This May Be Hell, But There Is No Exit
We Are Like The Characters In A Classic "Twilight Zone" Episode, Not Knowing How We Became Trapped In A World We Don't Comprehend, And Have No Control Over
Rod Serling was one of the most incisive and brilliant writers and observers of the human folly of the 20th Century.
His perceptive take on contemporary society, particularly when it comes to the influence of the ego on human behavior, is represented in his brilliant television series: ”The Twilight Zone”.
Those tales of mystery, horror and wild imagination are legendary, and remain popular well into the 21st Century.
Perusing the events of this week, I thought, again and again, of one particular episode titled “Five Characters In Search Of An Exit”.
The story begins in the middle of a mysteriously dark, cavernous space, where five characters, an Army Major, a Ballerina, a Clown, a Bagpiper, and a Tramp, are imprisoned, and exposes their increasingly desperate attempts at trying to determine where they are, and why and how they got there. Their existence within this null zone makes no sense to them. You see each character trying to pursue the answers to their dilemma through a range of human emotions, from philosophical introspection to raw panic. Are they dream figures? Are they dead? Are they in limbo? Are they illusions? No answers are forthcoming.
Serling, as narrator, and detached, God-like figure above it all, looks on with amusement as he narrates:
“A collection of question marks. Five improbable entities stuck together in a pit of darkness. No logic, No reason, No explanation. Just a prolonged nightmare, in which fear, loneliness, and the unexplainable walk hand in hand toward the shadows. In a moment we’ll start collecting clues as to the what’s, the whys, and the wheres. We will not end the nightmare, we’ll only explain it, because this, is the Twilight Zone”.
At one point, the Major, an Alpha male, and aggressive realist, proclaims, loudly “We…ALL OF US…We are in Hell! God help ALL of us!
The Army major’s proclamation would certainly apply to the alarming state of world events this week. The average person seems to be groping around in a dark space, trying to figure out, like the characters in the episode, how to escape to a place of reason and light and relative sanity.
I have written here previously about a disturbing trend in the control of information, and, in some cases, outright censorship, of opinions that might call into question government and media narratives. This is apparently becoming more prevalent and wide-ranging: from individuals doing something as innocuous as sharing articles on Facebook, and having their entire account suspended, to the flat-out disappearance of online archives.
I wouldn’t have imagined the alleged free speech champions of the neoliberal left, however, subtly promoting censorship, under the guise of “stopping disinformation”.
Consider that former President Obama, in a speech given at Stanford University just over a week ago, cast doubt over ANY information gathered by ANY group or individual over the internet. Obama, after the light-hearted introductory banalities were dispensed with, warned of ominous things: that the window to the world is “blurred” with “unseen distortions”. Just like the five characters in the Twilight Zone episode referenced above, we are in darkness every time we open a browser, and we need a benign force of light and clarity, presumably approved by the right people, to tell us what reality is.
With a dramatic flourish, retreading a well-worn and overused theme of the neoliberal left, Obama claimed that disinformation was no less than a threat to Democracy itself. The ultimate source of ALL evil, (and presumably, the only source of bad information) Vladimir Putin, and his fellow henchman from the Trump Universe, Steve Bannon, were flooding the “public square” with metaphorical “raw sewage”. Citizens, Obama said, are so confused, that they no longer know what to believe. People are literally DYING because of misinformation.
I suppose, cynically, and without any sense of irony, that Obama wasn’t including the current Democratic Party as equal purveyors of misinformation. From ”unseen distortions” about the current conflict in Ukraine, to absolute refusal to deal with the consequences of a global pandemic, to daily distortions about the true state of the economy, the party that Obama represents can’t exactly claim to be beacons of truth and veracity themselves.
It could be a complete coincidence, but mere days after Obama delivered his dire warnings, the Department of Homeland Security announced the formation of a “Disinformation Governance Board” to combat “Misinformation”. The implication is that we now need the government to intercede on our behalf before we harm ourselves by consuming information, bad or good, and thinking for ourselves without “guidance”. I know little, if anything about Nina Jankowicz, the person that has been appointed to head the board. She has been touted by corporate media as a “disinformation expert” with the following credentials: “she has researched Russian misinformation tactics and online harassment, is the author of the book "How To Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict." She has also advised the Ukrainian government on strategic communications, according to the Wilson Center think-tank, where she served as a global fellow.”
The public outcry and Twitter ratios in response were unified in theme: The government had, intentionally or not, fulfilled George Orwell’s prophecy in his acclaimed classic novel 1984 of creating a “Ministry Of Truth”. Republicans rushed to denounce the board as overreach and “Un-American” as if their extremist policies and rhetoric are the antidote. Another example of how the debate in America has turned into a debate with strict parameters between the right and far-right.
As it currently stands, no one, even official spokespeople for the White House, can provide any relevant details as to the purpose of the board, with Jen Psaki quoted as saying: “I really haven’t dug into this exactly. I mean, we, of course, support this effort, but let me see if I can get more specifics.” So, a government board with vague purpose, but something along the lines of countering Russian narratives and disinfomation. Of course, the implication is that, now, any opinion, report, or written or recorded journal, can be oficially stamped as “Russian disinformation” if they stray from pre approved narratives. Who decides this, and what the methodology is remains a mystery. None of this can be good for free thought or speech.
One thing is for certain: a ramping up and intensification of the Ukrainian conflict. The rest of the narrative seems to be blurred, and not exclusively from the Russian version of events. What, exactly, is the state of the Ukrainian military? Are they making gains or losing ground? If you rely solely on the “independent media” of the West, and outlets like the Ukrainian version of Voice Of America, The Kyiv Independent, Russian defeat is imminent. Or not.
The city of Lviv, and Ukraine as a whole is, according to a statement by the Mayor of Lviv, neither safe nor unsafe, if that confusing translation makes any sense. The “trusted” BBC reports missile strikes in Lviv have killed 7 people and injured 11. Imagine the puzzlement of someone, then, seeing a tweet on 4/30/22 from the Kyiv Independent, showing people unhurried and relaxed, calmly strolling outside, perusing their phones with wireless internet in a modern clean cafe. This city, a “hub” where tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees are reported to be passing through to Poland, in presumable desperation, looks surprisingly casual and uncrowded. It is not how you would picture life during wartime. In fact, the actor Angelina Jolie was spotted in Lviv as I write this. What I’m saying is that even if Lviv is not currently under attack, why are celebrities hanging out in a war zone?
If you listen to media in the West, the situation is dire, the slaughter is unrelenting, and nothing short of billions of dollars in US and NATO weaponry, in an immediate and unceasing flow, can save “democratic” Ukraine and cripple Russia. In reality, as illustrated in this well-edited video put together to accompany an article written by the journalist Matt Taibbi, the real motivation is profit. Nothing is more illustrative of the deception being disseminated than seeing corporate media stenographers turning into the equivalent of used car salesmen for the Military-Industrial Complex. They parade an endless stream of “experts”, with zero pushback and leading questions. All of these experts parrot one singular unified message: send Ukraine WEAPONS, WEAPONS, and more WEAPONS, as many as possible, and as quickly as possible. Cost is not an issue, and any questioning or discussion of long-term consequences is verboten. We’re saving Democracy, please agree or get out of the way.
Of course, the Joe Biden of 20 years ago is similar to the Joe Biden of today in the sense of being adamantly, rabidly, pro-war. This video may have been long forgotten, but in the run-up to the Iraq War, Biden, in his typical, disrespectful interrogatory style, openly disrespected UN Weapons inspector and Marine officer Scott Ritter. Ritter is justifiably angry to this day.
We seem to be at a disturbing nexus where existential crises are converging. Anyone in the medical profession who hasn’t capitulated to government and corporate-sponsored messaging that we are victorious over COVID, and that public health can now be in the hands of the individual, know firsthand that dropping masking as a tool of mitigation is already a grave mistake. I was speaking to a friend, educated, a Cancer survivor in his 90s. I asked him how he would have responded to his oncologist advising him to declare victory over cancer and live his best life. He laughed out loud at the absurdity. Yet, this is the pablum we get from medical professionals in the media. Omicron is mild. Case tracking is irrelevant. Case numbers don’t matter, only hospitalizations do. Long Covid is disturbing, but we don't have any solid data on its prevalence. I wonder if President Obama has any thoughts on COVID misinformation from the government and media?
Did you know that the bird flu has jumped to humans?
As the media have done with the majority of alarming mutations of COVID, they reassure us that a kindly 79-year-old lonely pensioner in the UK tested positive, but everything is fine.
Except, it isn’t.
Journalist Ed Yong has recently documented the effects of the lack of global response to Climate Change. The decimation of wild habitats because of urban sprawl has the effect of forcing wild mammals to migrate elsewhere. In doing so these mammals interact with new species (including human beings) picking up and spreading new viruses which spill over and lodge themselves in new hosts. All due to global warming. As if the coronavirus itself wasn’t enough to deal with.
A spoiler alert: The five characters do make it out of their mysterious trap. The horror they encounter is that they have no control over their environment, their life, or their destiny. They are, in fact, toys, their cave is a bucket they are stored in, and they are ruled over by the whims of children, who are in fact their gods.
We need to read, think and reason for OURSELVES to break the spell of war, poverty, and disease as the only choices for the future. Question everything, but never be afraid to face the truth, even if it’s unpleasant. We can make Heaven or Hell for ourselves from here on out.