2000AD-PROG 1949- The comic book fear of anarchy

Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion

Released: 23rd September 2015

Judge Death and Judge Dredd work together like liberals and conservatives, creation the illusion that you have freedom of choice, just as long as your choice is an acceptance of authority, and a lack of personal freedom and liberty. You can choose a controller, and that means that you are free. Both Death and Dredd are symbols of control, they block alternatives to mainstream status quo thinking, and channel you into a slaughterhouse of collectivised, state control.

Was it always so? Probably, but it’s really noticeable now. Dredd murders to uphold the law, and Death does exactly the same. Check out the following quotation:

‘I will teach them the virtues of order and discipline. The rule of law.’

That quote comes from Judge Death, but it could just have easily come from Dredd. In ‘Ghost Town- Part Two’ Dredd massacres dissenters to the rule of law with no feeling other than his need to maintain control over the population. He doesn’t mind killing people, its just part of the job.

In ‘Dreams of Deadworld-Death’ Judge Death shows his lieutenants who is boss, killing one before carrying out a massacre of his order following minions. This is the kind of thing that always happens when a dictator purges his own party of troublesome thugs that he no longer needs. The most famous recent example being Hitler’s purge of his own brown-shirt thugs (the 'Night of the long knives') shortly after he gained the footing his needed to control the population of Germany.

Judge Death murders so he can sit on a throne (as is shown on the excellent front cover of this comic book) whilst Dredd murders in order to serve and maintain the centralised state collective.

Looking at the differences between the two Judges is hugely illuminating, as it shines a spotlight on an assumption that is central to the ideology contained within western comic books. That assumption (an idea pushed to the idea of a cliché, but an idea that is constantly reinforced as truth through repetition) is that freedom in the west means not having a dictator.

We don’t have a dictator, so that must mean that we are free, right?

What is being pushed here is the idea that the collective tyranny of democracy (the rule of the majority, or two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner) is the best that humanity can hope for. It’s the idea that individuality must be consumed by the collective, that the collective is held together by law, and that it’s up to uniformed order followers to enforce that law, at the point of a gun.

This is the legitimisation of collectivisation, of centrally controlled tyranny, of a small group of people who know better than you, and so will tell you what to do, for your own good, of course, and if you don’t obey them, then it’s death or jail for you.

Oh, and by the way, don’t forget that you are free.

Judge Death then is a perfect villain as he reinforces the idea that the only thing that we need to fear is the dictator, and that the collectivised tyranny of Judge Dredd is how things should be, because after all, we don’t want to fall into chaos or ANARCHY, do we?

‘Only the zero-tolerance Judges- empowered to dispense instant justice- can stop total ANARCHY.’

That line always appears in the ‘In This Prog’ section of 2000AD, and it’s very telling, giving the reader a social assumption, an agreed upon lie, in order to frame what happens within the narrative of the Judge Dredd strip. The lie is that anarchy equates to chaos and murder, and that without order following murderers in uniform then it will be a big free for all with babies being murdered in the streets.

That is the assumption, and it’s an assumption that comes from the mindset of an indoctrinated, fearful slave to the state. It’s an assumption that hates humanity, and assumes the very worse of people. It is an assumption that is reinforced, without evidence, that the only way to stop us murdering each other in the streets is for us to all live in a giant prison state, for our own good, of course.

Fear of anarchy, and a willingness to accept the collectivised tyranny of the state is an ideology that runs like a stick of rock through 95% of western comic books. It is an ideology that assures the slave to the state that the system s/he has been born into is legitimate. It backs up a machine of violent coercion a machine that has made the world the boiling Hellhole that it is today.

The idea that the only thing to fear is a crazy dictator, is a straw-man argument. It’s a socially programmed assumption that works because comic book writers push it without even realising what they are pushing. They know somewhere deep within their souls that a centralised, collectivised system of violent coercion is morally wrong, but they justify it by looking at the alternatives. A lack of courage, and imagination gives them only two: 1- A villainous dictator. 2- People being murdered in the streets. That’s Judge Death, and that’s Judge Dredd. Both follow the law, both wear uniforms, both exist to control you. One of them is a cartoon villain, and the other is an agent of the collectivised state.

Judge Death makes you fear dictatorships, and Judge Dredd makes you fear anarchy, or the lack of a centralised control system. The two fictional characters represent false real-world choices, like the red and blue parties, keeping you fearful, dependant, and safely imprisoned within the collectivised neo-liberal corporate/state reservation.

I’ve already written enough this week, so I’ll leave it there, and no, this is not a typical comic book review, and it isn’t supposed to be. I’m not being paid to knock out a boring review, so I’ll talk about what I want to talk about. This week I wanted to talk about the similarities between Death and Dredd, and how they are used to reinforce the current system of collectivised state tyranny in which we all live under in the west. I think that I managed to say something worthwhile. I think that what I said was more interesting than a review about panels, colouring and personalities. Thanks for reading it, be nice to each other, and have a great comic book reading week.



Rating: 8/10 (Judge Death and Judge Dredd, a one-two punch to the face of humanity)

Captain America 3- Civil War: The Choice is Between Collectivism & Human Emancipation

Article by: Mark. A Pritchard (aka Rorshach1004)
Date: 28th August 2015


The original Civil War arc in Marvel comics (written by Mark Millar) was all about the registration of superheroes. Captain America was against registration. Iron Man was for it. Cap thought it was anti-freedom. Tony Stark argued that it was needed in order to protect the people. It’s the old argument, fear versus freedom. We all know how that went in the real world (NSA, Patriot Act) don’t we?

In Marvel comics (SPOILER ALERT) it goes pretty much the same way. At the end of the Civil War Arc Captain America meekly surrenders and fear wins over liberty. It’s a terribly depressing ending, and is carried on in the new Civil War arc (by Charles Soule) that is part of the current Secret Wars event in Marvel comics. Quick note, get the book, it’s great.

So, in Marvel comics all of the superheroes must be registered with the government, and everything they do is monitored in order to 'keep them safe.’

In other words, it’s a soft tyranny, centrally controlled and enforced with a legal mandate over the use of coercive violence.

It’s France, it’s England, it’s America, and it’s every country in the west. All are enslaved underneath the loving, caring eyes of big brother government. And how do they get away with this soft tyranny, both in the comics and in the real world? Through the use of a heavily propagandised, relentlessly programmed ideology called ‘Democracy.’

Democracy has no regard for moral truth, individual liberty, or spiritual enlightenment. You vote for a master, and that’s exactly what you get. Democracy is about tyranny, order following, centralised control, collectivism, ‘sacrifice,' death for the system, joining a cult, becoming a brick in the wall, a cog in a machine of human enslavement. You better join it, or you will be punished for your failure to assimilate. I should know. That’s why I’m writing on my own personal blog, and not for some crappy comic book website.

Here’s a definition of the Borg from Star-Trek:

‘The Borg are a collection of species that have been turned into cybernetic organisms functioning as drones in a hive mind called the Collective, or the hive. The Borg's ultimate goal is "achieving perfection".

Here’s a quote from the hive-mind Borg themselves:

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek)

Does all of that sound familiar? To me, it sounds like the neoliberal, mainstream corporate hive mindset of TODAY.

If you fail to comply with the neo-liberal corporate (mainly Marxist), politically correct consensus then you are a thought criminal, to be ostracised and accused of crimes against the perfected, progressive collective. This is particularly true when it comes to today’s comic books. These politically correct vehicles of neo-liberal corporate consensus feature narratives that explore every single facet of identity politics, but fail to touch any of the vital, underlying issues of our times.

But what about the racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobic, Islamaphobic right-wingers? Their very existence disproves what I am saying here, right? They might not dominate the comic book industry, but look at Fox news and all of the other racist, right wing bigots in the mainstream. If the media really were so ‘neo-liberal’ as I suggest, then Fox news and all of the other right wing ‘bigots’ wouldn’t exist, right?

No, not really. I’ll explain why.

Are all of the people that identify themselves as ‘right-wingers’ primarily concerned with freedom, liberty and individualism? No, of course they are not. Some are, but they are in the minority. The vast majority of those on the ‘right’ of the political spectrum just want to get what they can from government, just like the left. They want to use the power of the state to line their own pockets. As the state has a monopoly over violence it’s natural that both left and right wingers would be doing all they can to influence it, and make it serve their own needs. Makes sense, right?

The main difference between the left and right is that the left wants to suck off the state, whilst the right wants to pay-off the state. That means that they both have one thing in common, that being the state.

The left sees the state as Mommy, and the right sees the state as Daddy. Mommy protects, and Daddy corrects. Both are wrong. The state is neither Mom, nor Dad, it’s coercion through violence, always has been, always will be. The left knows this, and so does the right. They know, and that’s why they both support the violence that is the state, as long as that violence benefits them, of course.

In America (and the EU) today there is an alliance between the collective left, the collective right and the state. The state and large business collude, and as a business grows it can afford to pay off those working within the state apparatus with bribes/donations. As for the left, it needs the state like a baby bird needs his Mommy.

The state feeds the baby left, funnelling money into welfare handouts and their intellectually vacuous educational institutions that teach reliance on the state and victimhood to mythological oppressors like evil white men and patriarchy. The state is happy to do this as it keeps the left on the plantation, dependent upon its largesse and unable to identify the real oppressor, which of course is the state itself.

It’s not a particularly complicated equation. The collective right uses the state, and the collective left desperately needs the state. The distinction between the two collective ideologies of left and right blurs into one ideology, that being the ideology of collectivism under state control.

The end result is what we have today, a handful of large corporations paying off the state to ensure they maintain a monopoly over the world’s resources, a bankrupt intellectual class of leftist fools, and millions of people dependent upon state handouts. The mainstream political class in the west then is reduced to a choice between left and right collectivists, all reliant on the state, all supporters of the state. There are plenty of wannabe Iron Men, whilst Captain America doesn’t even get a mention.

Social control of the masses under collectivism is easy.  The status quo is maintained through a divide and conquer left versus right identity politics strategy relentlessly pushed from the aforementioned government sponsored collectivist left and their mainstream educational programs, and their right-wing ‘foes’ on channels like Fox news. This divide and conquer strategy is funded by the collectivist right in big business and the collectivist left in government. The young are taught all about identity politics, but know nothing about the big violent ape in the room.

That ape has a gun, and his name is Collectivist Statism.

Democracy in the west is exposed as a lie, and is nothing more than a combination of left and right collectivism that is funnelled through the violently coercive power of the centralised state. It is legitimised by something called ‘democracy,’ where the slaves on the plantation get to vote between left fist or right fist every few years or so.

This illusion of choice ensures that nothing of major importance ever changes. The only change allowable within this current system of soft tyranny is the race, gender and sexuality of the oppressor. This is exactly what Marvel and DC comics are all about in 2015, and that is why they say nothing and mean nothing.

The problem isn’t that businesses are getting too large and powerful. You should be rewarded for success, that takes hard work, that takes creativity and drive, and it moves the human species forward as your competitors struggle to keep up, and even overtake you in their hard work and innovation.

The problem is that the wealthy are the only people that can afford to pay for the violent protection of the state, a state that has given itself a monopoly over the use of legal violence. Their competitors cannot afford to pay, so they end up failing, not because they didn't work hard enough and not because they weren’t good or innovative enough, but because they couldn't pay for the violently coercive gorilla state that has been given a monopoly over the use of violence.

If you can pay the Gorilla, great, if you can’t, tough luck kid. The end result is a minority of obscenely rich individuals who own and control everything as they can afford to pay off the state, and the 99% of the rest of us fighting amongst ourselves for the scraps that fall from the table of the lucky few.

What we need to do is to level the playing field, and the only way to do that is to abandon the empty lie that is our programmed devotion to the violent, destructive, inhumane, coercive force of the state.

How do we do this?

We remove our consent. We stop voting, for anybody. We stop supporting violent coercion, and we stop supporting the monolithic oppressor that enslaves us all.

Our oppressor is collectivist statism, and we need to stop legitimising it through the ballot box. A violent revolution is not necessary. What is necessary is peaceful, non-compliance with our collective, Borg oppressors.

I can already hear the fear kicking in:

‘What will we do without the state?’

‘How will we protect ourselves from ISIS, or whatever new bogeyman that crops up in the msm next week?’

‘What about the roads?’

What about the children? Somebody think about the children?’

What we will do is evolve. We will talk it out, come to arrangements, make deals, choose for ourselves, defend ourselves, do things for ourselves. We are smart people, and we will adapt. Yes, the beginning will be difficult, but nothing worth having is ever easy.

The number one goal for all liberty minded individuals in the world today should be the abolition of the state. Let’s get rid of it, and let’s start living our lives as free human beings.

Before I finish off, and because this article is supposed to be about the new Captain America 3 ‘Civil War’ movie from Marvel, here’s a quick message for all of the comic book fans looking forward to that movie.

Let’s join Captain America and leave the Iron Men collectivists in the dustbin of history where they rightfully belong. The era of enslavement to the state is coming to an end. People are looking for something new, and that something new is a world where the power of the centralised state no longer dominates our lives. Don’t be scared, don’t give in to fear, as you already know, the only thing to fear, is fear itself.

Take care of each other, and spread the word. Change is inevitable, let’s make it real change this time. A new age is dawning. It’s an age free from the violently coercive power of the state, and free from the robotic, machine-man, destructive ideology of collectivism. It’s a world based on liberty, free choice, morality and respect for the individual. We can have this world, if we want it, but the first barrier that we need to clear is the barrier to human emancipation that is the modern, democratic, centralised, collectivised left/right state.

Perhaps they just want to help?

The mainstream consensus corporate/political media elites have their collective (and yes, it is very collective) arm around certain ‘victim’ groups, crouching to support the weak, or so it seems.

How benevolent of them, don’t you think?

Would those in a position of power help people, knowing that by doing so it would threaten their own positions?

It seems unlikely.

So why would they do it?

Why would they support social justice groups if these same social justice groups threatened their centralised control system?

Answer: Social justice groups supported by the mainstream consensus corporate/political/media elites are useful, not detrimental to the agenda of the control system.

Or, perhaps the psychopathic murderous scum in charge of the slave system known as western democracy just have a soft side?

Perhaps they just want to help people?

What do you think?

Comic review: Green Lantern Annual #3 (Godhead Finale)- Accountability is for the poor

Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Billy Tan
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 24th December 2014



There was something about the ending of DC Comic’s ‘Godhead’ arc that reminded me very much of its real world parallel in this post 9/11 world of western governments/corporate wars of aggression. It was just a moment, at the conclusion of the tale, but a moment that says a lot about what is happening in the real world today.

That moment came when the man responsible for all of the death and destruction that has been happening in the Godhead arc, the dictatorial ‘Highfather’ admitted that he was wrong, and that all of the violence he had unleashed upon the universe had inevitably come back upon his own people. It was a moment of admittance that ‘blow-back’ is inevitable, that when you put violence into the world, violence is what you get back from it.

Highfather admits that he was wrong, thanks the heroic Green Lanterns for their help, they leave, and he is left to rebuild the planet that he has completely messed up due to his wars of aggression, wars that were waged under justification of the greater good. There is no punishment for Highfather. No criminal investigations, no jail time, no trials, nothing. He admits he was wrong, and he gets to stay in power.

The only difference I can see between Highfather and western imperial powers (hiding under the illusion of ‘democracy’ where puppet spokesmen and women are replaced every five years or so) is that Highfather actually admits he was wrong. Our leaders don’t even have to do that. Consequences for their actions do not exist. They burn down a city, and then pay themselves to rebuild it.

Our real-world political leaders are handsomely rewarded for the mistakes that they make, and unlike Highfather they don’t even have to admit that they made mistakes in the first place. After their political (puppet) careers are over they are financially rewarded by the banks, corporations and arms manufacturers who they helped whilst in political ‘power.’ They then spend the rest of their lives being treated like Kings and Queens whilst being guarded 24/7 by men with guns, just to make sure that they will never see any consequences for their actions.

We are now living in an age of centralised democracy, an age where there is no dictator to blame. If you are looking for somebody to blame you will find that person in the street. The everyday man and women who votes for unaccountabable centralised corporate owned and controlled ‘democracy.’ A system where war is encouraged, and consequences for your actions do not exist. That is what we have today. That is our world. That is what you support when you vote.

As is usual in my reviews I have barely discussed the actual book itself. If you are new to my reviews then that’s pretty much what I always do. I take a comic book, use it as a platform, and then use that platform to launch into a self-indulgent rant on issues and ideas that currently occupy my mind. I realise that reviews are not supposed to do that, but these are not meant to be boring old comic book reviews, they are meant to be something more than that. But for those just interested in the entertainment factor and the comic itself, here’s a quick summary of the Godhead arc:

It was largely enjoyable, mostly okay, sometimes rotten, sometimes very good. That is what you get in long arcs, written by different writers and drawn by different artists. I’ve already reviewed a lot of the Godhead books here on my blog, so if you want more details than check out those individual reviews.

Green Lantern Annual #3 was the finale to the arc, and to me it was a satisfying ending, and I enjoyed reading it. I particularly enjoyed the four page source wall artwork by artist Billy Tan, and the narrative itself was satisfying, putting a traditionally loose full stop on events, and then concluding with a new threat, as you should do in a genre that never really ends. The old threat should be conclusively defeated, but something new should bridge from that defeated threat. That is what happens here, and it is done in an interesting way that will keep me reading the Green Lantern comic book.

I disliked some of the quippy dialogue in this final issue, as to me it made light of what was supposed to be a serious end to a serious galaxy wide threat, but the conclusion had elements that I really enjoyed. I particularly enjoyed the moment when a man getting off on the power of nihilism and death was stopped in his sociopathic ways. His moment of defeat was a symbolic moment, illustrating how the illusory power of darkness and death always crumbles and flees when faced with the power of life, light and truth.

The larger agenda behind a crossover event such as the ‘Godhead’ arc, aside from selling the event issues themselves, is to hook the reader into buying new books on a monthly basis when the event itself has concluded.  There are plenty of books in the Green Lantern universe, and before this event began I was buying two of them per month, those books being Green Lantern and Sinestro. That will not change now that the event has concluded, but that doesn’t mean that I disliked the other books.

Broadly speaking, I enjoyed reading the event, and the money and time that I spent on it does not feel wasted. I leave the arc feeling entertained, satisfied and grateful to all of the writers and artists that contributed to the project. I didn’t agree with a lot of the ideological or socio-political assumptions that were made, but just by putting them out there the writers gave me a tremendous amount of valuable material to think on, consider, and react to, here on my blog. So here’s a big, sincere thank-you from myself to every single inker, colourist, writer, letterer, cover artist and editor that worked so hard on the entire project. Thanks guys, it was fun. Now back to Christmas. I hope you are having a good one. Be nice to each other, and I hope you enjoy the remainder of the holidays.

Rating for Green Lantern Annual #3- Godhead Finale: 7.5/10

Rating for Green Lantern ‘Godhead’ arc: 7/10