Domestic Enemies Net

If you’re familiar with the TNT drama, Leverage, you know it’s about a group of criminals and con artists who use their various talents to obtain justice and restitution for ordinary folks who have been injured by the ‘rich and powerful.’ Timothy Hutton, who plays the leading role can, in a sense, be viewed as a modern day Robin Hood whose realm is Boston, rather than Sherwood Forest.

Last night’s episode, “The Gone Fishin’ Job,” had to do with a former IRS chief who now operated a collection agency but also had his operatives pose as IRS agents to shake-down tax delinquents. As part of the story, the stolen money was being used to support a local militia group and fund the coming ‘revolution.’

Of course, this militia was made to play out more like the Keystone Cops than the militias of Massachusetts’ past that stood against the British at Lexington and Concord and, as Emerson wrote in his Concord Hymn, “Fired the shot heard ’round the world.”

Though Timothy Hutton opens the show with “The rich and powerful take what they want… we steal it back for you…” he and his gang of merry men and women never go up against the really rich and powerful like the banking cartel, the carbon credit scammers, or the creators of designer viruses used to sell vaccines by force. None of them even come up to the level of a Bernie Madoff, let alone a Rockefeller or other Bilderburger, but come from the class of people the rich and powerful want to squeeze out of existence, anyway, the entrepreneurs.

While the federal government is said to be paying the media to include its propaganda in their programming, it can just as easily be assumed that this episode demonizing the militia originated with the half-wits that wrote and produced it since there is so little difference between their thinking and the thinking of the half-wits in government. Both sets of half-wits come in two forms: evil leaders and stupid followers, in this case leading to a stupid show.

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Friday, Jul 23rd, 2010

Love Conquers All: The Message At the Heart Of The Road

One of the most bleak films ever produced has a shining ray of light at its core

Warning: This contains spoilers for those who have not yet seen the movie or read the book!

The Road, directed by John Hillcoat based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, is an extremely powerful film because it explores the fundamental human condition and the basic struggle between good and evil.

The imagery in the movie provides the perfect backdrop for a stunning exploration of the greatest threat to our civilization – barbarism.

The near future post-apocalyptic landscape serves as a physical embodiment of the spiritual decline of humanity we see unfolding all around us today.

To emphasize this theme and to achieve a disturbing realism, the film makers used images and video from events in recent history including billowing smoke from the aftermath of 9/11 and the ruined landscapes of New Orleans after Katrina. Thus, although the viewer will not consciously be aware of it, they will already be familiar with the devastation they see on the screen.

The boy in the film represents innate goodness, the ultimate truth if you will. He has never known an existence other than the dangerous and savage waste land that exists before his eyes, yet he has a deeply held desire to help his fellow man, in the shape of whomever he comes into contact with as his journey unfolds.

The doting father character strives to protect his son from his own altruism, which is pitted in a struggle against a total degradation of empathy and morality in the world he is born into.

This is never more evident in the film than when the father and son’s meager shopping cart of supplies is stolen by a scavenger. They catch up to the thief and the father takes back the cart, along with everything else that the man has, including his clothes. Despite the scavenger’s wrongdoing, the boy argues with his father that it is not right to leave him to freeze to death, it is not something “the good guys” would do. Eventually the boy’s persistence with his father pays off as they turn back and leave the man’s clothes for him to find, with a can of food. This theme is revisited several times.

The father is intent on passing on to his son what he refers to as “the fire” he is carrying inside. The soul, the spirit, the will to survive, creation itself, a greater enlightenment and understanding – call it what you will, it’s desperate fight against darkness and dehumanization, reflected in the cannibal savages, is the central theme of the film.

A common theme in dystopian fiction is the break down or the deliberate destruction of the family. This is because the function of the family is a microcosm of human civilization itself. The virtues of the family – trust, loyalty, togetherness, love – are at the core of the human condition, in constant conflict with suspicion, jealousy, selfishness, and hate.

In The Road, the family is devastated in the opening scenes by the suicide of the mother. The father’s slow prolonged illness and eventual death also mirrors that of society. In the end, however, there is hope, as the boy, still carrying the fire, is adopted by another family – a father, mother, boy, girl and a dog.

The boy’s adopted family represent civilization itself, and the message is clear – we are all interconnected and if we are to survive and progress as a species we must recognize our social responsibility to love one another and protect ourselves from the barbarians that threaten our survival. Only love can save us from such a barren desolate future.