"Tony sleeps with the fishes"

"Every dog has his day"

Thus Spake Zarathrustra

2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written by sci-fi genius Arthur C. Clarke. Visually stunning scenes, little dialogue, and an enigmatic ending make it one of the most beautiful films ever made and at the same time one of the most difficult to understand. This post will offer one interpretation of the film, which, in the end, is but one of many.

The monoliths seem to propel Man to his next stage of evolution. Before the first monolith appears in Africa 4 million years ago, our ancestors are indistinguishable from their primate cousins.


The presence of the monolith, however, prompts one forward-thinking ape do something that no being on the planet has done before: pick up a bone and smash things with it. In that moment, Man makes the enormous evolutionary leap into his next stage of existence and thus begins the Age of the Tool.


The use of tools allows him to reach the Stars (which, ironically, renders him a child who must learn how to walk again and is relegated to eating food through a straw) and culminates in his development of a computer that is so sophisticated that it gains its own sense of self. It is at this point that Man reaches a critical point in his development - for the tools that he has created threaten to overpower him. Man has no choice but to discard his beloved tools and face the uncertainty of the Unknown himself.


Man is now ready for the next stage of his evolution. He is propelled through space and time, across the Cosmos, developing at an accelerated rate until he is confronted with the final obstacle: his own death.


When, as an old man, Dave knocks the wine glass off the table breaking it, but the liquid is still there, it seems as if the orchestrator of this process is raising the question, "When the body dies and the container is gone, what is left?"


In the answer lies the point of the film: What is left when the container has been discarded is nothing other than You.

Kubrick's reference to Neitzsche's Starchild is designed to represent the next stage of Man's development. A nuclear missile has no effect on him for he is beyond form. Man has now reached the next stage of his evolution - he is Consciousness.

"Bow to your Sensei!"

The martial arts are in a dismal state in the U.S. as a result of the tremendously popular UFC and other sport-fighting leagues. What was once a practice of discipline, self-awareness, and service has become a huge business that caters to people's desire for power and greed. Humility has been replaced by arrogance and self-discipline has given way to self-indulgence. This publication laments its demise but sees no real possibility of it changing.

For a brilliant satire of this phenomenon click here to see a scene from Napoleon Dynamite in which he and his brother consider training in the ancient art of Rex Kwon Do!

And then, click here to see Rex's amazing students demonstrate their mastery!

A Triumphant Return

Mario Sepulveda leads a cheer after spending 69 days in a collapsed mine in Chile.

Aircraft 101

A Battle of Champions

Click here to watch infamous World War I ace, Snoopy, meet his match in the Red Baron himself.

The Snowman

"I remember that winter because it brought the heaviest snows I'd ever seen. Snow had fallen steadily all night long and in the morning I awoke in a room filled with light and silence. The whole world seemed to be held in a dream-like stillness. It was a magical day, and it was on that day, that I built The Snowman."





Click here to see the first part of the film.
Click here to see the second part.
Click here to see the finale.

Roman Sunset

In the Shadow of the Moon

Our Finest Hour

Devil on the Roof

Gargoyles were initially added onto the roofs of medieval churches to funnel rainwater away from the buildings because if allowed to trickle down between the stones, the water would erode the mortar in between. They also served a religious purpose by giving a face to evil in a world in which literacy was generally reserved to the clergy.

Interestingly, not all medieval Christian clergymen viewed them favorably. St. Bernard du Clairvaux referred to them as "unclean monkeys,...strange savage lions, and monsters[.] To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man, or these spotted tigers?...Surely if we do not blush for such absurdities, we should at least regret what we have spent on them."

Regardless of their functional purpose or popularity with the Church, this publication holds them in high esteem and will publish a few of the more expressive ones found hanging around at European cathedrals:

"Oh, that's terrible but there really isn't much I can do to help."

"What? You mean I've got to stay like this forever?!"

"These mere mortals will be put in their place when the Master comes."

"Don't mind me. I'm just looking around."

"Hmm. I wonder what I'll do to-day..."

Lost at Sea

Much attention has been given recently to the struggles of veterans returning from the Iraqi and Afghan wars. While the effort is commendable, the discussion usually focuses on the lack of mental health resources available to the soldiers upon their return. Unfortunately, this focus is misguided for the problem does not lie in the lack of resources being thrown at the problem because it is not one that can be fixed by psychiatrists and medication. The problem lies, rather, in the unfortunate fact many soldiers come home from war only to find out that there is no longer any home to come back to. This post will attempt to explain why.

The conventional image that comes to mind when people think of soldiers returning from war is this one, taken in Times Square in 1945, at the end of World War II:


Unfortunately, while the initial joy illustrated in the photo may be genuine, what is not shown is what will happen in the coming weeks, or months, or years for that is when real problems will emerge and the elation of coming home can no longer compensate for it.

As any loyal reader of this publication is aware, films are a passion of the author and oftentimes used to illustrate points. Consistent with established precedent, it will be done again....

In the final scene of The Outlaw Josey Wales, the man who has been hunting Wales across the country recognizes him outside of saloon despite the fact that the locals refer to him as "Mr. Wilson" in order to protect his identity. After all the effort spent in tracking him down he decides to let Wales go on his way and to let him live his life as a free man. In a conversation before the patrons who protected Wales' identity the man says, "I think I'll go down to Mexico to try to find him..I think I'll try to tell him the war is over. What do you say to that, Mr Wilson?" Wales looks at him, spits in his usual way, and says, "I reckon so. I guess we all died a little in that damn war."

Japanese kamikaze fighter about to crash into an American ship

The death that Wales refers to is not a result of the fact that combat is stressful and intense. Mankind has been waging war for thousands of years and many people are well-suited for it. And many of those warriors routinely fought and then returned to daily life on an on-going basis. The explanation as to why that was the case justifies an essay in an of itself but at this point it must be summed up by saying that as warrior cultures, the societies at home knew how to bear the circumstance of occasional violence and were less apt to fall apart. The warriors, then, were able to come home to some semblance of what they left, assuming they survived.

In contrast to ancient times, soldiers now return home to find their own homes as ravaged as the battlefields they've just left. At that point, regardless of whether one has sustained injuries or not, the war has exacted a heavy personal price. This, I believe, was what Erich Maria Remarque was referring to when he wrote the dedication to his classic World War I novel, All Quiet on the Western Front:

"This book is dedicated to those, who though they were not killed by its' shells, were destroyed by the war."

German soldier in World War II

There are many reasons for the destruction that soldiers come home to and it is impossible to describe them all. It suffices to say, though, that whether it is karma, the prolonged separation and distance (physical and emotional) from loved ones, or the result of bringing the Beast home from the battlefield into the living room, it is impossible to participate in the conduct of war free of personal cost. Spouses disconnect, children find replacement father figures, and friends have a hard time reconnecting because of the substantial discrepancy in experience and perspective. The end result is a break from the old life that had once existed and a descent into isolation that, if unchecked, only feeds itself.

The isolation has a dark face and oftentimes is accompanied by alcohol, drug abuse, and flirtations with self-destruction. In not too long the will to live and prosper subsides and the typical response to a dangerous situation that would otherwise elicit an response grounded in self-preservation looks something like this:

Captain Nathan Algren played by Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai

It is at this point that suicide, murderous rampages, psychotic breaks, and all the other "symptoms" of what used to be referred to as "Shell Shock" appear. The term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has entered the common vocabulary and has been used to refer to this phenomenon but, unfortunately, as the name implies, it leads people to believe that the trauma induced the stress when, in fact, it is the other way around: the stress on the their lives and their subsequent destruction causes the trauma.

Once this is understood, it becomes strikingly clear why despite all the efforts at suicide prevention, post-deployment mental health screenings, and the availability of mental health professionals, combat veterans are killing themselves and self-destructing at an alarming rate. This is because it simply doesn't matter if you're in the parking lot of the Johns Hopkins E.R. if you get run over by a bulldozer.

Dead soldier caught in barbed-wire in No Man's Land in the First World War

In a society like ours, a far cry from a warrior culture in which men and their families were raised to endure the stresses that war brings, we are simply not prepared to bear a burden such as the one we have for the last 9 years. And that is certainly the case when the burden is shouldered by only a fraction of a percent of the population.

German and Soviet troops exchange fire in the Battle of Stalingrad

In the end, no allocation of resources for post-combat assistance will remedy the problem and give those soldiers back what they've lost. Many of those things are lost forever. Rebuilding their lives from scratch is something they will have to do themselves and, unfortunately, lacking the proper myths, role models, and expert assistance, many will never make it. It is this publication's hope, though, that if the real problem is better understood, less effort will be wasted on futile solutions and soldiers returning from wars may one day have a better chance of actually coming home.

七人の侍

Kambei: So. Again we are defeated.

[Shichiroji looks at Kambei, puzzled]

Kambei: The farmers have won. Not us.

- The Seven Samurai

The Truth Revealed

The Original 'Man with No Name' - Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo (1961)

A Great Remake - Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

Unforgiven

William Munny: I ain't like that no more. I ain't the same, Ned. Claudia, she straightened me up, cleared me of drinkin' whiskey and all. Just 'cause we're goin' on this killing, that don't mean I'm gonna go back to bein' the way I was...

Ned Logan: You were crazy, Will.

William Munny: Yeah, no one liked me. Mountain boys all thought I was gonna shoot 'em out of pure meanness.

Ned Logan: Well, like you said, you ain't like that no more.

William Munny: That's right. I'm just a fella now. I ain't no different than anyone else no more.


Some years later, Mrs. Ansonia Feathers made the arduous journey to Hodgeman County to visit the last resting place of her only daughter. William Munny had long since disappeared with the children...some said to San Francisco where it was rumored he prospered in dry goods. And there was nothing on the marker to explain to Mrs. Feathers why her only daughter had married a known thief and murderer, a man of notoriously vicious and intemperate disposition.

-Unforgiven

I think, therefore I am

It's Gotta be the Pearl Cream

"When 900 years old you reach, look as good, you will not, hm?"

-Master Yoda

Victory in Iraq

The Highest Ideal for a Warrior

[Realizing that the assassin has come too close to be stopped and that his death is imminent, the King of Qin stands up and stares at the scroll behind him]

"I have just come to a realization! This scroll by Broken Sword contains no secrets of his swordsmanship. What this reveals is his highest ideal. In the first state, man and sword become one and each other. Here, even a blade of grass can be used as a lethal weapon. In the next stage, the sword resides not in the hand but in the heart. Even without a weapon, the warrior can slay his enemy from a hundred paces. But the ultimate ideal is when the sword disappears altogether. The warrior embraces all around him. The desire to kill no longer exists. Only peace remains."

-King of Qin, Hero