Waiting for 'The Battle of the Five Armies' [2]

Eldorion wrote:but I find myself wondering what Jackson and Co.'s politics actually are.

I would say that seeing The Desolation of Smaug is the most important commentary on modern politics that is available to anybody on planet earth presently.  A student of politics, philosophy, and social organization could watch MSNBC, Fox News, Politically Incorrect on HBO and achieve a doctorate in psychology, history, and political science—read all the books by Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and Charles Krauthammer—listen to talk radio for the next 10 years, and there would not be a more accurate summation of the state of our world than in this Hobbit film.  The simple line of dialogue between two of the elf characters in the film upon deciding if they should fight on behalf of light or let the world fall to darkness was uttered by, “when did we let evil become stronger than us.”  That is what almost every human being is facing on the very day that you are reading this—what are the consequences of living our lives away from the light?  How does evil spread?  And what do we do about it when we are confronted with it?

There are a mere handful of films over Hollywood’s history that do what The Hobbit has done, films like It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music, and of course Star Wars, that so accurately captures the hopes and dreams of our society and paints a picture that is so clearly understood.   The Hobbit is a special film because it steps up and over the many evil forces that desired with drool running down its mouth to stop goodness from being shown to a mass audience for the inspiration toward good that would fill the minds of millions with hope.  The Hobbit provides genuine assurance without the distraction of obvious religion to separate the mind from the contents of a powerful story.  It is in this way that evil finds that it cannot advance easily upon the minds of man—when those minds can see it coming a mile away, The Hobbit teaches in story form what that evil looks like and how it works so it can be seen in reality.  That is why I love Gandalf so much, because he is able to assemble all the parts of the story to work toward an aim to thwart the work of evil, even when those evil doers are his own friends.  Gandalf knows enough to protect himself with a simple Hobbit while he goes on his crusade on behalf of the good.  And now audiences everywhere can do the same.  This is why I most identify with Gandalf, and somehow I think that Peter Jackson does too.  Jackson might tell the public that he is a simple Hobbit, so that he can make his films, but his mind is like that of Gandalf—a master manipulator on behalf of a good that nobody can yet see—but only the wise master of all things, a mediator between Heaven and Earth and crusader for everything that is good, and an enemy to all that is evil.

As some may be mystified when I make a lot to do about certain types of movies and I rate them exquisitely high, and then seemingly trail off into a different more contemporary direction for the next series of writings, there is a good reason for it.  My wife and I have a number of hobbies we share together, she does a lot of personal crafts–and reads a lot, I read, write, and practice bullwhips—but one thing that we share intensely is a study of evil and the various forms it takes in society.  We have intense discussions about parallel universes, and the numbers for infinity contemplating how evil manifests between dimensional planes and grabs lives into this little four-dimensional space we all share on earth.  We make a point to see how evil burrows its way between the lines of reality like the roots of weeds and finds its way around a sidewalk brick and goes around solid objects rather than through them.  I have often compared our waking world to a 24 frame per second movie—what we view we accept as our reality—however we are really witnessing 24 independent pictures per second which our mind paints together into a functioning comprehension.  What exists between frames 18 to 19 or 20 and 21 is a black empty bar separating the pictures from one another which our minds ignore so that we can accept the reality presented in the framed pictures.  Often evil lives and comes into our lives in those black spaces, it comes into our minds because we cannot behold two separate realities presented on the same metaphorical film strip at the same time—so we often accept the pleasant pictures of existence rather than try to understand what isn’t so pleasant.  It is in that understanding that my wife and I share an intense passion and also gives insight into a world that is acting upon us—but is otherwise invisible.

My often lengthy discussions about the importance of Star Wars in the future of our world is not rooted in escapism fandom or a simple love for fantasy fiction—but in the understanding of what eludes many about the power of mythology.  Many years ago I read what has been one of the most important books I have ever read titled The Hero With A Thousand Faces.  It is a book that is filled to the brim with truths hidden to civilization over thousands of years.  The book is the explosive result of Joseph Campbell’s foundation study of comparative mythology and religion.  Anyone who has come to know anything knows that all things about human culture begin with those two issues.  Politics, economics, art, science—virtually everything begins with religion and a culture’s mythology.  When an enemy of any people wish to destroy another culture they most effectively do it not with bombs and chemical weapons of mass death—they do it by destroying the culture of those people.  As I look around America, I see clearly that the culture of America is under attack, so I look toward mythology to make the repairs and that is when Star Wars comes into play for me.  The video below is about an hour and a half long and is well worth watching if it has not yet been seen.  It explains much about Star Wars and Joseph Campbell’s influence on the creation of that modern mythology and shows how important a simple story can be to the unification, and strength of a mature culture.

This is why Star Wars is so important and why the study of mythology is more important than even the study of physics, medicine, or mathematics.  Without a proper mythology a society degrades quickly into a formless blob.  This is also why Star Wars is about to hit a critical mass that will transform society in ways that nobody can yet see coming—except the very, very few who understand the work of Joseph Campbell and the first comprehensive study of 100,000 years of human evolution done in the history of mankind.  It all starts with the very great book, The Hero With A Thousand Faces published in 1949.

As for the people at the Joseph Campbell Foundation, I love those people.  They may have found my interpretations of Joseph Campbell destructive to their personal philosophies, but they’ll get over it once they learn for themselves the truth on their own blissful journeys through their individual lives.  The members as they were in the 90’s I’m sure are not the same as the people who run it now.  They are some of the closest people on earth to being enlightened individuals who actually are beginning to understand some of these difficult concepts, so I forgive a lot to those who actively try.  You can learn more about them at their website seen below:

I love those people. They may have found my interpretations of Joseph Campbell destructive to their personal philosophies

My wife and I have a number of hobbies we share together, she does a lot of personal crafts–and reads a lot, I read, write, and practice bullwhips—but one thing that we share intensely is a study of evil and the various forms it takes in society. We have intense discussions about parallel universes, and the numbers for infinity contemplating how evil manifests between dimensional planes and grabs lives into this little four-dimensional space we all share on earth. We make a point to see how evil burrows its way between the lines of reality like the roots of weeds and finds its way around a sidewalk brick and goes around solid objects rather than through them.

The Hobbit is a special film because it steps up and over the many evil forces that desired with drool running down its mouth to stop goodness from being shown to a mass audience for the inspiration toward good that would fill the minds of millions with hope.

Eldorion wrote:

bungobaggins wrote:I expected a neckbeard and fedora. I must go to bed disappointed.

To think with all the bull-whip stuff he would be obsessed with Indiana Jones. I guess not.

Eldorion wrote:That GIF deserves usage as a reaction/description GIF.

Mrs Figg wrote:gimme moar!