Thread by @sillymickel

Chapter 11

of *Culture War, Class War 2022: Truth & Generations*

by Michael Adzema

is titled,

“Culture War Allegory:

“Reversing the Invasion of the Body Snatchers...to Follow or Not to Follow the Script”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #FBR #psychology #history

CW22 11/1

“[*Chapter 11 text begins:*] The film, *Pleasantville*, is a postmodern sociological allegory or fable released in 1998.”

READ &/or dwl entire BOOK free AT SITE... wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature

CW22 11/2

“*Not So Pleasantville*

“It begins in then-current time against a backdrop of the usual violence, chaos, & turbulence that we are conditioned by the media to believe characterized the Nineties in America.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #psychology #history

CW22 11/3

“Two high school teenagers, David & Jennifer, played by Tobey Maguire & Reese Witherspoon, are planning their evening.”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #50s #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature

CW22 11/4

“*A Tale of Two Siblings*

“David is planning to watch the *Pleasantville* marathon on television & to participate in the trivia contest that will be part of it.”

READ BOOK> sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/5

“*Pleasantville* is an old sitcom from the 1950s in the *Father Knows Best*, *Leave It to Beaver*, *My Three Sons* style which has attained a cult-like following…”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #psychology #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/6

“…& [*Pleasantville*] is shown regularly on a cable channel similar to the “Nick at Nite” one that we know of which specialized in reruns of old sitcoms.”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature

CW22 11/7

“It becomes clear that David is an ardent devotee of the show in part because it compensates for the lameness of his real life.”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #SexualRevolution #sex

CW22 11/8

“Unlike his sister, who is portrayed as a real “firecracker” of a young woman, [David] doesn’t date or participate in the school scene.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #SexualRevolution

CW22 11/9

“It is implied that he may be using the sitcom as an escape from not only a boring life but a threatening one & that he longs to live in the kind of ordered, safe, & unchallenging reality that the sitcom depicts.”

THREAD sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology

CW22 11/10

“David is such an avid follower of the show that he is shown to be a master of *Pleasantville* trivia & is primed & eager for the contest on Pleasantville trivia.”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #allegory

CW22 11/11

“However his sister, Jennifer, is planning for a hot date at home...their parents being away for the weekend providing an opportunity for her to be unchaperoned with her guy...which she eagerly anticipates.”

READ/DWL BOOK.. drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #allegory

CW22 11/12

“At odds over what will be played on the TV—Jennifer wanting to watch instead an MTV concert with her date—they wrestle over the TV remote & end up breaking it.”

READ BOOK… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #allegory

CW22 11/13

“Nevertheless, all is not lost as at just that moment & completely inexplicably a television repairman played by Don Knotts drives up in his truck, knocks on the door, & imposes his services on them in fixing the problem.”

READ BOOK> wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #allegory

CW22 11/14

“Don Knotts—perfectly cast, in a Hero’s Cycle sense,for it is often the impish or normally overlooked & unnoticed element that initiates sweeping changes in ppl’s lives—indeed does introduce the magical element into the film.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/15

“[The tv repairman] produces a different kind of remote control, which he claims has special effects saying, “You want something to put you right in the show!””

READ BOOK… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/16

“Sure enough, in checking out the remote they hit a mysterious button & are transported into the TV & thus into the sitcom & the town that is called *Pleasantville*.”

READ BOOK> wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #50s #sex #Psychohistory #allegory

CW22 11/17

“*To Follow or Not to Follow “The Script”*

“After thr initial confusion, they realize what has happened & try to return, but do not know how to. David—who it becomes apparent has been thrust into the role of Bud in the sitcom—”

READ/DWL BK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/18

“—[David] advises his sister—Jennifer who has become Mary Sue in the TV series—to go along with events until they figure a way to get home.”

READ BOOK> sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #resist

CW22 11/19

“Since he knows all the plots of every show of the sitcom, his idea is that they act out the events as they are supposed to happen & that they do what the two characters—the teenage son…”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex

CW22 11/20

“…& daughter of the parents in the sitcom, Betty & George Parker, played superbly by Joan Allen & William H. Macy—are known to do in the different episodes he has seen.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #psychology #history #50s #sex #Psychohistory

CW22 11/21

“Essentially, then, David as Bud is advising his sister to “follow the script.” & of course it is not hard to discern at this point that we are beginning to see a metaphor for psychological realities…”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #allegory

CW22 11/22

“…& that “following the script” has a broader meaning for a choice that everyone must make in life in growing up,..”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #metaphor #allegory #Midterms #psychology #history #50s #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/23

“…specifically, to follow the script laid out for oneself by one’s parents & society in general or to follow one’s inner direction & inner guide in asserting one’s individuality & expressing one’s unique self.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #psychology

CW22 11/24

“The remainder of the movie is the story of how these two characters—transported magically from the future as well as from the real world as opposed to a made-up TV world—introduce change into the town & thereby color.”

THREAD sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #allegory #FBR

CW22 11/25

“Mary Sue, formerly Jennifer, does it consciously. Rebelling against her brother’s admonishments to follow the script, she goes on a date with someone she is not supposed to according to the sitcom script…”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #allegory #psychology #FBR

CW22 11/26

“…& then—horror of horrors for a 1950s world—engages in sex with him at the local “lover’s lane”—where the farthest that anyone goes, according to “script,” is holding hands.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #FBR

CW22 11/27

“We find later that her date describes this unheard of experience to his classmates, and,..”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #SexualRevolution #FBR

CW22 11/28

“…like ripples emanating from a pebble dropped in a pond, her action results in a number of the school youth engaging in sex & thereby becoming, to everyone’s amazement, colorized!”

READ BOOK> wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #allegory

CW22 11/29

“The brother also introduces change, & therefore color, but it is done unconsciously at first. As mentioned, he tries to get his sister to follow the script.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #psychology #history #50s #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/30

“Still, in a metaphorically powerful scene, when [the brother,David] is late for work at the local malt shop—this is unheard of as well bc Pleasantville is a world where no one is ever late for work—he inadvertently introduces change himself.”

sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/31

“In fact, he introduces the most insidious element of change because he explicitly advises—without realizing what he has unleashed—that his boss think for himself!”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #allegory

CW22 11/32

“In this scene Bud, formerly David, finds his boss & coworker, Mister Johnson, played by Jeff Daniels, stuck at the end of the counter, cleaning away with a washcloth, like a stuck record, at the same spot.."

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #allegory #resist

CW22 11/33

“…[cleaning away with a washcloth, like a stuck record, at the same spot,] even as the surface of the counter is rubbing away.”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #metaphor #allegory #Conformity

CW22 11/34

“When the soda jerk, Mister Johnson, explains confusedly that the normal regimen would have required Bud to arrive at work before he, Mister Johnson, could go on to the rest of his chores,..”

THREAD wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex

CW22 11/35

“…Bud simply suggests to Mister Johnson that in the future he continue with his next chore even if Bud is not there.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #psychology #history #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #SexualRevolution #Conformity

CW22 11/36

“So simply in being himself, coming from a future in which people react to change by thinking out new responses & thereby adapting to them, Bud, aka David, introduces a totally new element into the soda jerk’s script.”

>… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #metaphor #aliveness

CW22 11/37

“This has far reaching consequences as the movie progresses & Mister Johnson begins thinking for himself & having ideas about other things as well. In this way, the soda jerk, soon to be artist, too ends up “colored.””

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #allegory #FBR

CW22 11/38

“*Blue Meanies*

“The 1998 movie, *Pleasantville*, thematically, is remarkably akin to the 1968-released movie *Yellow Submarine* put out by the Sixties Generation rock group The Beatles.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #allegory #psychology #aliveness #FBR

CW22 11/39

“The angry & oppressive personas [of the Blue Meanies] are shown to reveal poor little whining babies behind them.”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #allegory #HumanNature

CW22 11/40

“The actions [of the Blue Meanies] are shown to be those of “big babies,” whose gruff exterior must remain intact at all costs, lest their hidden sniveling & hurt little selves be revealed.”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #metaphor #allegory #history #Fifties #sex

CW22 11/41

“The analogy the Beatles are making to those of the WWII Generation—at that time the parental generation, those “over 30”—is impossible not to make.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #metaphor #allegory #metaphor #allegory #history #50s #sex #Psychohistory

CW22 11/42

““Nowhere Man”

“The movies are so similar in theme that the only major thematic difference between *Pleasantville* & *Yellow Submarine* is it is music that is not allowed in *Yellow Submarine* whereas in *Pleasantville* it is color.”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/43

“Yet the idea behind them both is the same: Music & color both represent deep feeling, aliveness, thinking for oneself, & change.”

READ BOOK> wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #SexualRevolution

CW22 11/44

“In *Yellow Submarine*, the man without music is Nowhere Man, who “knows not where he’s going to, doesn’t have a point of view.””

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE...... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #psychology #history #50s #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/45

“In *Pleasantville*, the men without color act in the same ways, performing the same actions, day in, day out, without change,..”

READ BOOK… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #SexualRevolution

CW22 11/46

“…zombie- or robot-like—like characters in a 1950s-style sitcom in which nothing unpleasant, different, new, or too emotional is allowed to occur.”

READ BOOK> wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature

CW22 11/47

“And above all, the black-and-white men do not think for themselves. This is graphically portrayed in the scene mentioned where the owner of the town malt shop, Mister Johnson, portrayed by Jeff Daniels, is left cleaning…”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/48

“…[is left cleaning] the same spot of the counter for hours so that its top is rubbed away because his coworker is late & the routine they use to close up cannot be completed in the way it is done, every day, in exactly the same way.

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/49

“Confronted with this small change, he shows himself to be the “Nowhere Man”…”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #50s #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #SexualRevolution #Conformity #spirituality

CW22 11/50

“…& like a needle stuck on a record, he is rigidly stuck repeating the same action, not having the power to think of an alternative action in response to a change in the usual routine.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties

CW22 11/51

“*“The Awakening”—No Longer a Distant Vision*

“The differences in the years of the release & the different artistic modes used to express the themes of these two movies have something to say as well.”

READ BOOK> sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history

CW22 11/52

“In 1968 the changes in culture of the New Age were a vision & a hope. It is appropriate & telling that *Yellow Submarine* was expressed in animated form.”

THREAD wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #SexualRevolution

CW22 11/53

“Like a dream that would take a long time to realize, it needed to be expressed in cartoon-like fashion, for the time of its emergence in reality was too far off.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #psychology #history #60s #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #FBR

CW22 11/54

“By contrast, *Pleasantville* blends a fantasy world—appropriately it is a TV sitcom, which has more similarities with reality than an animation—with the actual reality of postmodern times.”

THREAD sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex

CW22 11/55

“The advance toward reality is patent in the evolution from an animated form—indicating the change is far off, a fantasy, a wish, a hope—in the 1968 movie; to a black-and-white form involving real actors, real people;”

-->… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #metaphor #history

CW22 11/56

“& then to a colorized version involving real people in what is supposed to be real time & real cultural reality, in the movie released thirty years later.”

READ/DWL BOOK.. drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/57

“One might say that what was a fantasy over 50 years ago is, however unconsciously, being heralded as, hopefully, emerging & coming into being now—in actual, black-and-white or colored, real time & place.”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #allegory #metaphor #history

CW22 11/58

“*Reversing the Invasion of the Body Snatchers*

“Concerning the movie, *Pleasantville*, noted movie critic Roger Ebert quite astutely pointed out that it was “like the defeat of the body snatchers” (fr his excellent review, “Pleasantville”).”

wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP

CW22 11/59

“One might also say that it is one in which Holden Caulfield, the character in J.D. Salinger’s *Catcher in the Rye*, wins out & children do not grow up to be adult “phonies.” Another analogy would be that it is a depiction…”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/60

“…in which Peter Pan stays young, when he succeeds in keeping the children from ever growing up & thereby losing their capacity to “fly”—representing the capacity to dream, to envision, to be open to new possibilities, to adventure.”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/61

“*What It Is That Makes One Alive*

“Against this backdrop of lack of real aliveness, the introduction of color into the town of Pleasantville through the introduction of sex is not seen as something bad at all.”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #allegory #psychology

CW22 11/62

“Similarly, in recent history, despite the increasing drum beating of the Religious Right in the last three decades, those of us who grew up in the Fifties know that…”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #allegory #psychology #history #50s #sex #Psychohistory

CW22 11/63

“…the introduction of sex—in the Sixties, as in the “sexual revolution”—was a step forward from the hypocritical sameness & plodding repression of the Fifties.”

READ BOOK> sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/64

“Other elements introduced into Pleasantville that produce colorization in the participants incl thinking for oneself (Jeff Daniels in his role as soda jerk), intellectual passion (the sister), questioning the way things are supposed to be...”

wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP

CW22 11/65

“…or, in 60s terms, questioning authority (when the brother finally becomes colored), artistic & creative passion (Jeff Daniels again), & even the passion of honest rage (the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce).”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #metaphor

CW22 11/66

“These elements arise in Pleasantville just as they arose into the collective consciousness of those of us living in the Fifties & Sixties.

“Of course, I am not naively saying that these elements never existed before the Sixties.”

READ BOOK… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/67

“The underlying factor that was introduced into the movie causing color & that was also introduced into our society causing all the sociocultural changes that we, usually, complain about is the factor of choosing something different…”

THREAD wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP

CW22 11/68

“…[different] than what's expected by society, than what's expected by the outside. What is introduced in the movie—as it was introduced in our culture—is the preeminence of inner authority in making decisions, as opposed to outer authority.”

drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/69

“*A New Psychohistorical Era!*

“In psychohistorical terms this difference is marked by Lloyd deMause as a difference in a mode of child-rearing. The black-and-white Fifties Pleasantville is a representation of a mode of child-rearing—”

THREAD sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/70

“…[child-rearing]—which characterized the Fifties—wherein the role of the parents is to “mold,” model, & guide children along paths that the parents have deemed to be correct—called the *socializing mode* of child-rearing.”

THREAD wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #parenting

CW22 11/71

“The child is expected to be a clone of the parents, a mini-me, or at least to represent the parents’ ideas of proper behavior, ideals, & mode of living, regardless of whether the parent models them or not.”

READ/DWL BOOK.. drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #parenting #Fifties

CW22 11/72

“& when not, the phrase “Do as I say, not as I do” & the term *hypocrite* as applied to the parents are apropos.”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #Midterms #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature

CW22 11/73

“The basic nature of the child is considered to be sinful & evil or at least bestial; the classic novel *Lord of the Flies* depicts this view of human nature.”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #parenting #SocializingMode #psychology #ChildRearing #50s #Psychohistory

CW22 11/74

“Therefore, the child needs to become other than itself & conform itself to something outside itself in order for she or he to be considered “good” & to receive good responses in turn from parents & society.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #SocializingMode

CW22 11/75

“By contrast, the colorized Pleasantville represents the mode of child-caring that came out, big time, beginning in the 60s, wherein the parents’ role is that of “bringing out” from & supporting, encouraging, & helping the child to discover…”

sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/76

“…what the child’s talents & inherent abilities, feelings, & proclivities are, & then encouraging the child to “believe in him/herself” in expressing those inherent & inborn good qualities & values—termed the *helping mode* of child-caring.”

wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP

CW22 11/77

“This mode contains a radically new view of basic human nature. Humans are seen to be essentially good (even “divine”). It is evil & painful events impinging upon the child from the outside—family & society—that are deemed causative…”

THREAD drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/78

“…[family & society deemed causative] in taking the child from its natural state of innocence & goodness & inherent unique talents to one wherein the child is corrupted & thus becomes bestial & lacking in inherent good qualities & talents.”

sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/79

“Therefore the solution is to protect the child from traumas coming from the outside, especially the huge one of feeling unloved…”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #Midterms #psychology #history #50s #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/80

“…[unloved] thru not being seen or respected as a unique individual...as opposed to being seen as a mere outgrowth or mini-me of a parental entity.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #ChildRearing #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/81

“& in so doing the parents’ role includes helping the child to discover his or her uniqueness & dispensing unconditional love,..”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #parenting #HelpingMode #psychohistory #psychology #history #50s #sex

CW22 11/82

“…that is, love that is given freely, without the requirement, as in the socializing mode, that the child do & be what the parents want before the child is accepted or shown approval or any emotional warmth.”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #parenting #HelpingMode

CW22 11/83

“In representing this advanced mode of being (& child-caring) the “colorized” people in Pleasantville open themselves to possibilities never before considered; they stray from the earlier mode requiring strict conformity to parental scripts.”

drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/84

“Robert Kennedy’s Sixties quote comes to mind as expressing this: “Some people look at things as they are & ask, why? I think of things that never were & ask, why not?””

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #HelpingMode #psychology #history #50s #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/85

“This means, then, a capacity to experiment & adventure in one’s life, which, at bottom, involve a belief in questioning authority & thinking for oneself in 60s terms…”

THREAD wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #psychology #history #ChildRearing #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/86

“…or, in Carl Jung’s words, a belief that we are, each of us, “experiments in truth” in our sojourns on Earth.”

READ &/or dwnl entire BOOK free AT SITE... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #psychology #history #60s #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #SexualRevolution

CW22 11/87

“& just as these elements & beliefs became more & more a part of America’s collective consciousness in the 60s & 70s & ever since then, they also gradually develop in *Pleasantville*.”

THREAD sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #parenting #psychology #history #sex #Psychohistory

CW22 11/88

*“Love My Uncertainty”*

“One reviewer described the ending of the movie as “not at all easy & tidy, but rather very, very messy” (“Pleasantville” by Chris A Bolton).”

THREAD wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #culture #allegory #psychology #history #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory

CW22 11/89

“Ebert—more astutely but not quite correctly—wrote that the determining factor in whether someone became colored was the factor of change."

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology #history #50s #60s #Midterms #resist

CW22 11/90

“The first reviewer, like someone with one foot still in Pleasantville or one who is still not fully colored,. does not understand that the ending, wherein the characters proclaim that they do not know what is going to happen next,..”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/91

“…[that the ending] contains exactly the essential message of the movie. The ending can only be “messy” if one expects a particular ending.”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology #50s #60s #Midterms #resist #Fifties #sex

CW22 11/92

“The reviewer is very much like the critics of Occupy Wall Street who claimed the protesters do not have a message, or a leader...essentially do not know where they are going. He is wrong for the same reasons those critics are.”

READ/DWL BOOK. drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/93

“The whole point of change is that it is always something one does not expect.”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology #50s #60s #Midterms #resist #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting

CW22 11/94

“Likewise, when people act out of inner rather than outer authority, one can only expect that what happens will be unique, like people are when they are not conforming to external expectations.”

READ BOOK> wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #culture #allegory #history #metaphor

CW22 11/95

“So there could be no pat or predicted ending. The moviegoer could not leave knowing whether Betty Parker, the Stepford housewife turned liberated woman, returns to her husband, George,..”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor

CW22 11/96

“…or takes off w the soda jerk turned artist, Mister Johnson, because that would destroy the uncertainty inherent in change, growth, aliveness, & so on. So the ending is exactly what it has to be.”

THREAD sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor

CW22 11/97

“& this ending expresses the spiritual razor’s edge each of us must cross during our life’s sojourn. Whenever we try to put life,or love, into a box, package, or a gilded cage,it dies or stagnates—just like a boring black-&-white sitcom world”

wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP

CW22 11/98

“Real change & spiritual growth means letting go & opening oneself to the unexpected & the unknown.”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology #50s #60s #Midterms #resist #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature

CW22 11/99

“So it is in this vein that the spiritual teacher Sathya Sai Baba tells his followers, “Love my uncertainty,” in helping them to deal—after the usual “honeymoon phase” at the beginning of their spiritual path—”

READ BOOK… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #culture #allegory

CW22 11/100

“—with the trials, changes, tribulations, & suffering that his devotees experience later on, along their path to greater purity of heart & compassion, & eventually spiritual liberation.”

-->… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology

CW22 11/101

“*The Scenery of Healing*

“One of the reasons the movie, *Pleasantville*, so appealed to me is that its view of current events is so akin to that which I have been expressing in other of my more recent writings—”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #culture

CW22 11/102

“—for example, the books *Apocalypse NO, Apocalypse or Earth Rebirth & the Emerging Perinatal Unconscious* & *Apocalypse Emergency, Love’s Wake-Up Call*—wherein I make the argument…”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology

CW22 11/103

“…[I make the argument] that recent events are not evidence of a downfall of civilization, as conservatives like Newt Gingrich & Pat Buchanan would have us believe, but are the necessary “birth pains” of a new age being born.”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #BLM

CW22 11/104

“In Pleasantville, indeed, tho everyone smiles & there is no crime or unpleasantness—which is supposed to reflect the view of reality presented in Fifties sitcoms like *Father Knows Best* & *Leave It to Beaver*—”

READ/DWL BOOK.. drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #culture #FBR

CW22 11/105

“—it is inherently flawed in that it is lacking in “color.” Those of us who lived through the Fifties know that the lack of color is an apt metaphor for exactly the way it was at that time.”

READ BOOK… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor

CW22 11/106

“It [the 50s] was a back-and-white world—a world that covered up its underlying nastiness & evil by repression & denial—psychological defense mechanisms that characterized the WWII Generation especially.”

THREAD… wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #culture #allegory #history

CW22 11/107

“*New Mantram: “Thinking for Oneself Is Good!”*

“The point in the movie, which is so appealing, is that it causes us to look again at the changes in our society that have occurred because of the various “revolutions” of postmodern times—”

.. drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/108

“—civil rights, student antiwar, women’s rights, sexual, & so on—& to stop bemoaning the “messiness” that comes with freedom. We have more choice, more freedom now than ever.”

THREAD sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology #50s #60s

CW22 11/109

“& this freedom allows us the opportunity for a higher spirituality—some would say the only true spirituality—which involves the harrowing path of deciding for oneself, based upon one’s ability to intuit or “feel” the correct path,..”

THREAD wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP

CW22 11/110

“…& experiencing the consequences of one’s choices, as opposed to the preordained religiosity of following a script.”

READ &/or dwnld entire BOOK free AT SITE... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology #50s #60s #Midterms #resist

CW22 11/111

“Though many would argue this, one has only to look, as this movie forces us to do, back at where we started. & from that perspective, with that stultifying, hypocritical, dishonest, & phony kind of supposed “living” in mind,..”

THREAD… sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur… #FBR

CW22 11/112

“…we can easily see the changes & progress made in individual freedom and, dare I say, genuine spirituality, & accept the uncertainty, emotional pain, apparent evil, “messiness,” social & political turbulence,& all the rest that comes w it.”

wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP

CW22 11/113

This has been the entire Chapter 11 of my new book,

*Culture War, Class War 2022: Truth & Generations*

which is

“A Cultural & Political Psychohistory of America from the 1950s to 2022”

READ/DWL BOOK.. drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #culture #allegory #history #metaphor

CW22 11/114

The complete book is available online at the links

you can download a free copy of *Culture War, Class War 2022* there.

Feel free to share & pass this book around as you wish

in preparation for the existentially important Midterm elections

sillymickel.blogspot.com/2017/10/cultur…

CW22 11/115

This is the completed, fully illustrated, document for *Culture War, Class War 2022*

To get a copy, click link:

drive.google.com/file/d/1CBiCav…

#culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology #60s #Midterms #resist #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature

CW22 11/116

It is a pdf file, & it looks exactly as the book looks, complete with the extensive pics & graphics.

Feel free to download it, pass it around, use it to help a Democratic Blue Wave in Nov.

drive.google.com/file/d/1CBiCav…

#culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology

CW22 11/117

Democrats need to WIN BIG in November

or it is all over for democracy in America & the world

& for the life on this planet.

You can use your copy of *Culture War, Class War 2022* to get word out to whoever or to whatever outlet you know.

drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO…

CW22 11/118

& please send any comments/reviews of the book to me at

[e-mail]

The idea being I might be able to use your comments in describing it in my own sharing on social media.

And, above all, VOTE DEMOCRATIC

THREAD wp.me/p1C4cs-2HP #culture #allegory

CW22 11/119

Finally, if what you prefer are the paperback or ebook/Kindle versions, you may acquire them at the links below. All my books are priced at cost or the minimum allowable by Amazon.

amazon.com/dp/B0BJ9HQV49?…

&

amazon.com/Culture-War-Cl…

#Midterms #Blue #FBR #resist

CW22 11/120

Up next,

in *Culture War, Class War 2022: Truth & Generations* is

Chapter 12, titled,

“Cultural Rebirth, Aborted:

“It’s a Not so Wonderful Life for the WWII Generation…yet the King Refuses to Die”

READ/DWL BOOK... drive.google.com/file/d/1ySbhcO… #culture #FBR #history

CW22 11/121

@threadreaderapp unroll

#culture #allegory #history #metaphor #psychology #50s #60s #Midterms #resist #Fifties #sex #Psychohistory #parenting #HumanNature #SexualRevolution #Conformity #UnconditionalLove #HelpingMode #spirituality #FBR #resist #SocializingMode #CulturalRebirth