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The New Counterculture

It’s no secret that our world has changed dramatically in just a few short years. But these changes have been accelerating for a while now. I was born in 1996; this is most often considered the last year of Millennials although I have occasionally seen it placed as the first year of Gen Z. Whatever the case, this is the time period that grew up alongside these dramatic changes. I’ve never seen an airport without TSA but one of my earliest memories is 9/11. I didn’t have a cell phone until high school but it WAS a smartphone.

Technology has changed so rapidly, even in just the last 20 years, and it’s had such a profound effect on us, it’s no wonder our culture has changed dramatically too.

So many of the things we would consider counter-cultural are now the norm. What once would’ve marked you as an outcast or a rebel is now commonplace. Even being a rebel itself is considered a good thing. But in a world of rebels, are you actually a rebel? Or just doing what everyone else is doing?

What would counterculture really look like today and going forward? Does it still look like the hippies? Or like punk-rockers?

Culture Shifts Visible and Invisible

Let’s start with something that’s exceptionally common today, but was quite rare just a few decades ago: tattoos.

Mind you, I don’t particularly care if you have a tattoo yourself and will not judge you from the tattoos alone (Ideally, I’d never do it at all). But given their highly visible nature, I mean to use it as an example of a change in culture.

In 2006, 36% of 18-25 year olds reported having at least one tattoo. This is no majority, but it’s not exactly a small percentage either. And this was in 2006, I suspect that percentage has only gone up. I recall a conversation with my grandmother, “When I was a kid, you almost never saw someone with a tattoo; and when you did it was usually a very strange person.”

Tattoos are obviously very individual and each person likely has some kind of story behind each of their tattoos. Even if the story is just, “I like it.” But then, someone might also ask me why I’m wearing this piece of jewelry or what is printed on my shirt, or maybe why I’m not wearing any jewelry and have a plain t-shirt.

Because the tattoos are very individual and permanent (excepting the use of lasers to remove them), I find them to be a marker of a high interest in individuality. Rather than fitting in with a group, it displays a desire to stand out.

This is in keeping with common maxims or virtues of the day such as, “finding yourself,” or, “living your truth.” Such sayings are the less visible, but perhaps more impactful, mindsets that the rise of tattoo popularity represents. And they aren’t bad in themselves, but they do further display the current culture and its contrast to the, “new counterculture,” I’m getting at.

Marriage rates are also consistently down year over year. Having been 8.2 per 1000 total population in 2000, and 6.1 per 1000 in 2019 (It dropped all the way to 5.1 in 2020. Hopefully that was a result of people delaying weddings until the following year and therefore went up in 2021). Divorce rates are also down so that’s good… But this drop was from 48% in 2000 to 44% in 2019 and if marriage rates have also gone down, this is small comfort. After all, you can’t get divorced if you don’t get married. Compare it to Great Depression era marriage rates at 7.9 per 1000 in 1932. And a divorce rate of only 1.3 per 1000, or 16 percent.

Birth rates have also steadily gone down. The general fertility rate (that is, live births among women 15-44) actually went up one percent in 2021, the first increase since 2014. But if you go down ten percent, and then up one, you’re still down nine percent.

And speaking of birth rates, 1 in 4 children in the U.S. do not have a father, either biological, step, or adoptive. We have the highest single-parent household rate in the world.

Why Does This Matter?

“But Collin, why have you thrown out all these statistics? How is this relevant to your topic?” I hear you say. Well, my astute and inquisitive reader, now comes the fun part, where I start injecting my thoughts and perceptions, instead of just regurgitating cold data.

All of the above data was put there to show in numbers what we see with our eyes. Most people have a very individualist, dare I say, solipsistic, mind frame today. One often summed up when one utters the platitude, “Drop anything that doesn’t serve you.”

The marriage rate is lower in 2019 than it was in the Great Depression, one of the worst economic periods in American history. And it wasn’t even that long ago. That would’ve been my great-grandparents but for any elderly folk reading, that would’ve been your parents. This means that, despite it’s many faults, people were choosing to get married less often, and divorced more often, in the general prosperity of 2019 than in the poverty stricken uncertainty of the 1930s.

Many young people claim they never want children, or at least greatly prolong having them, in favor of financial and personal gain. This, combined with lack of marriages, is setting up for a very lonely generation.

Many want to be strong and independent, but to be strong and independent, is also to be alone.

The New Counterculture

Fortunately, the new counterculture is actually still fairly common, but I predict that it will wane ever more quickly over this decade and coming decades.

This emerging counterculture is an antidote to the supreme emptiness and loneliness that is a result of our modern, isolated lifestyles.

And that means that it looks more wholesome than what we’d typically consider counter-cultural. More and more it seems the people who will go against the grain are the Hobbits. The little folk who love their homes, live simply, and follow closely their customs.

These are the people who get married, despite economic strife or their own desires, have children, despite economic strife and their own desires, and love their neighbors, despite economic strife and their own desires. In fact, spouses, children, and loving their neighbors ARE their desires. So when I say, “despite their own desires,” I mean only the selfish things that come from the dark parts of ourselves. It is virtuous to deny these things.

They do not live for themselves but for each other and do their best to hand that down to the children they so lovingly raise.

This lifestyle is going to be especially important, I find, for the young people.

Here’s one more point of data for you: Gen Z, the current teens and young adults, are reported as the most lonely in history. 56% reporting having felt lonely at least once or twice a month during childhood. This compared to dramatically lower reported rates from baby boomers.

Do you suppose that goes away when they get older? Unfortunately, many people, young or old, have become detached from the real world. The kids may have returned to in-person classes since 2020 but this may be the only human interaction they have at all. Going home to interface with their friends, or unknown avatars, on the internet. For some, scrolling and posting on TikTok for a few likes is their only outlet. For some, not even a regular family at home means they’re not lonely. For some, it never stops and the internet is making it worse; possibly even causing it.

Being in the new counterculture, they will have to interact with other people face-to-face and it’ll be far more satisfying than interacting with their phone could ever be.

The teens will have to interact with other young adults 3, 5, even 10 years their senior. And this will have a very positive effect on them. There is a big difference between a 16 year old and a 26 year old and much happens and changes for a person between those ages, but this is not so big a difference that it feels like they grew up in a different world; as is the case when teens interact with their parents or parent’s friends.

This is absolutely crucial, this will give them friends (insofar as a 16 year old can be friends with a 19, 21, or 26 year old), and perhaps more importantly, role models that aren’t so far from their age and that aren’t social media, “influencers.” As we all know, celebrities no matter the age, are very rarely good role models. But someone who is part of their community, has a personal relationship with them, and who more or less has their head on straight, can be.

If you want to find the new counterculture, it won’t be in your face like countercultures of the past, you’ll have to seek out, and earnestly and compassionately join, a more traditional community. But be careful, if you do that, then you’ll be part of the new counterculture.

There’s still room for individuality, it’s not a hive mind, and this individuality makes the community even stronger. You can be strong and be yourself, but you will be intertwined with a community that, in part, relies on you. So you will have to use your strengths in service of the community and you will also have to change yourself in order to fit in well enough to be a part of it. Strong, but not entirely independent. And thank God for that.

The new and upcoming counterculture is far more human than our digitized world. Instead of throwing daggers at each other online, or blocking someone and effectively ending that person’s existence to us, we’ll have to work out those differences. Because even though John Doe is kind of obnoxious and Mrs. Smith won’t quit the pointless and erroneous gossip, we’re still part of the same community and so must learn to love and forgive each other. And when disaster strikes a family, and the best, and maybe only, option is divorce, there is a support system that can come together to help the grieved parties and especially the children that so often get caught in the crossfire.

It is a very strange and upside-down world we live in that I call families and close communities the counterculture, but it’s the one we increasingly find ourselves in nonetheless.

This new counterculture is one where people live simply, fall in love, start families, and are kind and forgiving to one another. Something this world could use more of.

But don’t despair. After all, it wasn’t the wise and immortal elves, who live far detached from the world, or even the bold Numenoreans who, for all their virtue, couldn’t resist the temptation of power, or else the vice grip of apathy. No, it was the little Hobbits, who almost no one outside their borders had ever heard of, who destroyed the ring.

Until next time, God be with you.

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Santa Claus Actually DOES Exist

Santa Claus in His Natural State

My last post told the story of Saint Nicholas on which Santa Claus is largely based, now let’s dive into how I have come to once again believe Santa is real:

Santa is only a few days away from his famous night ride but unfortunately, most adults these days don’t think he exists.

Now many of us think this because someone told us he’s not real at some point in our childhood. Whether it was a mischievous classmate who ruined the secret or a parent who also doesn’t know, most of us believe that because reindeer cannot fly and a jolly fat man would never fit down a chimney, that he does not exist.

But Santa Claus is real nonetheless. And I hope that when I am done here, you will understand how it’s possible that those dastardly classmates and silly parents are wrong.

As I hinted earlier a lot of the idea that Santa Claus doesn’t exist is rooted in the idea that only material objects exist. This is a grave error of the modern world and one that falls apart upon inspection.

Nearly everyone would agree that things like love or sadness exist. But you cannot physically hold or look at love or sadness themselves. A father teaching his son to fish is an act of love but it is not love itself. And when your favorite shirt gets a hole in it, that is sad, but it is not sadness itself. These concepts cannot be contained in a single body or container but we all know they are real. So now we have established that there are things that are real but are not concrete.

Yet we mostly think that, because no physical man in a sleigh lands on our roofs at night, he does not exist.

Santa is everywhere during the Christmas season. People dress up like him, talk about him, write songs about him, and make movies about him. So obviously he does exist and he plays out in the real world.

In this way, Santa is something like a spirit. It is in the spirit of Santa Claus that you give gifts to people on Christmas.

In our modern world we want a clear answer so it’s no wonder we say he doesn’t exist; there is no singular person we can meet that we can say is Santa. If you were to meet me you would easily be able to identify that this in front of you is Collin. Santa is harder to contain because he does not have a physical body but he is still a real being who acts in the world.

If we have no issue saying that immaterial things like love exist, then maybe we can consider that other immaterial things and beings like Santa exist too.

Thank you for reading.

Merry Christmas.

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Saint Nicholas and the Three Daughters

Saint Nicholas sneaks Dowries to the poor family

Ah Christmas, a time of celebration. Christ is Born! Glory to Him.

This is also a time of gift giving and tolerating relatives. But just what is the story behind jolly old Saint Nick? Why would a fat man come down a chimney and put gifts in stockings?

Well, Sinterklaas, commonly known as Santa Claus, is a Dutch legend which is based on one of the deeds of Saint Nicholas of Myra, the 4th century saint and bishop of Myra; a city in what is now Turkey.

I thought I would share the story which formed the basis for Santa Claus to get us into the Christmas spirit and maybe gain a better understanding of our history and traditions.

There are many different versions of this story so I will tell the one that I liked the most. But then, I compiled this story with elements from a few different versions so perhaps this is a different version entirely. Fortunately, all versions are more alike than they are different.

Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas and the Three Daughters

In the town of Myra, there lived a poor man who had three beautiful daughters. He could not afford a dowry and he soon would not be able to afford food or clothing. The man knew that he would have to turn his daughters into prostitutes so they could eat.

Now Saint Nicholas of Myra, who was the bishop that city, heard of this family’s despair and the evil plan that came from it and he decided to help them.

Saint Nicholas did not want to receive praise for the charity, so he waited until late at night when everyone was asleep. Then, he walked by the poor man’s window and threw in a bag of gold for the first daughter.

In the morning, the poor man found the gold and thought, surely, this was a gift from God.

The next night, Saint Nicholas walked by and threw in a bag of gold for the second daughter.

The third night, the man decided to stay up and try to find out who this secret benefactor was.

But Saint Nicholas was clever, and he had guessed that the man would try to catch him at the window on the third night.

So instead he snuck up onto the roof and dropped a third bag of gold down the chimney. The third daughter had washed her stockings that day and hung them over the embers to dry and it was in those stockings that the bag fell.

In the morning, she discovered the gold and told her father. With these three bags of gold, the father was able to offer dowries to good families for all three daughters. They praised God; He had delivered them from falling into spiritual destruction.

And Saint Nicholas always strove to keep his charity and good deeds secret.

And that is the story of Saint Nicholas and the Three Daughters. If you know a different version that you prefer then so be it. This is of course only his most famous deed among many but hopefully now you have a better understanding of who Saint Nicholas is and where this story comes from.

Thank you for reading and Merry Christmas.

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WALL-E: the Necessity of Doing Something

It’s time to return to simpler times, a time we all remember fondly, a time of robots and spaceships and floating chairs.

This crazy time is the year 2008, when WALL-E came out.

For those who may need a quick refresher, WALL-E follows a robot of the same name, who has been cleaning up garbage on Earth for hundreds of years while all the humans are away in a spaceship. A probe robot name EVE comes to Earth in search of plant life and, having found some, returns to the ship where the humans are. WALL-E is whisked away with her and hilarity ensues.

She tries to present the plant she found to Captain, the aptly named captain of the ship (that’s his name in the credits) but the robotic autopilot has other designs. You see, the humans are on the spaceship because they ruined Earth’s ecosystem and they planned to leave for a while while an army of robots cleaned up the mess (thus the probes sent to discover if Earth is once again suitable for human life). But the mission was a failure and the man in charge on Earth told the ship’s autopilot to stay in space indefinitely. That order was given 700 years prior to the start of the movie.

Eventually, Captain decides to go back to Earth, things have changed in all that time and the plant recovered by EVE is proof of that. After defeating the autopilot he succeeds and the humans are able to go back to Earth.

And that is the very brief recap of WALL-E.

Eve Cheerfully Meets WALL-E for the First Time. Credit: Disney

As I sat reflecting on this movie I came to the conclusion that WALL-E is not the protagonist of the movie, at least not in the sense that he goes through some transformation or the Hero’s Journey.

Instead, the main character is humanity, or, more specifically, Captain.

There are of course climate implications and criticisms of throwaway consumerism, but that is not the purpose of this discussion. Instead, I want to discuss the change that Captain goes through, and reflect on what that can mean in our own lives.

The humans have been on standby for hundreds of years now, living in what’s basically a retirement community in space since they left Earth. They have grown highly overweight and never leave their floating chairs that will take them anywhere they want on the ship.

When the plant is discovered, Captain realizes it’s time go home. While Auto stands in his way, he says, “Out there is our home! Home, Auto! And it’s in trouble. I can’t just sit here and do nothing. That’s all I ever done. That’s all anyone in this blasted ship has ever done. Nothing!”

This line seems to me the most important line in the movie.

Captain is fed up with doing nothing, particularly when he discovers that there’s something else to do other than nothing.

He wants to take action, he feels that they need to. Instead of abandoning their home planet, they need to return and help it.

And Captain’s words are indicative of our human nature, our conscious.

We must do SOMETHING, or we’ll become like the humans in WALL-E before they discover another choice.

That is to say, ignorant, lazy, and easy to take advantage of. And quite possibly obese and unable to leave our floating chairs (bone mass shrinkage from space travel not included).

If we don’t do ANYTHING, it’s no wonder we can be taken advantage of. We don’t know any better, we never learned it in the first place.

Why wouldn’t a computer be able to keep us on a spaceship for 700 years if that’s all we’ve ever known?

Our nature is to do things. Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher, once wrote in his personal journals, “In the morning, when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into this world? Or have I been made for this, to lie under the blankets and keep myself warm?”

Captain and His Fellow Humans Return Home.

So, follow Captain’s example and do SOMETHING. It doesn’t even matter so much what it is. Just SOMETHING.

Don’t allow yourself to be too paralyzed over if what you’re doing is the right thing either. That can also lead to doing nothing. And it’s possible that you will never know if it’s the right thing until you’ve already started anyway. Luckily, you can adjust along the way.

Make a choice, take action. We are creatures of action, not leisure.

When they return to Earth, Captain tells the kids about food that they’ll grow in the ground and all sorts of things.

But take a look at the scenario from a distance. Do you suppose it would be easy for them to fix Earth in it’s current state?

Certainly not, but Captain is excited about it anyway.

That’s the meaning of life. Leaving behind his life of leisure and pleasure and entering a life of struggle, and therefore a life of meaning.

Perhaps we should do the same.

Thank you for reading.

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The True Meaning of Christmas

Firstly, Merry Christmas to one and all.

Secondly, I would like to examine two stories that we all know and love, and discuss what their purpose is beyond entertainment.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens; and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.

To explain what these stories want to teach us, perhaps we should look at what Christmas has become: a commercial holiday. After Thanksgiving, there is a mad dash to buy things. And at the end of it, we are all worn out and not very merry.

Perhaps, if there was not so much pressure on buying things, we would not find the holidays to be so stressful. We would not be so tired of Christmas before it arrives.

In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is guilty of allowing himself to be, well, a Scrooge, and ignoring the true meaning of Christmas. Ignoring the plight of less fortunate people and ignoring his family.

I find the Ghost of Christmas Present to be the most impactful of the three. The ghost uses his own words against him when Scrooge feels bad for people struggling. “Are there no poorhouses?”

Indeed, there are poorhouses and social programs. Indeed, Scrooge’s taxes do pay for them. And still, there are struggling people who government programs cannot or will not help. So perhaps something else is required. Christmas Present shows him the ignorance of his words.

Instead of Scrooge being mad that his taxes are not doing enough, perhaps he himself is not doing enough. Is he not of means? Can he not offer them alms or perhaps even a job, instead of hoping someone else will?

The same occurs when he witnesses the Cratchit’s Christmas dinner. The goose they eat is small. But it is all Bob Cratchit can afford on his wages. The wages that Scrooge is in charge of.

In the 2000 version of the Grinch’s story (the Jim Carrey one), the Grinch berates the people of Whoville for their commercialism. Proclaiming that all their gifts eventually go to him, on Mount Crumpit, in their garbage.

Why do the people of Whoville spend money and rush about to have the perfect gift if most of those gifts end up in the garbage?

The Grinch steals their Christmas. Or at least, he thought he did. But still it came. The people of Whoville gathered to sing even though they had no gifts and no roast beast.

The Grinch realizes that Christmas, “came without ribbons, it came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags.”

In his attempt to stop Christmas, the Grinch brought them a truer Christmas than before.

Take to heart the lessons of these stories, and consider how to apply them in your own life.

Perhaps you can give charity to those in need. Perhaps you can forgive someone who has wronged you. Or ask forgiveness for something you have done wrong. It is up to you.

Do not forget the Truth behind the tradition.

And remember, “Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Thank you for reading, Merry Christmas, and God bless us, every one.

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Why Everything Matters

A friend of mine recently expressed that Millennials and Gen Z have it hard because they have to try and plan the rest of their lives while simultaneously being aware that there is no future and it doesn’t matter.

The proposed lack of a future was because the world as we know it might end; that a supervolcano like Yellowstone might erupt and send us into a new ice age, or that our atmosphere will get so hot, life will be impossible. Or that there might be a nuclear war. Or that at best (or maybe worst), our economic opportunities will evaporate and we’ll be doomed to a life of debt-slavery and meaningless toil.

Unfortunately these are feelings we have all too often. And why we feel them today more than yesterday is probably a complex question to answer. My estimate is that it’s in no small part due to being able to compare ourselves to those who seem to have it better than we do at any time via the internet. And that media, politicians, and universities constantly tell us that the sky is falling. It could also simply be the struggle of coming into adult life that twenty-somethings are prone to.

But instead of complaining that the internet is a force for evil and that twenty-somethings need to grow up; I thought I would use the internet as a force for good, and explain why, in fact, there is a future, and that it does matter.

There are certain things we all agree are good. The life of a child, puppies, or even something as seemingly benign as a tree.

And there are certain things we all agree are bad. Apathy, suicide, or even something as seemingly benign as too much television.

Why is it that we can all agree on things that are good and bad? If nothing mattered, then there would be no such differentiation.

If nothing matters and there is no future and we’re all meant to die and then darkness, then perhaps we should hurry that process along and ease our suffering.

But, of course, we are compelled to believe something does matter. If nothing mattered, then I would not have to disclaim the above paragraph and tell you that I do not think suicide, or at least, self-destructive behavior, is a good idea.

Indeed, if there was no agreed upon view of right and wrong, we would not view suicide as the result of mental illness. And the fact that we think it is bad, and even have careers centered on helping those people, proves that life does matter.

To the Christian, it matters because it is the Lord’s work, and because He has commanded us to do things for His glory. And if we don’t, we will spend our time here, and then eternity being very unhappy (to put it mildly).

And to an Atheist, they might do good things because otherwise they will spend their only time alive being very unhappy.

Either way, the effects might look quite similar to us.

It all mattered to someone else, so who are we to decide that it doesn’t? Should a man work hard his entire life to make a better future for his descendants only for his descendants to be stuck in nihilism and meaningless impulse gratification?

And it matters to someone right now. Should a child suffer because the parent decided that nothing matters? Or should the puppy and duckling in this post’s photo suffer because we allowed fear and doubt and hopelessness to paralyze us and neglect them?

Should we pursue pleasure and forsake our responsibilities because the world MIGHT end?

To use the Christian example again; the Bible tells us that Christ is coming soon (Rev. 22:12). And also that no one knows when but the Father (Matt. 24:36).

Such a thing can sound scary, particularly to those unfamiliar with the text or the faith. If I had heard such things this time last year, I would’ve been quite afraid indeed.

But now that I have learned more, I don’t think it’s meant to scare us. It’s meant to remind us to do our good works while we can.

Regardless of whether you’re a devout believer, or a more secular person, the potential for apocalypse at any moment is no less true.

Christ might return five minutes after you finish reading this, or he might not come for another 1000 years. We have no way of knowing.

In the same fashion, Yellowstone might erupt or nuclear missiles might be launched at any moment. We can predict those things at least a little bit, which makes them different than the second coming, but the possibility is there regardless.

But even with all these things being possible, that’s no excuse to act poorly and make things worse. Instead, you should work hard to make things as good as possible for as long as you can.

Indeed, Christ might return five minutes from now, or a nuclear war might kick off, or a giant volcano might erupt.

But Christ will not save you if you chose to do nothing just because he might come in the next few minutes. And if he does not come in our lifetimes but we do live to see a giant volcanic eruption, or perhaps, a global pandemic, wouldn’t you rather reach that moment knowing you did the best you could with the time you have?

I set out to prove that everything matters. But in a way, I don’t have to; because we already know that it does in our hearts. We already know that suicide is bad, and, if any of us have had those thoughts, we know that we should try to overcome them. We know that we would be glad to see a puppy and a duckling play together, not the opposite.

The simple fact that you know what I mean when I say, “the best you could…” proves that something, everything, does matter, even when we feel that it doesn’t.

Thank you for reading.

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Liberty’s Kids: The Show Americans Need and American Children Deserve

Given the tension with the drawn out election process, and the increasing lack of social cohesion, I decided I’d give a quick review of a show from my youth: Liberty’s Kids.

As I said, I first watched it when I was a kid, but I re-watched it this past summer.

I was highly impressed with it after watching as an adult. This show manages to be neither doggedly pro or anti-America.

It was made in the early 2000s, a time when our society was more, well, civilized. I fear that, given the increasingly overt politicization of our entertainment and the common political leanings of those who work in entertainment, it would be strongly anti-American if made today.

Then again, if it were a show made by a right leaning institution, it might be too pro-American.

But instead, it avoids this problem entirely and presents the founding of the United States in a positive light while also pointing out the shortcomings and intricacies of that time period.

The show features a very star studded cast to boot.

It includes Walter Cronkite, Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, Whoopi Goldberg, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dustin Hoffman, Yolanda King, and more.

Kids today might not recognize those names and they should be grounded for that transgression. And if an adult today doesn’t recognize at least most of those names they should be grounded without dinner.

Liberty’s Kids covers touchy subjects like slavery in a fair and sensitive way that’s appropriate for kids. It points out the hypocrisy of demanding freedom from Britain while owning slaves while also pointing out that many of the founding fathers were adamantly against the practice and that some of them knew it would take another war to abolish it.

It covers stories that we might not know about like Elizabeth Freeman a.k.a. Mum Bett, who was the first person to sue for her freedom and win. The Massachusetts supreme court ruled that slavery was inconsistent with the Massachusetts constitution.

Or James Armistead, who acted as a double agent for the Americans. He knew the British would think nothing of his slave status and so he reported British movements and plans to Lafayette while reporting fake American movements and plans back to the British.

It also covers the heroism of women like Margaret Corbin, who, after her husband was downed, continued to operate the cannon he was stationed on until she herself was too badly injured.

And Deborah Samson, who disguised herself as a man in order to serve in the Continental Army.

One of my favorite episodes covered Benjamin Franklin’s inventions and achievements in life. Including things like the bifocal, a more efficient fireplace, and the founding of the nation’s first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital.

The show offers a historically accurate view of our founding, without political leanings and emotions getting in the way.

It’s also interesting to compare their problems to ours today. Some, while vastly different, are eerily the same.

They had issues with Congress being painfully slow and being more interested in arguing than they were getting anything done. They had many concerns about the integrity of the mail system too.

I won’t spoil any more of the show in case some of you are interested. If you have kids, or you’re a kid at heart, give it a watch and decide if it’s something your own kids should watch. You at least have this child at heart vouching for it!

And best of all, you’ll get to hear what might be the corniest intro song of all time.

Thank you for reading.

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Do Not Vote Blue (Or Red) No Matter Who

Woman can't decide on the ass or the elephant ass

Let me start out by saying that I have no intention of becoming a political commentator.

I find politics exhausting and, these days, very divisive, so talking about politics here will be an anomaly. Even so, I won’t be talking in favor or one party or another.

Indeed, the only reason I’m writing about this topic at all is because I find what I have to say bipartisan, or even nonpartisan, and I think my point can and should be applied to a great many topics.

That point being this: Voting along party lines no matter what is simply not using your brain.

In a broader context, doing or going along with anything without thinking about it is, quite literally, not using your brain.

So do not vote blue no matter who. Or red for that matter. Or yellow or green.

I recently saw a post on social media, something I’ve been consuming less and less of lately, explaining why it’s so crucial that people vote blue no matter who this November.

It listed off things like potential supreme court justices, administration officials, cabinet picks, etc. And then it listed off other, more polemical things like border control, abortion rights, and law enforcement.

Ending with stating something along the lines of, “Even if you don’t like Joe Biden, this election is too important to vote otherwise. Vote blue no matter who.”

That post was in favor of the blue team. But the red team could take that exact same post, change the word blue to red and it would be in favor of the red team. And there lies my problem with hyper-partisanship.

Saying that this election is too important sounds like a good argument, but I believe it falls apart when confronted and examined.

“I would vote third party but *insert election year here* is too important.”

If you believe that your party is always the right choice, then it won’t matter what election year it is because you won’t have to decide for yourself.

And if some partisan shill convinces you that a certain election is too important to vote third party then why would they not do the same for the next one?

There’s also the argument that we have to choose the lesser evil. And the lesser evil changes based on who you ask.

Doing this will lead us into a downward spiral that will eventually look like this:

“I don’t wanna vote for Satan but at least he’s not MegaSatan.”

Jokes aside, it’s best to vote for neither the Beast nor the Dragon.

There are other options out there. And the only reason they don’t get enough votes is because we’re… You know. Unwilling to vote for them.

And I’m not pushing for you to vote for the Libertarian party or the Green party, or even to write a candidate in. Instead my point is to simply stop and think about it before you make decisions.

You might be stuck in a bubble when you accept one team without question. We all know that the mainstream media is biased these days, even, or maybe especially, when they claim to be unbiased.

All you need to do to see this is look at the coverage of any current event by Fox News and then look at the coverage of it by CNN. If Fox News is in favor of it then it’s highly likely that CNN will be against it, and vice versa.

Instead, perhaps you should make up your own mind about the event instead of absorbing what the talking heads have to say about it.

A blue team member might express his disappointment with red team voters. Claiming that they just repeat word for word what their leaders say.

Well yes, I’m sure some of them do. But there are also members of the blue team that regurgitate the same exact things that their own leaders say.

So who’s right and who’s wrong and who’s hypocritical?

That’s up to you.

I know such a thing is not easy and I by no means am perfect about it either. But it may help to take a step back from everything before you decide.

The amount of polarization we’ve seen in the last few years won’t get us anywhere.

Calling the people on the other team, “Deplorables,” or Nazis, or communists, or thugs, or any other vitriolic term, isn’t exactly going to change their mind.

That said, IF someone actually is a Nazi or a communist or a thug, then we can safely be united against them. But throwing those words around like candy doesn’t make it true.

What it does do however, is make those words less effective when you actually meet someone like that (see: the boy who cried wolf) and it makes the accused resent you.

Instead we should reserve judgement until we’ve looked at things with a calm, dispassionate mindset.

What are this person’s policies? Do they line up with my beliefs? If someone is being accused of something, are they actually guilty of that? Or is the accuser just a deranged, radical person?

I read something that makes a very good point the other day; the general message was that in these next few months, we will be barraged with messages that try to tear us apart and convince us that the other team is bad. And that we can’t let ourselves fall for it.

That point is the reason why I’ve been referring to the Democrat and Republican parties as the blue team and red team.

“Yeah go blue/red team! The red/blue team sucks!”

“Why do they suck?”

“Well uh, because they’re the red/blue team and I’m on the blue/red team so screw them!”

Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of treating the future of our country the way we treat sports teams.

Do not allow politicians, media, intellectuals, or anyone else, convince you of otherwise.

Once you have taken a sober look at what each group stands for and you’ve found one you agree with, vote for that group.

Vote blue or red or yellow or green or whatever you genuinely think is the best choice according to your conscience.

And the only way we’ll escape this two party system that we all seem to hate so much is if we actually vote according to our consciences and not just for the party or candidate that we think is, “not as bad,” as the other one.

George Washington and John Adams both warned us against becoming too partisan and Abraham Lincoln told us that a house divided amongst itself cannot stand. Although well over a century too late, maybe it’s time we take their words to heart.

Regardless of who wins, we are ALL Americans and therefore in the same boat. And a ship will never leave the harbor if its crew is too busy fighting each other.

Thank you for reading.

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Brother Bear: A Bear’s Journey to Understanding

Denahi and Kenai Stand Together at the Village Wall

Ah, Brother Bear (2003). One of Disney’s forgotten children. Say what you want about Disney, the mouse is a ruthless, unscrupulous businessman. And it works out for ’em. And us too because I was able to watch Brother Bear recently thanks to Disney Plus.

I remember watching the Tuke and Rutt commentary on the special features when I was growing up. Thanks to my grandparents for tolerating watching that over and over. And if you have access to the DVD or the special features I highly recommend it. It’s a director’s commentary but with the moose from the movie instead of the directors. Pretty funny.

Alas, today I’ll be talking about the regular version of the movie and why it’s more a story about misunderstanding than it is about brothers.

Brother Bear takes place in the Pacific Northwest during the last ice age with a tribe of Inuit natives. Three brothers are fishing before Kenai, the main character, has his totem ceremony. A ceremony in which he will receive his spirit animal.

At the ceremony, Tanana, the village wise woman, gives him the bear of love. Kenai is confused and disappointed. He was hoping for something tougher or manlier.

Tanana gently reminds Kenai that he is not allowed to trade totems with another.

After this, Kenai and his brothers, Denahi and Sitka, discover that a bear has eaten the fish that Kenai failed to secure properly. Kenai decides to go after the bear for, erm, vengeance? The brothers are against the idea but he runs off anyway and they follow in an effort to stop him.

After a fight with the bear, Sitka is left dead and the bear has escaped. At Sitka’s funeral, Kenai decides to hunt the bear again. He removes the bear of love totem from his neck.

After another fight, Kenai kills the bear but is then transformed into a bear by the spirits.

This leads Denahi, who had been trying to catch and stop Kenai, to believe that the bear has now killed both of his brothers.

Kenai wakes up on the shore of a river after falling off a cliff into raging rapids. Tanana shows up and explains that Sitka must’ve transformed him in order to show him something. Sitka’s totem in life being the eagle of guidance.

Tanana gently explains to Kenai that Sitka has transformed him into a bear.

Tanana tells him that to speak to Sitka, he must go to the, “mountain where the lights touch the earth.”

Kenai then meets Koda, a bear cub who is trying to reach the salmon run; a place where all the bears gather once a year to feast on salmon and have fun. Sort of a harvest festival for bears, if you will.

The salmon run conveniently happens to be right next to Kenai’s destination. Kenai decides to go with Koda because, well, he doesn’t know where the mountain is.

They set off together but they bump into Denahi, who has now taken up the mantle of revenge against the bear.

Denahi attacks Kenai.

After they escape him, the bears keep traveling and we are treated to a traveling montage with a song sung by none other than Phil Collins. Who also wrote all the songs for this movie. What a legend.

Anyway, the bear duo happen upon a few cave drawings. One depicts a battle between a human and a bear. Koda says, “those monsters are really scary.” In reference to the humans.

Kenai and Koda sit in front of a cave drawing.

Kenai has a moment of realization at this point. If he were human and a human child was sitting next to him, it would be safe to assume that the child is referring to the bear when they say monster. But if that’s true, then it should also be safe for Bear Kenai to assume that the bear cub next to him is referring to the human.

They are nearing the salmon run at this point and Koda says their last obstacle is this place:

Hell?

While they’re walking through the caldera, they are once again attacked by Denahi. As if walking through there wasn’t enough of a trial in itself.

When they cross the ravine on the other side of the caldera and evade Denahi, they arrive at the salmon run:

The Salmon Run.

I thought that the way Disney handled the two above images and their corresponding scenes provided a nice visual metaphor for the idea that to get to Heaven, you have to go through Hell. But that’s a topic for another time.

Koda tells the other bears at the salmon run that he and his mother have been separated and he will wait for her at the salmon run. Kenai realizes who the bear he killed was.

He runs away. When Koda catches up to him, Kenai reveals the truth. He says that he has done a terrible thing and tells Koda the truth. Including where Koda’s mother is.

Koda runs from him.

On top of the mountain where the lights touch the earth, Denahi once again ambushes Kenai. Kenai tries to flee and Koda joins the fray but it is not enough, Denahi has the upper hand. Right before Denahi kills his own brother, Sitka (the brother that died) intervenes and the northern lights explode above the mountain in the middle of the day.

Kenai is turned back into a human and Denahi realizes the truth. Kenai approaches Koda, who is now hiding behind a rock.

After a moment, Koda realizes that it’s the same Kenai he knows and loves and jumps into his arms.

Kenai makes the choice to return to bear form; he knows that he cannot leave Koda. Sitka obliges him.

The three brothers embrace after the truth has been revealed.

The movie ends with Kenai’s paw print being added to the wall where the villagers have added their hand prints over the years and Kenai’s bear of love totem once again rests around his neck.

The song playing at the close include the lyrics…

“Show us that in your eyes
We are all the same
Brothers to each other
In this world we remain truly
Brothers all the same”

It explicitly refers to the spirits in question in the film but I must admit, the song has a very, “gospel-y,” feel to it.

Regardless of who or what the song is speaking to, I believe those lyrics are at the heart of the film’s message.

You see, Brother Bear asks us: how often do we fail to understand someone else’s position? How often do we not even care to try to understand their position? Particularly when they have wronged us.

So often, we do not stop to think about why that person did what they did and what we might’ve done in their shoes. Even when we do think about what we might’ve done, it’s often a quite forgiving opinion of our character and judgement and it also often doesn’t take into account certain variables and circumstances that the person was faced with.

Kenai made the choice to go after the bear for doing what a bear does. Kenai failed to tie up the basket of fish properly despite his brother’s warnings. So it is his fault. Not the bear’s. What fish-eating animal would not capitalize on an unsecured basket of fish?

But, being the young, hot-headed person he is, he doesn’t stop to think about what went wrong, ignores his brother’s protests, and hunts down the bear.

It’s easy for us to watch from afar and think, “Why would he do that? I would never think to do that.” But are we always so clear-headed and wise? It’s easy to say we wouldn’t go after a bear. I wouldn’t. Even with a high-powered rifle, let alone the stone-tipped spear that Kenai was equipped with.

Let’s put it another way, one that’s a bit less hyperbolic than ‘hunting down a bear that has eaten my fish’:

You’re watching a WW2 movie, some of the characters are panicking when they come under fire. Some of them make dumb decisions and die, the main character is saved by his commanding officer. Your friend says throughout the scene, “Run! Why aren’t they taking cover? Why aren’t they shooting back?”

These are natural things to think and you may have even said them yourself. But let’s propose some answers to the questions your friend was asking.

Could it be possible that they are in shock? Assuming your friend is not a combat veteran, they have never been in a war-zone and have never experienced artillery shells exploding around them and bullets flying towards their head.

How old is this person? In WW2, a 16-year-old could join the military if they had parental consent. Do we count on 16-year-olds to always make sound decisions? Well, they cannot vote for one thing.

As for why they aren’t shooting back, perhaps they’re afraid to poke their head out. Perhaps they do not have a clear shot. Perhaps they are out of ammunition.

It could also be that the filmmakers just decided the character would do that in order to build tension.

We often criticize the actions of movie characters and say something along the lines of, “I would do X if that happened to me.”

But would we? It’s very easy to criticize when we are at home, sitting on the couch with a blanket and a sweatshirt. How would we know exactly how we would behave in a scenario that we have never been in and have received no training for?

We can say that, in Kenai’s situation, we would not attack the bear that ate the fish. If it were us. But it’s not us. It’s Kenai. Who is a hot-headed young man from a hunter-gatherer tribe, eager to prove himself a man and who has just been disappointed at a big coming-of-age ceremony.

Had Kenai not tried to go after the bear for a second time, or even the first time, he wouldn’t have been turned into a bear, and Koda wouldn’t have lost his mother.

Had Kenai simply thought to himself, “If I were a bear, I probably would’ve eaten the fish too,” and went home, we wouldn’t have a movie to watch.

But you get the point.

Through the events of the movie, we are shown that if we take the time to learn the other side of the story, maybe we wouldn’t make as many mistakes.

In the movie’s context, if Kenai had taken the time to understand his own responsibility in what the bear did, Sitka and Koda’s mom wouldn’t have died.

In our context, if we take the time to think things through and understand our own part in things, maybe we won’t make so many rash decisions and misjudge so many situations and people.

And we won’t be the annoying friend who always knows exactly what every movie character should do in every moment.

Like the song lyrics, this movie shows us that we can see new things if we just open our eyes to them.

We are not as different as we sometimes think. Forgive one another. Think before you act or speak.

Those are the lessons that I believe are at the core of Brother Bear.

Thank you for reading.

*All images featured in this post belong to Disney.

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Joker: A 2019 Film About 2020

Image: Warner Bros.
Arthur Fleck on a vandalized bus. Warner Bros.

I was going to write a lighthearted post a few weeks ago comparing Disney’s Tangled to the social isolation we recently went through… but then another thing happened and shifted our attention away from the virus.

Maybe later when things have cooled down.

Today, I’ll be talking about the eerie similarities of Joker (2019), and our current situation in America and the world.

When Joker came out, the country was generally calm and prosperous. At least compared to this year.

It was also free of a certain virus of contested origin (External link).

I saw it in theaters and was gripped by it the entire time. Re-watching it recently, it’s bizarre how much it reflects our current situation. Like it was a warning that we didn’t heed.

Of course, it’s not necessarily a direct comparison to any one thing and, being a movie, we’re limited in what we’re able to see and what we do see is shown from the protagonist’s point of view.

Regardless, the similarities are plentiful. There will be spoilers but I’ll keep the big ones to a minimum. If you’re interested in watching the movie and haven’t had it spoiled yet, I recommend you go watch the movie and then come back and read. I watched it on Amazon. It plays through an HBO subscription (they offer a 7 day free trial) but you can watch whatever way is convenient for you. Obviously.

Let’s dig in.

Joker follows Arthur Fleck and his descent into madness, eventually becoming the titular Batman villain.

While it’s technically a comic book film, you wouldn’t know it if there was no prior knowledge that it was about Batman’s nemesis. It’s dark, angry, resentful, and more. Perhaps most importantly, there is no Caped Crusader. In fact, Bruce Wayne is still a child in this rendition.

Arthur’s working as a clown where he gets jobs holding store signs and entertaining at children’s hospitals. At the opening of the film, he’s preparing for the work day. In the background, people are talking on the radio about the garbage and rat problem in the city.

This was the first similarity I noticed. We are currently in an unprecedented health crisis.

In the film, there is unchecked waste and rats. Both of which bring disease. As a matter of fact, fleas living on rats transferred the Black Plague to humans.

Arthur puts on a happy face. Credit: Warner Bros.

After the scene mentioned above, he’s beaten with his store sign and kicked by a group of street thugs for seemingly no other reason than they wanted to. The sign is taken out of his pay for failing to return it to the store owner after it was smashed over his head.

At another point, Arthur is forced to defend himself from three young, Wall Street looking guys in the subway. Although at least one of the kills was more of an execution than it was an act of self defense.

This prompts the police to begin an investigation of a triple homicide. It also sparks an anti-establishment movement that grows more and more violent as the movie progresses.

At the same time, this causes Thomas Wayne, the rich father of Bruce Wayne (Batman) to launch his bid for mayor of Gotham. Claiming he can fix the city’s problems and denouncing the increasingly violent ‘clown’ movement.

After Arthur is made fun of on his favorite late night talk show, The Murray Franklin Show, he’s invited on the show. Evidently, the bit received a lot of attention.

This makes up the climax of the movie, Joker dances down the steps he previously struggled to climb, then runs from the detectives investigating the previously mentioned triple homicide.

On the train, he looses the detectives in a mob of clown-masked protesters. They turn on the cops and interfere with their work, eventually tackling and beating them after one of the detectives shoots a protester that was grappling with him.

Arthur/Joker laughs at the detectives being beaten. C: Warner Bros.

I didn’t notice until I took this screenshot, but in the above image, behind Arthur, you can see a protester holding an anti-capitalism sign. Albeit a blurry one, camera being focused on Arthur.

After Arthur’s appearance on The Murray Franklin Show, he’s taken into custody and is being driven in a police cruiser through the streets of Gotham. The city has devolved into chaos, police have lost control of the situation, vehicles are being burned and windows are being smashed.

Then, an ambulance that had been hijacked rams into the police cruiser. The clown protesters exit the ambulance and free Joker from the car. A crowd forms to cheer on the Joker. The murderer and inspiration for the movement that has turned towards violence and destruction.

Joker revels in applause after being freed from police custody. C: Warner Bros.

After that brief summary using intentionally chosen moments, you’ve probably already guessed the comparisons I’m trying to make.

I’d still like to address them directly for clarity’s sake.

Joker drew quite a bit of controversy when it came out. The main argument was that it could inspire disenfranchised people to commit acts of violence. Even prompting the U.S. Army to issue a note to its members (External link). Thankfully, there were no theater shootings.

This film is about a man and a society that has lost hope. Left with nothing but to destroy and hurt.

Arthur is first beaten by street thugs and later beaten by thugs in suits.

In the limited view we’re offered by the film, it’s difficult to know for certain if the clown movement started off peacefully or if it was always violent. Nonetheless, there is no doubt by the end of the movie that it has turned towards destruction.

Of course, in the real world, there were many protests that remained peaceful and for a good cause. As far as I’m concerned, there is no genuine argument for saying what sparked the current movement was wrong and very few people would challenge that.

But, like the ambulance hijackers in Joker, what may have been a peaceful movement for a good cause was hijacked in multiple cases by bad people not interested in positive change or justice. Just destruction and chaos.

I understand what I’m saying may be considered controversial by some, but I feel it necessary to say. After all, why would it be controversial to condemn the destruction and burning of cities where those hurt the most are not the intended target?

The masked rioters at the end of Joker are not interested in changing things. They are interested in mayhem and lashing out. Sort of like those bad actors in real life that used the civil unrest as an opportunity to steal, destroy, hurt/kill, distract from those who are seeking positive change, and push a bad agenda.

The mob worships the Joker. C: Warner Bros.

Amid all this, Thomas Wayne sees an opportunity to advance his political goals. He speaks of the protesters with contempt while attending film screenings and operas.

The elites who presume to rule over us in the real world have shown their own true colors in a similar fashion. I’m sure you can think of corporations and people on either side of the political aisle who have used pandemic and protest to further their own interests and power.

The film shows stark contrasts between the haves and the have-nots. Thomas Wayne lives in a beautiful mansion on a big estate and visits beautiful opera houses where the bathrooms are probably as big as Arthur’s entire apartment. Murray Franklin performs on a TV set each night with a band and bright, multicolored curtains.

Meanwhile, the rest of the town is vandalized, dull, and blanketed in disrepair and squalor.

The Wayne Family beside a protester holding an upside down sign that reads, ‘RESIST.’ C: Warner Bros.

At the time, the real world was not like the Joker world. At least not actively. Today, it is too much like it.

I believe Joker received so much negative press because it lays blame at all of our feet. Not just those that we don’t like. And we all know how the press likes to guide our morality and claim they’re always right.

This film does not glorify the protagonist. It doesn’t try to justify his actions. It’s very clear that he’s a villain.

It shows us a world where almost everyone is a villain in some way.

It shows us how a man can devolve into nihilism when a society abandons him.

It shows us how a protest can get out of hand.

It shows us how the elites don’t care. Even if they say they do.

It shows us what terrible evil a person and society with no property, no God, no loved ones, nothing, is capable of.

It shows us that, no matter how much we don’t like to admit it, monsters are made, not born. We very well may have had a part in making it. It may even be us.

Joker is a harsh criticism of what our world has become. That doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it.

Even if you alone made the monster, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop it.

Stand on your feet. Work towards positive change. Do not allow bad people with bad intentions and bad ideologies dictate your words and actions.

“Human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.” – John Adams

Build. Do not deface, topple, or burn.

“Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.” -Calvin Coolidge

Thank you for reading.