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| Captain America: The Winter Soldier |
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is by far the best Marvel superhero movie produced to
date. Yes, I have seen Iron Man and The Avengers, and the fact that I have does
not change my opinion. There are many reasons to love the new Captain America
movie, ranging from the excellent action scenes, the stellar cast (DC can learn
from Marvel on casting choices), the stylistic tone, and the overall production
value. However, the thing that I enjoyed most about this film was the perfect
blend of post-modern 9/11 national security concerns with post-WW2 geopolitics and conspiracy. I would like to
discuss some of these issues as presented in the film and as compared to its real-life
counterpart. For these
reasons, I believe Captain America: The Winter Soldier has much more to say
about our current state of affairs than any other movie out there right now, as
ridiculous as that might sound . . .
it’s going to get even more so after you read this.
In discussing the convergence of ideology and forms of mass
communication and production the noted propaganda expert and author Edward
Bernays stated:
“This is an age of mass production. In the mass production
of materials a broad technique has been developed and applied for their
distribution. In this age, too, there must be a technique for the mass
distribution of ideas.” Manipulating Public Opinion,” American Journal of
Sociology 33 (May, 1928), p. 958-971.
In his seminal work, entitled “Propaganda” Bernays made a
series of arguments about the use of what might be termed “propaganda” by those
who have the ability to mass produce, or provide mass produced information to
the general populace. Bernays regarded this methodology as an old technique
used throughout time to shape opinion and give context and form to time and
space. Essentially, without information and its propagation, he explained,
there would be nothing for man to be concerned about because nothing would be
of concern. In establishing the field of
public relations he stated that its “three main elements,” were: informing
people; persuading people; and/or integrating people with people through the
use of persuasive information. Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923).
If Bernays were still alive he likely would have seen the
fulfillment of his thesis and the evidence of its effectiveness in the yearly
Hollywood Blockbuster season. The first movie out of that gate is Captain
America and it is certainly not short on themes, messages, symbolism, and
metaphorical application today.
HYDRA and the
Bavarian Illuminati
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| The Ultmate Secret Combination |
The story revolves around nearly a century year old
conspiracy by the Marvel Comic Universe’s ultimate secret combination, HYDRA.
In the Marvel comic universe HYRDA is a criminal organization dedicated to the
establishment of a fascistic world government in the veins of the Bavarian
Illuminati’s New World Order. HYDRA attempts to achieve the overthrow of
governments, institutions, and all order through the
destruction and disintegration of normative values and institutions through the
chaos of terrorism, espionage, and the implementation of subversive
propaganda. HYRDA was formed by Baron
von Strucker a comic book villain who has striking similarities to the arguably
most famous benefactor of the Bavarian Illuminati and all of its subsequent
conspiracy organization offshoots. The Wikipedia entry for Baron von Strucker
states:
“Born in the late 19th
century to a Prussian noble family who had relocated to Strucker Castle in Bavaria
following the Franco-Prussian War, Wolfgang von Strucker . . . fought for
Germany during World War I . . . joined the Nazi Party, becoming infamous in
the following years. In 1963 he and Geist, one of Hitler’s top men, allied
themselves with the Egyptian mentalist Amahl Farouk (secretly the Shadow King)
in an attempt to dispute the lineage of England’s royal family and install a
new king who would be sympathetic to the Nazis.”
Wikipedia, Baron von Strucker.
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| Baron von Strucker |
In the first Captain America movie we get a sense of the
founding of HYDRA under the movie’s primary antagonist, the Red Skull. In the
first the movie the Red Skull is seen as the fanatical leader of HYDRA with his
ultimate goal of world domination on a scale and through a power reserved to
the fantastical. Through the manipulation of the “tesseract” Red Skull ushered
in the age of energy weapons just prior to the development of atomic and
nuclear based weaponry. Interestingly enough the symbolic threads that underlie
and interweave with the mystical premises of the existence of such supernatural
power as derived from the “cosmic cube" or
the “tesseract” also formed the basis of Adolph Hitler’s belief in the occult.
It is fairly common knowledge now that Hitler was thoroughly engaged in occult
beliefs, rituals, and some speculate that his vision, abilities, protection,
and persuasiveness throughout his life
was due to his beliefs and their potential for practical reality. Regardless of the reality of such a power and
its derivations, it is well documented that the many of the top Nazi officials
held and practiced occult beliefs and conducted rituals in connection with
their political ideology to varying degrees.
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| Nazi Occultic Symbolism |
Whatever the case, the Captain America movies recognize the
idea that often what may be considered “supernatural” is simply a form of
advanced technology that humans are currently unable to fully understand. This is demonstrated by a response to a Nazi
officer questioning his goal to “end this war through magic,” to which the Red
Skull replies, “[s]cience. But I understand your confusion. Great power has
always baffled primitive men.” Heinrich Himmler believed that through his
machinations with the SS, he could breed a pure Aryan bloodline which had the
power of the gods of Atlantis, the rhetoric, runes, and rituals he used for
that purpose is very well documented.
The underlying premises shouldn't sound so far fetched given this reality and
the very real prospect of success such a worldview nearly entailed.
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| The Cosmic Cube Representing the Power of the Gods |
The New World Order
as defined by one analyst recognizes the historical ideology that underlies the
enlightenment era flourishing of scientism and its correlating ushering in of a
secular new age for all mankind. In describing this New World Order he states:
“The New World Order is a global
crime syndicate of elite bankers, CEOs, politicians, academics, media moguls,
military executives and religious heads, that operate on the one hand in the
public purview promoting a stated policy, while simultaneously working
underhandedly in clandestine societies to set an alternate world policy. . .
[t]here are different degrees of initiates and levels of knowledge, but the
central ideology of the NOW is Fabian socialist technocracy and eugenics.”
Jays Analysis, What is the New
World Order and Why does it Matter?
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| Novus Ordo Seclorum |
While I don’t have the time or space to go through the many
levels of connections needed to make such a bold claim, suffice it say that
many writers have supported these types of overarching secret combination
claims through money trails, political connections, ad hoc analysis of monetary
policy, development of governments, declassified military and black op
documents, inside leaks, and political and cosmological philosophical convergence of elite individuals. All of these
types of evidence are fairly conclusive in suggesting, despite the way popular media has suggested, that
conspiracies do take place, and that influential and powerful individuals with
the means necessary for fraternal, governmental, and institutional conspiracy are available and attractive. Regardless
of whether one believes in that possibility, this is the story that is given to
us in Captain America.
The Bavarian Illuminati in contrast was said to have been
formed in 1776 by an ex-Jesuit named Adam Weishaupt in Bavaria. His primary
reason for the establishment of the Illuminati, which essentially means “the
enlightened,” was to organize a group of like-minded rationalists to move the
world to a one world socialistic order where religion would be abolished and a new “science” would take its place
as the reigning worldview. This period of time was known as the enlightenment and represented a socio-cultural
revolution that sought to remake the social order, which had since been based
on either legalistic notions of Judaic revelation, or other theistic
/authoritarian principles. This new
view placed its emphasis on the origins of humans based on evolutionary theory
and its related scientific assumptions regarding the nature of truth and
natural law. The shift saw the removal of a world governed by God through his
earthly hierarchy and those with the divine right to kingship, but instead
based on man’s ability to dominate and control the natural world through the
use of reason and technological know-how. It was believed that man would
achieve encyclopedic knowledge through the lens of his observations and
quantification methodologies such that he would be able to achieve total
understanding of the universe and become god in his own right and by his own
power.
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| The Titan Prometheus Stealing Fire from the Gods |
One can see the influence of Greek philosophy (particularly Prometheus) in this worldview both as
a result of the skepticism with which much of that worldview begins with by
assumption and based on its observation of the natural world. However, it can
be argued that this scientific worldview, given its reliance on unsupported
first premises must also yield to the limitations of mans limited reasoning
ability and the imperfections of his observations, must also fall short of such
a universal goal and understanding. In that regard it could be argued that science
and all its assured certainties is the new mythology, the all-encompassing
narrative (akin to the creation account in Genesis) which could explain all in
god like fashion. The very pillars of this mythology, Galileo, Newton, and
Bacon, have also been said to be practitioners of a form of occult beliefs
known as hermeticism which relies on manipulation of nature through alchemy,
astrology, and theurgy. The last of
which, means the conducting of rituals to invoke the power and presence of Gods
for a desired outcome, essentially theurgy is classified as “magic.” The modern
student of scientific inquiry has been led to believe, based on numerous assumptions that
rationalism has always been disconnected from any supernatural influences, but
such an empirical worldview is rather new in terms of the development of its
own conclusions. Many would be shocked to see that Bacon, Newton, Galileo,
Freud, Marx, and others practiced such beliefs while maintaining secular
outward appearances. This was the age of
the birth of the new world, out of it came the reformation under Luther, in
which religion (specifically Christianity) was freed from its authoritarian
catholic roots such that sectarian religions could form and reinterpret the
word and craft it to their liking, needs, or purposes. Also, the American and
French Revolutions. Particularly, the French revolution leaders were documented
members of illuminati orders that sought to overthrow the established social
orders. In the American Revolution, George Washington was aware of the
illuminati’s influence in world politics and its infiltration in the United
States. Of that conspiracy he stated:
"It is not my intention to doubt
that the doctrine of the Illuminati and the principles of Jacobinism had not
spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more satisfied of this
fact than I am. The idea that I meant to convey, was that I did not believe
that the Lodges of Free Masons in this Country has, as Societies, endeavored to
propagate the diabolical tenants of the first, or pernicious principles of the
latter (if they are susceptible of separation). That individuals of them may
have done it, or that the founder, or instrument employed to found, the
Democratic Societies in the United States, may have had these objects; and
actually had a separation of the People from their Government in view, is too
evident to be questioned."
George Washington, Letter to George
Washington Snyder, October 24, 1798, Mount Vernon, in The Writings of George
Washington, vol. 20, p. 518.
Not only is it alleged that the Illuminists influenced many
other revolutions taking place around the world throughout the two centuries in
furtherance of the NWO but
that they had achieved near complete control through the establishment of the
worlds monetary, credit, and lending institutions. In his seminal book, “None Dare Call it a
Conspiracy,” Gary Allen makes a persuasive, if not undeniable argument that the Bolshevik Revolution
was influenced by Illuminist principles,
backed by illuminist money, and led by illuminist members, including Vladimir
Lenin himself. While most would see a conflict between Communist regimes and
the supposedly democratic free regimes of the West, many analysts including
Allen, Joel Skousen, and KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn (to name only a few)
see the revolutionary aspects of these political movements as different sides
of the same fascistic coin. Further, that
coin is imprinted with one man’s legacy, that of the Baron Nathan
Rothschild.
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| Baron Nathan de Rothschild (b |
Baron von Rothschild
. . . err Strucker and SHIELD as the OSS/CIA
The Rothschild family is one of the elite familial
bloodlines mentioned above that appears through its many associates and
relatives in all of the major anglo-american-british political and economic
power positions of the last two centuries. The Rothschild family is known as
one of the wealthiest families in history and the fortune was made through the
lending of money to nations for financing their wars and then establishing a
central bank in that
country for lending of fiat money. This means that the nations where these
private banks were established were backed by private fortunes, and bankers
would charge the governments interest on the money that was printed as reserve
currency notes. This would be in contrast to trading of currency with intrinsic
value, like gold or silver. The expansion of these banks under the control of a
few well connected families, including the Rothschilds, the Astors, the
Morgans, and the Rockefellers, (among others of intermarried and political
connection) would see the establishment of a world reserve currency in the
United States dollar and the regional monetary currency in Euro of the European
Union. In 1913 the U.S. economy was placed in the hands of these bankers, founded in the City of London, through
the passage of the Federal Reserve Act (For an excellent treatment of this
process check out The Creature of Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin). Also,
arising from the same network of individuals and institutions was the Round
Table Group, which saw many of these individuals in global positions of
influence, actually meet together for the furtherance of world geopolitics. Out
of these groups emerged other political think tanks and organizations like the
Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the British Round
table. These groups were largely responsible for the creations of the
intelligence networks of the western government establishments including MI6,
the OSS, which was the precursor to the CIA as touched on below.
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| Carrying the torch of the Illumanity through Global Political Control? |
There are
plenty of books on the subject of the establishment of the CIA as well as
movies that document the secretive and elite nature of the founding of the
intelligence branches of the American government. From an entertainment
perspective the movie The Good Shepard starring Matt Damon offers a reveal as
to the governmental forces underlying the establishment of the OSS and later
the CIA. In that movie Matt is pursued as an initiate
into the founding of the organization and is introduced to the elite Skull and
Bones society of Harvard, of which all the founding members of the OSS belong.
This brings me back to Captain America.
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| CIA Previously OSS |
After the seeming defeat of the Red Skull at the hands of
Captain America, we learn that HYDRA wasn’t actually destroyed but its
ideological and practical core was transplanted to the United States of America
through “Operation Paperclip.” The thing that is very interesting about this
movie is how well all the conspiracy theory threads that underlie the origins
of actual intelligence apparatus of the
United States government are represented. To those who aren’t familiar with
Operation Paperclip, it might seem like a random name thrown into the script
for the purpose of telling a fictional comic book story, but Operation
Paperclip was an actual secret operation undertaken by the U.S. government to
recruit German Nazi scientists to work for the U.S following WW2.
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| "HYDRA" came to work for the U.S. government |
All of the scientists had their previous
support of the Nazi regime
overlooked, were issued new backgrounds, and were granted security
clearances by the U.S. government to work on a number of research and
development projects. Many of these programs dealt with missile based weapons
development, but there were others that dealt with all sorts of experimental
procedures including torture, brainwashing, and mind control. More on this
later. However, prior to WW2 the U.S.
didn’t have a dedicated intelligence agency or network like we do now, the very
thing that this movie elaborates on as regarding the formation of the
intelligence apparatus known as SHIELD. Prior to WW2 all of the espionage and
intelligence gathering activities were compartmentalized in the separate
military branches. It was during WW2
that the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was established and which later
became the Central Intelligence Agency. There are a lot of interesting details
regarding the founders of the OSS and their various political connections with
other founding members and further their connection to alleged elite bloodlines
stemming from the founders of the Bavarian Illuminati as I’ve somewhat detailed
above. But like before there is so much information and seeming coincidence
there, that I am unable to get to in just this one post, but suffice it to say
that many of the prominent individuals and families responsible for the
establishment of the OSS and later the CIA all belong to a very small network
of associated individuals and institutions which
ultimately converge in the Anglo-American- banking establishment (for a detailed account of this establishment and its relationship to the NWO read Caroll Quigleys seminal work, "Tragedy and Hope").
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| Anglo-American Financial-Intelligence-Military-Industrial Complex |
In Captain America, HYDRA can be seen as the corollary to
the Bavarian Illuminati and its various permutations and institutions in the
modern age, ending with the “skynet” type program known as “Project Insight” as
instituted by the World Security Council and in particular Robert Redford’s
character Secretary Alexander Pierce. In the movie is asserted that HYDRA
through Doctor Armin Zola (from the first movie) was recruited under Operation
Paperclip for the specific purpose of creating a system whereby mankind would
give up its freedom for security in the form of a military-intelligence-industrial
complex.
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| Nazi-Occult Experimentation |
Remember, that HYDRAs original plan was world domination, and its
first attempt was to achieve that by force. Ultimately, thanks to Captain
American it failed, but he learns that through Dr. Zola and other HYDRA agents
recruited through paperclip, the plan was changed and adapted for the same long
term objective, but to be achieved through more clandestine means. This narrative parallels very well with what
Anatoliy Golistyn an ex-KGB agent revealed regarding the dissolution of the USSR. Prior to and after WW2 it was
clear that Communism and democracy were going to be at odds, especially given
the nature of the interests involved, and the ideologies underlying them. The
common misperception, according to Golitsyn, as detailed in his two books, “New
Lies for Old Lies,” and “Perestroika Deception,” was that the collapse of the
USSR did not end the goals of Communist
Russia for world domination as argued by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and
Kruschev. As mentioned before, the NWO
has been established as
being the benefactor of the Bolshevik revolution that led directly to the
Communist leadership and regimes of both Lenin and Stalin and allowed its related worldview to propagate. The next several decades
would be seen as the Cold War, pitting the two world-views
against each other until the brink of WW3. In his books, Golitsyn makes the claim that
the Communist leaders knew they would never be able to defeat America by
strength of military force and would have to resort to more long term tactics including
espionage, creating internal
weakness, and ideological shifts that would make it easier to eventually
militarily dominate America. There have
been several statements that indicate this mindset including Stalin’s view that
“[a]fter Russia we will take Eastern Europe, then the masses of Asia, and then
we will encircle the United States which will be the last bastion of
capitalism. We will not have to attack. It will fall like an overripe fruit
into our hands.” Khrushchev echoed the same communist sentiment when he
allegedly stated, “[y]ou Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept
Communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until
you’ll finally wake up and find you already have Communism. We won’t have to
fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you’ll fall like an overripe
fruit into our hands.” Also, those who were alive during the most heated
moments of the Cold War remember him stating that Russia would “take America
without firing a shot . . . we will bury you!” Golistyn makes the claim that
the collapse of the Iron Wall was nothing more than a ploy to bide time for
Russia to return to military and economic security, and to infiltrate American
government and society. This was to be accomplished on a number of fronts,
including the growth of statism in the form of socialism, the abolition of
private property, and free market capitalism, and the secularization of society
through education and legal precedent. One can see the list of Communist Goals
as read into the Congressional Record for evidence of the goals of Communists
at that time to infiltrate all aspects of U.S. government and society for the
eventual world domination ends described above. Communist Goals (1963)
Congressional Record –Appendix, pp. A34-A35, January 10, 1963.
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| No End to the Cold War |
The importance of these details is to not necessarily to
suggest that the Russian government is the NWO
or that in the context of the movie that it represents HYRDA but only to
establish a connection with the concept of complete infiltration of the U.S.
intelligence sectors by clandestine agents for the purpose of complete
overthrow and domination by military strength of force. The metaphor that the
movie gives is that of the police state through the skynet type system, and the NSA-like intelligence and massive
data mining currently being conducted on American citizens. Additionally, the
Russian connection is important for the understanding of the role of the Winter
Soldier.
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| The Winter Soldier |
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| Red Star Symbolism of Communism |
The Winter Solder the
NWO/Communist Manchurian Candidate
The Winter Soldier in the comics is essentially the same
character that is portrayed in the movie with the difference being that he is a
Russian black ops agent instead of originally
and solely a HYDRA agent. This movie focuses on his role as the anti-Captain America
and the enforcer for all the secret black ops missions HYDRA has perpetrated
throughout history to get it to the point where Americans would freely
surrender their liberties for the security of skynet. It is insinuated that
HYDRA and the Winter Soldier have been engaged in black ops missions like the
JFK assassination, the communist regimes in Cuba and Latin America, and it is
implied in the post 9/11 context as well with
regard to terrorism and drone strike capabilities. It is interesting
that during the height of the Cold War the same allegations were being thrown
around regarding the workers’ rights movements and the communist actions in
Cuba, China, Vietnam, and Korea. Each of these particular engagements the U.S.
was involved in some sort of way in allowing communist influences to gain or
remain in power. There was a lot of resentment in several of these instances
for policy positions made by powerful political figures in the U.S. government for not intervening
when possible or making decisive actions in turning back communist movements.
Some assert that this was due to the infiltration of the U.S. government with
sympathetic or outright Communist spies
and agents that were bringing to pass
the Perestroika Deception and weakening of American influences at home and
abroad. Whatever the case, the movie makes the similar claim that HYDRA has
been playing this game and using the Winter Soldier for that purpose.
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| Mind-Controlled Assassin |
Another interesting aspect of the Winter Solider is the
brainwashing/mind-control dynamic. As stated above following WW2, both sides of
the Cold War conflict were engaged in complete competition, with both trying to
secure Nazi scientists for the purpose of arms development, and other
technological advancements. One of the lesser
discussed experiments that have become
declassified to a minimal extent is that of Project Artichoke, later changed to
Project MKULTRA.
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| Project ARTICHOKE/MKULTRA |
Under these projects and likely many more that have not become
declassified, the goal was to perfect mind-control techniques for the purpose
of espionage and black ops. The popular notion of the Manchurian Candidate is
how the popular media has portrayed the minimal revealed information about
these projects, in that the goal was to create soldiers who would be triggered
to carry out espionage activities.
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| Denzel? |
Particularly, popular culture has focused on
the aspect of the project for the purpose of creating assassins. This can be
seen in almost any modern day action movie in one form or another. The general
principles underlying all of these depictions and the ones that track with the
actual declassified documents are essentially similar. Basically, you take a
person, and you torture them until their mind becomes "fractured," it is documented that when
individuals experience severe physical and psychological trauma that their mind
is able to dissociate from the pain and compartmentalize it to deal with it. It
is said that this process allows a fracturing of the individual’s primary
psyche such that new one can take its place and conditioned to act in
programmed ways through a process of operant and behavioral triggers. It is
said that Pavlov’s dog was one of the founding studies used to support
experiments on humans in this project. It has also been well documented that
such a process does in fact exist and that dissociate identify disorder and a
number of other bi-polar disorders may have roots in that process. Whatever the case, Hollywood has fully bought
into this idea as it’s a mainstay of action and thriller movies which exhibit
some aspect of this concept. For example the Bourne Trilogy, the Manchurian
Candidate, Inception, Conspiracy Theory, The Butterfly Effect, Sucker Punch, Salt and many other movies and TV
programs that have programmed killers. The Winter Soldier is shown to be a
product of MKULTRA like techniques as he has lost all memory of who he was and
is, and that loss of identity
seems to be induced through one of the primary methods used in MKULTRA, that of
electroshock therapy.
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| Electroshock Therapy/Lobotomy |
When Bucky Barnes first starts to remember who he is through
the intervention of Captain America, he starts to recover lost memories and is then forced by his handlers to undergo a reprogramming procedure to wipe
his mind and revert him back to his
basic programming for assassinations. There have been many conspiracy theories
that assert that the “patsies” of major assassinations were under
mind-control techniques and were programmed to carry out those specific missions. Many cite the
connections of these perpetrators to
military service, or research based on psychological studies and institutions
and individuals with unusual governmental and military connections. Whatever
the case, the theme of the Manchurian Candidate is extremely strong in popular
culture in modern times, while gaining its ideological and philosophical roots
from WW2 and Cold War era paradigms.
Project Insight and
NSA “Skynet”
Ultimately the movie settles for the idea that HYDRA as a
seemingly NWO-like (Dr. Zola actually calls its end goal the ushering in of the
New World Order) institution has permeated all of modernity and seeks to
dominate it through the use of an algorithm designed
to identify potential threats to the
established order. The type of institution it reverts to never really seems to
be discussed with much clarity, or in the sense of overt evil ideology, other
than pairing it with HYDRA which we know from before is bad. However, the evil of such an institution has a
long history in dystopian and apocalyptic literature and movies. For such
reference we have George Orwell's 1984, the Matrix, the Hunger Games,
Terminator, and the Book of Revelations triune of Evil. It's counterpoint is
also apparent as the main concern seems to revolve around somewhat vague notions of “liberty,” and “freedom.” Most American’s relate to
these concepts in a way that is unique from the rest of the world in very
particular ways because of our fairly insulated history and its Constitutional
foundations. Most American’s understand that Freedom and Liberty as underlying
our institutions are not merely relativistic or secular types, but ones that
have as their
base in a moral rightness, fixed in more or less absolute terms.
It is on this basis that the general populace has looked at other nations with
the desire to help institute a similar form of “democracy.” Captain America
plays on this theme more in the first movie, with the notion that the
old-fashioned concepts and notions of freedom and liberty do not change and
that they are founded in a moral sense of right action, behavior, and
ideology. Captain America is faced with several ideological enemies in
this sequel, as I mentioned above, with the
corollaries arguably paralleling our
day in ways that most people haven’t thought or grasped in such detail. What if
the U.S. government had been infiltrated by HYDRA like operatives whose goal is
to enslave rather, and gain power over
the masses through ideological manipulation,
until the breaking point of
installation of a massive spying and integrated military weapon system?
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| Project Insight/Skynet |
That breaking point in the movie is based
on the algorithm developed by Dr. Zola which will predict who will ultimately
become a threat to the NWO and eliminate that threat, preemptively and efficiently through
drone-like-strikes from the sky. The algorithm, it is purported, takes into account every single persons informational identity through
internet searches, cellphone data, historical, educational, and informational
(social security numbers) data, then collating all that information and forming
a “profile,” and a threat assessment. The climax of the movie sees HYDRA
revealed for what it is, with Captain America and his allies, Nick Fury, Black
Widow ( I heart Scarjo) and Falcon (Poppa Doc, awesome) attempting to
bring down the whole system, including SHIELD as an institution. It is shown that not all of the agents of
SHIELD are members of HYDRA but that a significant portion of the agency had
been infiltrated under false pretenses.
This conflict is one that is currently a hot bed issue for Americans,
because of the recent revelations of massive NSA spying akin to the profiling
conducted by SHIELD/HYDRA. The current
debate is very will summarized in the conflict between Nick Fury and Captain
America regarding the safety versus freedom issue. Nick Fury the consummate
realist states, “ SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we’d like it to be!”
This same reasoning seems to underlie much of modern American foreign affairs
ranging from the war on terror, to drone strikes, to the domestic spying and curtailment of civil liberties.
Captain America counters with a more moderate notion based on a vague notion of
freedom, when he says, “[t]he price of freedom is high . . . this isn’t
freedom, this is fear.” Ultimately, in the aftermath of the destruction of
project insight and its somewhat mastermind/administrator Alexander Pierce, played compellingly, stoically, and
matter-of-factly by Robert Redford, SHIELD is left in disarray (presumed death
of Nick Fury, retirement of Captain Rogers, outing of Black Widow as a former
KGB and SHIELD Agent) but with the more mundane spying institutions seemingly
still in play (Agent 13 goes to the
CIA). While the SHIELD apparatus may be viewed as a metaphor for the NSA, I
prefer to see it, with its full implications remaining logically consistent as
the death of the entire intelligence gathering network. However, I don’t
believe that is exactly what Captain America is getting at, as I mentioned before with a more moderate viewpoint than he
suggests when he says “[t]he
price of freedom is high . . . and it’s a price I’m willing to pay! You told me
not to trust anyone and this is how it ends: Everything goes!” Everything
doesn’t go in the sense of the undoing of all ordered security measures but only the dismantling of the overtly
unjustifiable and unsalvageable. It is a decidedly liberty leaning message, but not to the point of absurdity,
recognizing the realist argument of Alexander Pierce that the game of modern
geopolitics is “one step,” away from “disorder,” and “war,” while
simultaneously recognizing that heroes aren’t the ones that flip the switches
(or give the kill orders)
because of fear or based solely on the premise that they need to control the
outcomes of the ultimately uncontrollable, but heroes are those who are “brave
enough not to.”
The Hard Decisions
Each of the titular heroes in this movie
ultimately make the brave and hard decision in their respective plot-points.
Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow) keeps Alexander Pierce from launching the
drone strikes while simultaneously leaking all the classified and proprietary
information of Project Insight and SHIELD to the internet, thus outing her own
role in it, with all its ugly
details and implications. In
the epilogue she is shown testifying before a Senate Subcommittee regarding her
role and is threatened with imprisonment for outing sensitive national security
information. Sound familiar? It should because it’s a direct metaphor for the
information leaks of Edward Snowden and others of similar ilk.
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| Whistleblowers Are Heroes in Captain America |
In doing so,
Black Widow takes a significant step forward as a character whose motivations
and identity have been completely obscure and seemingly chaotic and unstable.
It is with this act that she is able to move forward and establish her true
identity and its necessary corollary of
transparency. It is through transparency
that she must learn to trust and be trusted.
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| Yes, please. |
Nick Fury, presumed dead,
is free from the stain that could have accompanied him for not being able to
ferret out HYDRA operating around him and almost succumbing to the temptation and control that project insight could
have garnered in his quest for national security. In the penultimate scene he
is the one quoted as saying he is brave enough not to have to rely on such
measures and as a result he becomes unburdened and seemingly dedicated to the
“righteous path,” in “death.”
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| This is some pulpy fiction |
Falcon finds a cause to believe in after witnessing the destruction and
aftermath of serving two tours in Iraq, he is disillusioned as to the loss, but
yet using his own strong moral core to guide others with similar experiences.
His character development is not as strong as the others as this is his first
movie, but what I took from his development was that even when you become
disillusioned and seemingly discarded as so many veterans of the latest of the
U.S. wars on terrorism have, that there is still a good fight to be fought.
Falcon, like a good and moral soldier (like so many of our soldiers) is
immediately capable of recognizing a right cause and a virtuous leader in
Captain America. It is under that type of leadership that his purpose and
loyalty is established and will no doubt play it out in movies to come.
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| Poppa Doc! |
Finally, Captain America sees his own moral code validated after the Avengers.
Captain was largely lampooned in The Avengers as being old-fashioned,
fuddy-duddy, and useless, as compared to some of the other Avengers. What could
a mere mortal (albeit superpowered) do in comparison to a God, a Hulk, and a
Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist? Well, this movie answered it. The strong
moral core that is implied throughout the Marvel
movies of which he is a part ultimately played out to the tune of saving 20
million good people and undoubtedly more, simply because he remained true to
time-tested and everlasting notions of freedom and liberty. If I learned anything from this character
development was that perseverance, patience, non-flamboyance, seriousness, and
reticence are ultimately rewarded and are
the most important leadership qualities. While some may argue that there is no
character development in Captain America because he is seen as somewhat unwaveringly good, and dull there is much more to learn from such a character.
While Iron Man may learn to be a sacrificial hero, Captain America always had
been and always will be a
hero because as Dr.
Erskine from the first movie explained. Steve Rogers is fundamentally a
“good man.” This can seen in his tempered
questioning of fundamentally questionable policy choices, his vocal concern
over denial of basic due process, and his recognition of bedrock privacy
violations and the blatant disregard of the rule of law for expediency and
other unstated pragmatic reasons. The necessity of these lessons has never and
will never weaken, and in fact, as argued by this movie are profoundly
important and critically timely. If there is one lesson of Captain America that carries over from each movie and ultimately finds its fulfillment in the
man now "giving the
orders," it is that real
heroes are simple men with unwavering dedication to timeless principles of
freedom and liberty.
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| Truth, Justice, and the American Way |
