Saturday, June 18, 2016

Feeling Good for a Reason After Oskar Schindler

No matter what level of complete shit you think has become of humanity, seeing Oskar Schindler has got to raise it.

Rising for the sake of goodness to face an irresistible force despite mortal risks shows the finest we can possibly be and few if any have ever done it better than Schindler.  The simple knowledge a single person can do this gives a good feeling but why not anyone.  Maybe it's Disneyland to think why not anyone but that doesn't answer the question.

In many ways, we see an ongoing Holocaust with the period in WWII being the worst it ever got but it didn't start there and has never really stopped.  The ongoing cultural savagery has such tribal malevolence since it's always ok to do whatever you like to the other tribe.  wtf, catch them and cut out their hearts with a stone axe; the Aztecs really got off on doing that.  Trying to stop genocide by perpetrating more of it is one of the most tragic and ludicrous paradoxes of our lives and that goes all the way back to wasting American Indians to stop them from (fill in generic excuse).


"Schindler's List" is a redeeming contrast from current events in which people are polarized, deliberately inflamed by media, so heavily against Muslims ignoring altogether how few are involved in criminal, much less violent, activity.  The ongoing rhetoric from Clinton and Trump about wasting ISIS shows the worst people can be so that got me running to Schindler.

In watching Schindler, particularly the last part, tears stream down my face and most likely you have seen it and know how that goes, no need for a play by play.  One thing I noticed a little more this time is the exceptional use of color as the little girl with the red coat I noticed previously but there were candles for a service from a rabbi toward the end.  That type of subtle emphasis intrigues me, particularly with the little girl since I'm not quite sure if she survived - I don't think she did - and what that color meant.


There was some satisfaction observed earlier from a conservative friend when he observed America is the world's super power after Putin acknowledged this as fact in some way.  There are two problems with that as you never want to upset the balance of the power but less obvious is being careful what you wish for.  The fundamental to power is absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Dispute the principle if you like but you will be hard-pressed to find an example of any time it did not.

If America is, in fact, the supreme power on the Earth, you have just realized every nightmare sci-fi vision of the future at once.  Was it your dream for the future to have American SWAT patrols acting out a hellish futuristic Wehrmacht in every city in the world.  It isn't nightmare sci-fi over here, they already do it.  They didn't even change the costumes from the sci-fi movies and the SWAT teams always wear black, kitted out for playing Starship Troopers.


We see so much hateful content flying everywhere in a massive online shitstorm which becomes overwhelming because people become herd beasts.  Schindler did not so he provides an ongoing inspiration and something else I noticed in the movie this time was there are more Jews surviving today as descendants from Schindler's List than remain in Poland today.  That's what happens from defying the herd and we see zero reasons for running with it.

It's not my purpose to cast the Establishment as NAZIs although the parallels become compelling as it approaches that level of state control, as always happens when any state becomes too powerful ... and just before the state collapses.  The ongoing killing is horrifying but the staggering indifference to refugees drowning in the Mediterranean is what gets me ready to start cutting myself.

WTF happens that such things don't matter.


We fervently believe there is only one Oskar Schindler on the field today and you already know who he is.  He never rolled over for anyone.

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