I know many people have no interest in watching the boob tube because 99% of the programming is either mindless drivel or government sanctioned propaganda. It’s the 1% that reflects the deeper themes and moods engulfing our society. Television shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead reflect the darkening mood of this intensifying Fourth Turning. I wrote one of my more pessimistic articles called Welcome to Terminus in April regarding the season four finale of the Walking Dead series. I essentially argued we are approaching the end of the line and the world is going to get real nasty.
In the six short months since I wrote that depressing article, we’ve seen men beheaded on Youtube videos by terrorists no one had ever heard of at the beginning of this year. Somehow a ragtag band of 30,000 Muslim terrorists, using American military equipment supplied to fight Assad in Syria and taken from the Iraqi Army when they turned tail and ran away, have been able to defeat 600,000 Iraqi and Kurd fighters with air support from the vaunted U.S. Air Force. Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan descend into never ending religious based warfare. We’ve even had passenger planes mysteriously disappear in Asia with no trace.
Crimea seceded from Ukraine and rejoined Russia, initiating a plan to punish Russia by the western powers. America supported and planned the overthrow of a democratically elected government in the Ukraine, with a predictable push back response by Russia, leading to a bloody civil war in the Eastern Ukraine. We’ve had a false flag shooting down of an airliner over the Ukraine by the Ukrainian government, blamed on Russia and Putin by Obama and his EU co-conspirators. The American corporate media mouthpieces have ignored the cover-up of missing controller transmissions, black box recordings, and physical evidence regarding the murder of hundreds of innocent people by western politicians. Israel and Hamas resumed their endless religious war in Gaza, with thousands of casualties and destruction.
UK fear mongering and financial threats barely averted the secession of Scotland from the UK. Cantalonia continues to push for a secession vote to leave Spain. Violent protests have broken out in Spain, Italy, France and even Sweden. Turmoil, protests and riots in Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico have been driven by anger at political corruption, high inflation, and general economic dysfunction. Saber rattling between China and Japan has increased and young people in Hong Kong have been protesting the lack of democratic elections being permitted by China. The world economy, undergoing central bank monetary stimulus withdraw, is headed back into recession as Germany, China and the U.S. join the rest of the world in economic decline. And now the Western Africa outbreak of ebola has gone worldwide, with predictions of an epidemic potentially causing worldwide economic chaos.
What’s happening in the real world makes the dystopian zombie world of Walking Dead seem almost quaint. The writers of this show brilliant use of symbolism and imagery captures the violent, chaotic, inhumane, darkening, brutal world we inhabit as the Fourth Turning crisis period we entered in 2008 deepens on a daily basis. There is a good reason why the first episode of their fifth season drew the biggest cable TV audience in history. The show is clearly tapping into the mood of the masses. Early in the latest episode you realize Terminus has become a processing center run by cannibals. The line between victim and criminal, killer and prey, good and evil, madness and sanity, and moral and immoral is blurred. Everything is relative in the post-pandemic world of the Walking Dead.
Seeing Wall Street cannibals walk away unscathed after devouring the worldwide economic system in 2008 with their fraudulent financial schemes, corrupt politicians enriched by throwing taxpayers under the bus, militarized police forces trampling the Fourth Amendment, the NSA spying on every American, a private central bank enriching their owners by funneling trillions into their bank vaults, a president trampling on the Constitution by issuing executive orders to bypass the other branches of government, and billions of welfare and tax fraud from the urban ghettos to the penthouse suites in NYC, has convinced a large swath of Americans that everything is relative and nothing matters in our warped dystopian world. Right and wrong no longer matter. Morality is an antiquated concept. Adhering to the Constitution is an outmoded notion. Our society celebrates and condones our dog eat dog economic paradigm. Or zombie eats anything world in the case of Walking Dead.
The Terminus complex is reminiscent of the concentration camp in Schindler’s List. It is complete with railroad cars to hold the prisoners, gates with barbed wire, armed guards, and extermination facilities to “process” the prisoners. Thick black smoke belches into the air. There is a room stacked full of booty, teddy bears, watches, clothes – everything except the gold fillings.The Nazi like precision and attention to detail is reflected in the almost business-like method in which the Terminus administrators go about gutting their prey. The bone chilling efficiency and antiseptic processing facility evoke memories of the holocaust gas chambers. The opening sequence when Rick, Daryl, Glenn and Bob are among a group of men lined up to be gutted like pigs over a trough in place to collect their spilled blood, might have been the most brutal scene ever put on non-premium cable TV.
The callous and dispassionate way in which the prisoners (cattle) are lined up in front of a stainless steel trough is disconcerting and bone chilling. The victims are hit with a baseball bat and then their throats are slit over the trough by men in protective suits. They have become nothing but cattle to be butchered and consumed by the Terminus cannibals. You see another part of the processing plant where human remains are hanging from hooks like sides of beef. Gareth, the leader of Terminus, supervises the operation like a CEO, berating the butchers for not meeting quotas and following standard operating procedures. Not much different than how our mega-corporations are run today.
The other fascinating similarity between the dystopian “nightmare of want” setting of Terminus and our modern day dystopian “empire of excess” is the use of false advertising and propaganda to lure “customers” into their web. Their version of billboard advertising was plywood with the hand written messages of “Sanctuary for All”, “Community for All”, and “Those Who Arrive Survive”. The Terminus cannibals would have fit in well on Madison Avenue with the highly paid spin artists, propagandists, and whores for the corporate oligarchs.
The signs along train tracks and radio transmissions from a call center like facility showed the calculated business-like efficiency of the cannibals in systematically and methodically luring victims to their slaughterhouse. It is the same techniques used by the apostles of Edward Bernays to consciously and intelligently manipulate the habits, opinions, tastes, ideas and actions of the masses, in order to control and influence their buying habits, voting decisions, and support of their rulers. The unseen men who constitute the “invisible government” use these techniques to keep the cattle docile, fed, and ignorant, as they are led to slaughter.
The government and lack thereof is always lurking in the murky background of how and why the United States has devolved into an infected world of the walking dead. This episode provided some clues about government labs producing viruses as weapons to be used against some unexplained enemy. The insinuation is that the government somehow lost control of the virus and the ensuing pandemic destroyed our modern world and left the survivors to battle the biters and each other for the remaining scraps. The Federal government caused the societal collapse and is nowhere to be found in rebuilding the nation.
It is unclear how the apocalypse went down, but you can assume it began with fear, which led to panic, chaos, economic collapse, violent upheaval, war, and total breakdown of governmental authority and control. It is ironic that today fear of a worldwide ebola pandemic is coinciding with an inevitable economic implosion, wars raging in the Middle East, violent protests raging around the globe, and trust in governmental authority plunging to all-time lows. The Walking Dead has wittingly or unwittingly captured the ambiance of our turbulent times.
When you are faced with desperate circumstances you can either do whatever you need to survive or you can submissively accept your fate and die. Gareth and his cannibalistic cohorts had been in the same situation as Rick and his posse, but they had somehow turned the tables on their captors. Gareth’s survival of the fittest creed was “either you’re the butcher or you’re the cattle”. Human beings react to intense pressure and life threatening situations in different ways. Some people snap and turn into monsters, like Gareth. Some people snap and lose their minds. Others, like Rick and Carol, summon an inner strength to do whatever it takes to survive while barely maintaining their humanity. Others turn into blind followers of a strong forceful leader, not questioning the morality, legality or humanity of what they are ordered to do. The line between right and wrong, necessary versus unnecessary, vengeance versus justice, and butcher versus cattle is blurred in a world without rules, government or accepted norms.
I believe the “butcher or cattle” analogy is sadly a valid meme for the world we currently inhabit. In the Walking Dead world, individuals must choose to be butcher or cattle. It’s a Darwinian world of kill or be killed. Like minded individuals with common values and goals form communities to protect themselves, provide for themselves, and attempt to bring a semblance of order in a chaotic world. The community of Westbury, led by the governor and the community of Terminus, led by Gareth, are founded upon a foundation of evil and ultimately destroyed. Rick’s community of liberty minded freedom fighters do whatever is necessary to survive, but retain their humanity, decency and desire to create a better world.
Our present day world may not be as brutish as the Walking Dead world, though the line between reality and fiction is often indistinguishable when you turn on the news, but the distinction between butchers and cattle is clear. The elected and non-elected rulers of the deep state are the butchers, sending young men off to die for oil companies and arms dealers, impoverishing the masses through inflation and their control of the currency, and enriching themselves through their complete control of the political, financial, judicial, and economic systems. This establishment, or invisible government as Bernays described, is committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation. Its scope, financial resources, and global reach put it in a predator class all by itself.
The common people are the cattle being led to slaughter. We are kept docile with incessant propaganda from the mainstream media; marketing messages to consume from Madison Avenue; filtered, adjusted, manipulated economic data fed to us by government agencies; an endless supply of iGadgets and other electronic distractions; government education designed to keep us ignorant; 24/7 reality TV on six hundred stations to keep us entertained; corporate toxic processed food to keep us obese and tame; and an endless supply of Wall Street supplied debt to keep us caged in our pens with no hope of escape. The butchers of the deep state have maintained control for decades, but we’re entering a new era.
Fourth Turnings result in the tables being turned on the butchers. Some cattle are awakening from their stupor. They can see the bloody writing on the slaughterhouse wall. Anyone who isn’t sensing a dramatic mood change in this country is either a mindless zombie or a functionary of the deep state. The financial shenanigans of the ruling class are again being revealed as nothing but a Ponzi scheme built on a foundation of debt and propped up by delusions and ignorance. When the house of cards collapses in the near future, the tables will turn. When people have nothing left to lose, they will lose it. The butchers will become the cattle. There will be no sanctuary for these evil men. Their reign of terror will be swept away in a whirlwind of retribution, death and destruction. It might even make the Walking Dead look like a walk in the park.
I don’t have a TV, so I’ve never seen Walking Dead. Never heard of it either. But if it predicts the sheeple will eventually wake up and turn on their evil rulers, it may be worth watching.
You didn’t mention how chicken lady and her little girls fit into the picture.
I haven’t had a TV plugged into ‘the system’ since the mid 1990’s – this was hard at first but I soon got over it and to this very day I do not miss it ! And I have not even owned a Television (actual device) since 2008 and I do not miss the TV unit either. And over the ensuing years I have become more acutely aware of what is REALLY going on in the environment around me. Lots of observations – ever more questions.
I do not use FACEBOOK, I am not addicted to my cell phone (use it for a few calls each week and I send out maybe 10 text messages per week to my daughter and my grand daughter) so I have lots of ‘free time’ to watch and observe all those around me while they drive themselves insane with their iGADGETS and stupid ass TV shows, sports channels and radio talk shows (Howard Stern anyone).
I cannot tell you how many times I see young children neglected as their parents are on the cell phone. Just a few days ago I saw a young mother (mid 20’s maybe) engaged with her cell phone as she was pushing her toddler on a outdoor swing – in my opinion the mom was not even the slightest bit ‘present’ in her young child’s life – what will this sort of ‘partially being there’ do to millions of little children in their formative years ?
Many men at work out here in the N.E. PA gas fracking industry are getting ever more tattoos and body piercings (especially the younger men) and are obsessed with internet porn and trying to ‘hook up’ online. Most all of the men that I speak with have no fucking clue as to the ‘Sword of Damocles” hanging over their heads.
Signs of “The Forth Turning” are everywhere all around us !
And ADMIN you are (were) so very timely with your “Welcome to Terminus” article. ABSOLUTELY UN FUCKING REAL all of the shit that has developed since you posted that article on TBP. Things are gaining momentum and spinning out of control ever faster and faster. I guess time frames get compressed in the internet age.
Now, I have to go find the “Welcome to Terminus” post.
I do not and have not ever watched the Walking Dead, though a friend assures me it really isn’t about Zombies, but about relationships. Okay… but why does cannibalism have to play a role in the relationship drama? Oh, yeah… shock and awe are integral to viewership and in a world where we’ve all become desensitized to normal threats of bodily harm and emotional pain, taking the plunge to post mortem lunch menu is the shortest route to engaging the prurient interest of the masses.
I’m sure there are some good stories involved… a series must have good plot to maintain viewership, but once upon a time, good stories could stand on their own, without implications of vulgarity.
And I’m not a prude. Ask Stucky.
I can’t really say I’m sensing a dramatic mood change but I don’t get out much. The thing I’m noticing lately, which I suppose is indicative of a mood change, is how the vacant, for sale/lease properties are starting to look noticeably run down. Seems like every parking lot has a few of those big for sale/lease signs made of half a sheet of plywood with upside down T-shaped legs. Most of them have sand bags on them to hold ’em down in the wind but the Sun has taken a toll on the plastic causing the sand to run out and the signs are blown over. They have been blown over all summer. Routine maintenance is no longer being done and properties with vandalism issues are being boarded up or fenced off. Sometimes both. Landscaping is dying because the sprinkler systems are shut off.
The company I work for leases five suites in a large horseshoe shaped industrial building. Four are adjoining and one is separate and used for storage. (We buy auction lots of equipment literally for prices less than scrap. $500k growth machines for $5000.00 plus shipping. That shows how hard the semiconductor industry has been hit. Check out Dovebid to see just how cheap equipment is.) Anywho, I started there in 2006 and we have had the same property management firm since long before that. There are three big PM firms in the area but the one maintaining our building basically just stopped doing anything for months. The building owners fired them and hired another and the place was whipped into shape pretty quick. If PM firms are going under that means property owners are cutting back to bare bones like keeping the places weather tight and paying taxes. I suspect more than a few insurance policies are not being paid as well. (If Clammy is reading, start your own small property maintenance company and undercut the competition. I’m sure it’s a dying industry but a go getter could still do quite well for now and it would require a pretty minimal investment.)
Apart from that, the sheople keep sheopling. I still get the impression they are oblivious. Restaurants are full. Bars are full. Theaters are full. Idiots are paying $15 a pop to ride an old school bus for 20 minutes and shoot 100 paintballs at “zombies” that come out of a corn field maze. One of the zombies even died for real when he tripped and accidentally used his head for a wheel chock under the bus tire as it bounced along in the dark.
Come on ebola!
Off topic for Stucky.
I read your Breaking Bad post. I just finished watching all 62 episodes of BB. It was actually one of the better TV shows I’ve seen which surprised me given the subject matter. I hate tweakers with a passion.
I hated just about all the characters especially Walt, Walt Jr., Jesse, Hank, Marie and Skylar. That being said I thought the actors playing Jesse and Walt Jr. were excellent. My favorites were Mike and the dude who would give you a new identity. I’m probably more like them than anyone in the show.
I didn’t expect to laugh as much as I did but their adventures in melting corpses in HF acid were great. I work with HF acid in my job and can vouch for it’s effects. Fring getting killed was awesome and I was glad to see Hank go as well. He was a prick!
I was never sold on Walt being a badass tough guy so that never worked for me. He was more of an extremely lucky, bumbling idiot! I thought the ending sucked. What the fuck was Jesse so happy about? He was still destined to be a miserable (and now broke) fuck having to live with his shitty life choices. I seriously doubt Walt could take a .50 cal round in the upper abdomen and be functioning the way he was. Meh……..I don’t regret the time I spent watching it which is more than I can say for most TV.
“And I’m not a prude. Ask Stucky. ” ——- Maggie
Yup. Mags is a PARTY ANIMAL!!
Actual picture of Maggie when she first wakes up.
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Such are the outcomes of Capitalism. C’est la vie.
No TV for the last decade for me, so I haven’t seen any of the latest greatest in Pop Culture Collapse Scenarios pitched across the Boob Tube.
The ongoing Real Thing is plenty entertainment for me.
RE
IndenturedServant
I hope you enjoyed the Breaking Bad post. I don’t want to hijack this thread (I know that’s not your intent) so this will be my only comment.
My views regarding drug legalization are well known. That being said, I found that I was annoying MYSELF for cheering on Walt and Jesse. They were fucking drug dealers for chrissakes!!! How many lives were destroyed by the product they produced? Well, that wasn’t the point of the show so I don’t want to go off on a tangent. Just sayin …. they were fucking drug dealers.
Leading up to the Final Episode, Walt giving up his $9 million dollar loot … for what … to save his fatfuk brother-in-law?? Highly implausible. They were never close to begin with … not to mention that it was quite odd that Walt suddenly developed a conscience.
The final episode seemed to me to be all about moralizing …. bad guys prosper only for a while, and then they get broke and dead. Of course, that does happen. But, so does the reverse. I would have preferred an ending with Walt and Jesse buying an island in the South Pacific, sipping Pina Coladas on the beach, and 40 pairs of bouncing titties in their face. And, oh yeah …. Skyler gets her head blown off.
I still consider it the best TV drama of all time.
I’ve only watched a couple episodes of Walking Dead. Just couldn’t get into it. The cannibalism thing was actually a turn-off. But, I watched some middle episodes and was “lost” …. maybe if I watch from the beginning it would be more enjoyable. But, that’s a LOT of time commitment.
Admin said —- “We are kept docile with incessant propaganda from the mainstream media”.
That’s profoundly true. Imagine an America without television. Wow.
But, the chances of that happening? ZERO. In fact, it will only continue to get far, far worse. In that sense, most Americans are truly brain dead zombies.
The front rolled in right before dark. You could feel the change in the air as the barometric pressure dropped and the cattle who had been standing in the upper paddock eating the last of the pumpkins abruptly hunkered down to chew cud. My son and I were in the shop of the big barn working on a project. The doors were rolled back so we could watch the sunset. He stood at the band saw while I worked at the bench and neither of us spoke much after the day we had put in. Being together working on something for fun was enough. Inside my wife and the younger children were preparing our supper and every once in a while they would come in to check on our progress, the new puppy following them like a shadow. We were assembling a scale model of a cabin that my son plans on building for himself. Everyone would call it a tiny house today, but he refers to it as his getaway. I understand that and in a way I am excited for him to start his own life wherever it takes him. If he remains on the farm the cabin is a good start for a young man, out on the edge of the property with his own entrance he can learn what it’s like to live alone out from under the shadow of his parents while still doing what he loves. If he feels the pull to go on to something else he will have an asset that can earn him an income rather than to hit adulthood indebted. He’s thinking farther out than most kids his age and that, coupled with the skill sets he has already developed will serve him rather than forcing him to serve others.
Every year around this time swarms of tourists come up for the weekend to view the changing of the seasons, up here they call them leaf peepers. The expensive sedans and SUV’s with out of state tags are filled with well dressed out of staters who come to see the phenomenon in all its glory. This area in particular is known as one of the premier regions for fall colors because of the variety of hardwoods and the numerous rises and falls of grade. The process of color change is as much about light as it is chemical. As the days shorten chlorophyll production drops off and the glucose stored in the leaves begins to turn towards the red end of the spectrum reflecting light in an entirely different way than during the Summer. The change begins to show in the weakest trees- the saplings and the dying and in the lowest spots where the water concentrations are highest, along the rivers and in the bottom land and swampy bogs. Certain species begin to go before others, first the ash and the soft maple, followed by the poplar and the birches. The sugar maples with their heavy tops take the longest, putting on a month long striptease where they slowly give off vibrant displays of dropping their cover from the top of the crown to the bottom as if consciously trying to get every last bit of color squeezed out one leaf at a time. After thsat the fruit trees and the nut bearing ones step up on stage like the flurry near the end of a fireworks display- bright yellows, glittering purples, scarlet and magenta, then nothing. The oaks finish last, usually with a duller display of orange and umber as the wastes are left trapped in their foliage.
This year has been a stunner. Seven weeks of solid color so bright it hurts to look at it. The colors that started in the lower folds of the hills has progressed up the hill like a spectral fog enveloping the slopes in riotous hues until it reached the crest of our ranges and then moved on. Depending on the time of day, the color of the sky, the quality of the air the combinations of orange leaves and azure sky or lavender sunsets against aureolin canopies provide art school demonstrations of complimentary color wheels that literally take your breath away. I can’t tell you how many times I stop in the midst of splitting wood or building fence just to stare at it, my jaw hanging open at the sheer beauty on display, drifts of falling leaves scuttling downward on each breeze, twisting as they fall against the backdrop of dark forest and exposed ledge. The livestock appear to watch as well, heads rising in unison as a gust of wind cuts loose from the distant peak of Little Bear mountain, shaking the trees like an incoming wave and setting loose a confetti storm of falling leaves.
Towards the end of the evening, after we’d eaten and the rest of the family was settling in for the night, my son called me outside one last time. He had set up a couple of lawn chairs in front of the barn facing the Mink hills in the distance. The cloud cover was so low and so dense that you couldn’t make out the rock maples in the front yard and there was a darkness that surrounded us so completely you could feel it. A soft drizzle was starting, more like a mist than a rain, but you knew what was coming behind it. We sat there, the two of us, worn and tired but still filled with an awe that felt electric. My son is taller than I am, stronger too, but when I look at him all I can see is a toddler with bare feet, a boy with his hands up to the elbows in a stream, a teenager in a football uniform making a tackle and springing up from the turf with a smile on his face. This Winter we will select and harvest the hemlocks for his cabin and drag them across the snow to the site where he’ll begin to build his life wherever it takes him. I hope that there will be many more nights where we’ll get to sit together in the dark and talk about books and weather, or spend evenings in the shop working together on other projects, but if not I will always have the ones we’ve shared.
At some point I learned that as much as we see of trees and forests above the ground that there is just as much that we do not see. Over fifty percent of the mass of a rock maple is found beneath the surface of the loam at its butt end. Here there is a hidden economy of roots and mycorrhizae. The functions are unseen at that level, but demonstrate their ceaseless work in the canopy above. A healthy forest is a thing of beauty, but it is the result of never ending functions and processes of a world that exists in the shadows beneath it. Our own societies and cultures are similar in that we are able to point to the lights and the rising cities as some kind of proof of our success and vigor as a people and a civilization, but that is certainly the result of the things we do not see- the thankless hours spent raising children to be thoughtful and honorable adults, the toil and labor of individuals doing tasks of drudgery and endless repetition in order to keep the lights on, the water flowing, the streets in good repair. I can see the decay around the edges, the disease manifested in the body politic, the soured tones of every discourse, the fouled and polluted exchanges both economic and social and understand that the failures are deep and manifest. We live in a forest that has already had it’s finest display of Autumn color and are entering a terminal phase. Winter is coming and you don’t need to be a farmer to see that.
The rain came heavy during the night and took down the last of the yellow leaves. The dawn was suffused with orange- the sky was filled with it and it leeched into every corner of the house awakening us in a surreal world that was more beautiful than the one we went to sleep in. Outside the two lawn chairs sit in front of the barn, empty, facing the distant hills and I can see us sitting out there in the dark together, my son and I, facing the darkness together, but only for an instant and then it is gone. Winter is coming and I think it will be a hard one, but who knows. The only thing I know for sure is that we have done everything we could to prepare for the future no matter how uncertain it may be and that will have to be enough. The roots are deep, the hard work has been done and no matter what comes next we can sleep at night knowing that life will go on as nature intends. In this, I am well pleased.
“Restaurants are full. Bars are full. Theaters are full.” ——— IndenturedServant
Indeed! And don’t forget America’s True Religion ……. sports.
Every fucking type of sporting event has full stadiums. 100,000 screaming fans at Michigan football. Pro football stadiums filling up to overflowing, even for shit teams. Soon college basketball will start … and over 300,000 maniacs will fill just Indiana’s Assembly Hall this season. NASCAR. Wrestling. Tennis. You name it. Even the most boring fucking game ever invented …. golf …. has huge throngs of people following whatever hero they worship.
Everything is just fuckin honkey-dorey. What, me worry? The Jets are on teeeveee!!
These people need to be kicked in the fuck. (I knew I’d get that in there today.)
But, those are just OUTWARD signs. We can’t see what’s in their brain … in their hearts. Ms Freud and I discuss this frequently. I ask her what percentage of her clients, both at home and at the hospital, are there because of economic/financial fears. Without hesitation she said “Way more than half.” People ARE worried. All that happy go-team-go horseshit is often just an act.
Everyone has their opinion and I’m no different so here it comes. There will never be a day of general uprising in this country. Pockets of resistance will always exist, but general uprisig, no. The people as a whole are just too far gone. Their minds just don’t work in the independent realm anymore. thanks
“There will never be a day of general uprising in this country. … The people as a whole are just too far gone. Their minds just don’t work in the independent realm anymore.” ——— pantsupdontloot
That’s a VERY reasonable assumption …….. IF, and only if, things stay relatively the same.
First time I’ve seen you here, so here is something many of us say, often; “Just wait until the Free Shit stops flowing!!” I’m talking about government payments, free loot, SNAP cards, free bennies, free cell phones …… free everything.
You think the Free Shit will flow forever? Trust me, it won’t. And then, the shit will truly hit the fan. You don’t have to trust me on that. You’ll have front row seats.
I have been waiting for the next season – thanks Admin for the heads up.
I stopped watching commercial TV years ago – but I do manage to watch shows like this (and BB, GOT etc.) through the ROKU box and generally while I’m on the elliptical.
The show does reflect a huge range of responses to chaos, crisis and emotional pain – on natural leaders and innate followers – how trust becomes the currency of the day to be desired and abused.
I had thought it odd that discussions among the various survivors concerning “what the hell happened” have been completely non-existent – not sure if that is an accurate reflection of how people would behave, as an INTJ I know I would be a bit curious.
pantsupdontloot says:
“Everyone has their opinion and I’m no different so here it comes. There will never be a day of general uprising in this country. Pockets of resistance will always exist, but general uprisig, no. The people as a whole are just too far gone. Their minds just don’t work in the independent realm anymore. thanks ”
I’m really wondering if gun owners will eventually come out en masse like we saw at the Bundy Ranch or whether they will hunker down and hold their own? In my travels I’ve had the opportunity to live among different people for years at a time and Americans have this strange propensity to take quite a bit of shit before they finally “lose it” and draw a line in the sand. Unfortunately they immediately cave when offered some small concession so it is going to be interesting to see. As Americans we have a front row seat to the coming freak show to beat all freak shows!
HSF, if you ever find the time to make a post about your new puppy, I’d love to read it. Our new pup will be a year old in a few weeks. If I had the time, I could write for days about how she enriches our life. The rest of the world means nothing when spending time with her. She can be so shy, gregarious, funny, ferocious and stupid all at the same time. Ours is a blast.
🙂
“Hands up, don’t shoot”
“Pant’s up, don’t loot”
How about:
“Word up, I SHOOT?!!!”
@hardscrabble farmer… you must know I admire your storytelling. The tone and cadence is marvelous. I may have to change my name to Indefatigable Maggie.
@Stucky… where DID you get that picture of me? And, sigh, I suppose I might add a few Breaking Bad episodes to our store of Andy Griffith, Outer Limits, Star Trek (original) and a few of our favorite riffed movies from years of watching mst3k.
I have heard good things about it from others, but your opinion may sway me to actually watch.
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The mighty pen of Quinn is never a disappointment. Thank you for all you do!! Endeavor to persevere my friend your work here is needed,valued, and appreciated.
I consider myself one of those in the 1% – that said, the writer of this article seems to know quite a bit about TV shows of which only one I had heard of – The walking dead.
If the really wants to address the 1 % about TV shows he needs to understand we really do not watch them, follow them or read about them – thus we don’t know anything about them.
Dave
I do understand that you need to learn how to write, so people can understand what the fuck you are saying.
It is better to let people think you are ignorant, than open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Dave … the SELF PROCLAIMED 1%er. HAHAHAHA!!! He probably convinced himself is one inch inchworm is a mighty python. Fuckin’ dweeb.
@ Hardscrabble
Your comment could stand alone as a topic post.
Whoever gave it a thumbs down is clearly a shit bag government drone stooge
Dan
That’s why I just made it a stand alone post.
“I do not and have not ever watched the Walking Dead, though a friend assures me it really isn’t about Zombies, but about relationships. Okay… but why does cannibalism have to play a role in the relationship drama? Oh, yeah… shock and awe are integral to viewership and in a world where we’ve all become desensitized to normal threats of bodily harm and emotional pain, taking the plunge to post mortem lunch menu is the shortest route to engaging the prurient interest of the masses.” — Mags
No, it’s not about shock and awe and pushing the boundaries of violence to keep the desensitized sheeple watching.
If you would have seen the show from the beginning, you would understand that the core of the group – Rick, Glenn, Daryl, Carol, etc, has been together from the start. At first, some were friends – BEST friends – and others hated each other’s guts. Now it’s completely flipped. Personally, I’ve enjoyed watching Glenn go from pizza delivery kid to a pretty good second in command to Rick. Carol went from a mousy, abused wife with an asshole husband to a stone killer who is so loyal that even though Rick banished her (with justification) she still came back voluntarily and saved their collective asses.
I’ve enjoyed watching Rick go from Dudley Do-Right – Sheriff of Jerkwater County, Georgia to a complete mental case when his wife died (but seriously, she needed to go anyways), and now he’s finally embraced his Inner Warrior… at the end of the last episode, the others are saying “Hey, we’re free. We should just get out of here.” And Rick turns and says completely straight faced “They don’t get to live” – meaning he’s gonna hunt those cannibal bastards down and smite the shit out of them with that big Colt’s revolver… THAT’S what I was waiting for…
The cannibalism thing – it is THE taboo of taboos. Western man has held a particular aversion to cannibalism for millennia. Almost anything else can be rationalized away – but not killing and eating your fellow man. Not really.
Even the survivors of the Donner Party – though hailed as heroes – were greeted by a horrified public. The greatest taboos always attract a morbid fascination as well as being repellant. In the case of the Donner Party, cannibalism was undertaken at the utmost end of need, and so reluctantly that some folks suffered breakdowns. In The Walking Dead, it is undertaken for entirely different reasons… and yeah, I was happy as hell when Carol set a half dozen Walkers loose on that crazy bitch Terminus Mary.
So, yeah… there’s lots of smashing zombies to pieces in many creative ways… and yeah, there’s some folks who are Too Stupid To Live – but do – and good folks you genuinely like – like Hershel – who get taken down… like life, it’s inverted and it sucks…
But there’s little you can do except embrace the suck and cowboy up…
Hey Jim, though I forgot to say it, your work inspires the hell out of me. That’s where a lot of my posts come from, as a reaction to what you write. I get enough of the bad stuff from the real world that trickles through up here to want to watch fictional humans being eaten alive, but I believe you when you write that these various shows are a reflection of the underlying mood of the country. When trees get sick up here the leaves develop cankers and spots- reminds me of tattoos and piercings on people- like they are some sort of outward manifestation of the inner illness. The girl who did the soliloquy for her chicken was a good example of a world so out of it’s natural order, so out of tune with it’s own health and vigor that the illness, the spiritual Ebola leaks out like infected fluids from every pore.
Great piece.
What a contrast between Admin’s post and HSF’s comment on fall colors in his neck of the woods.
I suspect that will become it’s own post as frequently happens, deservedly so.
Funny to read people’s comments on how Breaking Bad was flawed in their views, or at least should have had different ending(s).
Why does holier-than-thou Stucky berate sports fans? Everyone has a right to whatever passion or stress avoidance they choose in these trying times.
…so all this gloom and doom on a Friday? This is a rainy-day Monday mood post. But nonetheless excellent analogies to today’s situation, as only Admin can convey.
So WHY are all these decadent occurrences happening seemingly at once? Was Terrence McKenna’s TimeWave Zero just a few years premature? I suspect something more sinister: The Archonic influence has kicked into high gear. The Nag Hammadi texts warned us of this 2000 years ago. Perhaps I’ll try to put together a post on that.
@Billy… I defer to your judgement about TWD. I probably would like the storylines, but the cannibalism aspect really puts me off, so I doubt I will ever watch. However, I stand by my comment about those making television series’ need to include formerly taboo material to overcome the numbed minds of our youth, who have been exposed to more blood and gore in their games that some of our PTSD disabled vets.
@hardscrabble farmer… I name most of my chickens and some are like pets, crouching down under my outstretched hand and allowing me to pet them or lift them up. Then, before I slice open their artery and impale their brains in order to bleed them out humanely and with as little pain as possible, I thank them by name for providing us with eggs and/or with meat to add to our soup and stews.
“Israel and Hezbollah resumed their endless religious war in Gaza, with thousands of casualties and destruction.”
—-from the article
Hamas (Sunni), not Hezbollah (Shi’a). Hezbollah is based in southern Lebanon. Hamas is in Gaza.
They all look alike to me.
Mags,
I don’t have any heartburn with you saying that those who make television keep ramping up the violence/sex/debauchery in an effort to draw and keep viewers… they obviously do this, since writing intelligent shows – or even genuinely FUNNY shows – requires effort. And besides, most of the unibrow, mouth breathing types don’t watch things that are genuinely funny or intelligent. Most programming is written on a 6th grade level… plus, they’re probably pushing some social agenda. (Partial retraction: that information is dated since I first heard it back in the 80’s… no telling what it’s sunk to by now..)
I don’t hold it against you. Why would I? You find a certain aspect distasteful, so you choose not to watch something. Same reason why I don’t watch anything with homosexuals in it… or anything that inverts reality…. usually some multi-culti paradise where all the white males are window licking morons worthy of derision and all the minorities are glib, funny, successful über-intelligent professionals…
Those who make television mostly make shows that portray life as they wish it to be, not as it actually is.
@Administrator… chickens or Sunni/Shia? or all, inclusive?
Sunni/Shia Mama Mia
As with most herds you have those that are easily led to the slaughter. They form a line and without so much as a peep they accept their demise as part of the social order . But in that herd there is always the one who gets out of line, that disrupts the social order and refuses to accept their demise. Those are the ones that change the social order and lead revolutions . Our Forefathers we of this mold. Are there folks like this today…I’m not sure but I certainly hope so . When I think of the “Awaking ” of the folks here in the USA I often wonder will it be like Brad Davis’s character in “Midnight Express ” who realizes he isn’t a bad machine ?
“Hope. It is the ONLY thing as strong as fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is fine, as long as it’s contained.”
I had a feeling you would turn last Sunday’s episode into a commentary.
Walking Dead is not about zombies, it is about the “walking dead” which is US. The biggest threats are from the living, the dead have no morality issues, just survival. The dead will overwhelm you and eat you, its the living that could keep you alive and suffering forever.
EVERY person in that world is already infected (mass vaccines anyone?), it takes either more live virus transferred (like when the walker bites you) and overwhelming your system, or your system dying in another way.
I agree with Admin, it is like the Zeitgeist can see/feel what is coming our way.
The Strain was FX network’s version of TWD. The books were written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.
The comments on the Strain seem to run along the basic lines of “I don’t like I like it because it isn’t exactly the way I imagine vampires/zombies to be,” and my favorite, “the non-response from the government and corrupted government officials covering it up (thus allowing the foothold) is not believable.” Which is one of the things that endears me. Of course the government would cover it up and as such, help it along. We will never see a government official pop up on TV or the Internet saying, “you are screwed! Prepare! Save Yourselves!” until AFTER it is way too late.
Oh the sheep are going to be in for one helluva raping when this collapses.
Yep, either the cattle or the butcher. I’ve never been good at lowing in the meadows, so butcher it is.
At least that is my prayer and hope. Give me the strength to survive this and help my kids survive whatever is coming next. Amen.
Thanks again Admin. Outstanding read.
Billy, where did you find TV without queers in it?
Stuck, Maggie looks pretty hot in AM.
@ cliff,
I should rephrase that… not a show with fags in it, but shows that are about fags with their blatant faggotry being shoved at us. Yeah, I know fags exist, but I don’t want to see that shit…
Let’s take Big Bang Theory. Yeah, I know the guy who plays Sheldon is a fag in real life, but the show is so howlingly funny it more than overshadows that fact… plus, his real life faggotry isn’t held up as something to aspire to… so long as it’s not shoved at me, I can tolerate it…
Very interesting article. I believe people are starting to realize something is very wrong and evil is running amok. See links below:
.http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2014/10/the-victims-of-war-criminals-and-their.html
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2014/10/are-establishment-now-terrified-of.html
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2013/07/are-these-some-of-respectable-gangsters.html
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2014/06/the-scumbags-of-earth.html
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2014/01/the-war-business-its-victims-and-its.html
“The Nag Hammadi texts warned us of this 2000 years ago. Perhaps I’ll try to put together a post on that.” ——– Rise Up
Sure. The bizarreness of Revelation isn’t good enough for you … so, let’s bring in some Gnostic Gospels …. cuz, you know, the ramblings of some goat herder 2,000 years ago is so relevant to today. If you write a post — assuming you can put two coherent paragraphs in a row together — I suggest you title it, “Rise Up’s Pulp Fiction”.
Every time I see your name attached to a post I say to myself “I hope he finally says something intelligent.” And I am disappointed every time.
“Even the survivors of the Donner Party – though hailed as heroes – were greeted by a horrified public.” ———– Billy
They weren’t heroic to me. (Not trying to start an argument. This is just how I feel.) They were people without principles …. hypocrites, perhaps even without a shred of morality. I question the morality aspect because there are several instances of cannibalism in the Old Testament, and it is NEVER condemned. Actually, Da Lawd might even endorse it; —-
“The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.” —- Lamentations 4:10
To see the Da Lawd describing a woman who eats her own children as being “compassionate” is a shock to my senses. Then again, me and Da Lawd disagree on a lot of things. (That’s probably one reason that dickhead Rise Up calls me ‘holier than thou’.)
People that eat others, especially their friends or family, are monsters. What they are saying is that THEIR LIVES are so damn precious that they will resort to any means to extend it … fuck principles. Fucken pigs.
So, someone might say – “Stucky, don’t be so judgmental. You have no idea what you would have done in the same situation.” This is pure bullshit. This argument presumes every situation in life is relative, and that a person’s principles will be comprised under the right circumstances. Bullshit. I will NOT eat another human being …. and sure as holy fuck not my own children. I’ll take a bullet to the head, or jump off a cliff, or end it by whatever means necessary. I KNOW that … AHEAD of time. This life isn’t THAT important to me.
Why would that be such a surprise? People die for principles or “causes” all the time. “Renounce Jeebus!!”. “No!” “OK, Bang! You’re dead.” We call them martyrs.
And that’s where the hypocrisy comes into play. I know there were Catholics in the Donner Party. I’m guessing, because of the times, there were other Christians there also. Now, if Christians REALLY believed that upon death they would be in the bosom of Jesus, in Paradise, with eternal bliss and happiness …. then why in Hades wouldn’t they welcome that??? What the fuck are they holding on too? I say it’s because they really don’t believe that fairy-dust tale. And why would they commit murder? They didn’t just eat those who already died. They shot and killed Salvador and Luis, two Indians who helped them, to eat. Fuckin cowards and hypocrites.
Like I said, if cannibalism is a regular feature on The Walking Dead, I ain’t gonna watch it.
I have a scenario for you, Billy. You and Bar-r-r-rack Obama are stranded on Donner Pass. No help is coming. You are near death. Obama just died. Now, are you gonna eat that nigger to survive?? And if so, which part you gonna eat first? I gots to know.
“I have heard good things about it from others, but your opinion may sway me to actually watch.” —– Maggie
Well, that’s a nice thing to say. If you want to know what I really think, I did a post on it last year. Here;
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2013/10/18/if-you-like-skyler-white-youre-a-man-hating-femi-nazi-douchebag/
Where’s bb and juan??
Stucky says:
“Where’s bb and juan??”
Who gives a fuck?!!
Maybe they got stuck while playing leap frog.
Great article. The Zionists call the rest of us goyim or cattle – to be used and discarded
re: EITHER YOU’RE THE BUTCHER OR YOU’RE THE CATTLE
Would you be offended if I used this article on my web site http://www.deflationeconomy.com and http://www.one-world-government.org?
Delwyn
Feel free to repost anything from TBP.
GOD bless you Stucky , I just got back from a long job at a FEDEX TERMINAL They had us running all over the country the last couple weeks but it’s finally over.
I love the walking dead tv show. It and gold rush are two shows I watch now that breaking bad is over.
Admin ,another really good article . Maybe one day you’ll get some national tv coverage . Say Fox
I S ,why you being so hateful. I haven’t did or called you anything yet.
Delwyn Lounsbury
Admin is probably changing a flat tire somewhere in the 30 blocks of Squalor.
As a one of the founding members of TBP Big Dog Club I can tell you what Admin ALWAYS says to these requests; Go right ahead. Guaranteed, but feel free to wait for his go-ahead.
Your websites look nice. Good info. I liked the article “Jesus Was Libertarian not a Liberal”.
Stucky,
Hey… this goes to yesterday’s brötchen discussion/recipe…
Got an email from the missus over in Germany… she went and talked to the baker 3 doors down from her mom…
The baker says instead of using warm water/baking soda right before you put them in the oven, you should:
– Take 2 teaspoons of baking soda and dissolve in 1 1/4 cups milk.
– Heat up the milk and bring to a boil. Then take it of the Stove and add the baking Soda. Use a little brush and just brush the foam on to the Brötchen. THEN cut the crosses, etc..
This should turn them that wonderful dark brown…
Everything else is the same, except for this last step…
Enjoy.
“I have a scenario for you, Billy. You and Bar-r-r-rack Obama are stranded on Donner Pass. No help is coming. You are near death. Obama just died. Now, are you gonna eat that nigger to survive?? And if so, which part you gonna eat first? I gots to know.”
Stucky,
People have aversions to eating all sorts of things… I remember one guy down in JOTB. Despite not having eaten for days, he flat out refused to eat snake… or lizard…. or any other type of critter. Just flat out refused…
Folks will indeed starve to death rather than eat something (not necessarily human beings) they consider “not food”, whether it be icky or gross or wrong or whatever… they just can’t get past it, and so will die. My own particular aversion is bugs. I will NOT eat a bug. Yes, I know they have more protein than beef. Yes, they are easy to find. No, I won’t eat em… sorry. I’d rather die than eat bugs…
As far as your scenario?
There’s a saying, bro. When the enemy gives you two options, both equally distasteful, discard both and go with a 3rd option.
My option would be to take his dead ass, chop it up and use it as bait for several traps and deadfalls. Whatever comes to scavenge that dirty nigger is what I will eat… crows, bears, wolves, coyotes, any of the big cats, etc… at least he’d be useful for once in his miserable life…
Billy
The purpose of mixing active dry yeast in sugar (food for the fungus) and water … called “proofing” … is to ‘wake up’ the dormant yeast. It also lets you know whether or not you have a good batch (if it bubbles). Never heard of putting it in milk (I guess for color?). Nevertheless, I shall follow those instructions. Thank You.
I’m not THAT adverse to eating strange food; rattlesnake, gator meat, ostrich, buffalo, bear, guinea pig, and even dried insects like locusts. The only food I ever refused to eat in a restaurant setting was a sea urchin …. and that was because the fucker was ALIVE. Fuck that.
I like the bait idea. But all those critters would get about 100 yards from oreo-bait and they would realize “Man, that crazy Billy, he’s trying to bait us with SHIT!”, and they would scamper away.