2000AD PROG 1939 (Review)- Joining evil, to change evil

Writers: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 15th July 2015



The IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) is the body that investigates public complaints against the Police in the UK. The commission is made up of twelve Police commissioners, so what you have is the police investigating complaints against themselves.

Expecting impartiality or justice out of the IPCC would be like expecting impariality and justice out of the INCC (Independent Nazi Complaints commission) a body that I just made up, consisting of Nazi’s investigating complaints against Nazi’s.

‘It has been noted that "no policeman has ever been convicted of murder or manslaughter for a death following police contact, though there have been more than 400 such deaths in the past ten years alone." (From the IPCC Wiki page)

The IPCC is ridiculous. But it’s a good example of how those in government approved positions of authority always investigate themselves (and call themselves ‘Independent’ when doing so) thus ensuring that officially sanctioned criminality is allowed, just as long as it maintains the positions and power of those in governmental positions of authority.

PROG 1939 of 2000AD features three stories with individuals playing the role of the IPCC. Three stories with officially sanctioned individuals investigating corruption within the establishments that they are working for.

Tellingly, the irony is not pointed out, it's taken as a given that the authorities investigate the authorities, that's just how things work, isn't it?

Judge Dredd investigates, finds corruption, kills a bunch of low level order followers, and scowls.

Absalom investigates, finds corruption, has a go at Guardian readers, and sends in some police goons to beat up some silly demon types.

Jaegir investigates, finds corruption, shoots a gun at zombie monster types, and gets a scary new boyfriend.

What they all have in common is the assumption that the system that they serve is perfectly fine. All they need to do is keep doing their job, keep on putting on their uniforms, and keep on maintaining the status quo. The system is fine, it’s the rotten apples within that system that need to be sorted out.

That’s the mindset that maintains perpetual human enslavement to governmental control systems, the mindset that it’s okay to join evil, because you can change the system from within.

It’s crazy, but that’s what you get in mainstream comic books in 2015. There’s an idea that the individual is stronger than the system. Apparently, all that we need is new people (usually young women) in positions of authority, and then everything will change.

The tyrannical control systems (centralised government, countries, kings, queens, political leaders, political parties, tribes, races, religions, ideologies) that have kept humanity enslaved for thousands of years will suddenly transform, and all we need for this magical transformation to suddenly spring into life is a personnel change.

Hey kids, remember to keep on voting. You know it makes sense.

This is extreme idiocy, and it’s pushed like it’s common sense. This ideology of the transformative effect of the ‘good’ individual in a corrupt system, is perfect for the system itself, because it offers false hope, maintains the status quo, and allows a never ending new supply of corporate recruits eager to join said system of human enslavement.

Hey, join the army, the cops, the government, the local council, the educational system, the pharmaceutical corporations, the cancer charities, the banks, the mainstream media, join, join, join, you can change it from within, promise you can, would we lie to you?

And that is how the slavery business of modern western neoliberal consensus corporate statist hegemony is maintained, forever.

The ridiculous, deluded belief that change comes from the ‘good’ individual working within a corrupt and evil system is an insidious lie that hides the truth about how the world actually works.

The truth is that the 'good' individual soon becomes just another compromised individual, and another brick in the wall of perpetual human enslavement. S/he joins the system full of hope and a desire to change the evil that has afflicted the world, and s/he ends up drunk on impotence, horrified that s/he bought into the lie and has become just another cog in the machine.

For more details see the life and times of Charles Kennedy (MP, RIP) the poor bloke.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jun/02/charles-kennedy

I could say more about the content of PROG 1939 of 2000AD, but I want to leave this ‘review’ with a quotation that I feel is apt, a quotation that is a warning, a warning to ‘good’ people who think that they can change evil, by joining evil:

“In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.” (Ayn Rand)



Rating: 5/10 (Dredd concluded on a downer. Absalom continues to be smart-ass and annoying. Helium continues to tell a good story. Outlier finished on an intriguing high. Jaegir could be interesting, but it’s a bit confusing at the moment).