The Lord of the Rings: Proof Leftism is a Mental Disorder!
Posted: 2003-01-09 06:27am
We all remember those cloning experiments gone awry who clamored that George Lucas was a racist because they thought Jar Jar was supposed to be Jamacian and the Neimoidians were meant to be Japanese. Well, they're at it again.
From The Manchester Guardian:
"The Lord of the Rings is racist. It is soaked in the logic that race determines behaviour. Orcs are bred to be bad, they have no choice. The evil wizard Saruman even tells us that they are screwed-up elves. Elves made bad by a kind of devilish genetic modification programme. They deserve no mercy.
"To cap it all, the races that Tolkien has put on the side of evil are then given a rag-bag of non-white characteristics that could have been copied straight from a BNP leaflet. Dark, slant-eyed, swarthy, broad-faced — it's amazing he doesn't go the whole hog and give them a natural sense of rhythm."
(God, I love the British press.)
From The New York Times: "t's impossible not to experience Peter Jackson's "Two Towers" as war propaganda of unnerving power. The scene in which ranks upon ranks of enemy Uruk-hai warriors march in perfect order seems like a spine-chilling tip of the computer-graphics hat to Leni Riefenstahl's 'Triumph of the Will'…. On the intentional level, "The Two Towers" is a grand adventure tale, in which good and evil are comfortingly clear. But even without the accidental echoes — evil or "Evildoers?" Sauron or Saddam? And how many towers? — the movie would have its own double edge. Dehumanizing the other guy is the first step in training soldiers and fighting wars. The danger is that this is what makes not just warfare palatable but extermination itself."
Here's what Jonah Goldberg of the National Review has to say about all that:
"One is tempted to ask who is the real racist here? On the one hand we have people — like me — who see horrific, flesh-eating, dull-witted creatures with jagged feral teeth, venomous mouths, pointed devilish ears, and reptilian skin, and say, "Cool, Orcs!" On the other hand we have people, like Mr. Yatt, who see the same repugnant creatures and righteously exclaim "black people!" Maybe he should spend less time vetting movies for signs of racism and more time vetting himself if, that is, he free-associates black people with these subhuman monsters."
"In the real world it's much more difficult to identify evil. It would be much easier to argue for toppling Saddam if he were a giant fiery eye ruling subhuman creatures bent on destroying all that is beautiful and enslaving all that is good. But, damn it, that's not the case. The reality is much more complicated than the metaphor. But that is always the case. And, the principle remains: Evil still exists, even if it is adorned with better disguises than an Orc mask and equipped with better excuses for leaving it be. Such excuses might be the potential deaths of innocent humans — as opposed to vile Orcs — or the simple rationalization that our own comfortable Shire is not particularly threatened yet. And come to think of it, another rationalization for not heeding the message that evil must be confronted might be to dismiss the messenger as a racist. After all, those Orcs do have dark skin."
(And you know what's REALLY ironic about all this? Viggo was on Larry King talking up the Sean Penn bit just like the pansy he is!)
(But that's no problem. We've still got Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood holding the line for us. I mean, shit, Aragorn didn't even SAY ANYTHING to that big tube of vasoline that killed Boromir! What an insipid little weasel! No "Go aheard, make my day!" No "You gotta ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well do ya, orc?" NOTHING LIKE THAT! Talk about being outclassed in the hero department.)
(I wish George C. Scott were still with us.)
Read Jonah's whole piece at [link]http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/ ... 010303.asp[/link]
From The Manchester Guardian:
"The Lord of the Rings is racist. It is soaked in the logic that race determines behaviour. Orcs are bred to be bad, they have no choice. The evil wizard Saruman even tells us that they are screwed-up elves. Elves made bad by a kind of devilish genetic modification programme. They deserve no mercy.
"To cap it all, the races that Tolkien has put on the side of evil are then given a rag-bag of non-white characteristics that could have been copied straight from a BNP leaflet. Dark, slant-eyed, swarthy, broad-faced — it's amazing he doesn't go the whole hog and give them a natural sense of rhythm."
(God, I love the British press.)
From The New York Times: "t's impossible not to experience Peter Jackson's "Two Towers" as war propaganda of unnerving power. The scene in which ranks upon ranks of enemy Uruk-hai warriors march in perfect order seems like a spine-chilling tip of the computer-graphics hat to Leni Riefenstahl's 'Triumph of the Will'…. On the intentional level, "The Two Towers" is a grand adventure tale, in which good and evil are comfortingly clear. But even without the accidental echoes — evil or "Evildoers?" Sauron or Saddam? And how many towers? — the movie would have its own double edge. Dehumanizing the other guy is the first step in training soldiers and fighting wars. The danger is that this is what makes not just warfare palatable but extermination itself."
Here's what Jonah Goldberg of the National Review has to say about all that:
"One is tempted to ask who is the real racist here? On the one hand we have people — like me — who see horrific, flesh-eating, dull-witted creatures with jagged feral teeth, venomous mouths, pointed devilish ears, and reptilian skin, and say, "Cool, Orcs!" On the other hand we have people, like Mr. Yatt, who see the same repugnant creatures and righteously exclaim "black people!" Maybe he should spend less time vetting movies for signs of racism and more time vetting himself if, that is, he free-associates black people with these subhuman monsters."
"In the real world it's much more difficult to identify evil. It would be much easier to argue for toppling Saddam if he were a giant fiery eye ruling subhuman creatures bent on destroying all that is beautiful and enslaving all that is good. But, damn it, that's not the case. The reality is much more complicated than the metaphor. But that is always the case. And, the principle remains: Evil still exists, even if it is adorned with better disguises than an Orc mask and equipped with better excuses for leaving it be. Such excuses might be the potential deaths of innocent humans — as opposed to vile Orcs — or the simple rationalization that our own comfortable Shire is not particularly threatened yet. And come to think of it, another rationalization for not heeding the message that evil must be confronted might be to dismiss the messenger as a racist. After all, those Orcs do have dark skin."
(And you know what's REALLY ironic about all this? Viggo was on Larry King talking up the Sean Penn bit just like the pansy he is!)
(But that's no problem. We've still got Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood holding the line for us. I mean, shit, Aragorn didn't even SAY ANYTHING to that big tube of vasoline that killed Boromir! What an insipid little weasel! No "Go aheard, make my day!" No "You gotta ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well do ya, orc?" NOTHING LIKE THAT! Talk about being outclassed in the hero department.)
(I wish George C. Scott were still with us.)
Read Jonah's whole piece at [link]http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/ ... 010303.asp[/link]
