Rabbit-Hole News: Pat Robertson's Illuminati Theories, Bagram Batman, Bigfoot

THE ILLUMINATI:

Televangelist Pat Robertson decided yesterday that the public needed more of his pearls of wisdom, blaming the Bavarian Illuminati for gay marriage:

"It has been said that those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to live them again. If you go back in history to the French Revolution, there was a thrust spurred by the writings of the group called the Illuminati to destroy the family, to destroy the state, to destroy capitalism and to destroy the church."

Robertson's rantings will in no way be used by the media to make all alternative news/history enthusiasts look like raving lunatics. Oh wait, they totally were.


ALEISTER CROWLEY:

Along similar lines as the Robertson piece, conservative site Big Hollywood has picked up the OTO/Peaches Geldof/Jay-Z story from the Daily Mail -- though never mentioning the word "Illuminati." Crowley cited as sex-crazed maniac, though; cool to see that media still buys Uncle Al's press after all these decades. Makes you wonder if the "mainstream" conservatives (and I know that's a stretch when referring to Robertson) are starting to overtly adopt the Illuminati/Satanist narrative.


THE DARK KNIGHT:

Because our soldiers really need more of the blending of fantasy and reality in order to keep a healthy mindset on the field and back at home, a series of Army PSAs called "The Bagram Batman" teach soldiers how to be more prepared. Because there is nothing less "triggering" than the Chris Nolan version of Batman.


BIGFOOT:
Is this Bigfoot's foot? Or a bear paw?

If it was Bigfoot's foot that would be really cool. Let's all hope it's Bigfoot.


META-NARRATIVE:
This podcast by The Higherside Chats, interviewing author Kent Bain, contains a little something for everyone: 9/11, Sandy Hook, Hunger Games black magick, Baphomet, and, of course, The Dark Knight. I'll be looking at Bain's (Bain/Bane sync LOL) theory about "The Great Gatsby" in a future post.

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Scared To Death: Doomsday Narratives Make People Snap

It seems as if our popular culture has been completely saturated with dystopian, "Doomsday" & disaster narratives and imagery. Two recent tragedies have been directly linked to this mentality: the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings, and the school stabbings in China.

We now know that Adam Lanza, the autistic child who killed 26 people last Friday, had a mom who was obsessed with "surviving" the apocalypse. From The Daily Mail:

"Friends and family portrayed Adam Lanza’s mother Nancy as a paranoid ‘survivalist’ who believed the world was on the verge of violent, economic collapse. She is reported to have been struggling to hold herself together and had been stockpiling food, water and guns in the large home she shared with her 20-year-old son in Connecticut.

Mrs Lanza, 52, was a ‘prepper’ – so called because they are preparing for a breakdown in civilised society – who apparently became obsessed with guns and taught Adam and his older brother, Ryan, how to shoot, even taking them to local ranges. That backfired horrifically on Friday when Adam Lanza began his killing spree by shooting his mother dead in bed."

Nancy Lanza: real-life "Doomsday Prepper"

A Chinese man who, on the same day, went to a nearby elementary school in Chenpeng village in Guangshan county and stabbed 23 children was also plagued with terrors about the "End of the World".
From HuffPo:

"A statement from the Guangshan county government said Monday that police would evaluate Min's psychological state, but that initial investigations found that he was strongly affected by "doomsday rumors."

We can blame the current insanity on the Mayan calendar and the 2012 prophesied date looming, but pop-culture -- and segments of the "New Age"/Evangelical movements -- have been heavily using the "Doomsday trope" for decades.

One of the most popular shows on TV is "The Walking Dead," which can be seen as a metaphor for a crumbling, economically-collapsed society in which one can only defend oneself from the "zombie hoardes" (refugees, the starving masses who might want your food, looters, Socialists) by using guns and setting up "forts".

Recent/upcoming movies such as "The Dark Knight Rises," "The Hunger Games," "Star Trek Into Darkness," "Oblivion," "Looper," "Total Recall," "Melancholia," "4:44 Last Day On Earth," "Red Dawn," "Resident Evil: Retribution," and others feature end-of-the world scenarios and/or horrible dystopian futures and/or striking disaster imagery.

From the Alex Jones video "2012 Doomsday Secrets Revealed"

There are a stunning array of Apocalypse theories presented on blogs and YouTube that syncretise all sorts of far-flung theories from widely disparate (and often contradictory) sources: a "melting pot" of the Book of Revelation, alien invasions, the Illuminati "New World Order" plot, Mayan culture, Native American folklore, channeled information, and more.

But by far the biggest culprit in the "scaring to death" of the world populace is the news media itself. I point to this Roger Ebert review on the movie "Elephant":

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. "Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that. "But what about 'Basketball Diaries'?" she asked. "Doesn't that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?" The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it's unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.

The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. "Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."

Even an end-of-the-world theory as ludicrous as that of Harold Camping's a few years ago got the "mega" media coverage treatment, with round-the-clock news coverage and front pages everywhere. Have you ever listened to Harold Camping's radio show? I have. How any major news organization can possibly feel his predictions were worthy of front-page status is beyond me. He sounds like a complete (albeit grandfatherly) loon.

But all these "Apocalypse" narratives keep the populace's energy in a fear-state, a pliable, nervous, continual vibration of helplessness and hunger. It keeps them from planning for the future, instead purchasing a whole lot of useless stuff. It keeps them from getting involved in their government and work towards societal change -- because what's the point, we all gonna die anyway? It keeps them attached to various gurus and leaders and "saviors," instead of believing in themselves. It keeps them buying guns. And, of course, it keeps them buying newspapers, tuning in, and glued to their computer browser.

"oh well in that case, I'm gonna need guns, lol whut"

Truth is: from a science standpoint, we've been long overdue for significant Earth Changes that would significantly impact the world as we know it (pole shift, Ice Age, solar flare, meteor strike, etc). The fact that they have not happened yet, I believe, is largely due to the massive power of the collective energy and intentions of the people of this planet. We "create" our world. We choose to live in fear and hate, or optimism and love. We choose to continue to work towards positive solutions and peace, or give up in a bit of despair and superstition.

Living in this state of perpetual fear of the sky crashing down on our heads -- it already robs us of precious life.

“...an optimistic mind-set finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable.” ― Robert Anton Wilson, "Cosmic Trigger"

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From Aurora To Sandy Hook: The Nightmare Is Real

On December 5th I wrote a post called "Requiem For The Doomed" in which I discussed two rather gruesome and disturbing news stories -- as well as larger issues involving our society and violence in the news and media. I also recounted a dream I had the night before of a disturbed young man and a scene of mass violence; this dream was prophetic.

On December 11, 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts shot up the Clackamas Town Center in Portland, Oregon; two of the shoppers he opened fired at died, and Roberts himself apparently expired by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

On December 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 26 people at a Connecticut elementary school, twenty of them children. Lanza also apparently committed suicide, as well as murdered his own mother at their home before the massacre.

Both Roberts and Lanza were dressed in military gear. in my dream, I assumed the disturbed young man was in the military.

In my original post I asked:

"What is the accumulated mental impact on the populace as the result of being exposed to such horrors?"

People talk a lot about gun control -- and I certainly support tighter restrictions on purchasing firearms. But how many of these same vocal gun-control advocates would support taking another look at the constant messages of violence in our contemporary pop-culture? And let's go a step beyond blood and gore, and put our focus instead on just plain disturbing, manipulative imagery and symbolism: in our entertainment, advertising, public events, etc.

I am by no means advocating censorship. But I am advocating educating the populace to Consume Content Consciously. To be aware when deep, primal symbolism is being used, whether it's in a movie or a sneaker ad. Because there's nothing wrong with you or I watching a violent film or playing a violent video game -- if we consciously consume that content.

But how much of the masses are just soaking it all in? For how many children is TV or video games the babysitter? How many parents are involved in their children's lives enough to keep tabs on what content they consume?

What is the cumulative impact of this constant stream of content "flashed" on children as they grow up? What is the impact on the more psychologically vulnerable of those children, ones who experience this content (entertainment/advertising/news) in a far more intense way -- the way Adam Lanza, who had emotional problems as well as autism, might have experienced it?

And what is the impact on the populace of news stories containing unimaginable horror such as that coming from Sandy Hook elementary school yesterday? What is the psychic toll?

I'll end this post with words from Marion Cotillard, star of "The Dark Knight Rises" -- a movie that, in some strange, elemental way, seemed to have "set off" a constant stream of mass shootings since this Summer:

"I’ve never felt good about guns. Especially when it’s out of control. Sadly, I guess, it's in America’s culture. And I believe it’s going to be hard to change that because some people can’t be secure without it. It’s creating at the same time this insecurity. It’s a vicious circle."

Read Also:
"It Was Like A Chris Nolan Scene": The Case Of The "Times Square Ninja"
The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning: From San Diego To Aurora
So. There's Apparently A James Holmes Fan Community.

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