The Great Realisation
- Thread starter MichaelM
- Start date
Hi Michael, can you share more about this video and what you got out of it?
Hi whitecoast.
Just wanted to share the video as it was a good bit of creative work (not mine) quite apt for this current time; the gist of the message was also good in that most things people used to be concerned about/be obsessed over/engage in in a routine have been interrupted and evaluated.
It gives a glimpse of what could happen after this shared global interruption of our daily life; finding out what is really important and when the world "goes back to normal", "normal" is not what life used to be before the "global pandemic".
Just wanted to share the video as it was a good bit of creative work (not mine) quite apt for this current time; the gist of the message was also good in that most things people used to be concerned about/be obsessed over/engage in in a routine have been interrupted and evaluated.
It gives a glimpse of what could happen after this shared global interruption of our daily life; finding out what is really important and when the world "goes back to normal", "normal" is not what life used to be before the "global pandemic".
Hi Michael. Thanks for posting. I find something not quite right about the narrative of this video and its 'maker' Tom Foolery. First off he came from nowhere with his you tube account and first video only starting 11th March 2020. That first post garnered 35,000 views and now rising to close to 4.5million with this just his 4th. Each of them is in some way COVID related but very much on the side of the PTB narrative although its all soaked in sugar. He is also going viral via social media with endorsements flooding in from celebrities:
So with 4 increasingly slick videos (with the latest having some pretty impressive professional production values) he's gone from nothing to a possibly the future cuddly face of the compliant lock down farce.
Suggested background:
When I watch the videos I get a nasty taste of propaganda in full swing - children, bed side stories, innocence, fairy stories, sweet inoffensive attractive young dad who loves kids (seemingly suggesting they are his but in actuality using his siblings) telling us all its going to be fine, just great, if we all stay at home at play and tell bedtime stories...
Video 3 was a full frontal attack on Trump aimed at children (or the child in every adults thinking mind). And this latest one that is really going viral takes the 'haven't we made the world better?' meme and ladles it on with a bulldozer with absolutely no context of the enormous suffering to countless millions that is happening now and coming down the track.
Something tells me he may be a PSYOP. Very willing to be wrong. Thats just what I read off it all. FWIW.
Thinking more on this matter, if my supposition is in the right area, I think this individual (Tom Foolery aka Tomos Roberts... if that is indeed his real name) may be worth following quite closely. For example the Greta Thunberg approach is looking a less feasible tactic in the new reality (i.e. overt bullying coercion - too obvious and too much for now post 2 months of COVID bullying) so a new mouthpiece emerging at this moment with the potential to build an agenda around 'the world is a better place thanks to COVID stopping all that useless economic activity... isn't it great kids! And of course let's not forget the manipulated mums and dads...' would make sense as a line to pass the baton too. Thunberg started small but with a TV documentary crew following her from day one. I note she recently paid €100,000 towards COVID relief (obviously from her pocket money!) but it smacked to me more of desperation on her part to grab at dwindling attention and perhaps hints at growing desperation from her camp as her star of use dwindles away. This new approach is still very small scale but in the same way appears to have significant resources behind his momentum in under a month... (see how he is already branded and presenting merchandise opportunities) so are we looking at the start of a reboot but from a different direction...?
I've trawled the internet and can't yet find a hint other than the above posts as to his background etc (something in my gut says he's possibly military intelligence though...) or who or what if anything is behind him. But it would be good if forum members kept their eyes out in the following weeks to see how if at all this 'narrative' of a self-empowered loving man who just wants the world to be happy and tell stories grows from this point.
I've trawled the internet and can't yet find a hint other than the above posts as to his background etc (something in my gut says he's possibly military intelligence though...) or who or what if anything is behind him. But it would be good if forum members kept their eyes out in the following weeks to see how if at all this 'narrative' of a self-empowered loving man who just wants the world to be happy and tell stories grows from this point.
Always helps to do your research properly!
Searched more on his given name and came up with better background. He's a professional filmmaker who has been increasingly busy over the past 18 months. Interesting that he is being presented as British but seems to be a New Zealander.
The Great Realisation': Why this British writer's pandemic poem caught the eye of Jake Gyllenhaal
His only feature to date as a producer looks to be the antithesis of the cuddly world he presents on you tube:
His LinkedIn profile (very small) states:
I take back the military Intel thought - doesn't look likely with all the above. But still something not quite adding up...
Searched more on his given name and came up with better background. He's a professional filmmaker who has been increasingly busy over the past 18 months. Interesting that he is being presented as British but seems to be a New Zealander.
The Great Realisation': Why this British writer's pandemic poem caught the eye of Jake Gyllenhaal
When Tomos Roberts, a spoken word poet from London, wrote The Great Realisation and posted it in video form on social media, he didn't think it would go viral.
Nor did he imagine American actor Jake Gyllenhaal would approach him to potentially turn the poem into a book.
The work, which reimagines our post-pandemic world, is written in the form of a bed-time story that is being read to a child. Filmed at home with his younger brother and sister, the video has been viewed more than 18 million times across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram since it was posted last week.
The response has been overwhelming for the 26-year-old poet and filmmaker.
"I think the reason why millions of people are prepared to watch a video on Facebook or on YouTube, and react to it and engage with it, is because people are searching for some idea of what they could ... not be happy about now, but look forward to in the future," Roberts tells The National.
"I was quite shocked and surprised when I had a message on Instagram from Jake Gyllenhaal, who wanted to help me turn it into a children's book, so we're discussing that at the moment."
Roberts, who posts online under the moniker Probably Tom Foolery, hopes that the poem could exist in many different languages.
A filmmaker by trade, Roberts's poetry has always been a hobby. He created his YouTube channel about two years ago, but only really started focusing on it about a month ago, when he went into self-isolation and his other film projects had to be put on hold.
"A few friends suggested: 'Why don't you bring the channel back to life?'," he says. "I wanted to use it as a way to express ideas I was having. I didn't have any expectation that so many people would react to it in this way."
The idea behind the poem was to stir up some hope amidst the chaos.
"I was trying to think of any good that I could even fictitiously create from this situation. It wasn't easy, but I tried to imagine that in the future, we looked at this as a dark moment where we made good decisions," he says.
"I truly believe that people really need something to be hopeful about, otherwise there's a strong probability that people will start to feel scared, anxious, lonely and depressed, and that's not a good place to be in if you want to overcome this bad situation."
Ironically, Roberts has just finished the script for a feature film called Blaggers, a story about a poet who becomes famous overnight.
"I think the world is showing me it has a sense of humour," he jokes. "I think I have a much better insight of what the character should be feeling now than I did two months ago."
While Roberts plans to continue posting poems on his channel, he hopes that this attention can also open doors for his film work as well. However, in the meantime, he will continue to write poems. His next Tom Foolery piece, called A Tale of Two Mindsets about the constant battle between optimism and pessimism, is expected to be out next.
Until then, it is likely that Roberts will maintain his solid sense of perspective. "It's not millions of people who are interested in me, but millions of people interested in the idea that even in an incredibly bad situation, if we work hard enough, we can try and find a way to use it for good," he says.
"My mum, my dad and my big sister all are working in the hospital, saving people's lives, and I am a poet who stays at home and thinks of rhyming couplets, records them and posts them online."
His only feature to date as a producer looks to be the antithesis of the cuddly world he presents on you tube:
His LinkedIn profile (very small) states:
I take back the military Intel thought - doesn't look likely with all the above. But still something not quite adding up...
