The Jungle Sanction
50 years of outflanking the status quo
In 1906, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle. While I believe his vehicle of using the harsh working conditions of the Chicago meat packing industry at the turn of the 20th century was motivated by Sinclair's desire to promote socialism, the public was outraged by his description of the unsanitary working conditions of that industry. The outcry was so intense, that the Pure Food and Drug Act and The Meat Inspection Act were rapidly pushed through Congress in the same year of The Jungle's release.
Upton Sinclair indeed found fame in his meat packing exposé and learned that the power of the pen can move people into action. Unfortunately, for Sinclair, that action did not include swaying the voting public into supporting socialism. Sinclair, an avowed socialist, unsuccessfully ran for the US Congress twice and thrice lost his bid to become governor of California. Imbittered by his election failures, Sinclair in 1951 remarked:
The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them.
Two films released in 2023 should have had the same impact on society as The Jungle did in 1906. The first is the movie, Nefarious, which depicted progressive protagonist, psychiatrist Dr. James Martin interaction with death row condemned, demon possessed Edward Wayne Brady in a struggle for defining life and who has the right to take it. Edward tell James, "Before you leave here today, you will have committed three murders.” (Movie Clip here) A movie as well written and acted as Nefarious should have spurred public debate on right to life issues, from abortion, end of life euthanasia and the death penalty. Instead, the production was plagued by delays, union walk-outs and pre-screening dissing by film critics and media empires.
The Sound of Freedom was the second movie, produced over five years ago and shelved by Disney. The movie was in the can until acquired by Angle Studios and released on July 4th of this year. The Sound of Freedom is based on the real story of Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Department for Homeland Security agent who conducts sting operations to rescue a young brother and sister from human trafficking in Colombia. The movie depicts the harsh reality of the global child trafficking industry. This movie should have sparked outrage among Western nations and people should have, in 1906 fashion, demanded that governments do something about it. Yet, from the halls of Congress, crickets. Instead, public /private forces worked tirelessly to pan the movie. NPR went so far as to link it to Q Anon. (See article here)
This Article by NPR, (one of the first public / private collaboration corporations with a very heavy hand of public) can have no other intention but to dissuade their audience from seeing the movie. In fact, NPR is giving the movie the “Ivermectin” treatment. They are intentionally downplaying the truth that enslaving children was, is, and always will be wrong and that a conscious public should always condemn it. Instead, NPR is labeling The Sound of Freedom as a "horse drug" by callus tangential association to Q Anon.
I can’t help thinking that Upton Sinclair's comments about “out flanking them” led to another avowed communist, Saul Alinsky, and his book, Rules for Radicals. Published in 1971, Alinsky 's Rules for Radicals has been the playbook for the Progressive Party for the last 50 years. It draws on Sinclair’s notion that the American people will never accept communism straight up. The communist elixir needs to be disguised and repackaged as a fancy drink, served in a pineapple with a pink umbrella. I imagine, Nefarious himself, rocking back in his death row chair and smiling as he tells James about how his master infected politics. For Saul Alinsky pays particular homage to the dark lord in his book:
Lest we forget at least an over the shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which is which), the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom - Lucifer.
If Upton Sinclair had the same public / private (government / corporate) paired with government friendly media in his day as we have now, his novel, The Jungle, would have been difficult to publish. The pressure on Doubleday to shelve the project would have been immense. And should he have found a publisher, the negative ad campaigning prior to the release of his novel would have all but assured the American public would have ignored whatever he wrote. I dare say, Mr. Sinclair would have been painted with the "conspiracy theorist" brush written off as a fringe lunatic.
I think what really would have set Upton Sinclair, and Alinsky for that matter, a back is the ease in which 21st century Western societies are lulled buy a “Netflix and chill” attitude. For the 20th century radical, every day was an opportunity to seek out the levers of power, infiltrate them and then influence them with their communist ideology. That is precisely what's Sinclair and Alinsky alluded to when they discussed “outflanking them.” My guess is neither man ever dreamed that a population would be so subdued by staying at home “tuning in and dropping out.” We have a society that has voluntarily put themselves under house arrest. They crave work from home, they arrange for groceries and prepared meals to be delivered to their doorstep, and they pay subscriptions for multiple streaming services so that they may be entertained at home. They've jettisoned driving to real physical locations to meet with full size humans in exchange for a 12-inch versions on a zoom calls. When our modern captives leave their homes (let's call it a day pass) it rarely is to do anything meaningful for God, their family, their country or themselves, but to document and experience. An experience that is dutifully photographed and posted on their social media as proof of life.
It is under these conditions of self-imprisonment that the socialist and communist influencers have taken control of our institutions. And since society has adorn their little cells with leather couches, oriental rugs, and flat screen TV's, they are easily manipulated by their masters projecting the shadows on the wall of their self-imposed “cave.” Utterly content, As Plato discussed in his Allegory of the Cave, the captives reject all information coming from the individual that escaped the confines of the cave, experienced the warm sunlight of truth on their face, and returned to report on the reality of a bright and beautiful world above.
Yes, I went to Plato for this analogy, but when one is up against the subversive power of communism and its nefarious deceit, one needs to pull out a big stick. For 2500 years, there has been only One who walked the earth that carried a bigger stick. But universal Love falls deafly on communist ears, so for this argument I rely on the metaphor provided by “The Republic” author himself to help make my point. Though Western societies have been outflanked by subversive characters for over 50 years, that only works while in self-captivity. Freedom is mere footsteps away, unplugged from the shadow casters and warmed by what we innately know to be true:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.