The World is Dying of Thirst In the New Title H2O … The plot of the book, written by Grant Calof and drawn by Jeevan J. Kang, follows a volcanologist as he races toward the last new source of H2O on the planet: a mysterious glacier. What happens when the world is literally dying of thirst? Before the book comes out in October, Newsarama caught up with Calof to talk about the life of a volcanologist, the environmental message inherent in his story, and what might be beneath the surface of H2O. – Newsarama
Dominant Social Theme: "Super Everything" to rescue – you just sit there and don't worry!
Free-Market Analysis: We were doing some research into the United Nations the other day (all 1,000 of us) when we came across a couple of articles dealing with an apparently abortive comic book enterprise that was to the feature the UN. The headline: "Marvel Comics to Produce United Nations Comic Book." Since we cannot find any trace of such an effort, we assume it died aborning back in 2008, leaving us bereft of a sub dominant social theme that might go like this: "Vaccine Man! Oil-for-Food Man! Global Tax Man! – Fighting for the rights of the Western power elite throughout the world! …"
A few clicks later we came to the information excerpted above on a new comic book, The World is Dying of Thirst. The two links reminded us that comics are one of the most persuasive communication channels for elite fear-based promotions available within the Anglo-American axis. It wasn't always that way. Back in the 1950s, comic books were under attack and a Comic Code Authority came into being. Here, from Wikipedia, is an explanation:
The CCA was created in 1954 as part of the Comics Magazine Association of America, in response to public concern about what was deemed inappropriate material in many comic books … Like the previous code, the CCA prohibited the presentation of "policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions … in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority."
But it added the requirements that "in every instance good shall triumph over evil" and discouraged "instances of law enforcement officers dying as a result of a criminal's activities." Specific restrictions were placed on the portrayal of kidnapping and concealed weapons. Depictions of "excessive violence" were forbidden, as were "lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations." Vampires, werewolves, ghouls and zombies could not be portrayed.
Though the code has been revised since inception, many of the basics apparently remain the same. It explains why superheroes fight bad guys but never seem to find any corruption in government. Superman, Batman, Spiderman, are all terrific heroes with varying degrees of internal life, but their reality is circumscribed by the invisible code that covers their actions.
What is most interesting about the code is that it shows us once again how power elite promotions need not work via command-and-control in order to have powerful sociopolitical effects. The World Is Dying of Thirst is very obviously to us part of a larger elite-based water promotion that was supposed to work hand-in-hand with global warming, AKA climate change, AKA climate disruption. (We have derived some amusement from the way the implosion of the global warming meme has left the water and food-scarcity promotions hanging in mid-air without justification.) You can see our article on water scarcity here: Water Scarcity Promotion Begins.
The author of the comic gave an interview about its inception in the article excerpted at the beginning of this analysis. One can see clearly (well, we can) how the comic book code and creative prejudices combined to build in a level of preconception that made the this sort of production almost inevitable. This sort of social conditioning is the most effective part of power-elite programming – and was even more successful in the 20th century than it is today. No secret meetings to influence the creative process had to take place in this case, apparently. The writer was a willing participant – even after he did a great deal of research on the subject. Here's an excerpt:
Calof: It probably sounds pessimistic, but taking humankind from its current state and evolving it to such an extreme, desperate point was arguably the most straightforward aspect of the story. Scientists from Richard Lovelock to Stephen Hawking to my astrophysicist neighbor (who works for NASA) all agree that the Earth has already passed the tipping point of sustainability. It's more of a simple numbers game than science fiction – There are too many people and not enough natural resources to maintain current levels of consumption …
Glaciers are melting and sea levels and temperatures are rising faster than anyone predicted and it's still too soon to understand the real impact. One thing even the skeptics agree on is that it's too late to stop the changes that have already been set in motion (regardless of cause). Climate change is a reality and our only choice now is to try and mitigate the consequences for our children and grandchildren.
The United Nations already predicts that climate change will displace 135 million people from their homes. And that's one of the main reasons I chose to set H2O in 2250 – to show how civilization and humankind-at-large could de-volve according to a timeline fueled by ebbing natural resources and increasing isolationism. I found and utilized real problems from today's headlines as well as seemingly far-fetched concepts like recycling waste water, corporatized water supplies, giant de-salination plants, overpopulation and 'water wars' (all of which are 100% real, btw) and blew them up exponentially …
We don't blame the young man. As intelligent and creative as he is, he works for an industry that has been shaped by the code that it has adopted. What he inhaled was the environment around him; his research on the Internet merely confirmed what he already knew. This is what we meant when we indicated that the powers-that-be do not need detailed sociopolitical interactions once a meme has begun to circulate. The spadework was done decades ago.
Yes, the way that Western society is organized often produces the intended result without any further elite guidance or involvement. The non-profits, think tanks and academic institutions were all selected – or self selected – to support elite promotions that continually centralize wealth and authority in order to create global governance.
The system worked wonderfully well in the 20th century, as we often point out. But in the 21st, the Internet has created an ongoing conflict between the circulation of power elite themes and their acceptance. We Googled "libertarian comics" and came up with nearly a million cites. Times are "a changin'" … Thanks Bob, we love using that line!
Of course, there is no doubt that comics and the addictively entertaining movies they've spawned have been a tremendous tool for power elite promotional efforts. We have long predicted that the meme of Western Justice (a punitive one) will be among the last to come into serious question in this Internet era; meanwhile, comic books and their movie spin-offs continue to be tremendously helpful in reinforcing elite fear-based themes.
In fact, most people – even some free-market thinkers – cannot imagine a form of "justice" other than state-run justice. Yet the current Western model, especially the Anglo-American model, is money driven, an excrescence of central-banking. Absent the ability to print money from nothing, it is doubtful the West would have the wherewithal to incarcerate millions of non-violent felons for years and decades. Without fiat money, the pyramid of criminality created by the Western regulatory structure would doubtless subside – at least diminish in severity and scope.
Comic books and their movies reinforce the criminal justice meme (as opposed to a kind of private, tribal and familial justice that likely worked well for much of the world until about 300 years ago) – but they surely do double duty. Comic books support elite fear-based promotions with great persuasiveness. As Hollywood weakens, however, and the Internet continues to fragment entertainment choices, we question whether the elite will be able to rely on this significant tool in the future. It is perhaps another reason why we think the elite's hold on promotional penetrations is diminishing.
