The headmaster deplored contemporary education, with its emphasis on the written word, which tended to atrophy a child’s sensual perception of nature and intuitive receptiveness to the still small voice of God, which is inspiration.

It was the poet Basho who wrote:

Listen! a frog
Jumping into the silence
Of an ancient pond

Yet the phenomenon of a frog jumping into a pond must have been seen by many others. Down through the ages and in the whole world, Watt and Newton cannot have been the only ones to notice the steam from a boiling kettle or observe an apple fall.

Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster. (pp. 79-81)

How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.
Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.

Hitler

According to Ben in “The Wave”, less than 10 percent of Germans at that time participated in the Nazi Party. It clearly shows that all the people’s consent is the least necessary to rule the world. For a privileged few, in addition, this is too bulky or too annoying to rule the world. Rather, what the minority power holder needs is an effort to inculcate the majority of people with respect and terror for the absolute power or to make them mentally or physically apathetic. The Wave describes how the power is seized and how it controls the people.

“You would have put on the uniforms, turned your heads, and allowed your friends and neighbors to be persecuted and destroyed. You say it could never happen again, but look how close you came. Threatening those who wouldn’t join you, preventing non-Wave members from sitting with you at football games. Fascism isn’t something those other people do of us. You ask how could the German people do nothing as millions of innocent human beings were murdered? How could they claim they weren’t involved? What causes people to deny their own histories?”

. . . “If history repeats itself, you will all want to deny what happened to you in The Wave. But if our experiment has been successful - and I think you can see that it has - you will have learned that we are all responsible for our own actions, and that you must always question what you do rather than blindly follow a leader, and that for the rest of our lives, you will never, ever allow a group’s will to usurp your individual rights.” (p. 135)

The Wave: The Classroom Experiment That Went Too Far
Todd Strasser

I have neither seen any trailer nor read any synopsis about the Kingdom. I just knew that it’s about the Middle East. From the start I was getting irritated at the director, actors and actress, and the film itself. Resentfully and unwittingly I said “What a Bitch” when Jennifer Garner gave a Muslim girl a candy. The anger finally soared at the last line of Jamie Foxx and a Muslim girl.

Fleury: I said we were going to kill them all [anti-American].
A Muslim Girl: [Abu Hamza said] Don’t worry. We’re going to kill them all [the oppressing or the haves].

I believe that each rationale for both of them is very different from the origin. But Peter Berg tried to dilute murder with justice or vice versa.

The Kingdom is a fake or a bullshit. Peter Berg doesn’t show any political belief or an ideology in his film. Even worse, he seems not to have intelligence at all. He’s eaten up with the American supremacy. Without doubt, therefore, he doesn’t have to insulate people to follow the American Imperialism, Pax Americana or whatever you want to call. He explicitly keeps shouting at us through this film how you dare to make any resistance against ABSOLUTE POWER of AMERICA. It is natural that he doesn’t allow Abu Hamza a second to have a chance to explain his excuses. What can you expect from Colonel Faris Al Ghazi who made a decision to become a policeman after watching the green beast, Hulk?

Faris: When we find this people [Abu Hamza], I did not care to ask them a question. I want to kill them.

It is so painful when Faris is depicted as an ignorant justice keeper. He may believe in the attitude of “Once an Evil, Always an Evil. It can’t have any excuses at all”. This is exactly what Peter Berg representing American Imperialism would like to tell us through the [American] Kingdom. Unfortunately, however, we know that America is not perfect but you are good in propaganda.

Our capital, which art in the West,
Amortized be thy investments.
Thy profits come.
Thy interest rates rise,
in Wall Street as they do in Europe.
Give us this day our daily turnover.
And extend to us our credits,
As we extend them to our debtors.
Lead us not into bankruptcy,
But deliver us from trade unions.
For thine is half the world, the power and riches,
for the last two hundred years.
Mammon. 

우리의 자본이시여,
서방 세계에서 이름을 거룩히 여김을 받으시오며,
투자가 임하옵시며,
유럽에서 그랬던 것처럼 월 스트리트에서도
이익을 내고 이윤을 증가시켜 주옵소서.
우리에게 일용할 자본의 회전을 주옵시고,
우리가 우리의 채권자들에게 신용을 베푸는 것처럼
우리의 신용을 늘리게 하옵소서.
우리를 파산하지 않도록 하옵시고,
노동조합의 위험에 들지 않게 하옵소서.
지난 200년 동안 이 세계의 절반은 권세 있는 자들과
부유한 자들의 것이었사옵니다.
아멘.

Excerpt from “1968: Marching In The Streets” (p. 60)

세상에서 가장 두려운 것은 우리를 은밀히 노예로 만드는 유혹이다. 이에 비하면, 폭력으로 통치하는 방법은 그다지 겁나지 않는다.

- 자발적 복종, Etienne de La Boetie

과거에는 3S (Screen, Sports, Sex) 라고 하여 정부가 주도적으로 국민의 귀와 눈과 입을 막기 위해서 국민들을 스포츠로 현혹하고 애국심을 강요했다. 국민을 집단적으로 조정하고, 정치로부터 멀리하게 하는데 이보다 더 좋은 방법이 있을까? 이제 정부가 일궈놓은 그 자리를 미디어와 국민들 스스로가 꿰어 차고 있다. 아주 자발적으로 말이다.

여느 때와는 달리 오늘 밤엔 거리에 차도 사람들도 없이 한산하다. 라디오에서마저 정규방송을 취소하고 연예인들을 대거 투입시켜 들을 권리마저 박탈시킨다. 두어시간의 말그대로 전국을 떠들썩하게 했던 특별 축구 중계를 마치고, 또 다시 월드컵 특별뉴스를 시작한다. 아마도 자신들이 무엇을 하는지도 모를 붉은 옷을 입은 어린 아이들과, 머리엔 뉴욕 양키즈 모자를 쓰고 붉은 티를 입은 청년과, 머리에 붉은 두건을 두른 중년의 아저씨, 모두 “대한민국”이라고 외친다. 때로는 인터뷰에서 “대한민국 국민으로 태어난게 자랑스럽다”라고 외친다. 그들을 “태극전사”라고 부른다. 그러나 태극전사는 없다. 그들이 외치는 꿈도 없다. 대한민국 국민은 고통스럽다. 이것이 현실이다.

나는 축구가 싫다. 축구에 미친 미디어도 대중적 광기도 싫다. 이러한 정기적인 집단적 최면행위는 스스로를 노예로 전락시킬 뿐이다.