"What Is It?" An Essay by Crispin H. Glover

[Hellion444]

What Is It?
(An essay concerning the subtext of the film by the same title)
by Crispin Hellion Glover

Is this culture content? Is it happy? Are the smiles broadcast by this culture’s media the smiles that reflect the collective mind? Does the self-professed compassion of the media for the unfortunate seem sincere?

Is this culture a Judeo-Christian culture? Is forgiveness a quality of Christian ethos? Didn’t Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold of Columbine high school pose with a caption that stated, “Stay alive, stay different, stay crazy”? Didn’t they target Christians? Weren’t they accused of being “Nazis”? Wasn’t one of them Jewish? Wasn’t one of them an honor student? If these fellows were staying “crazy” and staying “different,” and thinking on their own, were they perhaps manifesting a counter-cultural ideal?

What else in this culture were the Columbine killers attacking? Aren’t “jocks,” whom they killed, generally considered common “good guys” by our culture? Don’t jocks represent pro-cultural values? Do those who hold values that counter the culture see jocks as boorish, vapid, brute, conceited and condescending, who willfully insult and violate those who refuse to gang with the masses?

Were Harris and Klebold reacting to the media itself? Did they give their own lives and take others to make a point about the media at large? Can it be true that the media-at-large is so neurotic that it is unable to truthfully describe the Columbine event? Is it true that a videotape they produced just before the killings is now being withheld so the public can not determine their own thoughts about Harris’ and Klebold’s statements?

In Civilization and Its Discontents, did Sigmund Freud define a neurotic as an individual holding thoughts that clash with those held by the prevailing culture, an individual who subverts those clashing thoughts to the subconscious that later manifest in the form of anxiety and unnecessary behavior? If this is so, what does one consider a culture whose prevailing ideas express hypocrisy, sham and double-standard? Does this somehow define a neurotic culture?

Does Steven Spielberg hold the same values I wish upon myself? Does the mind of this grinning, bespectacled, baseball-capped man entirely reflect this culture?

Is it true that in his waning years, Orson Welles asked Steven Spielberg for a small amount of money with which he could make a final film? Is it true Steven Spielberg refused? Is it true that Steven Spielberg bought a sled used in Citizen Kane for an extremely large sum of money?

Do Steven Spielberg’s passions burn? Do passions burn in the man now imprisoned who wished to anally rape Steven Spielberg? Do our cultural mouthpieces confidently inform us that the wish to anally rape Steven Spielberg is a bad thought? Could anal rape of Steven Spielberg be simply the manifestation of a cultural mandate?

Do you believe Steven Spielberg is an ideal guide and influence for our culture? Do Steven Spielberg’s films question our culture? What do Steven Spielberg’s films question? Does Steven Spielberg focus much of his fantasy life on young people? Did he portray children wallowing in sewers filled with fecal matter in Schindler’s List? Did he use children to finger paint an adult in Hook? Does he collect the illustrations of Norman Rockwell, such as the one showing a young boy in his underwear examined by a doctor? Are the inclinations of Steven Spielberg above suspicion by the media-fed culture? Was Steven Spielberg very friendly with Michael Jackson? Wasn’t Michael Jackson supposed to play Peter Pan in Steven Spielberg’s version of the story? Now that Michael Jackson is no longer held in favor by the mass media, does Spielberg associate with him? Do Michael Jackson and Steven Spielberg share similar opinions about the sexuality of young boys?

Did Joseph Goebbels popularize certain ideals to the mass culture? Does Steven Spielberg attempt to do the same thing? Is celebrity more special than actual truth in art?

When you join in a conversation with strangers, do you openly discuss any idea whatsoever without fear of conflict? Or do you restrain yourself from discussing certain things for fear of offending people and then becoming an outcast? Are there laws that deem certain forms of thought as bad and wrong? Is what is now termed “hate” a form of thought?

[Hellion444]

(continuation)

Does our culture consider it acceptable to have a minstrel represent a black person on film? Does our culture consider it acceptable to have a person of average intelligence represent a retarded person on film? Why is one thing questionable, and one thing acceptable? Did Adolf Hitler entertain any good thoughts? Was Shirley Temple sexy as a young girl?

What if you wish to express these ideas? Can people sue you for expressing ideas, particularly if they’re blamed for inspiring behavior considered antithetical to cultural norms?

Would the cultural mainstream ever silence or suppress Steven Spielberg? Has the United States government given the immensely wealthy Steven Spielberg millions of dollars to fund a media project that reflects his religious heritage, and his cultural beliefs? Does The Talmud speak of the superiority of the Jews and the inferiority of other cultures and beliefs? Does Steven Spielberg reflect this religious imperative? Is Steve Spielberg neurotic? Is this belief hidden and suppressed?

If one discovers that everything one has been taught to be good is actually false, what then? At what point is one neurotic?

Did Vincent Van Gogh, Diane Arbus and Rainer Werner Fassbinder die for the sins of their culture? Did Joseph Goebbels?

Are we fed massive cultural propaganda? Are we infused with the belief that we act as we wish and do what we want? Are we not simply believing what cultural propaganda suggests us to think?

Do you like MTV? Do you like Steven Spielberg? Do you like post-punk rock? Do you like trip hop? Do you like rap? Do you define yourself according to the music you listen to? Do you consider yourself a true lover of music because you are in a rock band, or because your boyfriend is in a rock band? Do you like tattoos? Do you like body piercing? Do you believe that love, kindness, compassion, recycling and equality will save this culture from all its woes? Do you? Do you?

Is it considered “career suicide” to question Steven Spielberg if one is involved in the entertainment business? If one is not involved in the entertainment business is it considered a social suicide to question Steven Spielberg? If these things are so, what does that point to? Does this mean freedom of expression is actually curtailed in our culture by certain social pressures? Is calling someone a “fascist” in American culture today the counterpart to saying someone was a “communist” during the Joseph McCarthy era of the 1950s?

Does our culture congratulate itself for taking interest in the lack of original ideas personified by the name of Steven Spielberg? Do his films take chances or take risks in order to amplify, change or challenge the cultural though process? Does Steven Spielberg take risks, or does he simulate the idea of taking risks? What risk was involved in making Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List, or adopting a black child? Was there any risk at all? Would Steven Spielberg have adopted that same child in the Deep South of the 1950s where there would have been risk of being called a “nigger lover”? Were the adoption of a black child and the subject matter of his movies actually business decisions for which he knew he would be congratulated?

When Steven Spielberg clutched his Academy Award for Schindler’s List, saying it’s for the “six million,” was he speaking of a quantity of people killed, or the quantity of dollars poured into his bank account?

Did Steven Spielberg truly help the culture understand Stanley Kubrick’s ideas at an Academy Awards eulogy? Or did he accuse Kubrick’s films of being “hopeful” to make them seem as if they sell the same ideas as Steven Spielberg’s movies? Was A Clockwork Orange about hope? Was Barry Lyndon about hope? Was Dr. Strangelove about hope? Was Lolita about hope? Was Full Metal Jacket about hope? Was The Killing about hope?

Was Steven Spielberg’s company sued by an African-American woman who claimed that Amistad was based on her writing? Was this African-American woman suddenly happy with Steven Spielberg after he deposited a lot of money into her bank account?

Does the amount of money taken in by people determine happiness in this culture? Is the earth an unlimited resource, or is there a definitive quantity for people to exploit for gross amounts of money? When a capitalist invokes the word “hope,” does he speak about the continued escalation of his earning power, without being stopped? Could this hope be an illusion?

Are the ice sheets of the Arctic and Antarctic melting and shearing off? Could negative population growth possibly help solve this problem? Isn’t one child per two people negative population growth? Would Steven Spielberg ever support the idea of negative population growth within the medium? Have the goals of Freemasonry, as encapsulated by the back half of the dollar bill, succeeded? Has a megastate of greed been created?

Did DreamWorks, the megacorporate entity co-owned by Steven Spielberg, consider paving over the last remaining wetland in Southern California to create a studio? Does Steven Spielberg feel comfortable emasculating the natural? Is climbing the Alps, or is riding the Matterhorn rollercoaster in Disneyland, more attractive to Steven Spielberg? Is the theme park mentality of our culture, which is made to feel “right” and “moral” by the propagandizing movies of Steven Spielberg, helping to destroy individual thought processes and emasculate what remains of the earth?

Is it possible that the Columbine shootings would have not occurred if Steven Spielberg had never wafted his putrid stench upon our culture, a culture he helped homogenize and propagandize?

Would the culture benefit from Steven Spielberg’s murder, or would it be lessened by making him a martyr? Or would people then begin to realize their lives had become less banal and more interesting due to his departure?

Because I think it is possible a beautiful piece of non-lingual music could well be written by an angry victim once Steven Spielberg becomes a corpse. It could be that this angry victim of banal and ruinous propaganda will have written an anthem signaling a new era, a new thought process, a new music, and a new culture that is desperately needed in the coming days, and forevermore.

The one question lingering before this new utopian culture may very well be:

What…Is…It?

[Hellion444]

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Thank you.

[digidistortions]

Just out of curiosity, when is this essay from?

I liked it. It started off really well with a bombardment of contrasting ideas, towards the end it was more focused just on Spielberg. Readong the essay, I think I survived many of Glover's "accusations" (for lack of a better word), which is cool ;D.

the best quote:
Do you believe that love, kindness, compassion, recycling and equality will save this culture from all its woes? Do you? Do you?

reminds me of Fight Club really. Crispin Glover should check out Chuck Palahniuk if he hasn't already .

In Spielberg's defense, Jaws is AWESOME . He's gone a long ways down since then however, and I on't think anyone would claim Jaws was "important" in the real sense of the word.

[Hellion444]

digidistortions said:

Just out of curiosity, when is this essay from?

Without searching through a mountain of paper (yes some of us actually do still maintain a papertrail in this modern age) or trying to find a source on the Web (which has probably moved or been removed) and unless someone else cares to post the EXACT date...

I know that I can say without fear of being corrected that it was penned ON OR AFTER April 20, 1999 which was the date of the Columbine Murders, AND ironically was also Crispin's 35th birthday...

Actually, since I cannot recall the EXACT date (if said date was published originally with the essay in the first place), it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Crispin actually wrote the essay shortly after his birthday, seeing as those events jarred the Nation to such an extreme, bringing out old stereotypes of how people "should" look, etc. and such hypocrisy occurring around the same time as his birthday (although he says he doesn't take that day seriously) probably would light a fire under him hot enough to spark a flurry of penmanship.

Anyway, long story short (too late I know) it had to have been written in or after April 20, 1999.

(PS since we are on the subject - TODAY happens to be my birthday )

[digidistortions]

happy birthday .

[Hellion444]

Why even tho it is OT - thank you very much for the sentiment digidistortions. It is very much appreciated ;D

And while Sagittarians are bloody brilliant -and obv very modest as well as being compatible with Tauruses (like Mr. Glover) as we are highly creative and philisophical -and in my case dead sexually kinky too boot. I am also blessed with being a righteous leftie as is Crispin -tho I am also somewhat ambidextrous thanks (or no thanks rather) to our private school system who in my day thought that everyone should be right-handed. Perhaps that should be added to Mr. Glover's essay on what society believes "accepted norms should be" by rewiring the brains of its youth...something to consider perhaps? Perhaps not...

[AdolfHitler'sGhost]

"The Bolshevization of Germany, that is to say, the extermination of the patriotic and national German intellectuals, thus making it possible to force German Labour to bear the yoke of international Jewish finance; that is only the overture to the movement for expanding Jewish power on a wider scale and finally subjugating the world to its rule. As has so often happened in history, Germany is the chief pivot of this formidable struggle. If our people and our State should fall victims to these oppressors of the nations, lusting after blood and money, the whole earth would become the prey of that hydra." - Adolf Hitler

"At the beginning of the century the theatres seemed already degenerating and ceasing to be cultural factors, except the Court theatres, which opposed this prostitution of the national art. With these exceptions, and also a few other decent institutions, the plays produced on the stage were of such a nature that the people would have benefited by not visiting them at all. A sad symptom of decline was manifested by the fact that in the case of many 'art centres' the sign was posted on the entrance doors: FOR ADULTS ONLY." - Adolf Hitler

"A glance at the bill-of-fare provided by our cinemas, playhouses, and theatres suffices to prove that this is not the right food, especially for our young people. Hoardings and advertisements kiosks combine to attract the public in the most vulgar manner. Anyone who has not altogether lost contact with adolescent yearnings will realize that all this must have very grave consequences. This seductive and sensuous atmosphere puts notions into the heads of our youth which, at their age, ought still to be unknown to them." - Adolf Hitler

"The part which the Jews played in the social phenomenon of prostitution, and more especially in the white slave traffic, could be studied here better than in any other West European city, with the possible exception of certain ports in Southern France." - Adolf Hitler

"The life of the people must be freed from the asphyxiating perfume of our modern eroticism and also from every unmanly and prudish form of insincerity. In all these things the aim and the method must be determined by thoughtful consideration for the preservation of our national well-being in body and soul." -- Adolf Hitler

"But it does matter whether Aryan humanity survives or perishes. And yet the two Christian denominations are not contending against the destroyer of Aryan humanity but are trying to destroy one another" -- Adolf Hitler

"The great protagonists are those who fight for their ideas and ideals despite the fact that they receive no recognition at the hands of their contemporaries. They are the men whose memories will be enshrined in the hearts of the future generations. It seems then as if each individual felt it his duty to make retroactive atonement for the wrong which great men have suffered at the hands of their contemporaries. Their lives and their work are then studied with touching and grateful admiration. Especially in dark days of distress, such men have the power of healing broken hearts and elevating the despairing spirit of a people." -- Adolf Hitler

"Bolshevism, which is in reality an attack on the world of the spirit, pretends to be intellectual itself. Where circumstances demand, it comes as a wolf in sheep's clothing. But underneath the false mask which it here and there assumes there are always the satanic forces of world destruction." - Joseph Goebbels

"In times of external catastrophes and inner disintegration, however, feminist man joins with emancipated woman to become the symbol of cultural decline and decay of the state." -- Alfred Rosenberg

"Finally, England, through the Balfour Declaration took over the safeguarding of Jewish interests in all states..it had handed over all control of all financial transactions to Jewish bankers such as the Rothschild, Montague, Cassell, Lazards, and the rest..since the end of the world war we have seen the almost total victory of international finance, which is almost completely Jewishly controlled" -- Alfred Rosenberg

"The honorless rule of money must, by necessity, strive for world rule by creating world debt" -- Alfred Rosenberg

"Peace will come when we can change the world economic system" -- Alfred Rosenberg

"How devoid of ideals and how ignoble is the whole contemporary system! The fact that the churches join in committing this sin against the image of God, even though they continue to emphasize the dignity of that image, is quite in keeping with their present activities. They talk about the Spirit, but they allow man, as the embodiment of the Spirit, to degenerate." -- Adolf Hitler

"The folkish idea is falsified today by the international capitalists while the organic enemies of the nation call for the demolition of all standards and demand racial chaos, sexual collectivism, and unrestricted abortion" -- Alfred Rosenberg

"The attempts of imperialistic powers in the last decades to rule the furthermost corners of the world with cannons and to keep the exploited peoples of the world in order were signs of strength but proof of weakness." -- Alfred Rosenberg

"It must never be forgotten that the present rulers of Russia are blood-stained criminals, that here we have the dregs of humanity which, favoured by the circumstances of a tragic moment, overran a great State, degraded and extirpated millions of educated people out of sheer blood-lust, and that now for nearly ten years they have ruled with such a savage tyranny as was never known before." - Adolf Hitler

"Even as early as that time I warned people around me, just as I am warning a wider audience now, against that soothing slogan of all indolent and feckless nature: NOTHING CAN HAPPEN TO US. A similar mental contagion had already destroyed a mighty empire" -- Adolf Hitler

"But if for reasons of indolence or cowardice this fight is not fought to a finish we may imagine what conditions will be like 500 years hence. Little of God's image will be left in human nature, except to mock the Creator." -- Adolf Hitler

"Here, as elsewhere, one may defy Nature for a certain period of time; but sooner or later she will take her inexorable revenge. And when man realizes this truth it is often too late." -- Adolf Hitler

"Expressed paradoxically, the constant lie is the organic truth of the Jewish anti-race." -- Alfred Rosenberg

"The fact is Universalism suffers from the same sickness as its apparent opponent, Individualism. The remarkable truth is that universalism is a twin brother of individualism" -- Alfred Rosenberg

"Mechanistic individualism and schematic universalism wish to lay the world in chains. " -- Alfred Rosenberg

"Hitler is one of the greatest men. The old respect him, the young idolize him. It is the worship of a nation hero who served his country." -- David Lloyd George

"Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived." -- John F. Kennedy (It is in his European Diaries, also published in 'Prelude to Leadership. Kennedy also devoted a chapter of his 1954 book,'Profiles In Courage' to Senator Taft's strong public opposition to the Nuremberg lynchings)

"Lord God give us strength that we may retain the liberty for our children and our children's children, not only for ourselves but for the other peoples of Europe, for this is a war which we all wage, this time, not for for the German people alone, it is a war for all of Europe, and with it, in the long run, for all of mankind" -- Adolf Hitler, public prayer in 1942