I realized recently that this bizarre entry into the Star Wars canon, (provided by Disney and J.J. Abrams) wasn't just a poor film, but a dangerous film.
I'm not going to go into the endless list of problems with this turkey; that you can find on any number of YouTube videos. (This one nailed many of the key points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mCQ5OLyc7g but there are several others).
What struck me recently while re-visiting my thoughts several months after its cinematic release, was that The Force Awakens (TFA) is an example of more than just inept screen writing.
TFA, I think, is another example of targeted cultural destruction.
J.J. Abrams similarly gutted the Star Trek mythology. -Turning the many accomplishments of a huge thought experiment, that of a highly successful socialist vision of humanity, replete with respect for other cultures and external consideration for everybody along the various pathways of learning, -J.J. took that, and through a lazy twist of script writing hackery, revisited the story universe's time-line, effectively un-doing decades of writing. He turned the Trek universe into a battle zone and the Federation into yet another expression of an expansionist, warlike Empire populated with narcissistic, violent characters, where on-screen, clever quips were preferred over reasoned thinking.
Where the pre-Abrams Star Trek strove for a healthy political ideal, Star Wars strove for spiritual awareness, (and in the next series of admittedly poorly realized installments, also a political awareness demonstrating how democratic systems can be undone by clever 9/11-like manipulations to give rise to a malevolent Empire).
Star Trek and Star Wars might be thought of as modern day mythology; popular common stories serving to bind a culture together with a foundation of ideas everybody could tap into in order to help keep their internal rudders collectively aimed at a non-ponorized expression of life.
Specifically, the Force, as depicted in the original Star Wars trilogy, became a beginner's rudimentary introduction to the world of spirit and the mysterious energies which drive life and bind the universe together. -If you sought to better understand the Force and awaken your awareness of energy and spirit, you would have to Work hard for that knowledge, face your inner demons and change internally as a person. -It took Luke three films to become a competent Jedi, and even at the height of his accomplishments, his road was fraught with difficulties.
By contrast, in TFA, the force had been reduced to a cartoon of itself, an adornment useful primarily as a weapon, something which you didn't have to work for; The main character, "Rey" became a master Force user without any instruction or effort. Like any other achievement in the Wishful Thinking version of reality, "the American Dream", you already deserve it and don't need to exert any effort in order to obtain it, and you certainly don't have to think too deeply about anything.
Beyond the corrupting of this aspect of spirituality..,
TFA was also a shameless attack on Yin and Yang, throwing the relationship of the male and female energies as far out of whack as could be reasonably gotten away with. In TFA, Women are AWESOME, ALWAYS! HEAR THEM ROAR! -While male examples and role models are featured as hapless cowards, whiny villains, and if you listen to some of the cultural rumblings out there, they should probably also be homosexual pilots (we are a forward-thinking society, after all).
All of which reminds me of a story Laura linked to, "The Plot Against Art":
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,14103.msg108309.html#msg108309
The thing which I also found stunning with TFA was the insanely positive reaction the public had. It was a staggering feat of social engineering!
-To the point where, unlike with nearly any other film I've witnessed, to have anything but positive things to say about it in social media at the time of its release risked rashes of troll attacks and "unfriendings". -It wasn't as bad as say, speaking objectively about gender issues or food and pharmaceuticals, but it definitely tapped into that vast pool of dangerous collective energy embodied lately by the muggle-stampede desire to punish anybody who doesn't go along with the reigning groupthink. But it was certainly there.
People LOVED this piece of nonsense. LOVED it!
J.J. Abrams and co-writers Lawrance Kasdan and Michael Arnd, with the marketing muscle of Disney's spin division, were able to touch dozens of emotional nerves like skilled acupuncturists to create euphoria with the film, and did so without providing anything but the most infantile story logic. This was a film all about Feeling. -Whereas Thinking was in strict absence.
I think it might even be safe to say that, as a rule of thumb, if you want to know which of your friends will be more easily manipulated into ponorization, (or whatever else the muggle-verse is being directed to think by Official Culture), and those who will more likely resist the programming, just look at who LOVED that movie and who did not.
I'm not going to go into the endless list of problems with this turkey; that you can find on any number of YouTube videos. (This one nailed many of the key points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mCQ5OLyc7g but there are several others).
What struck me recently while re-visiting my thoughts several months after its cinematic release, was that The Force Awakens (TFA) is an example of more than just inept screen writing.
TFA, I think, is another example of targeted cultural destruction.
J.J. Abrams similarly gutted the Star Trek mythology. -Turning the many accomplishments of a huge thought experiment, that of a highly successful socialist vision of humanity, replete with respect for other cultures and external consideration for everybody along the various pathways of learning, -J.J. took that, and through a lazy twist of script writing hackery, revisited the story universe's time-line, effectively un-doing decades of writing. He turned the Trek universe into a battle zone and the Federation into yet another expression of an expansionist, warlike Empire populated with narcissistic, violent characters, where on-screen, clever quips were preferred over reasoned thinking.
Where the pre-Abrams Star Trek strove for a healthy political ideal, Star Wars strove for spiritual awareness, (and in the next series of admittedly poorly realized installments, also a political awareness demonstrating how democratic systems can be undone by clever 9/11-like manipulations to give rise to a malevolent Empire).
Star Trek and Star Wars might be thought of as modern day mythology; popular common stories serving to bind a culture together with a foundation of ideas everybody could tap into in order to help keep their internal rudders collectively aimed at a non-ponorized expression of life.
Specifically, the Force, as depicted in the original Star Wars trilogy, became a beginner's rudimentary introduction to the world of spirit and the mysterious energies which drive life and bind the universe together. -If you sought to better understand the Force and awaken your awareness of energy and spirit, you would have to Work hard for that knowledge, face your inner demons and change internally as a person. -It took Luke three films to become a competent Jedi, and even at the height of his accomplishments, his road was fraught with difficulties.
By contrast, in TFA, the force had been reduced to a cartoon of itself, an adornment useful primarily as a weapon, something which you didn't have to work for; The main character, "Rey" became a master Force user without any instruction or effort. Like any other achievement in the Wishful Thinking version of reality, "the American Dream", you already deserve it and don't need to exert any effort in order to obtain it, and you certainly don't have to think too deeply about anything.
Beyond the corrupting of this aspect of spirituality..,
TFA was also a shameless attack on Yin and Yang, throwing the relationship of the male and female energies as far out of whack as could be reasonably gotten away with. In TFA, Women are AWESOME, ALWAYS! HEAR THEM ROAR! -While male examples and role models are featured as hapless cowards, whiny villains, and if you listen to some of the cultural rumblings out there, they should probably also be homosexual pilots (we are a forward-thinking society, after all).
All of which reminds me of a story Laura linked to, "The Plot Against Art":
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,14103.msg108309.html#msg108309
The thing which I also found stunning with TFA was the insanely positive reaction the public had. It was a staggering feat of social engineering!
-To the point where, unlike with nearly any other film I've witnessed, to have anything but positive things to say about it in social media at the time of its release risked rashes of troll attacks and "unfriendings". -It wasn't as bad as say, speaking objectively about gender issues or food and pharmaceuticals, but it definitely tapped into that vast pool of dangerous collective energy embodied lately by the muggle-stampede desire to punish anybody who doesn't go along with the reigning groupthink. But it was certainly there.
People LOVED this piece of nonsense. LOVED it!
J.J. Abrams and co-writers Lawrance Kasdan and Michael Arnd, with the marketing muscle of Disney's spin division, were able to touch dozens of emotional nerves like skilled acupuncturists to create euphoria with the film, and did so without providing anything but the most infantile story logic. This was a film all about Feeling. -Whereas Thinking was in strict absence.
I think it might even be safe to say that, as a rule of thumb, if you want to know which of your friends will be more easily manipulated into ponorization, (or whatever else the muggle-verse is being directed to think by Official Culture), and those who will more likely resist the programming, just look at who LOVED that movie and who did not.