Comic Review: 2000AD- PROG 1927: Do you want to be free?

Writers and authors: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 22nd April 2015

The very idea of genuine freedom can be absolutely terrifying to those who have lived their entire lives in captivity. When given the chance of freedom the prisoner can find himself so overcome by fear that he rejects freedom, preferring instead to go back into the safety that comes from being incarcerated.

That, of course, is what government offers. It offers safety, a respite from fear. But with that promise of safety, of protecting you from being afraid, it takes away your freedoms and puts you in a cage.

It is election time in the UK, and fear is being pushed by the mainstream media, a media that is owned by the same wealthy elite’s that benefit from the limited neo-liberal government options that are available to the voting masses.

I don’t have any problem whatsoever with people voting to be slaves. If they want to be slaves then let them be slaves. What I have a problem with is the idea that there is no choice, the idea that it’s safety within government slavery, or nothing. A lack of choice, and a lack of understanding that you actually have a choice, that’s the problem. Until people realise that they have a choice between government incarceration, and freedom, things will not change, and whom you vote for is a minor matter not really worthy of discussion.

I’m bringing up this idea of freedom, fear and slavery not because I’ve forgotten all about PROG 1927 of 2000AD, but because that is what one of the stories within the book is focussed upon. ‘Judge Dredd Enceladus, New Life- Part Four’ is about escaped convicts. They are in danger, and running out of options on an inhospitable planet. They vote on what to do, with the vast majority of them voting to surrender and go back to prison rather than risking their lives for freedom.

Imagine what the world would be like if everybody had that mindset. Oh, wait a second, you don’t have to imagine it, because that is exactly what we have on planet Earth right now. Fear of freedom is pushed so strongly (as I mentioned above) that people get angry with you when you tell them that they have the option to be free. They don’t want to be free. They’ve lived as government owned slaves for their entire lives, and being free of government is something that seems ludicrous, beyond comprehension.

Why be free? It’s dangerous, it’s scary, and government is my big brother protector, he's there to help me, to save me. The problem is that the facts don’t fit the fear propaganda anymore. People (myself included) are slowly starting to realise that their governments are no longer representing them. It has become very obvious now that our elected governments don’t care about the people they are supposed to represent at all. They are funded, and therefore controlled by the rich, and exist for the benefit of the rich, not us, the downtrodden gullible voting masses.

Vast numbers of normal people are starting to question government now because government doesn’t appear to be so beneficial to them as the banks tighten their screws, austerity kicks in, and freedoms are diminishing by the day. The supposed protector is now looking like what he actually was all along, the rich man’s jailer.

We are living in the end times of western democracy, and questions that only come up in times of revolution are appearing again. The Judge Dredd story in PROG 1927 of 2000AD has a ***SPOILER ALERT*** highly significant end panel with a space ship hovering above the prisoners. On that ship is a logo that looks suspiciously like the hammer and sickle of the old Soviet Union.

The message inherent in that end panel again is about fear. The slaves wanted to be free, but here comes another slave master. Perhaps this slave master will be even worse than the old one? Transposing this comic book plot development into our real world fears, the message is that if you don’t give in to US/EU State sanctioned slavery then a worse slave master is going to come along. That slave master is the mainstream media demonised bad guy of 2015, Vladimir Putin and the evil Russian Empire. That’s not a completely unjustifiable fear. I understand it, but the question as always when it comes to breaking free from statism and slavery is, do you really want to be free?

That’s the question of our times, so I’ll finish up my review of PROG 1927 of 2000AD here. There’s so much more happening in the book (Slaine is excellent) but I’ll conclude this review/rant now with a concise summary of everything that I’ve just discussed. Get PROG 1927 of 2000AD. It’s a great book; you’ll love it.

Genuine freedom is a very scary thing. It is dangerous, never secure and you will have to fight against tyrants who wish to enslave you. There are bad people in the world, and bad people will always want to be in charge, to dominate, to tell you what you can and cannot do. These bad people have a place that welcomes them with open arms. That place is called government, a tiny body of people who think they know how to run your life better than you do. Government relies on fear, the fear that you will not be able to survive outside of their prison camp system of coercion through violence. Fear is the glue that holds government together. Are you brave, or does fear define your life? Do you like being a slave, or do you truly want to be free?


Rating: 9/10 (Slaine is great, but Judge Dredd is getting better every week and is fast catching up as the best story in the anthology)