the Padishah
dynasty). Herbert’s vision is that of a far-flung empire of ducal fiefdoms,
blood feuds, and constant political intrigue up to and including constant assassination
plots. The workings of this vast imperium rely entirely on a single substance,
the “geriatric Spice Melange,” or just “the Spice.” The only place in the known
universe to obtain this substance is on the desert planet Arrakis, under
dangerous conditions that include sandstorms, sabotage, and gigantic,
awe-inspiring sandworms. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The effects of Spice Melange are, to put it mildly,
extremely interesting. Its primary purpose is to facilitate interstellar travel
by enabling Guild Navigators (semi-humans with murkily-explained psychic gifts
who eat, drink, and literally breathe Spice). Navigators use it to map the
future of possible routes of faster-than-light travel, ensuring that ships
don’t accidentally materialize inside of, oh, a star, for instance. In normal
humans it radically extends one’s lifespan, promotes health, and “increases
awareness.” The way that Herbert writes about the Spice makes it clear that
it’s a stimulant (especially when brewed and served as Spice coffee, a popular
beverage), is mildly hallucinogenic to some, and cripplingly addictive. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: large;">(SPOILER)</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s the interesting part: in a certain, tiny percentage
of humans, Spice also produces precognition and other psychic effects. In a population
of one (Paul Atreides), it produces a super-hyper-precognition. This is both a
curse and a blessing, as Paul’s horrifying visions of galactic jihad and
millions slaughtered in his name indicate.<br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">
(SPOILER CONCLUDED)</span></b><br />
<br />
Herbert’s prose conjures a world that is one part stone castles and swords and
one part warp drives and personal force fields (“shields,” in the Duneiverse). As
a rather <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/08/dune-herbert-science-fiction-conservatism">bitter
editorial in <i>Jacobin</i></a> notes, Dune represents a reactionary future.
Villeneuve’s adaptation captures this vision beautifully. I can think of no
better way to explain the atmosphere of Herbert’s future than the image of a
vast, motionless, and peacefully-floating space ship waiting for its passengers
near an ancient coastal castle that looks like something straight out of
medieval Europe. <i>Dune</i> 2021’s effects work, set and costume design, and
shooting locations could not be better. It feels like a real, living, breathing
world (actually, <i>several</i> worlds). The acting is incredible; while
Patrick Stewart is fantastic, and one of my favorite actors, his portrayal of
Gurney in 1984 was too grandfatherly or avuncular. In the novels, Gurney is a hard
bastard and survivor of Harkonnen brutality; this is brought to life very
effectively in the few scenes Josh Brolin is in. Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho is
phenomenal, a welcome change from the short shrift that thisvery important
character was given in <i>Dune</i> 1984 and the two SyFy adaptations from the
2000s. Not to bag on the ‘84 version: I will always have a soft spot in my
heart for Kyle MacLachlan’s Paul Atreides (not to mention Sting as Feyd Rautha
Harkonnen – <a href="https://preview.redd.it/lsgsj7n8lrfz.jpg?auto=webp&s=38588549e13058b1523623d5c27013e3597f33c8">meow</a>!),
but to be blunt the casting decisions and acting in <i>Dune</i> 2021 are far
superior; not least because it’s not an all-white cast. Herbert takes note of
race and religion in his novels, and makes no bones about the fact that some
folks are white (i.e., Houses Atreides, Harkonnen, and Corrino <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– most of the ruling class, as far as the
books indicate), while others are people of color (particularly the Fremen, the
native inhabitants of the planet Arrakis, who could not more clearly be based
on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MENA">MENA cultures</a> in either the
text or film). <o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rI9s7ftPlhQ/YX2Q1wv8zmI/AAAAAAAAGOQ/IfhFdJXuMNYBq9l5JG1ozjFpTVDXcMEowCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/dune2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rI9s7ftPlhQ/YX2Q1wv8zmI/AAAAAAAAGOQ/IfhFdJXuMNYBq9l5JG1ozjFpTVDXcMEowCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/dune2.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art from "Dune: Adventures in the Imperium," the new tabletop role playing game (whose sourcebook I proudly own!)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A common critique of <i>Dune</i> is that it’s a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_savior">white savior narrative</a>.
This is an absolutely understandable interpretation of the material – provided,
that is, you’re only dealing with <i>Dune</i> (the first novel) and <i>Dune</i>
only, detached from any of the other books. Paul’s status as a white “savior”
is radically resituated in the opening passages of the second book in the
series (which I hope we get to see Villeneuve’s version of), <i>Dune Messiah</i>.
Speaking of which – I’ve always found the use of “Messiah” in the title of the
second volume enormously confusing. Christianity plays absolutely no role
whatsoever in the Duneiverse, which is <i>fascinating</i> (and, to be honest,
refreshing). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even if Villeneuve’s films are Marvel-level blockbusters, I
doubt that we’ll ever see film adaptations of the last <i>Dune</i> books Frank
wrote, so I do not consider this a spoiler. In the Duneiverse, Christianity is
largely forgotten (a book called the Orange Catholic Bible (allegedly) contains
the accumulated wisdom of Earth’s ancient religions, including a syncretic
movement called Mahayana Christianity). The two faiths that have survived in
their most recognizable forms* are Buddhism and Islam. Not only have they
survived, they’ve blended and spawned multiple syncretic faiths: both
“Zensunni” and “Buddhislamic” are sects in the Duneiverse, as is the unique
variation practiced by the Fremen. Paul Muad’dib (AKA Paul Atreides) is never
depicted as a god-made-flesh or a savior of souls. The term used in
Villeneuve’s adaptation is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi">Mahdi</a>,
which is the correct term. True, the Mahdi is a messianic figure; but,
importantly, one native to Islam.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: large;">(SPOILER)</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood has had its hand in religion up
to the shoulder for millennia, we learn in later books, going so far as to
establish a program called the Missionaria Protectiva, that deliberately plants
superstitions, prophecies, and whole religions throughout the known universe, “preparing”
people everywhere to accept the Bene Gesserit “chosen one” (the Kwisatz
Haderach) as savior when he appears. Their intention is to manufacture a
genuine messiah through a careful (and ideologically completely gross) “breeding
program” between the Great Houses.<br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">
(SPOILER CONCLUDED)</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Dune</i> (the 2021 film, not the book) is an improvement
on the text in a few ways. This is understandable, as the original book is more
than a half-century old. First, the destructive and exploitative power dynamic
between native Fremen and imperialist overlords (be they Harkonnen or
Atreides)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is made explicit right up
front, whereas in the novels it takes until fairly late in the series to
address this issue head-on. The film also…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: large;">(SPOILER)</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">…breaks the news that Paul is – at best – a <i>reluctant</i>
Mahdi, and at worst, a tyrant / holy warlord at whose feet countless corpses
will eventually be piled. When Paul trips balls during his first serious Spice
exposure in the tent, he specifically mentions “a galactic holy war**,” “worlds
on fire,” “the Atreides banner flying over it all,” and “they’re chanting my
name!” Let’s leave aside the question of any given religion’s messianic figure
of choice. Paul Atreides reminds me of nothing so much as a revolutionary
insurgent leader (perhaps a religious figure, perhaps from outside the region he
seeks to liberate – not an uncommon occurrence in reality) In seeking to
liberate a people from imperial oppressors, Paul winds up so awash in blood
that any question of ends and means is rendered laughable. <br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">
(SPOILER CONCLUDED)</span></b><br />
<br />
Now, obviously, I have a lot to say about the <i>Dune</i> franchise. Seeing
where the film leaves the story, however, I promise to only explain things or
give them away if people ask.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br />
<i>Dune</i> is a magnificent, jaw-dropping adaptation of some very challenging
subject matter, and yet manages to immerse one completely in its lore and
atmosphere without the incessant hand-holding of the mixed-bag 1984 version (the
one that David Lynch demanded take his name out of the credits). It’s all of <i>Dune</i>’s
strengths, and what weaknesses it inherits from the source material have been
tempered. Go see it – it’s amazing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>*</b> Actually, at one point very, very late in the series, you do learn that <i>one </i>faith has secretly survived into the unimaginably distant future unchanged: Judaism! Although the way Frank handles that concept is (without being hateful) less than deft.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>**</b> There has been a HUGE amount of debate and hand-wringing over which word or words should be used to represent Paul's holy war. In fact, that's the phrase they use in the film: "holy war." Evidently the original line used in the new film was "crusade," which <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/10/11/paul-atreides-led-a-jihad-not-a-crusade-heres-why-that-matters">caused outrage</a>. The word that Herbert repeatedly employs is specifically and only "jihad." Not just Paul's Jihad, but the "Butlerian Jihad," an anti-AI revolution led by a woman named Serena Butler long before the events of <i>Dune</i>. Weirdly, when Son-of-Frank was writing the prequels, he (appropriately) called the first book <i>The Butlerian Jihad</i>, and (bewilderingly) called the second one <i>The Machine Crusade</i>.</p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-353503515597899422021-10-24T18:33:00.000-07:002021-10-24T18:33:08.311-07:00MONDO<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tXuRGO_mBiw/YXYD0hMfF0I/AAAAAAAAGNA/UQFDrre58-0w-bmwcg5Q7ztfohs3MYKMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s360/terrible.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="360" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tXuRGO_mBiw/YXYD0hMfF0I/AAAAAAAAGNA/UQFDrre58-0w-bmwcg5Q7ztfohs3MYKMQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/terrible.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mondo’s house was a half-hour drive away. I’d brave the
Oklahoma summer heat and make my way through Tulsa’s crumbling downtown and across
the Arkansas River. On my first trip there, I tagged along with a trio of
small-time criminals and county jail losers, Okies with bad teeth and
oil-burning pill habits. That’s where Mondo came in.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He rented a small room in a weathered rental house he shared
with a handful of housemates, none of whom I ever met. Mondo’s quarters were
stripped down to a shocking sparsity. His possessions consisted of a dirty
mattress, two or three chairs, a sturdy metal gun cabinet that held the wares
he peddled, and a swollen, bulbous television, a monstrous thing of pre-flat
screen manufacture. The TV seemed to eat up an entire wall. He’d attached a DVD
player and a VHS deck to it.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jYMWqEJdYtM/YXYFA47LUqI/AAAAAAAAGNI/JK4_ftmTRnMMIS2jWjVgcFD3WF7Ivw7lwCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/ttown.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="800" height="359" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jYMWqEJdYtM/YXYFA47LUqI/AAAAAAAAGNI/JK4_ftmTRnMMIS2jWjVgcFD3WF7Ivw7lwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h359/ttown.png" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Mondo was a nurse by trade, with sticky fingers and access
to loosely-monitored drug lockers. He sold various substances – some of them
illegal, some of them prescription, all of them illicit — but his drug of
choice was one which I suppose qualifies as a timeless classic of the genre.
Mondo liked gasoline, huffed hard enough that his ragged brain produced thrilling
hallucinations. He would describe these trips in a bombed-out honk of a voice,
bereft of a true speech impediment but impeded and slurred by the battering
he’d given his grey matter over the years. When I met him, the deeply whacked-out
stare he fixed me with was one part formless void and one part vacant hunger. His
eyes had the lively, mindless glint one might see reflected in the eyes of a
deep-sea scavenger – something that takes its rotting delight in lightless
depths.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mondo had two requirements if you wanted to buy anything
from him. The first was that you listen to his stories, which would drone on
and on in an endless, affectless stream. The second requirement gave him his nickname,
derived from his greatest love (other than gasoline). He loved so-called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondo_film">mondo films</a>,” a genre of
dirt-cheap exploitation documentaries and pseudo-documentaries most popular
between 1960 and 1990, many of which featured real (or “real,” I suppose)
mutilations, accidents, deaths, and surgeries. Mondo’s personal collection was
all VHS-format and contained some rare and esoteric items, although I’m sure
that torrents have made many of his mail-order and horror-con treasures easily available.
His collection spanned a range of years, from the irredeemable <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Addio"><i>Africa Addio</i></a> to
the latter-day, “much faker” (in his estimation) <i>Faces of Death</i> films
of the late 1980s. He held the latter group of films in disdain, seeing them as
“knockoff shit” compared to the original masterpiece (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faces_of_Death"><i>Faces of Death</i></a>,
1978, directed by Conan LeClair, an ostentatious pseudonym that I’ve always
rather enjoyed).<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUqSnov4SUI/YXYGVgzDnzI/AAAAAAAAGNQ/V7gac16ZlkkDMtmDgOXoSZ_EmmSJYgY3wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/face.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUqSnov4SUI/YXYGVgzDnzI/AAAAAAAAGNQ/V7gac16ZlkkDMtmDgOXoSZ_EmmSJYgY3wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/face.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">The summer heat and odorous humidity would roll in off of
the Arkansas River, through the streets and green, overgrown parks, and settle
over the city like a wet shroud. It was oppressive, and air conditioning was surprisingly
hard to come by – or was among the folks I knew, at any rate. I remember that Mondo’s
house was <i>miserably</i> hot, and sweat would roll freely down my neck and
off of my flanks as I suffered through one or another of his treasures on the
distended old TV in his room. There was a pervasive <i>smell</i> in that house.
In the years between those greasy summer days at Mondo’s and now, I believe
I’ve ascertained what that smell was. At the very least, I know what it represented.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Guignol">Le
Théâtre du Grand-Guignol</a> opened its doors in Paris in 1897. For
more than half a century, up until its closing in 1962, the Grand-Guignol
specialized in horror performances that employed flamboyant, realistic, and grisly
special effects, most of them accomplished with secreted offal. Private boxes
were available at the Guignol, and it was not uncommon for guests of the
theater wealthy enough to afford these boxes to engage in acts of erotic
indulgence (viz. fuckin’) while they watched the screaming actors lose
bowel-buckets of horse intestines, or thrust steel dirks through carefully
concealed blood bags, or “gouge out” a palmed pig eyeball. I’ve come to believe
that the smell I noticed in Mondo’s house was pheromonal, an exuded
hormone-cloud borne of human arousal at the spectacle of human suffering. It
was the smell of the avid and aroused delectation of human frailty.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xQJHEn4Mx4Q/YXYHwdm2bXI/AAAAAAAAGNg/IdPxU9wJfXwG9doNQdl7f0xQM4zf-z17ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1081/parishorror7.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1081" data-original-width="930" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xQJHEn4Mx4Q/YXYHwdm2bXI/AAAAAAAAGNg/IdPxU9wJfXwG9doNQdl7f0xQM4zf-z17ACLcBGAsYHQ/w344-h400/parishorror7.jpeg" width="344" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal">The taxonomy of horror – like any classification system – is
a human construct, and not as neatly ordered or separated into distinct
categories as critical shorthand might suggest. Mondo cinema, splatter films,
grindhouse horror, all are categories that have characteristics in common with
body horror (as does the over-the-top gore style that has come to be known – in
honor of the extinct theater – as “grand guignol”). Splatter films and fiction
that focuses on the mutilation of the human body have often been seen as
low-brow, almost pornographic. In fact, the portmanteau “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatter_film">gorno</a>” is sometimes
applied to modern variations on this theme. But is bloody horror really as
simple as the prurient – the obscene? Or is it, ultimately, a meditation on the
fragility of life, the ever-present threat of total annihilation that all
living things endure, but which it is the uniquely terrible lot of thinking
animals to both endure AND contemplate?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I watched a number of films at Mondo’s; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basket_Case_(film)">Basket Case</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-Animator">Re-Animator</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Sucking_Freaks">Blood Sucking Freaks</a>,
and, of course, the infamous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibal_Holocaust">Cannibal Holocaust</a>.
They made me queasy at first, and some of them still do (I would worry about
anyone who could watch some of them with <i>too</i> calm an eye). But beneath
the gore and the viscera, behind the veils of veiny flesh and bulging eyes, I
think that this kind of horror offers us something of value; namely, a
difficult meditation on the violability, mutability, and impermanence of the
flesh. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ay1WiwfFOBc/YXYI97DodRI/AAAAAAAAGNo/Xyprm71YTOI7UWSvLLydm-VTMnhFipLrwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/bsf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="220" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ay1WiwfFOBc/YXYI97DodRI/AAAAAAAAGNo/Xyprm71YTOI7UWSvLLydm-VTMnhFipLrwCLcBGAsYHQ/w275-h400/bsf.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">In so contemplating, we are offered an opportunity to feel solidarity
with our fellow life-forms and an appreciation of the true value of life and
health. By inviting us to contemplate the red secret we all hold inviolate
within the bony tabernacle of our ribs – to ponder, rather than run from, the
carnal mysteries of deformity — body horror puts us in better touch with our
species, our self, and our place in the cosmos.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It just might not be a place we care for very much – at
least, not when our number is up, at any rate.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-74971522433682059362021-10-15T19:03:00.002-07:002021-10-15T19:08:47.470-07:00Book Review: Welcome to the 'Interloper' Trilogy - All Aboard the Icebreaker!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VTzMO0e15Qw/YWoyIZiDhXI/AAAAAAAAGMU/I6LemwKU62goTKE_W7TmPt4v-efY45fCwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/IceBInsta.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VTzMO0e15Qw/YWoyIZiDhXI/AAAAAAAAGMU/I6LemwKU62goTKE_W7TmPt4v-efY45fCwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/IceBInsta.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The strongest point in favor <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0991VVK6L/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0">of
reading <i>Icebreaker</i></a>, the first novel in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0999FN1NG?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_tukn">the
<i>Interloper</i> trilogy</a> by <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Steven-William-Hannah/e/B00C97TKWG?ref=dbs_m_mng_rwt_byln">Steven
William Hannah</a>, is also a warning. I started reading, and ten pages became 50.
Within 60 pages, I knew I had to purchase the other two books in the trilogy.
The book is wonderfully written. Hannah’s prose is rich and evocative, and his
writing paints a wildly well-imagined universe full of complex characters. Icebreaker
is a ceaselessly compelling journey, one which encompasses both simple survival
and a deeper comprehension of Hannah’s larger world.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Icebreaker is a Crawler--a huge, highly-armored
transport vehicle suitable for travel between settlements in the
post-Cataclysm world, where almost every human lives in perpetual fear of the
Phenomenon. Some call it Gaia, or The Hell That Walks, and it has plunged our
world into a fearsomely strange hellscape. The Phenomenon is a walking, moving
storm of terraforming and terrifying power. Simply to see, hear, or perceive
the Phenomenon risks Exposure, a fate much worse than death and far darker than
insanity alone. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Our protagonist, Bear--a rationalist and a committed
scientist and researcher--finds himself joining the crew of Icebreaker to bring
crucial information that could help this ragtag society understand and fight
the Phenomenon to the capital settlement of Union City, all while his home
settlement of Forgehead is under siege. The Phenomenon is coming, foreshadowed only
by the strange and darkly vivid dreams shared by the settlement's inhabitants.
Not only that, there’s a cult of religious fanatics loose in Forgehead: the
self-described "Dreamers," whose goal is to see every human being put
through the "test" of locking eyes with Gaia and trying to endure the
nightmare experience. Only one in a thousand survive Exposure, and one of them--a
fanatic who calls himself only "Messenger"--is hunting Icebreaker's
crew. He considers them the most worthy and likely to survive Exposure and
build a new world for the Dreamers, side-by-side with Gaia herself. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Bear is joined aboard the Crawler by Dusty, the warm, fierce
and storied Captain of Icebreaker; Bee, a tough-as-nails, Valkyrian warrior who
is also a committed Christian; Glass, an enormous, mysterious, and
mostly-silent Gaian who has seen and survived much in his time as a member of
the Icebreaker crew (and before that); and May, the adorable pre-Cataclysm artificial
intelligence who steers the Icebreaker safely through the perilous landscape,
but who cannot disclose her leagues of knowledge regarding the Phenomenon
itself. Bear finds himself questioning his rationalist principles as well
as the very laws that govern the living world.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Along for the ride, readers learn firsthand just how dark
and damned the human experience can be. </p></div></div>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-84498399350520959452021-10-09T10:23:00.000-07:002021-10-09T10:23:15.651-07:00Sheep in Goats' Clothing<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SKVuXUz2zmU/YWG7zBfGgEI/AAAAAAAAGLA/KABgZTuqx8wZ7OmPBxwrmluHfKsoi_37gCLcBGAsYHQ/s588/goatsy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="588" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SKVuXUz2zmU/YWG7zBfGgEI/AAAAAAAAGLA/KABgZTuqx8wZ7OmPBxwrmluHfKsoi_37gCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/goatsy.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Can a Satanist bend their knee to a despot? That’s a silly question; Satanists <i>can</i> do any and everything they want (within the laws of humanity and of nature). Instead, let’s start with a definition and then pose a better question. Let’s call Satanism a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060829152745/http:/religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/satanism/intro.html#atheistic/theistic">murkily-defined</a> set of <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190466176.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190466176-e-33">highly individualistic</a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antinomianism?show=0&t=1311171904">antinomian</a>, and (small L) libertarian ethical beliefs and philosophical-spiritual paths that wander in the general direction of <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9780230513303_2">rebellion against so-called “divine authority.”</a> Should a pilgrim seeking such progress suborn their will and wit to that of a monarch, guru, or despot, secular or religious?<span><a name='more'></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>To answer this question, we first have to decide whom,
exactly, to include in our √(n+1) of Satanists. The deepest single division in
Satanism is that between “theistic” and “atheistic” Satanists. I do not care
for the language “a/theistic Satanist” to describe this divide, because there’s
a much better way to sum up the distinction: there are <i>Satanists</i>
(non-theistic, largely materialists) and <i>Satan-worshipers</i> (theistic, usually
in a Christian sense, but believe that Satan is either the maligned party in
his divine employment dispute or that sadism and mayhem are pursuits in their
own right). <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-04-16-me-138-story.html">Richard
Ramirez</a>, infamous rapist and murderer known as the “Night Stalker” was a
Satan-worshiper. <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/long-island-devil-cult-murder-ricky-kasso-david-breskin-901069/">Ricky
Kasso the Acid King</a>, was a Satan-worshiper. At the tender age of 17, Ricky stabbed
another teen (who had stolen a large quantity of PCP from him) to death while
screaming “say you love Satan!”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_odAoXPjleE/YWG9KxIIT-I/AAAAAAAAGLI/ETHzUfRJZmocydjM6Gyq1LerAw2cCcTSQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Anton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1200" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_odAoXPjleE/YWG9KxIIT-I/AAAAAAAAGLI/ETHzUfRJZmocydjM6Gyq1LerAw2cCcTSQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h263/Anton.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anton Szandor LaVey, enthroned</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, was a Satanist,
the first of our kind (although he certainly had forerunners in the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230513303_3">Romantic</a>
and “<a href="https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/saga-freethought-pioneers-religious-critique-social-reform/">freethought</a>”
movements). Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/us/a-mischievious-thorn-in-the-side-of-conservative-christianity.html">founders
of the Satanic Temple</a>, are Satanists too. To the best of my knowledge, none
of them have ever killed anyone, although if scorn could kill, I think that
Greaves would have inadvertently put <a href="https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2021/08/22/jason-rapert-set-for-contempt-hearing-in-10-commandments-lawsuit">Arkansas
state senator Jason Rapert</a> into the dirt long ago.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>For the purposes of our question regarding obeisance to
tyranny, we’ll leave out Satan-worshipers for two reasons. First, because they <i>worship
a deity</i> – it just happens to be the most antinomian deity at hand for a
person from a Christian background and/or living in an aggressively Christian
country. As far as Satanists are concerned, there isn’t a lick of difference
between worshiping one deity or another (an oversimplification, but true for
the purposes of this post). In one sense, Satan-worshipers have answered the
question for us without being asked. They happily <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/20/you-feel-that-the-devil-is-helping-you-ms-13s-satanic-history/">bend
their knee</a> to the so-called King of Hell. Anti-authoritarianism isn’t baked
into Satan-worship the way it is with Satanism.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a6bm4qUaZPU/YWG_x5TKrZI/AAAAAAAAGLQ/HUtujFZ3IFMMNDc11wn7Jh-RoFz-5rhIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s846/king%2Bof%2Bhell.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="564" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a6bm4qUaZPU/YWG_x5TKrZI/AAAAAAAAGLQ/HUtujFZ3IFMMNDc11wn7Jh-RoFz-5rhIQCLcBGAsYHQ/w266-h400/king%2Bof%2Bhell.png" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Satan </i>by Harshanand Singh</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That “King of Hell*” title, by the way, brings us to the
second reason to leave Satan-worshipers out of this specific conversation:
Satan-worshipers have something that Satanists of my stripe do not, a thing
both advantageous and harmful. They have <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anthology-Sorcery-Three-Grimoires-Volumes-ebook/dp/B07KWG1ZH8/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=EA+Koetting&qid=1633539737&sr=8-3-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExRklaNTVDNjM5TFJNJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUExMDQyMzgwMUtRWVFCMlMySDEwQiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzY3MDk2MUlDUU0zUFNER1VUVSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=">scriptures</a>.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sinister-Tradition-color-Anton-Long/dp/1481017144/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=anton+long&qid=1633539771&sr=8-1">(Un)holy
books</a>. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Temple-Set-I-1/dp/1497567459/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=temple+of+set&qid=1633539889&sr=8-1">Sources</a>.
To some extent many view the holy books of Christianity, twisted and from a
reverse POV as they are, as a source that can be referenced. This is where
distinction leads to further distinction, I might add, because non-theistic Satanists
who are members of the Church of Satan <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Satanic-Bible-Anton-Szandor-Lavey/dp/0380015390/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=satanic+bible&qid=1633540000&sr=8-1">also
have a canon</a>, i.e. the writings of Anton LaVey and a few other approved
authors. (Regrettably, that canon leaves a lot to be desired from the
perspective of 2021, especially when it comes to LaVey’s views on sex and
gender and his taste for long passages “written” in “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian">Enochian</a>.”)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I refer to non-theistic Satanisms that are post-Church of
Satan in their social, ethical, and political outlook as Reform Satanists. Reform Satanism is, generally,
more interested in compassion and community engagement than CoS. The symbolic Satan
of Reform Satanism is not necessarily the Satan of the Bible – nor is the
Christian Bible or the Torah or any other religious source considered canonical
to our beliefs. Here I must separate myself from the Satanic Temple a bit. The
Satanic Temple has started to <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/the-satanic-temple-library">build a
canon</a> (just as it is building a religio-organizational hierarchy, a
ministry, and other infrastructure of either organization or tyranny –
depending on one’s perspective). Even its canon, however, is built of texts
(like August Comte’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anatole-France-Revolt-Angels/dp/1076296742/ref=asc_df_1076296742/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=366409950380&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11593935288474142242&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029755&hvtargid=pla-793143351578&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=79033899551&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=366409950380&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11593935288474142242&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029755&hvtargid=pla-793143351578"><i>The
Revolt of the Angels</i></a> or Stephen Pinker’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0143122010/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+better+angels+of+our+nature&qid=1633540565&s=books&sr=1-1"><i>The
Better Angels of Our Nature</i></a>) that trend toward the rational or
artistic, rather than spiritual. Still, they are texts that, in a perfect world,
invite interpretation, discourse, and debate, rather than fundamentalist
adherence to their literal, word-for-word truth. There are many Christians who
view the Bible that way, incidentally, but even the most loosey-goosey, New Age
Christian believes in an all-powerful, all-good God, a belief which requires the
embrace of that most poisonous of human follies – faith.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YXAXkfdpnnQ/YWHCc9EcZRI/AAAAAAAAGLY/1ObYxyp_4vAGc5FSZ_ty6O7KORlU-MjKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/Nero.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1280" height="376" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YXAXkfdpnnQ/YWHCc9EcZRI/AAAAAAAAGLY/1ObYxyp_4vAGc5FSZ_ty6O7KORlU-MjKwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h376/Nero.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">The Colossus of Nero</span></td></tr></tbody></table></o:p></p>So: let’s discuss Reform Satanists and authority. Or,
rather, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tyranny">tyranny</a>,
which is authority illegitimately derived and/or pushed to abusive extremes,
power <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocracy">which answers to nobody
but itself</a>. The answer is that obviously a Satanist should be <i>against</i>
tyranny. As a non-theistic Satanist, the question I get most often (and which I
can assure you other Satanists get) is “if you don’t believe in any deities,
why call yourself a <i>SATAN</i>-ist? Why Satan, specifically?”<p class="MsoNormal">
I’ve answered this question in the form of <a href="https://saltcitysinner.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-devil-and-bruce-wayne.html">an
obtuse parable involving Batman</a> (yikes), but to break it down in a less
weird fashion, Satan is a symbol, and as even the most hardened,
take-no-prisoners materialist will tell you, <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-elements-of-culture/#:~:text=Symbols%E2%80%94such%20as%20gestures%2C%20signs,that%20are%20shared%20by%20societies.">symbols
matter</a>. They don’t just matter to the dumb-dumbs in the cheap seats,
either. Symbols and the little villages of interlocked symbols we call
metaphors <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200710-the-words-that-stretch-how-we-think">undergird
our language</a>, our understanding of the way the world works <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/structural-metaphor-1692146#:~:text=A%20structural%20metaphor%20is%20a,differentiated%20from%20the%20organizational%20metaphor.&text=(The%20other%20two%20categories%20are%20orientational%20metaphor%20and%20ontological%20metaphor.)">and
is structured</a>, and much of how we comprehend, remember, and relay
information. You don’t have to be <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Maps-Meaning-Architecture-Jordan-Peterson/dp/0415922224/ref=asc_df_0415922224/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312446862670&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4040280764877938022&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029755&hvtargid=pla-357235116154&psc=1">that
asshole lobster guy</a> to believe this: just ask Jose Luis Borges, who <a href="https://kwarc.info/teaching/TDM/Borges.pdf">penned my favorite explanation</a>
of why we <i>need</i> symbols and metaphors.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Satan/Lucifer (not necessarily the same being, according to <a href="https://witch333s.tumblr.com/post/175969187820/lucifer-satan-and-the-devil">occult
philosophers</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_Church_of_the_Final_Judgment">the Process
Church of the Final Judgment</a>) are the ultimate symbols of rebellion. <a href="https://samplius.com/free-essay-examples/archetypes-in-the-greek-myth-prometheus-and-io/">Prometheus
and other forebears</a> blazed a trail, true, but it was in <a href="https://www.philipharland.com/Blog/2018/12/17/podcast-8-1-a-cultural-history-of-satan-predecessors-of-satan-mesopotamia/">second-century
apocalyptic Judaism</a> that that archetype found its perfect expression. Early
artistic and philosophical interpretations of Satan were no more than mere
attempts to explain and encapsulate all “evil;” the rebel/rationalist
expressions wouldn’t reach their current cohesion for millennia. Still, there
have always been antinomian spiritual paths as well as ones that reject
authority and celebrate individualism. The best (if not perfect) history of
this entire family of beliefs is Stephen E. Flowers’ masterful <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lords-Left-Hand-Path-Forbidden-Practices/dp/1594774676"><i>Lords
of the Left-Hand Path</i></a>, which I strongly recommend. Reading Flowers,
you’ll learn what DNA Satanism shares with Tantra, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melek_Taus">Yezidism’s Melek Taus</a>, and
others.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ci8i5sFVMYs/YWHEDSuyeUI/AAAAAAAAGLg/oV-o2ejEl4MuCbAUKuRKvDNFVY69cQt0ACLcBGAsYHQ/s883/rebel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="680" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ci8i5sFVMYs/YWHEDSuyeUI/AAAAAAAAGLg/oV-o2ejEl4MuCbAUKuRKvDNFVY69cQt0ACLcBGAsYHQ/w492-h640/rebel.jpg" width="492" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Satan Arousing the Rebel Angels," by William Blake</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If the entirety of a religion’s symbol-system is founded on
rebellion against a tyrant, founded in standing boldly before Authority and
proudly saying “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_serviam">non serviam</a>,”
<i>why on Lucifer’s black beach would you willingly bend your knee to tyranny,
religious or secular?</i> Did Satanists break the shackles of faith,
irrationality, and subordination to a priesthood, only to willingly don the
straitjacket of <a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/dominant-leaders-are-bad-for-groups.html">faith
in leadership</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Reform_and_the_Psychology_of_Totalism#:~:text=Demand%20for%20Purity.,powerful%20control%20device%20used%20here.">irrational
groupthink</a>, and <a href="https://ordained.satanicministry.com/">subordination
to a <i>new</i> priesthood</a>? Obviously not. Thankfully, no non-theistic
Satanism has passed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_authoritarianism">the point of
no return</a> on its journey in this direction. <a href="https://twitter.com/heresysquad/status/1377395467961593856?lang=en"><i>So
far.</i></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>What our inquiry runs up against here is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1046496414525479?journalCode=sgrd">the
tension between group identity and individualism</a>. This is a question that
is both chewy and thorny, which is why I have bleeding gums and scarred lips. If
one is, philosophically speaking, a lone wolf and a free bird (and the eye of
the tiger in the heat of the fight), why join a religion or an organization <i>at
all</i>? Doesn’t that violate one’s core beliefs – the whole “non serviam”
thing? This is a “common sense” (read: very simplistic) question that
anarchists are frequently asked. While it oversimplifies things, the question
is understandable and worth addressing because, without meaning to, it touches
on the issue of pragmatism. With antinomian and individualistic impulses in the
“group” so strong, how can or would anarchists ever get things done?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>There are <a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-autonomous-self-organization-and-anarchist-intervention-a-tension-in-practice">so
many brilliant and well-crafted answers</a> to this question that I can’t pick
just one. If pressed, I’d say that the principles outlined in <a href="https://bostonanarchistblackcross.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/consensus.pdf">Peter
Gelderloos’ <i>Consensus</i></a> are useful in a lot of contexts, and can even
be employed in your next miserable work meeting to get shit done efficiently
while scaring the pants off of the management class! Both anarchists and
Satanists are very practical and quite capable of self-organization to
accomplish tasks – if they are given the chance. The argument that
self-government, radical democracy, and self-organization “don’t work in the
real world” is a front, a fig leaf, something that folks can reach for so they
don’t have to examine their real discomfort with anarchism and/or Satanism,
which can be summed up in one word: hierarchy.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pBHqkuvx3cg/YWHFLk4WJ6I/AAAAAAAAGLo/CFlucV2wwogqOdts7cAnT26sTxy2BkAqQCLcBGAsYHQ/s976/apes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pBHqkuvx3cg/YWHFLk4WJ6I/AAAAAAAAGLo/CFlucV2wwogqOdts7cAnT26sTxy2BkAqQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/apes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From the marrow of our very specific bone structure to the
precious mammalian hair that still grows wild and free on many of us, humans are
hominids. Primates. Great apes – well, <i>pretty</i> <i>good</i> apes. There is
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2706200/#:~:text=Our%20results%20show%20that%20hunter,rate%20across%20all%20successive%20levels.">extensive
debate</a> regarding the <a href="https://www.mpg.de/11980476/intensification-of-agriculture-and-social-hierarchies-evolve-together-study-finds">role
of hierarchy</a> in early humans, and on the subject of how egalitarian and
anarchistic our hunter-gatherer forebears <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JACPR-04-2014-0116/full/html">were
or weren’t</a>, but two things seem crystal clear to me. The first is that
humans – like many social animals, and in particular our cousins <a href="https://news.janegoodall.org/2018/07/10/top-bottom-chimpanzee-social-hierarchy-amazing/">among
the apes</a> – feel at home in a strict hierarchy, with <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/primate-sociality-and-social-systems-58068905/">roles
assigned to individuals</a> and worth (rank in receiving food and/or affection,
etc.) assigned by role. And the second is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Administration_of_North_and_East_Syria">that
this is not an ironclad law</a> of “human nature,” and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_factories">not an inescapable
fate</a>. Different forms of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_kibbutz">non-hierarchical</a>, <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5123">decentralized living</a> have
existed parallel to hierarchies <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_imperial_city">since antiquity</a>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Experiments in non-hierarchical organization have flourished
in modernity, from <a href="https://www.history.com/news/5-19th-century-utopian-communities-in-the-united-states">utopian
religious communities</a>, to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/commune-farm-sustainability-mineral-virginia">communes</a>,
to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/style/autonomous-zone-anarchist-community.html">protest
camps</a>, to environments that “common sense” would tell you should turn into
“Lord of the Flies” – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months">in
one case, literally</a> – <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Built-Hell-Extraordinary-Communities/dp/0143118072">but
do not</a>. That these successful examples of living without a leader have historically
been <a href="https://ekuonline.eku.edu/blog/police-studies/the-history-of-policing-in-the-united-states-part-3/">brutally
crushed</a> by elites employing police and/or completely ignored most news
sources should surprise no one. That is the type of silence and invisibility
that only a wealthy ruling elite perched atop <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/">a
grotesque and teetering hierarchy</a> can buy.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Now, not all Satanists are anarchists (not even most, I’d
wager, although the proportion is probably higher than among any religion <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/quakers_1.shtml#:~:text=Quakers%20are%20members%20of%20a,meetings%20for%20worship%20each%20week.">other
than the Quakers</a>). Many, in fact, are socialists – and one shouldn’t
necessarily perceive that as hypocritical. In practice, socialism can be an
authoritarian and bureaucratic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoism">nightmare</a>,
or it can be more community-oriented and so democratic in its approach that it
even seeks to <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/workplace-democracy/">democratize
the economy</a>. Likewise, Satanists are free to choose their own adventure, as
always, and choose their own comfort level with authority. Satanists don’t need
to be anarchists to be religiously “pure.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jOw8Q8HcVfM/YWHGML1FoVI/AAAAAAAAGLw/r9cVu8OUGcwuUTUiJgCLw8v7QPsaDK98ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/pariscommune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jOw8Q8HcVfM/YWHGML1FoVI/AAAAAAAAGLw/r9cVu8OUGcwuUTUiJgCLw8v7QPsaDK98ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/pariscommune.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Paris Commune of 1871</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s always a bit jarring to remember that nowhere in <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/blogs/the-satanic-temple-tenets/there-are-seven-fundamental-tenets">the
Seven Tenets of the Satanic Temple</a> are the principles of
anti-authoritarianism or rebellion against tyranny to be found. It does
emphasize justice, but justice (<a href="https://youtu.be/1V46JPtj31s">by some
people’s definition</a>) is quite easily administered <a href="https://www.heritage.org/civil-society/commentary/conservatives-do-believe-social-justice-heres-what-our-vision-looks">within
a strict hierarchy</a>. Dishing out “justice” and “law and order” is an
essential part of authoritarianism’s branding, in fact. Another oddity in the
Tenets; compassion is unimpeachable, but promoting “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nobility">nobility</a>” in
thought and action is a very <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=etymology+of+nobility&oq=etymology+of+nobility&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30.3240j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">odd
and specific word choice</a> on the Temple’s part. I hate the word nobility. I
hate it for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobility">its historical
connotations</a> as much as the qualities it supposedly identifies, all of
which are virtues of a ruling caste (“noble in character, <i>quality</i>, or <i>rank
</i>[emphasis mine]”). I’d prefer the Seventh Tenet to say that it tries to
encourage “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beneficence">beneficence</a>”
in thought and action.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Scholars from Flowers to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Devil-Satanic-Changing-Religion/dp/0190948493">Joseph
Laycock</a> to Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen, authors of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invention-Satanism-Asbjorn-Dyrendal/dp/0195181107/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+invention+of+satanism&qid=1633551062&s=books&sr=1-1"><i>The
Invention of Satanism</i></a>,’ have noted that from its inception, Satanism
has embraced the ethos of an “outcast elite.” This is one component of Satanism’s
informal <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199779239.001.0001/acprof-9780199779239-chapter-7">non-evangelization
rule</a>. In <i>The Invention of Satanism</i>, interviews with (pre-TST)
Satanists emphasized again and again the appeal of Satanism as “not for
everyone,” and a religion for “those who are already [that way].” That’s all
well and good, but philosophical elitism all-too-easily becomes social elitism
which relies on – of course – hierarchy. Reform Satanism needs to make a
deeper, broader commitment to equality, to democracy, and to the leveling of
hierarchy. All of the evils I just mentioned – inequality, authoritarianism,
and hierarchy – are the same exact tools and tactics of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_the_Catholic_Church">caustic
theocracy and stultifying religions</a> that Satanism supposedly stands
against.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lVFsif0C3Xg/YWHG01RiMhI/AAAAAAAAGL4/V1Tlo6mBXLQmAlJFbytsMdc4yF5hZ01wgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1500/aa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1060" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lVFsif0C3Xg/YWHG01RiMhI/AAAAAAAAGL4/V1Tlo6mBXLQmAlJFbytsMdc4yF5hZ01wgCLcBGAsYHQ/w452-h640/aa.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I try to maintain a sunny demeanor and an upbeat outlook – I
have to. Given the state of my health over the last decade**, it would be too
easy to succumb to despair, anhedonia, and lethargy otherwise. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing in recent history took the starch out
of my metaphorical sails quite like my firsthand experience with organizations
– ostensibly anti-authoritarian, ostensibly in favor of equality and of making
the world a better place – where I’ve seen what I call “sheep in goats’
clothing.” These folks are well-meaning for the most part. They strongly and
publicly identify as rebels and freethinkers. They consider themselves bearers
of the light of free and independent inquiry who battle the thickening darkness
of religious totalitarianism. That threat <a href="https://time.com/6052051/anti-democratic-threat-christian-nationalism/">is
quite real</a>, by the way (although it is only one type of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment">reactionary darkness</a>
<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-inside-white-hate-group">among
the many</a> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/qanonanonymous/episode-1-introduction-to-qanon">shadows</a>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Star-Rising-Magick-Power/dp/0143132067">congealing</a>
<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26984798?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">around
us</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_United_States_Capitol_attack">right
now</a>).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>These brave little “goats” always seem to need a leader,
though – a strong hand to guide them. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%202%3A25&version=NIV">A
shepherd and overseer</a>, if you will, to help them carry their little candles
through the valley of darkness. They crave change, but fear being put “on the
spot.” They vociferously denounce certain religious authorities while turning a
blind eye to the abusive and jackbooted tactics of another. They flock, and
within the flock they form <a href="https://www.abc4.com/news/digital-exclusives/the-nicest-people-ive-ever-met-satanists-in-utah-explain-beliefs-views-on-religious-freedom/#:~:text=As%20it%20stands%20now%2C%20The%20Satanic%20Temple%20has%20just%20a%20couple%20dozen%20official%20members%20in%20Utah%2C%20but%20Jones%20adds%20that%20the%20population%20of%20%E2%80%9CAllies%2C%E2%80%9D%20or%20friends%20of%20the%20church%20who%20are%20less%20involved%20than%20a%20full-time%20member%2C%20is%20in%20the%20hundreds.">a
tiny, convoluted new hierarchy</a> to replace the <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng">massive, convoluted
hierarchy</a> they left behind. They are sheep in goats’ clothing, soft little
followers with groupthink where their skepticism ought to be.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>If you’re <a href="https://youtu.be/Q2elSNrRxus">building a
religion</a>, learn from the mistakes of the past. Study theory regarding what
works and what doesn’t. Think about <a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/industrial-workers-of-the-world-x344468-portland-general-membership-branch-anonymous-how-to-hol">meeting
structure</a> and <a href="https://crimethinc.com/2017/02/06/how-to-form-an-affinity-group-the-essential-building-block-of-anarchist-organization">decentralization
of decision-making</a>. Look into collective decision-making techniques. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323239259_Teaching_against_Hierarchies_an_Anarchist_Approach">Level
as many hierarchies</a> as you can, and build strong cross-organizational ties
between members and with other local entities. Actively try to deemphasize “status”
and thus help minimize its importance.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ttR1nVaqp98/YWHJLTWON6I/AAAAAAAAGMA/_vvTokcHwcgx9y1Esg4Nqlo6W-yxNBGZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1674/leadership.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="1674" height="392" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ttR1nVaqp98/YWHJLTWON6I/AAAAAAAAGMA/_vvTokcHwcgx9y1Esg4Nqlo6W-yxNBGZwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h392/leadership.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leadership?</td></tr></tbody></table></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">All of this is, however, assuming that you <i>want</i>
equality and breadth of participation. If what you desire – as our theoretical
would-be goat-herd – is <i>power</i>, then use a different strategy. Build
hierarchies. Foster cliques. Use information as a reward and a weapon, and
parcel it out in as miserly a fashion as possible. Organizational atmosphere (i.e.,
“how welcoming you are”) is important. One approach will encourage those
seekers who are on the path to Satanism to find a happy home where they can
learn – because <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thesatanictemple/posts/knowledge-is-the-greatest-gift/1430039667132045/">knowledge
is the greatest gift</a>. Another type of organizational atmosphere is
status-obsessed and discourages questions or dissent. Before long, that type of
group will drive out anyone with a halfway decent brain and a handful of
questions. Before long, your “goats” will be exactly the lost and wooly little
souls that you can dominate.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>As often as I can when referring to my religion, I point out
that there is no established “Satanism,” with a pope etc., but rather <i>Satanisms</i>,
multiple paths, often overlapping – sometimes diverging – but headed to the
same place: self-deification, self-reification, and the pursuit of the flame of
inquiry and rebellion. I <i>love</i> Satanism. It has deeply enriched my life
(I am <a href="https://twitter.com/CRBernard/status/1397620230680047618">particularly
thankful</a> to Lilith Starr for her masterful <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Satanist-Finding-Self-Empowerment/dp/1501021737"><i>The
Happy Satanist</i></a>). Since my introduction to and embrace of Satanism in
2000, the diversity of Satanisms has increased, and membership in the religion
has skyrocketed. The Satanic Temple is largely responsible for that. It is excellent
at certain kinds of organization and planning (which can be hierarchy-based or,
in an improvement I would encourage, it could work democratically). All told,
Satanism is in a better state in 2021 than I could have possibly imagined decades
ago.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>But Satanism has some soul-searching to do (ha ha). The
development of a ministry is not, on its face, a bad idea, and the people responsible
for TST’s ministry program include some of today’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PriestPenemue/videos">most intelligent,
well-read, and interesting</a> thinkers on Satanism. Still, the way the program
was rolled out and is run is deeply troubling to someone like me; someone who
despises cliques and bristles at hierarchy and social climbing. It was my
impression that many people were first drawn to Satanism because they were cast
out by cliques and rejected by the flock. As a consequence, many of us left
both cliques and flocks behind without regret. Satanism is currently embroiled
in more change than ever: that presents both a challenge and an opportunity. A
state of flux means that Satanism can change for the <i>better</i>. That means
a Satanism that is flat, fluid, democratic, and dedicated to equality and
inclusion. The “outcast elite” are – after all – <i>outcasts</i> at least as
much as they are “elites.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">*: <i>The False Hierarchy of Demons</i> is interesting. The
title means “false” in the sense that it is an imitation and satire of the
divine hierarchy of the Christian god. This satire angle has always appealed to
me. During European medieval carnivals (and in other contexts) open mockery of
hierarchy was temporarily allowed, and often involved the crowning of a
satirical “king.” The usual descriptions of hell by Christian writers involve
chaos – pandemonium, one might say, which would imply that any “hierarchy” was,
indeed, satirical and false. All of this is only true in people’s minds – but
it is an interesting peek into human psychology and the symbols and archetypes
that Satanism thrives on.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">**: It’s a long story, but the happy ending is that in June
of 2021 I was the grateful recipient of a kidney transplant. I will be grateful
to my (deceased) donor and to the transplant team at IMC until the day I die.<o:p></o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3872332091394163002.post-14639572641473988072021-09-29T19:33:00.001-07:002021-09-29T19:33:12.881-07:00God Hates Halloween<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3o_30Gy9uCg/YVUeIrL5D_I/AAAAAAAAGJM/2QON88ss9TQ6-jw4GQOnC5cZw4eAXRWEQCLcBGAsYHQ/s563/pumpkin.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="563" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3o_30Gy9uCg/YVUeIrL5D_I/AAAAAAAAGJM/2QON88ss9TQ6-jw4GQOnC5cZw4eAXRWEQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/pumpkin.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Every place has its pleasant and unpleasant aspects. For
example: I grew up in a deeply religious and conservative community (Bountiful,
nestled along a pleasant swell of foothills in Utah). There were certainly
drawbacks to my life in our little neighborhood, in those days – ostracism, the
closed-mindedness and ignorance of the more devout folk, the extremely
disturbing <a href="https://kutv.com/news/local/utah-has-high-rates-of-child-abuse-sex-abuse-of-children">rates
of child abuse</a> <a href="https://kutv.com/news/local/utah-youth-suicide-now-leading-cause-of-death-for-utah-kids-ages-11-17">and
suicide</a>. However, when I later moved to a *different* deeply religious and
conservative place (Tulsa, Oklahoma), I learned that there are aspects of the
dominant faith in Utah that I find enormously preferable to the shenanigans of the
Evangelical communities I encountered.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The list of differences between the two places is long, but
my move to Oklahoma contained many gray revelations, including than the fact that not
everyone loves Halloween.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now, don’t get me wrong: most people in Oklahoma celebrate
Halloween to some extent. But a large number of Evangelical religious leaders
take a jaundiced view of the holiday. At best they view it with suspicion. At
worst they castigate it as Satanic and unholy and ban their congregants from
participation (or, as portrayed unforgettably in the excellent
documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXxfIktv8RQ">Hell
House</a>, they craft weird and overtly missionary “answers to” Halloween).
Come October 31st, you will see the requisite adorable children roaming
neighborhoods in Oklahoma in costume, but you’ll also see folks <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/10/8594141/halloween-christian-holiday-hailey-bieber">ostentatiously
decrying it</a> and there will be an uptick in the distribution of <a href="https://www.chick.com/products/tract?stk=0032">Jack Chick tracts</a>, and
even those participating in the devilry seem a little guilty, a little
inhibited in their appreciation of it.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xe_Tm0AJZj4/YVUeS0ae5dI/AAAAAAAAGJQ/uQc1v18qUz017zLzJk0NHAwduX3MV7OvgCLcBGAsYHQ/s395/hallo1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="395" height="399" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xe_Tm0AJZj4/YVUeS0ae5dI/AAAAAAAAGJQ/uQc1v18qUz017zLzJk0NHAwduX3MV7OvgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h399/hallo1.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In Utah, on the other hand, people go hog wild for
Halloween. Costumes, raucous (albeit alcohol-free) gatherings and elaborate
yard décor are de rigueur. While the “trunk or treat” phenomenon can
potentially segregate kids by faith (since such hyper-supervised activities are
usually congregation-based), the religious authorities usually have remarkably
little to say about the holiday. Professional haunted houses <a href="https://www.funtober.com/haunted-houses/utah/">abound in Utah</a> –
and it’s difficult to make adequately clear to folks from out-of-state
their <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2018/10/31/20657393/utah-s-fear-factory-ranks-on-3-national-lists-for-haunted-houses">scale
and production value</a>. <o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kxrv1w8Nkug/YVUefmG2aAI/AAAAAAAAGJY/JaDDLQMs7w8BwGx4elo1ko8oKDSdaRDSgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Hallo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="320" height="244" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kxrv1w8Nkug/YVUefmG2aAI/AAAAAAAAGJY/JaDDLQMs7w8BwGx4elo1ko8oKDSdaRDSgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h244/Hallo2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salt Lake City Social Hall</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">I think part of it is the <a href="https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=arrington_lecture">longstanding,
historic love of theater</a> that permeates Utah and Mormon culture.
The <a href="https://historytogo.utah.gov/theater-utah/">Deseret Dramatic
Association</a> was established in 1853, and Salt Lake City’s Social Hall
was dedicated in 1857, making Salt Lake City one of the earliest American
centers of theater west of the Mississippi. (For comparison, San Francisco’s
magnificent California Theater wasn’t built until more than a decade later in
1869.) There’s also an interesting inverse relationship between the Evangelical
approach to mainstream American culture and the Mormon one. Since the 1950s,
Mormons have striven mightily to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/18/mormons-mainstream-romney-election">mainstream
their faith</a> and become part of the primary American cultural
conversation. During that same time period many Evangelical sects have <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/99/2/647/860469?redirectedFrom=fulltext">done
the opposite</a>: they have endeavored to create a counterculture, to establish
themselves as separate from (indeed, as victims of) mainstream culture.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For Mormons, that has meant embracing all things
Americana: <a href="https://www.freedomfestival.org/event/stadium-of-fire/">the
4th of July</a>, <a href="https://universe.byu.edu/1998/05/19/utah-among-nations-top-ice-cream-eaters/">ice
cream</a>, <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2017/5/11/20496939/timeline-a-look-at-the-relationship-between-the-lds-church-and-scouting#scoutmaster-richard-mckallip-feeds-a-community-bonfire-with-comics-after-a-house-to-house-collection-netted-some-1000-books-on-horror-crime-and-sex-in-a-drive-to-destroy-them-at-winslow-maine-on-oct-10-1954-the-books-were-collected-in-a-2-1-2-hour-house-t">the
Boy Scouts</a>. The story of 20th century Mormonism is the story of <i>buying
into</i> the idea of America. Meanwhile, Evangelical Christianity’s narrative
in the 20th century has been one of <a href="https://apnews.com/705be97dd9924d3c90f51532c2a99515">alienation</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/08/christian-home-schooling-dark-side">renunciation</a>;
from Hollywood to public education, they seem to <i>want out</i> of
American life. And as everyone from John Carpenter to Rob Zombie would tell
you, Halloween has become all-American. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/10/30/americans-are-expected-to-spend-9-billion-on-halloween-this-year-infographic/#39b0bd752a14">Americans
love Halloween</a>. It’s full of all sorts of things that we can’t help but
love: candy, (simulated) violence, and costume parties – just thinking of the
crisp smell of autumn leaves on the air and the feel of a chill breeze, of corn
mazes and plastic vampire fangs, ignites a warm coal of happiness deep in the
blackest cockles of my heart.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I try hard not to judge other peoples’ taste in completely subjective
matters, but I have a hard time extending the jovial claw of friendship to
anyone who hates Halloween – especially if they hate it for <a href="https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/52738-why-christians-absolutely-should-not-celebrate-halloween">half-baked
reasons</a>. I’ll readily admit that Halloween has some pagan trappings that
people who hate and fear religious traditions that differ from their own could
point to, but I’d argue that the same is true of both <a href="https://wearyourvoicemag.com/culture/christmas-pagan-roots-winter-holiday">Christmas</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-15/the-origins-of-easter-from-pagan-roots-to-chocolate-eggs/8440134">Easter</a>.
While some true, die-hard, live-in-the-woods types object to those holidays as
well, I didn’t encounter the widespread objections to them that I did to my
beloved “demonic” night of jack-o-lanterns, tricks, and treats.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lp9FCtofQ6Y/YVUgopI80pI/AAAAAAAAGJk/cuB987WXxZsMtnCRIexdNZ40MBo_qka_wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/samhain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lp9FCtofQ6Y/YVUgopI80pI/AAAAAAAAGJk/cuB987WXxZsMtnCRIexdNZ40MBo_qka_wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/samhain.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">YOU MEAN THESE GUYS?!</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">And speaking of demonic…I have absolutely no objection to
pagans, my fellow Satanists, or any others rejecting Halloween in favor of “better”
holidays like Samhain. But I have “no objection” to it in the sense that I have
“no objection” to (i.e., desire or justification to prevent) Christians from
forgoing the holiday entirely. As it is my own religion I am talking about,
however, let me dive on in. It seems wrong-headed and petty to me. Wiccans and
other witchy folk and pagans celebrate season-based holidays because they
believe the Earth and its natural cycles to be sacred. I acknowledge the cycles
of nature and my place in them, and I think it’s perfectly human to celebrate a
harvest festival. “Samhain” in this context, among Satanists, seems like an overt attempt to “re-brand” a secular holiday with a holiday practiced originally by Neolithic peoples
(<a href="https://www.yourirish.com/traditions/ancient-samhain-traditions-ireland">maybe</a>?) and my long-long-long-ago ancestors among the ancient Celts. It certainly seems not to have much to do with rational-Romantic Satanism. Further, unlike Christmas –
<i>overtly </i>religious, if not quite as much as some would like it to be – I have
never in my <i>life </i>heard someone refer to Halloween in a Christian-sacred context, or
celebrate “All Hallows Eve.” I doubt most folks could even tell you what “Hallow”
means in that context (it’s an archaic way to say saint). </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In most cases, a holiday (or HOLY-DAY, OH NOOO) is exactly
what people make it. I’m happy to be back in Utah (for quite some time now!),
where Halloween, horror, and <a href="https://www.visitsaltlake.com/blog/stories/post/the-nerds-guide-to-salt-lake/">dorky
theatricality in general</a> are appreciated. I have my issues with the
dominant culture here (to put it mildly), but credit should be given where
credit is due, and as we edge closer to my favorite season of the year, it’s
hard not to love people who love Halloween. I’ll continue to celebrate
Halloween MY way: with campy decorations, horror, and an appreciate of all
things spooky. </p><p class="MsoNormal">To me, Halloween could just as well be called “memento mori –
and celebrate!” day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Charles R. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03226524627534395443noreply@blogger.com0