“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
The only "Trumans" I've ever known before were Harry, Bess, Marguerite, and Capote. ;-)
I thought at first the story of THIS Truman fellow was going to be just another in the long, looooooong series of angry, bitter, dreary, dispiriting leftist denunciations, disenchantment, denigrations, deconstructions, and sneering, cynical, ever-snide Siren Calls to Suicide.
Not so! While I don't particularly admire the quasi-didactic style of the narrator, –– who presumes to tell us what it's all about as though detached from and above it all, himself, –– the underlying message seems positive. It's merely a restatement of age-old truths the Left, –– particularly the Jewish reinvention of Hegel's theories we call Marxism, and the Jewish-inspired Cultural Marxist movement, itself a reinvention of the twisted ideas developed first by the Italian dissident Antonio Gramsci has sought to annihilate. The Frankfurt School craftily designed Cultural Marxist ideology to make the harshness of brutal, revolutionary, Bolshevik-style Marxism appear more palatable to naive, gullible peasants, and unsophisticated members of the Bourgeoisie. In addition the depressing, perplexing influence bitter, tortured, disenchanted nineteenth-century philosophers brought to bear trying to justify their contempt for humanity, and distrust of Holy Writ did great harm. These things have been urging us to deny for the best aspects of our heritage for 150 years or more.
Modernists and post-Modernists made it their mission to scorn the past, cut us off from our roots, encourage us to reject our history, while insulting and bullying all respect and reverence for Tradition and Religion –– particularly Christianity –– out of existence. The result has been the fractious, fiercely undesirable mental and moral climate surrounding and paralyzing us today.
Now this stark, rather bleak-appearing parable called The Truman Show indicates there might be a way back to a place where we may yet recover our senses and come to realize once again what we've always known but ought to deny, and that may be summed up in this homely ,little truism:
"If it is to be, it's up to me."
Most of the demoralizing, dispiriting, depraved and depriving mental, moral and spiritual POISON we've been systematically fed by clever –– even brilliant –– manipulative power-mad perverts since just before the dawn of the twentieth century has sought to foster a sense of helplessness, hopelessness and utter dependency on some form of AUTHORITY to hold us by the hand, guide us through the maze, feed us, nurse us, and lead us to a UTOPIA where will be be "safe" and "free" from the burden of charting our own course, taking risks and assuming responsibility for the decisions we make.
In other words we have been deceived by seductive sophistry to imagine that the best way to get through life is to AVOID the PAINFUL PROCESS of LIVING.
I get the feeling this Truman fellow is in the process of discovering how foolish such ideologies really are at root. At least I HOPE so.
No white knights will ride in to save the day. If an ideological "re-framing" is required, we'll all have to do it ourselves. A new "founding crime" will need to be committed, and subsequently "mythologigized" by history.
The only "Trumans" I've ever known before were Harry, Bess, Marguerite, and Capote. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI thought at first the story of THIS Truman fellow was going to be just another in the long, looooooong series of angry, bitter, dreary, dispiriting leftist denunciations, disenchantment, denigrations, deconstructions, and sneering, cynical, ever-snide Siren Calls to Suicide.
Not so! While I don't particularly admire the quasi-didactic style of the narrator, –– who presumes to tell us what it's all about as though detached from and above it all, himself, –– the underlying message seems positive. It's merely a restatement of age-old truths the Left, –– particularly the Jewish reinvention of Hegel's theories we call Marxism, and the Jewish-inspired Cultural Marxist movement, itself a reinvention of the twisted ideas developed first by the Italian dissident Antonio Gramsci has sought to annihilate. The Frankfurt School craftily designed Cultural Marxist ideology to make the harshness of brutal, revolutionary, Bolshevik-style Marxism appear more palatable to naive, gullible peasants, and unsophisticated members of the Bourgeoisie. In addition the depressing, perplexing influence bitter, tortured, disenchanted nineteenth-century philosophers brought to bear trying to justify their contempt for humanity, and distrust of Holy Writ did great harm. These things have been urging us to deny for the best aspects of our heritage for 150 years or more.
Modernists and post-Modernists made it their mission to scorn the past, cut us off from our roots, encourage us to reject our history, while insulting and bullying all respect and reverence for Tradition and Religion –– particularly Christianity –– out of existence. The result has been the fractious, fiercely undesirable mental and moral climate surrounding and paralyzing us today.
Now this stark, rather bleak-appearing parable called The Truman Show indicates there might be a way back to a place where we may yet recover our senses and come to realize once again what we've always known but ought to deny, and that may be summed up in this homely ,little truism:
"If it is to be, it's up to me."
Most of the demoralizing, dispiriting, depraved and depriving mental, moral and spiritual POISON we've been systematically fed by clever –– even brilliant –– manipulative power-mad perverts since just before the dawn of the twentieth century has sought to foster a sense of helplessness, hopelessness and utter dependency on some form of AUTHORITY to hold us by the hand, guide us through the maze, feed us, nurse us, and lead us to a UTOPIA where will be be "safe" and "free" from the burden of charting our own course, taking risks and assuming responsibility for the decisions we make.
In other words we have been deceived by seductive sophistry to imagine that the best way to get through life is to AVOID the PAINFUL PROCESS of LIVING.
I get the feeling this Truman fellow is in the process of discovering how foolish such ideologies really are at root. At least I HOPE so.
'Tis Opposites — entice —
ReplyDeleteDeformed Men — ponder Grace —
Bright fires — the Blanketless —
The Lost — Day's face —
The Blind — esteem it be
Enough Estate — to see —
The Captive — strangles new —
For deeming — Beggars — play —
To lack — enamor Thee —
Tho' the Divinity —
Be only
Me
Emily Dickinson (1830-86)
Now the leaves are falling fast,
ReplyDeleteNurse's flowers will not last;
Nurses to their graves are gone,
And the prams go rolling on.
Whispering neighbours, left and right,
Pluck us from the real delight;
And the active hands must freeze
Lonely on the separate knees.
Dead in hundreds at the back
Follow wooden in our track,
Arms raised stiffly to reprove
In false attitudes of love.
Starving through the leafless wood
Trolls run scolding for their food;
And the nightingale is dumb,
And the angel will not come.
Cold, impossible, ahead
Lifts the mountain's lovely head
Whose white waterfall could bless
Travellers in their last distress.
~ W.H. Auden (from On this Island)
No white knights will ride in to save the day. If an ideological "re-framing" is required, we'll all have to do it ourselves. A new "founding crime" will need to be committed, and subsequently "mythologigized" by history.
ReplyDelete