“Put the glasses on! Put them on!” – They Live
Jack Nicholson gave us a Colonel of truth in that movie.
Living in the country has advantages. One of them is being able to conduct experiments into nuclear fusion without a license. Oops. Did I say that out loud?
The other is that I can make a bonfire the size of Delaware. Why would I want to do that? Just like making my own fusion reactor, why wouldn’t I want to do that?
In my case, the next-door neighbor and I have trees that regularly need to be trimmed, or, as I mentioned in a story (A Tree Fell On My House, But I Have A Chainsaw) a while ago, just plain fall down onto my house. We haven’t burned the pile for about three years, so I figured it was time to get rid of prime snake habitat and burn it all down. Winter is the best time for a ludicrously large fire, so we decided tonight was the night.
Now lighting deadwood on fire sounds easy, but this time it was fairly difficult. We were nearly getting ready to give up, go inside, and let the pile smolder out when a section caught. Admittedly it was on the fifth bottle of charcoal lighter fluid, so I guess persistence pays off.
If I ever become an island castaway, I’ll set up a flaming signal on the beach: it’s the shore fire way to get attention.
Within five minutes we had a conflagration pouring tornado-like flames thirty feet into the sky. There is a moment when, after unleashing that fire, I realized it was utterly beyond our control. It was burning fuel so fast that branches suspended five feet about the base were burning with a bright bluish-gold flame. Sparks were shooting 60 feet into the air on an updraft of hot air that would make Maxine Waters blush.
Thankfully, I could release that sweet, sweet CO2 back into the air to Make Siberia Warm Again.
I liked that, because an immense, hot fire burns quickly, and I wanted it to be a boring pile of coals and hot ash before I went inside. It was – within ten more minutes (seven liters) the fire had consumed 70% plus of its fuel and it was perfect for toasting marshmallows – from forty feet away.
We heard sirens sounded like a fire engine in the neighborhood, but we didn’t go and look – showing up at a neighborhood fire with marshmallow roasting sticks is bad form here in Modern Mayberry.
As I sat there beside the fire, I was thinking about Plato.
No, Plato isn’t Goofy®’s dog, that’s Pluto™. Which makes me wonder why a cartoon dog has a dog as a pet? Disturbing.
My computer password is FrodoKirkGoofyScoobyBugsSacramento – just like IT said – five characters and a capital.
What I was thinking about was the dead Greek guy, Plato. In many things, Plato was a complete idiot, but he wrote everything down, so we remember him. Diogenes the philosopher, it is rumored, loved making fun of Plato, especially by putting Icy-Hot™ in the nether regions of Plato’s toga.
But one thing that Plato left us with that was useful was his Allegory of the Cave.
The Allegory of the Cave is a fairly simple story. A group of people are chained in a cave so all they can do is stare at a blank wall. But behind them is a fire, which casts shadows on the wall. Not being able to see real, three-dimensional reality, the people stuck in the cave seeing nothing but shadows give names to the shadows.
I tried to come up with another philosopher pun, but I just Kant. And I Kant lose any more weight. Another Plato.
Their reality, knowing nothing else, are those shadows that they can see.
But one day, one of the people escapes. He leaves the cave, and upon looking around sees the rich tapestry of things that are not shadows. He sees colors. He sees trees. He might see a Taco Bell® depending upon where the cave is.
He finally experiences reality as you and I do, especially if he orders extra cheese on the Nachos Bell Grande®.
It must be a stunning information overload – countless things that he’s never seen before – remember, if it hasn’t cast a shadow on the cave wall, it doesn’t exist in his world.
Having friends in the cave, the escaped person goes back in. “Dudes, you have to see this. We’ve been wrong our whole lives – there’s a rich world out there. Nothing is as it seems to you. Come and see!”
In the kingdom of the blind, is the one-eyed man king?
No, in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is considered, at best, crazy. More likely, however, the one-eyed man is viewed as a threat that must be eliminated. So is our escapee that returns to enlighten his friends.
No one wants to be robbed of their illusions. Many people don’t want to consider alternate viewpoints. The escapee will be shouted down by the rest of the captives. “Surely,” they say, “such a world cannot exist. If it did, I’d have to change my conceptions, and there are two things I never change, my underwear and my conceptions.”
What kind of pants do they wear in Plato’s cave? Yoga Tights? No. Stalac Tights.
The bad news is, to one extent or another, we’re all prisoners of the cave. We see misperceptions in our daily life, either of our own construct or as constructed for us.
Who would construct misperceptions for us?
Lots of people. Here are a few examples:
- Harry Truman, on August 6, 1945, said: “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base.” Well, sure. It was a militarily important city. And farms were militarily important because they made food that people might eat. And schools were militarily important because they educated children that could fight us. But that would be like saying, “San Francisco, an important American Army base.” (Note: I’m not saying I disagree with the decision, just that Truman’s statement was shady as a Netflix® show about dancing children.)
Don’t worry, in the sequel the Japanese take out Detroit.
- Operation Northwoods: Essentially a plan from the Pentagon for our military to stage terrorist attacks in the United States while pretending to be Cubans as a justification to attack Cuba. Really. Here’s the Wikipedia® on that (LINK). Not Alex Jones. Wikipedia™.
- The CIA performed illegal mind control experiments on American and Canadian civilians. Here’s the Wikipedia (LINK). Most of the documents were burned, so there’s no telling how many people were impacted. When I first heard of this, my response was that it was impossible. Nope. They did it.
- Let’s pull the media in, too. The New York Times® “reporter” Walter Duranty wrote stories that there was no mass starvation in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s, despite knowing that millions were being starved to death on purpose. Duranty got a Pulitzer Prize™ for his lies – a prize that has never been rescinded. I wrote about that starvation here (In The World Murder Olympics, Communists Take Gold And Silver Medals).
I could do dozens more where the government, academia, industry, or unions lied and most people believed them. I’ve written about those again and again – the 1960’s Harvard Sugar Study, anyone (High Carbs, Harvard, Insurance, And Avoiding Doctors)? If it was just statements from politicians that were lies that most of us believed? I don’t have enough electrons on my computer to store all of those.
Essentially, unless I get up and go outside of the cave I’m in, I’m sitting and watching those shadows on the wall. But when I do get up and go outside of that cave, I learn amazing things – all those things that are glossed over in history classes, and generally not easy to find, though they’re (for today) clearly documented on even Left-leaning sites like Wikipedia®.
All of those things that receive warnings on Twitter® and are banned on Facebook™? Shadows. I’m not saying that everything that gets a Twitter© warning is the Truth. But I am saying that if they’re suppressing an idea, it merits investigation and clear thinking, and abandoning your preconceptions to try to find Truth.
But if someone would have told fifteen year old me that those things in the bullet points above were true? Would I have violently rejected that?
Absolutely.
Fifteen year old me wanted to believe in the government, wanted to believe that the press wasn’t hopelessly corrupt. Me in 2020 has seen too much.
If you haven’t seen the movie They Live, there is a scene where the protagonist tries to help his friend stop staring at the shadows on the wall of the cave. In the movie, there are sunglasses you can wear to see a different reality. The clip below from the movie, with Rowdy Roddy Piper playing the protagonist, and Keith David playing his reluctant friend who really, really doesn’t want to put on the glasses (some NSFW dialog):
Rowdy Roddy, rest in peace.
The bonfire in my backyard is now just some smoke and a few glowing coals, not enough light now to cast the amazing shadows that the thirty-foot flame made. But my television is going, showing a documentary where a gentleman is earnestly telling me about his particular trip outside the cave. If he’s right, it changes the world.
As does every trip outside the cave. But, I have my doubts that he’s right because the truth he’s presenting is so counter to mainstream thought, so I’ll keep doing my research. And learning.
Leaving the cave is scary, and it’s difficult. And I absolutely don’t promise that understanding reality a little bit better will make you happy – it’s very likely to have the opposite effect. But it will bring you one step closer to the truth.
Maybe you and I can finally figure out what those shadows really are.
Let’s go see what’s outside.
‘They Live’ is one of the most subversive films ever, not great cinema but the message is pretty profound and it upsets the right people. I need to re-watch it.
When you combine Plato’s cave allegory with They Live and toss in some Brave New World and 1984, you can see why they are trying so hard to frighten and distract us, because they know if people start to figure out that we have been lied to all this time, we might get a little twitchy ’round the trigger finger. Sure The Powers That Be laugh at us and mock us openly but they are also terrified of us.
More and more people are putting on the sunglasses and starting to run out of bubblegum.
Yup. America might be all out bubblegum by June or July.
Excellent article once more, John, and all I can do is say “amen” from the amen corner.
On a more literal rather than allegorical note, discussing Plato’s Cave and They Live reminds me of some videos I ran across recently where color-blind people see color for the first time…
https://enchroma.com/
That’s cool!
Nothing to disagree with here. If someone were to get power in the US who really wanted to clean up the mess (note I don’t say “get elected president,” because Trump teaches us that it’s far from the same thing), a good place to start would be to weld the doors to CIA shut with everyone inside, burn it to the ground, piss on the ashes, and then sow the ground — plentifully — with salt. Next day, repeat with FBI. That leaves the rest of the week for NSA, DIA, and a bunch of other TLAs. Such a program is way too dangerous for a mere president to even seriously consider carrying out, though, as Kennedy’s example shows. It just gets you shot in the face.
But, when it comes to fun, out-of-control outdoor fires: the guys from the day job from which I retired still get together for twice-a-year campouts, spring and fall. We choose chilly weather (normally, early March and early November) so that the primitive campground will be deserted or nearly so, there won’t be mosquitos, and we’ll have an excuse for building truly monstrous “campfires.” Everybody brings a whole crapload of firewood, and lots of guys bring used motor oil. Some years, somebody’ll have an old recliner or sofa he wants to get rid of, and that gets brought, too. On the Friday evening of the campout weekend (known as “balls-out Friday”), a lot of the guys overserve themselves with Demon Rum, and in the ensuing atmosphere of hilarity, the fire gets built up to life-threatening size. You know it’s reached firestorm proportions when there’s a hard, roaring cone of flame going upward some tens of feet, looking and sounding like a carrier-based fighter plane has its afterburners going just before being catapulted. Yes, here in northeast Indiana, we’re doing our part to release plenty of CO2 for the nourishment of plant life everywhere, and for the warmth of our Siberian neighbors.
Not to mention the Amish tradition here in northeast Indiana of setting their fields on fire after the harvest, almost never with any thought to what might happen if said burning field gets out of control or smoke obscures the roadway. We are a rebellious bunch out in these parts.
Huh. Something I’ve noticed recently. When did “tens” replace “dozens”?
I don’t think it did. “Tens” goes with “hundreds,” “thousands, “millions” and so forth, to express an order of magnitude. But “dozens” are needed when buying donuts or eggs. Or, better still on the donuts, “baker’s dozens.”
Now I’m hungry! Mmmmmm, donuts …
And what about scores? I think that goes with plagues, which would make it appropriate for 2020 . . .
And speaking of ‘2020’…
In a few hours, 2020 will be old enough to drink!
No kidding. I’ve never lived through a year that had 451 months before . . . happy New Year to you!!!
Yeah – the TLAs have to consistently justify the reason they exist. I just wish they’d go to work and do, well, nothing.
Now that sounds like a fire!
At the Beale’s Point campground at the yuge Folsom reservoir near Folsom California (next to the prison made infamous by Johnny Cash…)…
Each late summer since the dam was built in 1960 or so, before a full-moon after the water-level was way down, we drove out onto the reservoir gravel flats in a pickup truck to collect driftwood along the banks of the American River feeding the reservoir.
Nicely dry, a couple-three — or ‘dozens’ — of loads can make a bonfire appreciated by park rangers, astro-nauts, and other space-farers.
This was a full-moon tradition until the false-flags of September 11th, 2001.
These days, very official signs warn of OfficialsAndAuthorities sitting watchdog, protecting the dam with Stinger missiles.
No more driving out on the gravel flats.
No more collecting down-falls in prep for chilly winters.
Because a redneck hillbilly wood-collector in a pickup truck might somehow imperil a few million tons of concrete and steel.
Pooh!
How is a pagan heathen to have any kind of fun anymore?
And what do space-farers think of us these days?
I am willing to bet a nickel it goes something along the lines of:
* “Careful of that planet! The whole place is a compressed ‘coiled spring’, just waiting to go off!”
Same thing happened around here – there was a campground “too close” to a dam. An earthen dam.
They allowed it to be reopened to a very select set of campers . . . 16 years later.
Speaking of Earl Of Taint…
Jan’s blog DiogenesMiddleFinger.com (aka ‘news with a healthy dose of snark’)
…is one of my daily stops outside the cave.
First time there for me!! I liked it!!
That is a most excellent blog name!
Operation Northwoods. For some reason this is always equated with “the military” as though “the military” were planning it. NO! Someone… someone who also happened to be in the military in a brainstorming session came up with the idea. It was NOT “the military”. But being honest about what it was doesn’t help wide eyed conspiracy theories does it.
Yeah, I was going to comment on this but you beat me to it. People in the military are paid to come up with crazy ideas so that they can be analyzed and/or shot down and/or planned for. Doesn’t mean anyone intended to actually do it.
Going back to this being an official suggestion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with the request that they be in control of it, it was a serious idea.
JFK shot the idea down, so it was far beyond the “idea” stage.
Fair call.
But, it was the Joint Chiefs of Staff, so it goes way beyond “someone in the military”. It was the leadership of the military.
But it wasn’t (I agree) everyone in the military. And I hope there were soldiers that would refuse to comply . . . .
And it’s not a wide-eyed conspiracy theory – the documents are 100% available. Signed by the Joint Chiefs. That’s the opposite of conspiracy theory – it’s conspiracy fact.
When I put the They Live glasses on, it’s the same thing.
Watched that again the other day and what epic movie done in under two hours.
Love the lesson of the mean girl news anchor Karen that just about gets Roddy killed by pushing him out of the window.
The epic fight was rehearsed for three weeks and lasts six minutes and only hits to the face and groin are fake.
That is a lesson about trying to wake people up or the old you can lead a horse to water saying.
There are some great memes of Miley Cyrus, Trump, Bruce (?) Jenner, and other contemporary figures with the glasses vision.
Learned most of my PC knowledge from a blind Linux guru and he could see and hear things that I never could.
Even when tuning his voice box that recited everything happening on the machine to the slowest speed it was still a jumble to me.
Pappy had twenty acres out in the boonies of the Southern portion of Red State and once I got a bonfire going that could be seen for miles.
He came out of the house and said holy shit you’re going to burn the whole hillside down but there was a huge Army Corps Of Engineers made lake about 100 feet away. A sad trombone sounded as the fire was dashed.
It was cold out plus the chicken breasts and hot dogs needed a good roasting.
The shadows on the cave are partially the MSM and Social Media if you ask me. They convey a vague shadow of reality that may or may not contain something true, but they largely exist to hide what is really happening. This is a shame because an open society cannot survive if everyone is acting on bad information.
And the answer to the too often unasked question “Are government authorities lying now or were they lying then?” is yes.
In order to make space for our home to be built, we once lit a humongous slash pile after our build-site had been cleared. The pile was, well, bigger than our burn permit indicated (burn permits are a thing in Washington). It was a spectacular pile of fire.
You could see our smoke column from I-90 five miles away, and several people came to see. One guy just drove up onto our property like he owned the place, got out and stood watching the fire.
I walked up to him and asked, “Did you bring a shovel?” to which he said no. I then asked, “Did you bring a bucket?” to which he said no.
I then said, “Then what are you doing here? Get the hell off my property!”
Sigmadog I believe you are more correct than you know in your statement. Also I would like to thank you John for your reference to his artwork. My dog portraits came just in time for my Christmas and my wife loved them. They even fooled my brother in law who paints that they were painted, that is what appealed to me in review of his works and it paid off. Thank you Sigmadog and Joan Wilder.
Wonderful!!!!!!!
I *love* that answer, especially as someone who chased “hunters” off of my father-in-law’s place.
Kaffee: [interupts him] *Did you order the Code Red?*
Col. Jessup: *You’re God damn right I did!*
I was thirsty….
Ha! The link was the kicker. Love it!!!