https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=n4VkjJwADAI
It would be easy to just say all this sort of parasitic woke storytelling is a blight and we just have to oppose it, right? But to put it within the frame we were just talking about, I also have to accept it as from the Lord, right? So not that He is causing it, right? But just again, just like when demons are let loose in the world, it’s not that God causes them to do what they’re doing. He’s not the author of evil, but He does permit it for our repentance. So then if this kind of decomposition, I love that you use that word, if this kind of decomposition is happening with at least the permission of God, and clearly it is happening with the permission of God, or I mean, He can certainly stop it, then the question is how do we take that compost and repent with it, right? So then the question that I want to ask, and then for the second part of the conversation, is what are some responses to this kind of storytelling that we can use? How can we repent? How can we help heal the culture, or at least heal ourselves and maybe rebuild the culture? What are some kinds of, in this particular case, storytelling, but all kinds of other things? There’s a lot of stuff been put out, for instance, I know that for instance, Rod Dreher talks about the Benedict option. That’s his sort of vision of a response to this. And without going into what he’s doing, whatever, but I mean, within our realms, what are some responses to this kind of storytelling? What kind of storytelling can we do? I think in terms of culture, I think there’s a way to surprise people and kind of flip things in the same way that you can use the tools of postmodernism against itself. There’s a video I did on Jacques Derrida where I use his, I kind of tried to, it’s hard to do in a short time, but I use his technique of deconstruction to show how it ultimately turns back on itself. And in that video on parasitic storytelling, what I tried to help people understand is that for the woke parasitic pattern to exist, it needs to be constantly restating the normal because it’s always rebelling against the normal. So in its very story structure, it always has to restate a kind of normal world and then show how they’re reacting to it. And so in that there’s opportunities to create surprises of return, like surprises of return to a normal world, but the idea is to show the normal world in its fullness and not in its parody. So one of the strategies that I’ve been taking is to actually show the positive aspect of the margin because the margin has a positive aspect. It’s not the idea that the margin or the marginal or the strange or the monster even is only negative is just not true. It actually does have an important part to play in the fullness of being. It’s just that you have to be able to show what positive aspect it is. And so we’re working on a story of a kind of legend of Saint Christopher. It’s very loose in terms of the actual story of Saint Christopher, but it is the story of a dog-headed giant monster and his story and how he kind of deals with the problem of being a marginal figure and how to kind of deal with that and how to find his place in the world. But it’s done in a way that both understands with compassion the place of those that are on the outside and struggle to find their place, but also not in a revolutionary manner where all of a sudden everybody has to become a dog-headed monster for Saint Christopher. One of the things that occurred to me as you were talking was the difference between the last three Star Wars movies, which I know as soon as I say I like them, a lot of people out there are just going to be up in arms. I do like them, although I’m about to criticize them. The difference between that and The Mandalorian. Yeah. Okay. In some of those films, it’s interesting. They take much more than the prequels. They take a lot of the core narratives of the original Star Wars films and try to recast them and in some cases subvert them. Like the second one, a lot of people just hated sort of how angry and bitter Luke had become or whatever. But what’s interesting then about The Mandalorian is it’s literally a story on the margins. It’s not about, at least that we can tell at this point, it’s not about the future of the galaxy or anything like that. It’s a Western. Think about Westerns are marginal stories. It’s stories out on the frontier, out on the edge, away from civilization. That’s what this thing is, which I think by the way- It’s a great story. Yeah, which I think by the way is part of why the original Star Wars film worked. Where does it start? Tatooine. That is way on the rim. Some of the themes in The Mandalorian, what is the overall arc that we’ve seen now between what would have been two seasons? It’s about taking this stranger child and getting him where he needs to be. Yeah, it’s a faceless man who carries a child and protects him from danger. What do you think St. Christopher’s that story is? Exactly. What do you think the story of St. Christopher is? It’s about a monster, a faceless character who nonetheless is able to carry the child across the river, across the danger. That’s why everybody loves that story. Everybody loves Mandalorian because it’s actually tapping into the real function that the margin can have as a protector, as a wall, as a guardian. All of these types of images are the great power that the marginal can play. Even in that story. People who haven’t seen it all the way through. Have you watched it all the way through, Jonathan? I don’t want to spoil anything. Yes, I have watched it. I have. I already spoiled it for him. Have you seen it all of both seasons? Yes. Yes. Luke Skywalker himself at this point, is he still kind of on the margin? Even though he’s accepted by the rebellion and he blew up the first Death Star, he fought Vader and the Emperor and the second one, he himself is the only Jedi, well, we know now Ahsoka is out there somewhere, but he’s essentially the last of the Jedi. He himself is now gone from being in the Ingroup to the outsider and then he comes in to help rescue the child and to help the Faceless Man rescue the child and give him a place of safety and sanctuary. I think that it connects with so many people because up until this point at least, there’s been no overt sort of trying to hammer in this applied postmodernism or taking critical theory and making the story about that. I would argue, which is basically the point of The Last Jedi, is basically just to force-feed us applied postmodernism, critical theory and so forth. In which way, nobody, so few people actually accepted the movie except for the critics. In the last episode of The Mandalorian, the second season, what happens is that Luke Skywalker is now presented as the arrival. He’s presented as now the arc of at least these first two seasons is over because the child, we now feel because of the way it’s all presented, that now the child is safe. Now the child is finally where he should be. Let’s say the carrying that the Saint Christopher character has done has happened. He’s brought the Jedi seed to the Jedi. He has this little seed that’s not fully formed yet that is like a little seed that he’s carrying and he’s bringing it to where it has to be, which is in the Jedi Order, in the Jedi school. It doesn’t matter how you think it, but Luke Skywalker becomes an image of that port. That’s why it caused so much satisfaction to watch that happen. That’s why it was like I felt like I was a 10-year-old boy again when I was watching it. I was embarrassed. My son was embarrassed to watch me react to that. And so it’s like it really was successful, but it’s over. That’s over. That’s not going to happen again. They’re going to slash that story. They’re already started. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, man. It’s done. They’re not happy with that Mandalorian story, so it’s over.