the Wrestler

intentional, consciously, or even came across the director's mind or not (most likely yes), the film readily becomes a metaphor of the decline of Empire.

• opens with shot of American flag
• the constant weight, fatigue of a once mighty being struggling to maintain a reckless, unsustainable lifestyle
• bad choices and burnt bridges from the past catches up: spitting in the wind
• violence and its spectacle; the behind the scenes planning and negotiating with the "enemies" - non of it is what it seems, but the blood and toll on human life is real.
• sharp devide and contrast between public persona and private, emotional life
• theme of dehumanization where bodies are reduced to commodities: meat
• the heart condition is like the deficit
• the addiction to the show which is killing him is like the dependence on oil
• instead of change when given the chance, the course is to plunge ahead on the suicidal path.

who's with me?

Deeper Roots 2

Black Athena I, II, and Black Athena Writes Back, can be downloaded here, in e-book format. also included in the archive is A Deeper Discussion on "Black Greeks" & More, which i can not yet vouch for.

i believe this is some of the most important reading we can do: it constructs a good case for what we were all taught as children about the history of western civilization being false.

in Bernal's terms, there are 2 models for the rise of Greek culture: the ancient model, and the Aryan model. the Ancient model describes the massive influence on Greece that the much older Egyptian and Asiatic/Semitic civilizations had. and the Aryan model denies both, and posits that there were invading tribes from the north which influenced Greece.

the Ancient model was held by the Greeks themselves and all through out the ages, had no internal explanatory problems, and was only overturned during the 19th century, replaced with the Aryan model that most of us believe to be truth - a white, euro-centric Greece.

Bernal puts it very clearly: European culture did not start in Norway or the Swiss Alps -- it started in the Southern most, Eastern most region, a place geographically closest to Africa and Asia -- why? he talks about the relationship between Greece and Egypt as similar to that of Japan to China: the younger cultures certainly did have their innovations, but as a whole came from, borrowed heavily, and is largely a product of the much older civilization which preceded them.

and here is a video:
Afro-centricity Debate - Dr. Clarke (above) & Professor Martin Bernal debate professor Mary Leftkowitz and Professor Guy Rogers. Mid 90's, Topic of discussion and debate is the book 'Black Athena' written by Professor Bernal. Split into 5 parts: Part 1 part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

(the 5 parts are not named very well, the first starts with the host woman making small talk before saying "good evening")

enjoy.

and just for a laugh, predictably, these are the kind of people who dismiss Black Athena. LOL.