GOD AGAINST US: 

ALIEN SPACEMAN JESUS, THE                       

                              WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK AND
MORE                                                                  
                                                                     
 
 
 
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                  
                                    Alvin
Miller                                                        
(1986)                                               
                                             http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman/
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©1986  WEIRD ESCHATOLOGY:  AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF THE SECOND COMING 
ASIN: 0961643501
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Weird Eschatology: An Alternative View of the Second Coming
by Miller, Alvin.
Published in 1986, Last Things Press (Alexandria, Va. 22304)
By statement:               Alvin Miller.
Language:               English
Edition:               1st ed.
Format:               Pbk.
Pagination:               52 p. :  ill.
Notes:              Discography: p. 48-50.
Filmography: p. 44-47.
Bibliography: p. 42-43.
ISBN 10:               0-9616435-0-1
LCCN:               86080018
Dewey:               236/.9
LC:                    BT823 .M55 1986
Genre:               Religion, Christianity
Subject:               Eschatology.
                            Mass media — Miscellanea.
                TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
                            (Ctrl + Click on Chapters to Jump)
PREFACE                                              p.  4
 
CHAPTER ONE:  A PLAUSIBLE TIMETABLE                  p.  6
 
TIMETABLE                                                                                                                                         p. 13
 
CHAPTER TWO:  A FIRST LOOK AT NORMAN O. BROWN        p. 14
 
CHAPTER THREE:  THE MEDIA MESSIAH, OR LOOKING FOR JESUS
ON                 
                TV                                   p. 21
Kate Bush - 'Cloudbusting Video'
'The Crazy Ray'
'The Crazy Ray' - Frozen into Stone Statues!
'Village of the Damned' - Super Children with Glowing Eyes!
'Brain from Planet Arous' - Madman Cackles!
Drooling Alien Sex Fiend (Me)
Ellen in Pretty White Panties Attacked by 'Alien' Monster!
'The Ruling Class' - Delusions of Grandeur
'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' - Hypnotized (Under a Spell)
'Weird Science' - Sex Toy/Barbie Doll
'The Last Airbender' - Orgone
'The Last Airbeder' - Pie Fight!
CHAPTER FOUR:  THE MESSIAH RETURNS                   p. 41
Dead 'Alien' Film Space Gunner
APPENDIX 1:  THE SECRET RAPTURE                      p. 46
APPENDIX 2:  FROM NORMAN O. BROWN'S CLOSING TIME     P. 47
BIBLIOGRAPHY                                         p. 63
Interesting Portrait of Norman O. Brown
FILM LIST BY DATE                                    p. 68
'Surrogates' - Me Looking Down and Fairy Bowling!
'The Dark Knight' - The Joker - Despised Suitor
'E.T.' Finger
FILM LIST                                            p. 83
FILM SERIALS                                         p. 93

                                 
 
                           PREFACE
                                                                     
              What do you call a crazy spaceman?  - -  An Astronut.
Note:  Read my more recent: 
http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman/address.html             
What follows is an updated online version of my ©1986 booklet WEIRD
ESCHATOLOGY:  AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF THE SECOND COMING (ISBN 0-
9616435-0-1; Library of Congress Class. BT823.M55 2000z; Dewey Class.
236/.9 19; World Catalog OCLC No. 49632860; Amazon Standard Id. No.:
0961643501).  By the time you finish, you may conclude that this
particular peculiar interpretation of the Book of Revelation should
be relegated to the teachings of self-appointed cranks, crackpots,
prophets of doom and various other assorted fanatics. But perhaps,
even so, your own view may be clarified when you read this.  The
first chapter deals with theology and may be slightly dull, but
fasten your seatbelt, as I will get more and more weird ahead  (in
terms of any interpretation you have seen before).  Note that I make
use of mostly unobtainable texts and obscure films.  Lack of access
to these sources should not impede your understanding of what
follows.  Also, to emphasize the ostensibly momentous issues I am
dealing with here, I capitalize the subject phrases I discuss.  My
site has been attacked repeatedly since the very minute I linked to
Christian sites.  Don't shoot the messenger!  You call yourself
Christian, so why do you resort to scurrilous, underhanded attacks? 
Where is your Christian charity?  If what I have to say angers you,
use my guestbook to list specific criticisms.
                                     (Return to TABLE OF CONTENTS)
                                                                     
CHAPTER ONE
                                                                      
                         
                   A PLAUSIBLE TIMETABLE          
 
 
       Are you a Christian?  Do you believe in the Second Coming at
some future date?  Is it legitimate to construct timetables for these
future events?
       Rhetorical questions such as these right off the bat may well
put you off.  A major difficulty is that no consensus as to when and
in what sequence these predicted events must take place.  This topic
has always been a particular source of schism and polemic.  I will be
proposing specific dates as numerous have in each generation before
me.  And as many have been before me, I can be refuted by the mere
passage of time.
       The majority view espoused by most evangelicals is
pretribulational premillennalism, which I only partially agree with. 
I will point out that part of this view is in fact based on a
historical novelty that only traces back to the nineteenth century. 
What I mean here is that in terms of the glacially slow movement of
theology (remember that the canon was finalized some two thousand
years ago), the majority view is a relatively recent innovation.
       I prefer a distinctly minority position, which would be called
multiple-rapture postmillennialism.  The postmillennial position
holds that many of the predictions made in the New Testament,
including those of the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24, Mk 13, Luke 21),
were accomplished in the early Christian era, and their past
fulfillment limits the future events to be expected.  There exists
one school, represented by, for example, Max King and Timothy James,
which holds that each and every prophecy of the entire New Testament
was accomplished during the early Church age.  However, I feel this
view neglects proper consideration of the Book of Revelation.
       Postmillennialism is also sometimes referred to as preterism,
which implies that the text is allowed to speak without exegesis. 
Thus, when Jesus repeatedly predicts the Kingdom within a generation,
I do not write off the statement as a mistake or excess of
enthusiasm.  Instead, I draw up a timetable that shows the Kingdom
beginning a generation after the Crucifixion.  Then, when John of
Patmos says the Millennium starts at this date of the beginning of
the Kingdom, I duly go to my chart (see Timetable at my site) and set
the Thousand Year Clock ticking.  There was in fact a specific date a
generation after the Crucifixion - the pivotal date of A.D. 70.  This
was the historical date of the Fall of Jerusalem, which is not a
particularly prominent date in more mainstream discussions.  This is
the date of the First Resurrection in the terminology of John of
Patmos that begins the Millennium.
       What happened in A.D. 70?  God works in mysterious ways, His
wonders to perform.  After a lengthy siege by the Roman legions,
Jerusalem was ransacked and leveled.  To the secular eye, as detailed
by Josephus in THE JEWISH WAR in gory detail, the scene was one of
mass destruction in which not even the Temple was spared.  A.D 70
blew it to Kingdom Come and the prophesied Kingdom did come.  For to
the spiritual eye, as Russell’s PAROUSIA demonstrated more than a
century ago, these events were the fulfillment of the Olivet
Discourse and the return of Jesus and His conquering armies in the
clouds to inaugurate the spiritual reign with the saints and
martyrs.  Other sources listed in the bibliography including
Chilton’s PARADISE RESTORED espouse this view.  Chilton nominated
Jerusalem as the Whore of Babylon and Rome as the Beast.  (Note added
2006:  In my 1986 Timetable I followed Chilton.  I have since
reversed my opinion.  I now see Rome as the Whore and Jerusalem as
the Beast.)
       I need to stop for a moment to consider the question of the
dating of the Book of Revelation.  The presently accepted date for
the appearance of the Book of Revelation is A.D. 95.  If this is the
correct date, the fulfillment of the predictions made so far would be
merely a matter of hindsight.  I recommend John A. T. Robinson’s
examination of this question in REDATING THE NEW TESTAMENT.  Robinson
cites extensive internal and external evidence for moving the date of
the Book of Revelation back to the A.D. 70 timeframe.  Further, he
traces the standard A.D. 95 view back to a single source.  This
source is a statement by Irenaeus that the Apocalypse first appeared 
“toward the end of Domitian’s reign.”  This statement is ambiguous
and may even be merely mistaken.  Other sources listed in the
bibliography (including Chilton and James) accept an earlier date.
       The Book of Revelation represents a significant amplification
of the preceding Gospels and Epistles.  Here the concept of the
Millennium is introduced for the first and only time.  The timetable
presented by John of Patmos extends forward to the future Judgment
Day and the establishment of the New Jerusalem, thereby completing
the New Testament Canon.
       Turning to the time period of the Millennium, lasting
approximately from A.D. 70 to A.D. 1070, the starting point was the
spiritual event, the Parousia, as detailed by Russell and Chilton. 
But secular historians looking back at this time period as a whole
have labeled it the Dark Ages.  More recently this verdict has been
tempered by the demonstration of the development and technical
progress that occurred in the Middle and Far East during these
years.  But it does remain true that for Western Civilization,
primarily Western Europe for these years, these were times of
unprecedented barbarism and ignorance.  During these times the blood
of countless martyrs was spilled in belatedly laying down the Roman
Empire and establishing the Church.  Violence was the order of the
day and sugarcoating or rose-colored glasses are unnecessary.  The
First Resurrection was an event of mass destruction and the Kingdom
or Millennium was an era of barbarism.  In other words, it is not an
accident or coincidence that the fulfillment of the prophecies was
apocalyptic.  Instead, there is an important principle to remember
here, since I will point out that Judgment Day will also be mass
destruction and the New Jerusalem to follow will appear to secular
eyes again be relative barbarism.  I will take up these thoughts
again in later chapters.
       Why didn’t Judgment Day begin about A.D.1070 with the end of
the Millennium?  Historically, many of the people living then did
expect to see the Messiah return.  I answer instead that this was the
date when Satan was unbound for his season.  Here I part company with
many of the sources listed in the bibliography.  They prefer to see
the Millennium as an indeterminate period extending potentially
thousands of years with Satan loosed for his season only shortly
prior to the Second Coming.  They see the Church still in the
Millennial period expanding and consolidating its gains to ultimately
convert the entire world immediately prior to the Advent.  On the
contrary, I hold that John of Patmos really meant a time period of
approximately one thousand years, and that Satan has been at work
sowing his evil.  I admit that the season has now lasted nearly a
thousand years in its own right.  One consolation is that this
extended period is finally about to come to a close.  Satan has been
quite busy from my point of view during the last centuries.  Examples
of his infamous work would be such events as the Renaissance, the
Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, the Inquisition, the
Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution on down to the contemporary
horrific mass movements.  I could be accused of being a feudalist or
an obscurantist here.  However, I do not look back to the Kingdom so
much as forward to the approaching New Jerusalem.  At this point in
time I feel we are reaching the low point of the curve descending to
Hell, immediately prior to the Messiah’s return.
       Thus, I teach hellfire and damnation, as do most of the right
wing evangelists who hold the premillennial view.  But, as I have
said, the postmillennialists of the bibliography, who are also
uniformly conservative for the most part, place much less emphasis on
this aspect.
       I am also in agreement with the premillennialists with respect
to the Rapture.  Historically, for eighteen centuries the Rapture was
taken as essentially simultaneous with the Advent.  This is detailed
by, among others, MacPherson in THE GREAT RAPTURE HOAX and Kimball in
THE RAPTURE:  A QUESTION OF TIMING.  MacPherson demonstrates that the
nineteenth century so-called Scotch seer Margaret MacDonald in 1830
introduced the pretribulational Rapture - a temporal separation of a
Secret Rapture from the Second Coming.  This introduction was a
theological novelty or innovation.  MacPherson traces the concept
from its introduction through the nineteenth century figures Darby
and Scofield to the mainstream electronic evangelists of today.  I
have said that I accept the multiple-Rapture view, which is a
variation of the pretribulational Rapture.  I agree, based on the
work of my sources, that this view had its origins only in the
nineteenth century.  I will indicate why I hold that view in the last
part of Chapter Three.
       I should note that because I take a preterist perspective, I
place less emphasis on seeing the events that occurred with the First
Resurrection exactly duplicated on Judgment Day.  For example, Nero
was clearly the Antichrist for A.D. 70, but I don’t necessarily
expect to see a new Antichrist prior to the Second Coming.  If forced
to, one could select from many twentieth century candidates for this
post.  Similarly, I don’t expect to see the coming events occurring
at the actual Jerusalem this time.  I predict in Chapter Four they
will more likely begin in one of the advanced Western nations.
       Beginning with the next chapter, I will be using apparently
incongruous sources, such as left wing sources from the sixties.  I
will delve into films and the media in general.  These sources I will
bring up are relevant to the issues of this chapter.  So far I have
outlined a plausible but not mainstream view of Christian
eschatology.  From this point forward, as promised, expect the view
presented to be ‘weird‘.
               (Return to TABLE OF CONTENTS)
                                                          CHAPTER TWO
 
            A FIRST LOOK AT NORMAN O. BROWN
 
 
 
                                                                    
It is a tale
                  Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying
nothing.                                                              
     - Brown quoting
Shakespeare                                                           

 
       There is a good possibility you have never heard of Norman O.
Brown or come across any of his writings.  His books are now a
generation old and partly out of print.  Perhaps certain of the
issues he raised have become moot with the passage of time.
       I think when his books originally came out Brown was taken as
merely a sexual radical.  I say merely here in the sense that Brown
would not be under discussion if I felt that was solely what he was
about.  A superficial reading of his cryptic, aphoristic style indeed
does give this impression.  However, the actual subject of two of his
books, LOVE’S BODY (1966) and CLOSING TIME (1973) was religion.  Of
the two books, CLOSING TIME is currently out of print but necessary
for a complete picture.  With these two books Brown actually solved
the mysteries of religion.  Am I here claiming that if you comprehend
these books you will have all your questions answered on religion? 
Yes, that is indeed what I am claiming.  Brown did get all the way to
the inner sanctum.  If you are able to solve Brown’s puzzles, you
will simultaneously solve the mysteries of religion.  I say this
fully aware that Brown’s erudition makes this a monumental task.
       If I have piqued your curiosity, and you decide to take a look
at Brown, the best procedure might be to look at some other sources
as a preliminary.  It’s all there in Brown in plain English, you
understand, but you may have more success by circling in from the
periphery.  One good out of print source from the same time period is
Eric Gutkind’s THE BODY OF GOD: FIRST STEPS TOWARD AN ANTI-THEOLOGY. 
This book is also written in an aphoristic style.  Comparing the
title of this book with LOVE’S BODY will give you a clue to start you
on the road to solving Brown.  In my correspondence with Brown, he
told only me he had to only open Gutkind's book to see the nearly
word for word similarities with LOVE’S BODY.
              Gutkind as a Jew was familiar with this Kabbalistic
concept of Adam Kadmon, as was the Jew Spinoza with his One
Substance.  William Blake referred to the Grand Man.  But later to
downgrade that idea, Brown in 'Closing Time' quotes Vico:  '- -were
frightened and astonished by the great effect whose cause they could
not know, and raised their eyes and became aware of the sky.  They
pictured the sky to themselves as a great animated body, which in
that aspect they called Jove, who meant to tell them something by the
hiss of his bolts and the clap of his thunder.
              Thus it was fear which created gods in the
world.'             
              Gutkind's writing was shrill.  He was disturbed because
he unconsciously understood The Taboo (see my Address) was being
violated, primarily by means of TV.  He said, 'Something is hitting
us out of the Stone Age.'
              Looking from the philosophical side, Michael
Harrington’s THE POLITICS AT GOD’S FUNERAL astutely asks  the right
questions.  The best book ever written on Jesus is Constantin
Brunner's OUR CHRIST:  THE REVOLT OF THE MYSTICAL GENIUS  (1921). 
Here's an interesting sentence out of the book: 'There he hung, the
blasphemer of God and slanderer of the most notable men, the poor
malicious fool, the incorrigible wretch, the whoreson and
whoremonger, the swindler, the liar, the seducer.'  The so-called
radical Freudians, in general, such as Marcuse, Reich and Roheim in
addition to Brown, are pertinent.  See Paul Robinson’s 'The Freudian
Left:  Wilhelm Reich, Geza Roheim and Herbert Marcuse.'
       There isn’t space for an exegesis of Brown.  Instead I’ll
outline a central idea - the importance of the Primal Scene.  For the
uninitiated, the Primal Scene is what Dad and Mom did in the
bedroom.  Now even Freud’s disciples had difficulty seeing the
significance of the Oedipal Primal Scene and repeatedly attempted to
revise their master.  Perhaps the best way to get an inkling of its
significance is to set up a confrontation between the Joker (the
little 'castrated' clown portrayed by Brown) and you.  Put yourself
in the following scene as a male:
 
 
       You are standing on the outskirts of the big, modern city
where you live as the Joker approaches.
       The Joker begins, “You know, stranger, I’ve been doing a lot
of traveling lately and have seen several cities, including this
one.  I must say I don’t like what I’ve been seeing at all.  In every
town the residents use elaborate locks on their doors and seen to be
afraid to get outside on their own sidewalks at night.  One minute
they use each other’s bodies as pleasure objects, and the next they
sue each other at the slightest provocation.  I see noise, confusion,
mayhem and worse at each turn.  I can’t think of a thing that
happened in Sodom that hasn’t happened here many times over.  Tell
me, when you first came here was the city the same as it is now?”
       You reply,  “More or less it was, indeed.”
       The Joker says,  “This town is a hard place to try to make a
living in.  Life is so hectic, there is such a constant rush and din,
that I sometimes believe I’m really caught in a nightmare and will
wake up at any moment.  This is no place to try to start a family or
to raise a child.  There’s no place for the kids to play here.  You
know, although I’ve had plenty of opportunities to unzip my pants and
pull out my gun here, I just haven’t felt right about it and so far
decided to keep my pants zipped up.  But I see by the ring on your
finger that the situation here apparently didn’t deter you.  You had
the same opportunity, after all, to look around and see what was
going on.  But I see that no matter what you saw, you weren’t about
to stay away. You had to have it.  I admit that I am only a Fool. 
But I ask you - who’s the better man?”
       You:  (Speechless).
       The Joker resumes,  “ Because I care about the evil I see and
you don’t particularly care, you end up with a child to carry on your
line, and I don’t.  I ask you, which man has the greater love?”
       You finally speak,  “Before I punch you out, do you have
anything more to say? - Any last words?”
       The Joker ignores this and pauses a moment to scan the distant
skyline.  He then points a finger at the tallest skyscraper, rising
in the mists - a source of civic pride known to all residents (and an
indisputable phallic symbol).  (Note added:  I here 'prophesied' the
World Trade Center attack 20 years ago.  Also, my Timetable
'prophecy' showing the Last Days beginning in 2000, turned out to be
the same event).
              The Joker turns and asks,  “How? - that building there
- Tell me how that modern Tower of Babel was constructed?  No, let me
answer the question.  It was constructed by men who at some time or
other unzipped their pants.  Not that a single one of them was ever
forced to you understand.  It is after all a voluntary act.  Now I
ask you to consider for a moment with me what would have happened if
not one of these same men had ever unzipped their pants at all - not
even one single time.  How much of what you see around here now would
still be here?  I’ll answer - not a bit of it would here, including
the building I just pointed to. I’ve been wondering these days why we
put up with the perpetual nightmares here that we go through to get
these massive monuments constructed.  If we could just get all the
women under control, we could sit around all day and drink beer and
play cards.”
       You reply,  “Leave it to a shiftless ne’er-do-well to --”
       The Joker interrupts,  “What we really need here is a King -
the absolute biggest Fool we can find with the largest member.  I
think you may agree that I am the perfect candidate for this job, as
I’m absolutely no good for anything else.”
       The pair glare at each other, ready to fight.
 
 
 
 
       Let me make the important point about this tale that the ‘you”
of the dialogue could just as well be the Joker’s father as anyone
else - not a single line of the preceding would need to be changed. 
(In the original tale of Oedipus meeting his father at the
crossroads, the pair had been separated and there was a disguise and
neither seemed to recognize the other, at least consciously.)  If the
’you’ of the narrative were indeed the Joker’s father, the Joker
would then literally be a son of a gun.  This would also make the
Joker on his mother’s side literally an S.O.B.
       In the dialogue that took place at the Temptation of Christ
(Matt. 4:1-11, Mk. 2:13, Luke 4:1-13), Jesus rejected Satan’s offer
of the kingdoms of this world.  Brown says we are indeed in Satan’s
kingdom, i.e., Hell, especially in the big cities.  Jesus will one
day accept dominion over the earthly kingdoms, but only on Judgment
Day when His enemies have been made into footstools.  When He does
return, He will bring the keys to Hell and to Death.  This implies
that a massive restructuring of present urban life - our man-made
Hell - will begin at this point.
       To change the subject, if you have an interest in James Joyce,
you should examine the excerpts Brown has collected in CLOSING TIME. 
Joyce either imitates (or himself actually is) the insane, and the
WAKE is from start to finish nothing but the gibberings of a madman. 
FINNEGANS WAKE is a textual Rorschach test, by which I mean that in
its voluminous pages, any phrase you are looking for before you open
the book can likely be found.  But all the excerpts Brown has
assembled taken together conclusively demonstrate that Joyce
‘cracked’ religion, i.e., that all the answers were set down in the
WAKE.  In other words, Brown demonstrates that Joyce earlier
pioneered the same trail in that Brown found.  I don’t want to go
beyond fair use and start quoting text, so I’ll stop.
              (Return to TABLE OF CONTENTS)
                                                        CHAPTER THREE
 
             THE MEDIA MESSIAH:  LOOKING FOR JESUS ON TV
 
       Let me start with a lengthy list:
 
PURPLE RAIN      COLORED RAIN      GREEN RAIN     FAIRY RAIN    
INVISIBLE RAIN     BLOWING THE WIND     REAPING THE WHIRLWIND    
IDIOT WIND   RADIO GA GA     THE WHISPERING WIND     WEATHER WAR    
SHIP OF FOOLS     THE STARS FALL OUT     REICHIAN ORGONE     RADAR
LOVE     THE CALL     LONDON CALLING     THE BIG BROADCAST     WEIRD
RADIO     PLANET WAVES     THE CRAZY RAY     BLOWING THE HORN    
SOUNDING THE TRUMPET     HORSE WHISPERING     MIND WAR     FAIRY
GOLD     FAIRY BLIGHT     FAIRY BASEBALL     FAIRY BOWLING      
WALLS TUMBLING DOWN     BALLOON GOES UP     THE FINAL COUNTDOWN    
THE LONG GOODBYE     THE BIG SHOOTOUT     THE LAST ROUNDUP    
DROPPING THE VIALS     THE POWER AND THE GLORY     FIRE AND
BRIMSTONE     THE FLOOD     TWINKLING OF AN EYE         RAPTURED
OUT     SWEPT UP     THE SECRET RAPTURE       MARCHING MORONS    
DEAD MAN'S CURVE     VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED   LAND OF THE GIANTS    
DROPPING THE BIG ONE     THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL     THE
MACHINE STOPS     THE FINAL SOLUTION      THE ELEPHANT BURIAL
GROUNDS     THE ROAD TO HOLOCAUST      TIMEBOMB TICKING OVER
SODOM      LAYING THE DEVIL DOWN       RADIO SILENCE     LIGHTS
OUT     SHUTTING IT DOWN     TURNING IT OFF     PULLING THE
PLUG       PUSHING THE PANIC BUTTON     PUNCHING THE DELETE
BUTTON     SLIP SLIDING AWAY     FLUSHED AWAY     THE SCREEN GOES
DARK     CLOSING TIME     JUDGMENT DAY     SIGNING OFF    
NIGHTFALL     THE BIG SLEEP     MY FAIRY DUMP
 
     “Whom the gods would destroy, they first drive mad.”
              “God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.”
'♪ She sends a cable comin' in from above
Don't need no phone at all
We've got a thing that's called Radar Love
We've got a wave in the air, Radar Love'   (Golden Earring)
              The band name means the ringing in your ear (or Led
Zeppelin's humming in you head, or wave in the air) that is Radar
Love, not heard by your external ears.  'Sane' people can't seem to
hear it very well.
'♪ No one likes us
I dont know why
We may not be perfect
but heaven knows we try
But all around
ever our old friends
put us down
Lets drop the big one and see what happens

Asia's crowded
Europe's too old
Africa's far too hot
and Canada's too cold
South America stole our name
Lets drop the big one
(There'll be no one left to blame us)'       
 
We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too
Boom goes London and boom Paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me
They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now                                                                      (Randy Newman)
              I’ll ask some questions about this list to clarify it. 
At first sight, looking over this by no means exhaustive list, it
appears we need to get out our umbrellas (or perhaps a degree in
meteorology).  The first question to ask is:  How many of these
phrases have you ever come across before?  Try to think where, if
anywhere, any of these phrases can be found.  After thinking it over,
you might decide that some show up in literature, some may be from
the Bible, but many of them come from the media. 
   The next question about the list would be:  by grouping all these
phrases together as I did, did I thus intend to imply that each
phrase is identical or synonymous with each other phrase in the
list?  No, they are interchangeable in only a few cases, but they are
interrelated.  What then do the phrases have in common?  My answer is
that all bear a direct relationship to a single phrase:
 
 
                  MASS PSYCHOSIS
 
       This particular phrase, Mass Psychosis, you are probably less
likely to have come across.  Mass Psychosis is in fact the actual
meaning of the Secret Rapture doctrine of the Fundamentalists.
       Now I’m sure if one had the opportunity to interview rock star
Prince and ask him what he meant by Purple Rain that he would not
immediately reply,  “a codeword for mass psychosis.”  Similarly, Bob
Dylan wouldn’t be inclined to say,  “When I sang about Idiot Wind, I
meant mass psychosis.”  I would instead expect convoluted
explanations involving literary metaphors, etc., if I received any
reply at all.
       Incidentally, I mentioned Prince deliberately since there was
controversy about his  ‘explicit ’ lyrics when his songs came out.  I
note that his critics had nothing at all to say about the other
dimension of his songs I am pointing to here - Judgment Day by 1999,
etc.  Prince's source was:
'♪ Cause the free wind is blowin' through your hair
And the days surround your daylight there
Seasons crying no despair
Alligator lizards in the air, in the air
 
Wishin' on a falling star
Waitin' for the early train
Sorry boy, but I've been hit by purple rain
Aw, come on, Joe, you can always
Change your name
Thanks a lot, son, just the same
Ventura Highway in the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger than moonshine
You're gonna go I know'                                                                                                                (America)      
Here I want to stop discussion of the list and       return at the
end of this chapter with more comments.  Let me briefly return to the
general topic of the media.  By media I mean all the conduits by
which paid entertainment reaches us - film, radio, television, etc. 
Because television has such a voracious appetite, I will be using the
term media and TV more or less interchangeably.  Think of how TV, in
order to fill each and every hour, gobbles up the output of the other
media, from films to stage plays to even rock music in the form of
music videos.

              Here's a shot from an MTV video, showing Reich's Rainmaker:

                                          Kate Bush – 'Cloudbusting' Video
Some of us are logging in nearly a third of our lives glued to our
sets these days.  A clue according to Brown is, 'The phallus is so
closely identified with magic in Roman religion that the word
fascinum meaning 'enchantment', 'witchcraft' (cf. fascinate), is one
of the standard Latin terms for the phallus.'  As a baby boomer, I
teethed on TV and took its pervasive influence for granted.  But,
after decades of exposure we have now had, I feel it is time we
should begin a serious examination of the media.  Its influence is
probably considerably greater than literary sources today.
       Already by the sixties we had the McLuhanesque dictum that the
medium is the message.  This idea is that the content is not
particularly important, but rather the existence and ubiquitousness
of the medium itself is the most significant fact.
       Let me look at media criticism in terms of increasing level of
profundity.  At the lowest, most abysmal level, the media are seen as
providing harmless entertainment.  But the billions of dollars we
dump into the media demonstrate that much more is going on.  Slightly
better is the extreme right wing evangelical view that TV and films
are the devil’s picture book and rock music is the devil’s   music. 
This approach has the virtue of being factually correct, but has
fallen on increasingly hard times as all but the diehards have
capitulated and joined in the media cacophony themselves.  Massive
blocks of radio broadcast time and entire cable networks are devoted
to selling Jesus sandwiched in between the ads for soap and used
cars.
              Slightly more discriminating is the idea that TV is a
boob tube and rock music is infantile, subversive trash, and exposure
to one or both may permanently warp your brain.  Is the ultimate
objective to produce a race of mindless, godless, zombie giants (the
return of the “men of renown” of Genesis as described by Brown in
CLOSING TIME)?  (Literalists mistakenly believe that they were
actually physically giants, but what they were was selfish, vicious
ogres.)
       What indeed keeps us mesmerized by the flickering images hour
after hour?  Why are so many of us couch potatoes - practically
frozen into stone statues?  What are we really watching?  Joyce in
the WAKE labels it 'swishingsight teilweisioned'.
              The answer from Norman O. Brown is that we are seeing
the Oedipal Primal Scene reenacted night after night in endless
repetition with slight variations.  You object,  “I beg your pardon. 
I watched a game show followed by a situation comedy last night.” 
What we are really doing here is paying performers to put on the only
show we want to see.
       Finally, at the highest level of criticism, we also
simultaneously get the final verdict on the media.  We are watching
Jesus get crucified night after night in excruciating detail,
although we may not be consciously aware of it.  After decades of
this, I think it is likely to catch up with us some day.  In other
words, the lurid violence and evil we see depicted in the media may
eventually come to us in real life.
       In spite of the blanket condemnation of the last paragraph,
I’m going to turn around and list some movies.  Ideally you should
stay away.  But the payoff is going to come to us all, whether or not
we individually may or may not have watched.  In the meantime,
perhaps we can use the opportunity to study both the overt and the
subtle techniques being employed.
      The primary genre to keep an eye on is science fiction.  As
Susan Sontag said in the sixties, this is the genre of apocalypse and
mass destruction.  Typically, as in the prototype FRANKENSTEIN
(1932), a man attempts to appropriate the prerogatives of God
(technically blasphemy) and reaps madness and disaster.  These are
rigidly moral parables where retribution is swift and sure.
       Look, for example, at Rene Clair’s THE CRAZY RAY (1923) from
the infancy of the industry.  The elements that were to become
clichés with decades of continuous repetition were already present. 
A mad scientist invents a ray machine he constructs inside the Eiffel
Tower that freezes the inhabitants of Paris into stone statues.
                                         
                                                        'The Crazy
Ray'
An aircraft initialy out of range of the ray lands, and the
passengers are astonished when they disembark.
             

                            'The Crazy Ray' - Frozen into Stone Statues!

One worthwhile principle of criticism is to pay particular attention
to the message of film titles.  In this example, the title might
bring to mind such questions as:  “did the title mean the inventor
was crazy? Or did the ray have crazy effects? Or did the ray drive
people crazy, implying that to turn   people to stone is to drive
them mad?”  Properly understood, that was the last movie that ever
needed to be made, since there was enough there to kill us all!
       A quite similar theme is presented in THE VILLAGE OF THE
DAMNED (1960) and its sequel THE CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964) (what
questions do these titles bring to mind?).  This time a mysterious
influence seals off an entire village, the perpetrators in this case
being invading aliens.  Here, as in THE CRAZY RAY, a geographic area
is temporarily circumscribed.  The females are impregnated by the
aliens and subsequently bear children with glowing eyes and
mysterious powers.  This aspect of the film echoes the tale in the
Book of Enoch of the fallen angels who descended to earth to mate
with the women and to teach forbidden arts.

'Village of the Damned' Super Children with Glowing Eyes

       Let me quickly note a few relevant characteristics of paranoid
schizophrenia as described by, for example, Norman O. Brown, Geza
Roheim or Victor Tausk.  The patient believes evil entities such as
aliens from another world are secretly conspiring to do him harm. 
The patient may believe his enemies are employing physical equipment
such as beam projectors against him.  He is subject to seeing
hallucinations or hearing voices attempting to guide his actions
against his will.  In THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR (1950) normal radio
broadcasts are interrupted for short periods each night, and the cast
seems to hear a message. This message seems to be more or less the
Sermon on the Mount.  Was this the voice of God?  If not, what was
it?
       Another frequent theme in science fiction is the nomination of
candidate (false) messiahs.  I say false, since we are merely
watching actors playing a fictional role.  A real life prototype of
these characters if found would not automatically thereby be a
messiah.  An example is THE MAN FROM PLANET X (1951), which has an
alien who is trapped and needs earthly assistance.
       THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) (note the title) offers
another false messiah.  An alien descends in a saucer, takes on the
interesting name of Mr. Carpenter, has a gathering of wise men, is
killed and resurrected three days later, etc.  In the case of this
film, the extensive analogies were conscious on the part of some of
the production people and were taken from the story on which the film
is based.  'If the Earth dies, you die.  But if you die, the Earth
survives.' Thus sprach Klaatu (Kenau Reeves) in deadpan monotone in
the dull 2008 remake.  My clear task as space alien Klaatu is to
rapture out billions!
              In the BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (1958)(my all time
favorite movie), an alien possesses a scientist, who then embarks on
a mad quest to rule the world.  This is my all time favorite movie. 
He shoots airliners out of the sky with his eyes while cackling
maniacally.  This is Wizard Rainmaking.  He causes megaton explosions
with no visible weapons in a blackmail scheme for world domination. 
He is a sex fiend.
'The Brain from Planet Arous' - Sex Fiend Madman Cackles While Shooting Down Airliners with his
Eyes!
 

                                          Drooling Alien Sex Fiend

(Me)             

Ellen in Pretty White Panties Attacked By Sliming 'Alien' Film Monster!

              Ingmar Bergman’s THE MAGICIAN (1958) presents a rather
dyspeptic false messiah from a traveling carnival show.  The messiah
of WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1962) (note the title) is a fugitive
mistaken for Jesus when discovered in their barn.  When apprehended
and frisked, he stretches his arms to form a cross.  THE FLIM FLAM
MAN (1967) is a petty con artist living by his wits.  CHARLY (1968)
is mentally retarded until chemically transformed into a supermind. 
THE RULING CLASS (1971) has a wizard fight (= unconsciously a white
meringue slime pie fight between clowns/madmen) to determine which
madman is 'Christ', the winner being an apparent psychopath.
                                         

                            'The Ruling Class' - Delusions of Grandeur

              THE OMEGA MAN (1971), a remake of THE LAST MAN ON EARTH
(1964), (note the titles) offers another ersatz messiah.  In ZARDOZ
(1973), the messiah figure is a barbarian.                           
              In 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1919), the Professor
is a wizard with his magic wand (phallus), and the 'cabinet' is the
fil