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VIEWPOINT
Heros
and Villians
What is a Hero? What
is a Villain?
In
the movies and books any more it's hard to tell the difference. The
most violent and filled with hate is often the one we are supposed to
root for.
When
I was growing up, it was very clear who was whom.
Not
any more.
But
it's not movie heros that I am thinking about in this article. It's the
real-life heros and villains, many who are portrayed in our history
books. Well, that isn't exactly true either, it's in your
history books; the ones who are studying history now.
History
is being re-evaluated, rewritten, re-everything.
* * *
I
was just watching The Brave New World, by Aldous
Huxley, and 1984 by George Orwell. The first was
written in 1932, and the second in 1949. Of course neither have quite
come true, as yet. But the world is certainly headed in the direction
that they depict.
There
were three similarities that caught my attention. The first was
blatant, that is the government's discouraging, even outlawing, family
and the family unit that it entails. And the second was a breakdown of
community by the citizenry in general. One
book used drugs and artificial stimulation similar to video games of
today, and the other used poverty and a constant reality of war. And
the third is ritualistic behavior, that is, don't think -- just do and
believe what you are told.
Sound
familiar? I know what you're thinking. And you might very well say
that, but I couldn't possibly.
No,
what I was thinking about was Rome, Greece, Babylon, and the other
great nations of the past.
I
was thinking of Japan under Hirohito, Russia, and Germany. Can you
imagine Germany under Hitler without war? Without his SS? Allowing
freedom of expression? Family harmony? Children taught by their parents
and not by the State?
Such
are controls those governments used.
Another
method used was to say that there are many gods, or that there is no
God, or that the King is God, or a god. Now all
these methods are being utilized in one form or another, with an
addition, and that is that man came from bugs, and has become
gods.
It's
rather fascinating how writers have captured their future so
accurately, and human nature so realistically. The latter case I am
thinking of Animal Farm by Orwell, and Lord
of the Flies by William Golding.
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