If you want sterling example of top-down social engineering, look no further than the death of the western.
The western genre dominated novels, magazines, comics, and movies for decades. Contrary to common misconceptions, westerns never faded in popularity. One day, the word came down that westerns were over. These days, this once noble genre is a haven for vanity projects by over-the-hill actors.
Our overlords hate the western. Gary Cooper’s iconic 1952 film High Noon shows why.
The quintessential White Hat Western, High Noon stars Cooper as retiring Marshal Will Kane. After five years spent cleaning up the flyspeck town of Hadleyville, Kane is ready to depart on his honeymoon with his new bride Amy, played by future princess Grace Kelly. A deadly serious wrench is thrown in Mr. and Mrs. Kane’s plans when news reaches town that Frank Miller–a gang leader, not the comic book writer–is on the inbound noon train.
To say that Kane and Miller have a history is putting it mildly. It was Kane and his posse who broke Miller’s stranglehold over the town and sent him up the river. Now a miscarriage of justice has set Miller free and gunning for revenge against the Marshal.
That’s a conflict-laden, high-stakes story in and of itself. It only gets more compelling when every single citizen of Hadleyvillle, including Kane’s deputies and even his wife, refuses to help him confront the returning gangsters. We get an intriguing character study every time Kane approaches someone for help–a study in rationalizing cowardice. By the time the climactic showdown begins, Kane’s odds are down to four against one.
Internet pundits are fond of declaring various films from Network to The Muppet Movie to be parables of our troubled times. In the case of High Noon, the parallels are chillingly accurate.
Here we have a town facing an existential threat. A gang of rootless sociopaths is coming to take over and bring in every vice and racket under the sun. The people know exactly the kid of fate they’re in for. They suffered the same tyranny before and only freed themselves after a long, bloody, and hard-fought struggle.
Now the man tasked with defending the town from descending into a thugocracy comes around asking for volunteers to help him fight the invaders. One by one, they all say no.
The soggy denizens of the local saloon actually welcome the gangsters. They look forward to enjoying the debauchery Miller will usher in.
Both of Kane’s remaining deputies are willing to help at first. But one makes his help conditional on taking Kane’s job when the fight is over. Knowing that anyone so venal isn’t worthy of the responsibility, Kane rejects his offer. His other deputy stands firm at first but backs out when nobody else shows up.
The congregation of the town’s church vocally supports Kane. At first, I thought we might actually see Christian men fighting in defense of their homes and families. No such luck. Cowards masquerading as Kane’s friends, enabled by a milquetoast preacher, rationalize taking the cowardly way out with legalistic rhetoric and BoomerCon style buck-passing.
Even Kane’s new bride decides to abandon him because she swore off all violence and became a Quaker after seeing her father and brother shot dead.
Meanwhile, a Mexican immigrant who openly hates the town prepares to move on after extracting all the value she could.
It’s not hard to see today’s death cultists and popcult paypigs in the degenerate saloon patrons. They’re the fifth columnists eager to open the gates for usurpers in exchange for a fix.
The deputies and the judge who turn their backs on the problem perfectly represent our corrupt law enforcement and court system. Today the authorities are too busy making up crimes to prosecute innocent citizens for to go after real criminals.
Reverend Millstone is the picture of a Church hierarchy that’s so out of touch they don’t even know there’s a problem, much less how to tackle it.
Like I mentioned before, the cucks in the congregation who whine that they pay their taxes so they don’t have to fight outlaws are Conservative leaders who stand on principles that somehow always mean giving the Left everything they want.
I trust that the woman who marries a man only to abandon her husband the second the chips are down needs no further exposition.
There are two important differences between the story of High Noon and the saga of Clown World we each face every day.
In the movie, Mrs. Kane comes back to stand by her man.
And in real life, we have no Will Kane to fight for us.
For a thrilling tale of outlaws–IN SPACE–read my acclaimed weird adventure novel Nethereal now!
Modern Mrs. Kane parallel: All those "friends" who abandon Trump voters or call them Nazis.
Those "friends" don't return at the end in a redemption arc, though.
Them and the women who initiate 80% of divorces.
On the divorce thing, I wonder how much of that is due to the man's laziness caused by soy poisoning?
Not saying there aren't frivorces or anything. There's plenty of them in that 80%.
I trust you understand that's no excuse for reneging on sacred vows.
I trust you understand that soy poisoning is reneging on sacred vows.
Divorce statistics are extremely misleading. For one thing old Boomers are still divorcing and they do so at such an astronomical rate that they triple the overall stats.
Furthermore there are a lot of effeminate men in the other marriages who have no intention or desire of being a head of the household and just to put in the minimum and are more or less uni-invested in the family. I read through a bunch of divorce stories a few years ago and nearly every woman was complaining about the same story over and over again, even the men's stories had a fair chunk of them admitting to doing the things that the women were complaining about. The husband does nothing but go to work to pay bills, come home and play games all day and made no effort to interact socially with rest of the family, even the kids. It's not mentioned in any of the stories but I guarantee you this behavior is a result of porn addiction given how much the symptoms and behaviors line up. Not to give the women pass because they made no attempt to fix the situation or even communicate that there was a problem at all and they just stood by as the family deteriorated in quiet acquiescence. I did find stories from foolish men who married a hoe or a gold digger but even from their own stories it was obvious marrying the woman was a stupid idea.
The command is not to never divorce UNLESS one is soy-poisoned, it is never divorced. What you are describing IS a frivorce.
It's amazing , the excuses being made.
Look. You can be a bad husband (though how many admit they were bad wives?). You can be addixted to porn.
And by initiating divorce YOU – not husband, you – have committed a grave sin. This is simply a fact.
(The comment was oddly qorded. Second "you" meaning the woman initating.)
The parallels are striking. There aren't any Will Kanes because the culture tends to try to destroy such people. It's the old Alinsky rule about fixing the target, isolating it, and then destroying it. To track back to a previous post, the alt-right failed in part because too many of its "leaders" were willing to volunteer to be that target.
Maybe a bit OT, but High Noon was one of John Wayne's least favorite movies. His vision of the old west was not settled by weak cowards who wouldn't lift a finger to defend themselves. That's why he made Rio Bravo, where the sheriff has to turn away voluteers. Wayne's vision is better and closer to historical reality.
Rio Bravo is next on my list, also because Leigh Brackett wrote the screenplay.
Howard Hawk wasn't too impressed with High Noon and made Rio Bravo as a counterpoint. In that movie, the besieged sheriff turn down well meaning civilian's help as they'll only get into the way.
I remember being told High Noon was essentially about blacklisting and the experience of a person accused of communism being unable to find help in fighting the charges.
It goes to show how long lefties have been in the game of projection that it serves as a much better allegory for the internal politics of the CPA, nevermind the deplatforming going on today, than it ever did for the supposed "Era of McCarthyism."
I'm not discounting it, but if High Noon is about the Red Scare, they totally botched the allegory.
Regardless, this movie could never be made today.
The best *modern* Western I can think of is, of all things, Rango. The story of a cartoon lizard learning to rise above his lying ways and become a true hero – and willingness to shoot the bad guy being an explicit part of the process – made for a surprisingly enjoyable film. Also, Rattlesnake Jake is a giant diamondback rattler with a barbed wire black hat, hellfire-colored eyes, and a Gatling gun for a tail.
The Coen Bros. True Grit is one of my favorite films ever.
That was an oddly underrated remake.
It got ten Oscar nominations but no wins. Not that the Oscars matter but I'm left scratching my head about what that means in terms of the critical consensus of the time.
It means that movies without a hard left message so heavy handed it has its own gravitational field don't win awards.
Bellomy
I agree. I enjoyed the remake. I wonder if the Cohens followed the book more closely
Justin
I was quite blown away that the hero journey unsullied by wholeness ever got made.i found it quite compelling at times.
xavier
I read the book. It does follow it more closely, especially the ending.
Interestingly the two films had a lot of near-identical scenes. It goes to show how small improvements add up in the end, as I believe it far superior to the original film.