The Battle Begins!

One of the many reasons that the late great Jack Kirby is a hero of mine is not only his utterly earth-shaking creativity in the relatively small world of comic books, but his dedication to promoting themes of individual freedom and his utter rejection of the mindset which makes dictatorships possible. This is most evident in his "Fourth World" material in which the maguffin that lies at the heart of so much of the action is a dread secret hidden in the brains of some humans which the deadly Darkseid and his minions scheme to get their cold bloody mitts on called the "Anti-Life Equation".

The Anti-Life Equation is an arcane formula which gives its handler the power over the minds and wills of other humans, it is the ability to make slaves of others and bend them to your will for whatever purposes you desire. It is the master scheme to make all of humanity slaves, never allow them to realize it, and instead make them relish their fate. It is the willful sacrifice of personal freedom to enter into a pact with an unholy master, to make of oneself a submissive acolyte.

Kirby explored the concept in the New Gods saga and to lesser extents in Captain Victory and elsewhere. The sundry insect armies he created at Marvel, DC, Pacific and elsewhere point back to this notion that individuals can disappear inside an army of drones dedicated to the welfare of an overwhelming master intellect.

That grim reality, so deftly explored by Kirby so many decades ago and informed by his Jewish heritage and experiences before during and after World War II are of great moment to us in America today when we find ourselves once "again" asked to surrender ourselves to something "great", to something which promises to a select company the chimera of perfect security if only they will hold at bay all those "others" who threaten the modern myth of perfect tranquility.

Our Leader is an exceedingly dangerous fellow, callow, and apparently lacking much if any empathy for those who fall outside his immediate family. He is overwhelmed with a need to constantly punch up his degraded self-worth by constantly lying about those who he imagines should adore him. If you fail to fall at his feet, he imagines you are an enemy and are to be sent away. If he cannot corrupt you with his charm, then you are a threat to the new order. 

He is currently filling his clown car of a cabinet with loyalists, drawn from sundry places. The richest man in the world is tapped to look for ways to cut government spending, conflicts of interest be damned. He entrusts a brain-wormed lunatic with the health of the nation.  He reaches out to television to get his new glib Defense Department leader, and into Congress for his next Attorney General. His pick there a bit shocking in that the individual was only a few days from an investigation into charges of child molestation. He wants only those who will toe the line and not bring up things like ethics and decorum when conducting "the people's business". 

The looming danger to immigrants and marginal communities is taking shape. These folks seem eager to tear apart families in grim and costly show trials before supposedly returning those interlopers to their homeland (which likely won't receive them). We are promised tariffs which already playing havoc with the economy. It's predicted that if the plans are implemented in full, it will trigger not only a recession in this country, but across the globe. 

Democrats are at the moment are strident but weak and will offer only a token resistance to the whims of his new autocrat who chafes at the limits of constitutional authority. It is once again up to Republicans to tame the monster they have uncaged and unleashed upon us. But at the moment they are too distracted by the avaricious desire for yet more tax cuts to pay attention to anything else. Once they have secured the fortunes of the rich and mighty then maybe they might deign to pay attention to the problems of the people. It's going to be yet another hair-raising ride, I fear. With even more dangerous consequences. 

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