Having recycled the old blog -- hey, it's just writing, you know, and I can do that anytime -- I decided that the new blog would be less about politics and more about...
Me!
However, this won't be exclusively about me, but the Astute Reader will get lots of insight into my patterns of thought, my concerns, my interests, and everything about me, from what I think is fashionable to when and where I shop.
However, the Astute Reader should remember that first and foremost, I am a writer not of history, not of political opinion, not of engineering concepts. First and foremost, I am a writer of fiction.
To be remotely competent at writing fiction, you have to read a lot of fiction, if only so that you can know what is crap and what is non-crap. Ninety-nine percent of it's crap... come to think if it, 99-percent of everything is crap, as old Theodore Sturgeon used to say.
Well, I'm passing tired of crap, but sometimes, crap sells.
Looking at this years best-selling fiction -- by which I mean what's popular, what has "fan base" -- I am seeing a lot of common themes.
Well, vampires are all the rage, at least on television. Everyone's sick to death of Count Dracula, I don't need to remind anyone of that, as many times as that poor bastard has been reduced to dust and then somehow been resurrected to once again haunt the land in search of wirgins and (or as) a midnight snack. Yet in film and on the telly, bloodsuckers seem to be everywhere you look.
It's not just vampires, of course. There are other popular shows out there. There will soon be others. Battlestar Galactica had an immensely loyal fan base, and the new Stargate Universe series will probably be as popular and perhaps as long-lived as the original Stargate series. Not yet seen will be next year's SyFy Channel offering of Caprica, and sometime after the New Year there will be even more episodes of V.
It can't be just me who notices that there's a theme common to all of these immensely popular shows, outside of the Stargate Universe new series. Even the original Stargate series had elements of this theme.
Can anyone guess what makes for such a popular commonality of theme?
No? I'll tell you, then.
These all share the theme of People Who Are Not What They Seem.
It would seem to be one of humanity's deepest fears and perhaps that is to be expected. Throughout all of our history, there has been nothing more to be feared than the enemy within your own ranks.
From ancient days, we have had words for "traitor" and "spy", for the "turncoat" and the "fifth column".
These are people who seem to be "just like everybody", but they're not. They're the enemy, an enemy so dedicated as to live among their enemies, masquerading as their enemies. Now that's dedication... or maybe just hunger.
One could make the argument that the legends of vampires and werewolves have at least one core theme, compounded by another theme or two.
How, one might ask, could someone do such a good job of acting just like you do, and then just up and turn around and attack and devour you? It couldn't be mere insanity, could it? Of course not; you'd know they were that crazy after maybe 30 seconds of conversation and you'd be on guard. They might still manage to kill and eat you, but they'd have to be overpowering, as they wouldn't have the element of surprise. But, as the stories tell us -- both fiction and true-crime stories -- "stuff happens" and people have a deep need for a reason, even if there's no possible justification.
So, if not insanity, perhaps hunger would be a good explanation? Seems reasonable, doesn't it.
So blame it all on the vampires, blame it on the werewolves, blame it on the banshees or leprechauns or elves or whatever. Blame the violence on the inherent nature of the assailant; just call them "evil".
People have a hard time, as well, understanding the nature of the rat, of the snitch, of the traitor, or of the spy.
After all, if someone lived among you for long enough to understand you so well that you could not distinguish them from your own people, if they had been there long enough to be "just like everyone else", wouldn't you think that even if they first came here as your enemy, they should have learned by now that you're really not so bad. You might think that even if they first came here as your enemy, they'd eventually have to report back to their superiors that these were really nice people, why not make friends instead of seeking out ways to destroy them. And how can people explain it to themselves when this doesn't happen?
Well, you could again ascribe it to hunger rather than craziness, though either of those reasons would explain a need to get up close and friendly and then kill, kill, kill.
Then again, that need can as easily be -- and in the past properly has been -- attributed to politics... or to religion.
Politics is generally a temporary madness, one that waxes and wanes as the election cycle comes and goes, or in societies where there aren't elections, a madness that waxes and wanes as the leadership ages and a choice of successors must be made or enforced. Religion, however, may be batshit crazy down through millennia. The religion itself may not be batshit crazy, to be sure... but it's guaranteed that there will be at least some fanatic adherents, and their madness goes with their fanatic territory.
Yet madness isn't always evil. It's an important distinction to make. For example, if you were in Palestine under the boot of Roman Imperial occupation, it might be thought to be mad to entertain the notion, for even a moment, of carrying a pack an extra mile for the hated invader. It might be thought mad to turn the other cheek if you had been struck. Yet sometimes what may seem mad is actually method. This "madness" of turning the other cheek, of carrying the pack an extra mile, eventually convinces the Romans that you're not so despicable, and that you're even friendly and helpful... and once the Roman thinks that, either you can actually be friendly and helpful, or you can gain their confidence to better strike at them. Either way, as long as this goes on, the Roman isn't crushing you... and this cooperation could evolve into a d'etente, a way of guarded cooperation.
Yet if the Roman thinks about this long enough, they might simply come to the conclusion that it's too tiring for them to maintain the pretense of cordiality while always also maintaining caution. With no cause at all, they strike first. Yet if no cause has been given, they're acting irrationally, aren't they? And while madness that results in cooperation and mutual survival can't be called an evil madness, striking first without reason might be called an evil madness. You could also characterize it as a failure to control an impulse to cruelty... except in the case described above, that's not what it is. In the case described above, it's a preemption based in paranoia, an evil madness indeed.
Yet how are we to explain the situation when that evil madness, of preemption based only on suspicion, becomes a way of life?
Once upon a time, some observant folks noticed a certain regularity to the cycles of the seasons, of the movements of observed positions of celestial objects, and the occurrence of eclipses.
The could convince gullible people that an eclipse was coming. Once the eclipse had started, they could address a terrified crowd and declare that if a sacrifice was made, the eclipse would end. If the sacrifice was made, they could declare that it was the sacrifice -- rather than simple passing of brief time -- that ended the eclipse, and they could further declare that only they, themselves, knew the proper way to sacrifice to end eclipses. So were born a variety of ancient religions.
Yet if someone had said "let's wait a while before we do this", the eclipse would have ended. The power to predict eclipses would have conferred deep respect, but probably little political power. But with common knowledge of the means of prediction of eclipses, even the respect would have subsided. So why let anyone wait? Sacrifice quickly! And let the first sacrifice be the first person who suggests that perhaps it might be enough to simply wait. It'll be a while before anyone else dares to suggest such a thing. Then again, it will be a while -- a very predictable while -- before the next eclipse. And during that time, you can track down anyone who might convince people that no sacrifice is necessary. You could gather power only to yourself, simply by suppressing the knowledge of the mechanism of eclipse.
You can even get other people, ones who firmly believe that only your proper rituals and sacrifice made the eclipse end, to do your killing for you.
In the modern day, of course, most religions don't go so far as blood sacrifice. In part, this is because the advance of science and education have been tending to put an end to superstition, or at least to superstitions that get people killed for no actual reason.
As the belief in a supernatural power of the priest class wanes, so does the actual worldly power.
Yet it is very important that people understand: since the beginning of time, these people have been telling you lies so that you will obey their wishes. Part of the lie is that they tell you it's not their wish, but the wish of something you can never see, yet which somehow still listens to them and will do as they ask for you.
Most children stop believing in such things when they are about 3 or 4 years old.
What amazes me is how few children ever learn the true lesson of Santa Claus: people will lie to you about supernatural beings to get you to "be good" and behave the way they want you to behave.
Even more astounding are how many are the adult people who will accept -- and act on -- lies told to them by other people, which lies were told to get those accepting adults to do as the liar intended.
You can fool all of the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time. But can you fool all of the people all of the time, or will you someday be exposed as a liar, a charlatan and a fraud? Will people someday see you for what you are, a liar, a charlatan, a manipulator, a greed teller of tall tales pretending to minister to the immortal souls while lining your pockets with wealth? What will people think when they discover it's all only about you obtaining wealth and power, and that you will smile and lie with great pleasure to get that wealth and power?
This season's film and television hits -- the huge hits, the ones with box-office and staying power -- are all about People Who Are Not What They Seem.
I want a new show. Perhaps several new shows.
Let's have some shows that aren't about Lizards From Space Wearing Cloned Human-Flesh Disguises (as in "V") or even Genocidal Robots In Space Wearing Cloned Human-Flesh Disguises (as in "Battlestar Galactica"). Let's have some shows that aren't about Bloodsucking Dead Teen Heartthrobs (even even Bloodsucker Lite On Designer Fake Food, as in "TrueBlood" and some characters in "Vampire Diaries" and "Twilight").
Let's have some shows about clever manipulators endlessly working in the shadows to get people used to the idea of believing lies and acting on those beliefs to destroy anyone preventing the clever manipulators from getting the wealth and power they believe must be theirs.
Let's have some shows about Cats-paws and Kingmakers. Let's have some shows about Secret Priests of Secret Societies and their Devotees and Dupes.
Let's have some shows about people waking up from delusions, discarding lies. Let's have stories where people realize that the person they've been listening to is either batshit crazy in a way that can only lead to violence, or is deliberately trying to make you batshit crazy in a way that make you do their dirty work while they get all the rewards.
Let's have some shows where people realize that it doesn't matter whether you're bad or good, Santa will never bring you anything because He doesn't exist. If you're going to be good, be good for Goodness's sake.
And as for the very real people telling very sad lies to other people, just keep asking yourself: what are those people going to do when they find out just how much you've been lying to them.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
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