So said The Stranglers in 1977.
It’s what the cultural Marxist left want according to Steve Bannon on Gettr, and it’s hard to disagree with him or the author of the article he references.
This is interesting because it would appear that the cultural Marxist woke left are intent on erasing the Hero in modern society and our consciousness of that archetype.
Leftists are also targeting the very foundations of heroic archetypes and mythologies by attacking heroic representations in our society. They are seeking to change the nature of heroism by hijacking cultural pillars and erasing beloved stories and characters in order to “reboot” them in the image of the leftist cult. This is usually done under the cover of “diversity and equity” as a means to obscure the true agenda. Let’s break down the tactics and motives behind this trend…
Leftists use the reflection argument all the time to justify the gutting of hero mythologies and replacing them with vapid clones. A recent example would be the latest Amazon release of their Lord Of The Rings prequel series. I wrote about this extensively months ago in my article ‘Amazon’s Woke Lord Of The Rings Is The Death Rattle Of Social Justice Content.’ To summarize, the new Lord of The Rings is designed to spread a political message and undermine the values of the past rather than tell a meaningful organic story that pays homage to Tolkien. Amazon even released their woke Lord of The Rings on the anniversary of Tolkien’s death.
I’ve watched two episodes of the Rings of Power so far and I’m reserving judgement on this. The hero seems pretty heroic so far to me. Yes, the elven Galadriel is female, but I don’t think that’s particularly woke any more. Yes, there’s a fair smattering of ‘diverse’ characters and the mysterious wandering Borodir, who is shaping up to be the male hero, is mixed race with blue eyes. But thus far, the myth of the hero appears to be essentially intact. I hope they don’t spoil it.
Our author thinks they will:
Specifically, I examined the political left’s obsession with injecting their own Cultural Marxism into every new entertainment product as a means to saturate the media space with their ideology. When they say they want to rehash old stories and old heroes but write them to “reflect the world of today,” what they are really doing is erasing past ideals and principles and eliminating choice. They don’t want you to see the world from different points of view; you are only allowed to see it from THEIR point of view. This is the exact opposite of good story telling.
Diversity As A Crutch And A Cudgel
Diversity is meaningless. It serves no purpose in terms of heroic representations. People identify with actions and deeds and principles, not skin color. Leftists in Hollywood do not actually care about diversity of skin color, they only care about two things – Using minorities as a crutch to justify poor storytelling and lazy productions, and using minorities as a cudgel or weapon when they face criticism.
A bigger threat to our heroes than ‘diversifying’ them is the attempt to completely change their character, from heroic to flawed, selfish, egotistical even downright villainous, whilst at the same time finding positive things to say about the actual villains.
No Conservative Heroes Allowed
As our media world was overrun with woke ideologues over the years the depictions of heroes and villains have become utterly twisted. Heroes act selfishly with ego and hubris, and villains are usually depicted as either misunderstood people that are only reacting to the trespasses of society, or they are ridiculous exaggerations of conservatives and liberty activists. This trend has become an epidemic in films, television, video games, comic books, etc. Only in the past couple of years has there been mass push-back against the agenda, but there is a long way to go before things can change for the better.
However, the Wokelings on the Left have a big problem if they think they are going to strip down the archetypal Hero and rebuild him/her in their narcissistic New World Order image. Why? Because the Hero is an archetype which emanates from the deepest layers of what Jung called our Collective Unconscious - and that includes all human beings of every race. What they are doing is attempting to meddle with and in fact neuter the outward expression of the Myth of the Hero in modern society. What they will do, if successful, is merely energise the inner expression of the Hero such that it finds a way to manifest in a more urgent and powerful manner. Methinks the idiotic Left are in for a harsh lesson in deep psychology.
Amazon has invested billions into their prequel Lord of the Rings project and it looks like it's being panned by viewers. Oh dear. I'm willing to give it a bit more time before passing judgement. I think the issue here is that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy set an impossibly high bar and nothing which followed would ever live up to the expectations of the millions of adoring fans which that series of films created. I enjoyed the films but was never one of those devoted fans, so I'm coming at this from a slightly different angle I guess. But it does look like Amazon may have screwed up big time. It appears they are trying to censor negative reviews.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/amazon-blocks-negative-reviews-its-woke-lord-rings-series