FILMING THE GREAT DECEPTION

Weekly Column – 09.14.2007

FILMING THE GREAT DECEPTION
by J. R. Nyquist

Cinematographer Robert Buchar is attempting to put together a documentary feature film about the end of the Cold War and the collapse of Communism in Europe. Its working title is “The Grand Deception – Uncertain History.” Based on interviews with former Communist Bloc intelligence officers, CIA officials and scholars, the documentary shows that Communism did not collapse spontaneously. The directive for change came from Moscow. “People power” had nothing to do with it. According to Buchar, “For the last three years I couldn’t find any media interested in this topic.” Pundits and news anchors told us, again and again, that the revolutions in Eastern Europe were caused by popular discontent. According to conservative partisans, the Soviet Union fell because Ronald Reagan pushed it over. Not so, says Buchar: “The version of events presented to the public is very different from what actually happened.”

On this subject, Buchar interviewed various insiders and analysts. Former chief of CIA Soviet Bloc Counterintelligence, Tennant H. “Pete” Bagley told Buchar that an unknown hand was behind the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. “There was a different truth in this respect,” Bagley said. “and that’s a truth that was so well hidden that I don’t know if it ever will come out….” According Ludvik Zivcak, a Communist secret police official tasked with organizing the demonstration that triggered the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, “Many people think or believe that in 1989 there was a mass uprising of the nation. From what I did, or where I worked, I am convinced that there was no uprising at all. It’s hard to find out today who wrote the script but it wasn’t written in America. America just jumped on the bandwagon at the end. So the script was most probably written in the East.”

According to the Soviet dissident researcher and former political prisoner Vladimir Bukovsky, “The KGB was an integral part of the whole of Gorbachev’s perestroika.” Bukovsky told Buchar that the West: “never understood the Soviet system as such,” failing to comprehend “why it was inherently aggressive” and dangerous. The West made useless treaties with Russia, “As if a piece of paper could ever stop that monster.” The West did not understand Stalin, Khrushchev or Brezhnev, and would never grasp the sinister side of Gorbachev’s peace offensive. “So they would all believe nonsense,” noted Bukovsky, “incredible nonsense, to believe that there is a struggle between reformers and conservatives in the Politburo and the leadership.”

At the end of the Cold War, at the Malta Summit between President Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, the following exchange was recorded for posterity: Secretary of State James Baker raised the issue of upholding Western values and the Russians became upset. President George H.W. Bush intervened with a decisive comment: “Let’s avoid careless words and further discussions about ‘values.’ From the bottom of our heart we salute upcoming changes.” This is what the Russians wanted to hear. American values and assistance in the fall of Communism were not welcome because the KGB was setting up its own version of democracy, and its own version of capitalism. Bukovsky interprets the Malta exchange as follows: “Simply, Gorbachev told Bush that he is going to change regimes in Eastern Europe completely … but he seriously asked the United States and Western allies not to get involved. Not to stir up trouble there. Because it’s very fragile, very delicate transaction period. ‘We will do it, don’t worry, but don’t get involved. Don’t spoil it.’ And Bush promised not to get involved.”

So the changes were initiated from Moscow and the United States was told to stay out of it. It was the business of the KGB to manage the collapse of Communism, and now we see – more clearly than we did in 1991 – where this collapse has taken us. Europe’s attitude has shifted against American foreign policy. To our consternation a KGB officer is president of the Russian Federation. Former agents and officials of the secret police are leading many of the “former” Warsaw Pact countries. The oppression of dissent is carried out by gangland-style assassinations (as in the deaths of Anna Politkovskaya and Paul Klebnikov). The jailing of dissidents is carried on under legal pretexts. Czech journalist and politician Jan Stetina told Buchar, “After a few years it became clear that the term ‘fall of Communism’ doesn’t reflect reality. The excitement didn’t last for long and I would say that now we are in a state of disillusionment.” As Czech dissident and former political prisoner Petr Cibulka explained: “I was released from prison ten days after November 17 [1989] and for the first couple of weeks I believed that changes were happening. But after a few weeks I realized that the changes were just cosmetic changes, changing of the scenery; that the power will remain in the hands of the Communists and that the Communists don’t need to worry about losing anything.” Cibulka further stated, “This is not a revolution but another Communist swindle.”

Former Czech political prisoner Vladimir Hucin told Buchar, “I signed Charter 77 after I was released from prison in 1986. When I later got access to documents from the STB [Communist secret police] archives I discovered how many people from Charter 77 were involved with the STB, how many agents the STB had in this group. That was a big disappointment for me.” As Czech historian Pavel Zacek confirmed to Buchar, “The STB functioned very effectively. They infiltrated all regional opposition groups. They managed to place their agents in the top leadership positions of Civic Forum and recruit new agents within Czechoslovakia’s popular social democratic parties. There were no documents found about how this operation was run….”

Robert Buchar is a cinematographer from Czechoslovakia who defected in 1980 and came to the United States in 1981. He worked as a cameraman for CBS, and since 1990 he has taught cinematography at Columbia College, Chicago. In 1999 Buchar produced the documentary film Velvet Hangover which was turned into a book in 2003 titled Czech New Wave Filmmakers in Interviews. “It was the work I did on this book that led me to the idea to shoot this film,” Buchar explained. “And it was the former Czech dissident and political prisoner Petr Cibulka who convinced me to do it, telling me ‘If you are not going to make this film, nobody ever will.’ So I started to work on this documentary, “The Grand Deception – Uncertain History,” in 2004 and finished the principle photography in June 2007. I am editing the interviews now, but everything is on hold pending the problem of raising money to buy stock news footage necessary to finish the film. Maybe I will have to publish the book before finishing the film.”

As a former citizen of Communist Czechoslovakia, what did Buchar learn from his interviews? “You have an idea about an event beforehand,” said Buchar, “and it changes when you hear all the details from eye witnesses. And then, of course, connecting the dots from different places leads to a horrifying picture and a conclusion that concerns me. People usually give me that weird look when I say that I decided to defect from my country because, back in the late 70s, I came to the conclusion that the process of changing the system was already under way and when it would happen it would be orchestrated from inside with the outcome predetermined and unacceptable to me. I just didn’t think it would come so soon. I would have given it ten more years at the time.”

Readers may wonder what Buchar thinks about the Western response to the collapse of Communism. “Well,” he said, “There was one thing I learned that I wasn’t aware of before – the level of incompetence in the CIA as far as their knowledge of the Communist system is concerned, the way it operated in Eastern Bloc countries, ignoring the importance of ideology and the level of Soviet infiltration in the agency. Something that Bill Gertz calls the anti-anti-Communist mindset in the agency. That was really shocking for me.”

http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2007/0914.html

—Posted by SK Johnson—–

Lost Tribe of Israel Returns to Holy Land?

I have been traveling and unable to update as regularly as I had previously hoped, and left many prospective blog projects on the shelf a lot longer (look soon for a journey into the music genre of chamber pop, plus a discussion as to whether or not attending a Christian school is seclusionary or a fundamentalistesque platonism). However, I came across the following article that was very interesting and hope to share it with you. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

-SK Johnson
———————-

FROM WND’S JERUSALEM BUREAU
‘Lost tribe of Israel’ arrives in Jewish state
Group in India ‘descended from Joseph’ struggled to ‘return home’
Posted: August 30, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Members of ‘lost tribe of Israel’ arrive at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv (Courtesy Shavei Israel)

TEL AVIV – One-hundred-seventy-four people from a group of thousands in India that believes it is one of the 10 “lost tribes” of Israel landed here this week, fulfilling for many a life-long dream of returning to what they consider their homeland.

Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based organization led by American Michael Freund, hopes to bring to the Jewish state the remaining 7,000 Indian citizens who believe they are the Bnei Menashe, the descendants of Manasseh, one of biblical patriarch Joseph’s two sons and a grandson of Jacob.

The tribe lives in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, to which they claim to have been exiled from Israel more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian empire.

“I truly believe this is a miracle of immense historical and even biblical significance,” Freund told WND as the group of 174 arrived here earlier this week.

“Just as the prophets foretold so long ago, the lost tribes of Israel are being brought back from the exile,” said Freund, who previously served as deputy communications director under former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Another planeload of 57 Bnei Menashe is slated to touch down in Israel tomorrow.

The group, which has preserved ancient Jewish customs and rituals, has been trying the past 50 years to return to Israel.

(Story continues below)

Over the last decade, Freund’s Shavei Israel, at times working with other organizations, brought about 1,200 Bnei Menashe members to the Jewish state. Many settled in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. About 80 lived in Gaza’s slate of Jewish communities, which were evacuated by the Israeli government in 2005.

The original batches of Bnei Menashe to arrive here were brought to Israel as tourists in an agreement with Israel’s Interior Ministry. Once here, the Bnei Menashe converted officially to Judaism and became citizens.

But diplomatic wrangling halted the immigration process in 2003, with officials from some Israeli ministries refusing to grant the rest of the group still in India permission to travel here.

Bnei Menashe member arriving in Israel (Courtesy Shavei Israel)

To smooth the process, Freund enlisted the help of Israel’s chief rabbinate, which flew to India in 2005 to meet with and consider converting members of the Bnei Menashe. Once legally Jewish, the tribe can apply for Israeli citizenship under the country’s “Law of Return,” which guarantees sanctuary to Jews from around the world.

Six rabbis were sent by Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, Shlomo Amar, to begin converting the Bnei Menashe. The rabbis met with hundreds of tribal members, testing their knowledge of Judaism and assessing their conviction, converting 216 individuals – over 90 percent of the members interviewed.

“The rabbis were incredibly impressed with the Bnei Menashe,” said Freund. “They saw for themselves that the group is very serious and should be integrated into the Jewish nation. That they are a blessing to the state of Israel.”

Last year, 218 converted members arrived in Israel. Freund hoped to repeat the process for 231 more Bnei Menashe who had been approved for conversion, but the Indian government, which heavily restricts conversions, put a halt on the plan.

Bnei Menashe member (Courtesy Shavei Israel)

Instead, the batch of Bnei Menashe that arrived this week were brought to Israel as tourists in coordination with the Israeli government. Once here, the tribe will be officially converted by the country’s chief rabbinate and qualify for Israeli citizenship.

The new immigrants will spend the next few months studying Hebrew and Judaism at a Shavei Israel absorption center in northern Israel.

The Bnei Menashe that arrived here over the years have fully transited into Israeli society. Many attended college and rabbinic school, moved to major Israeli communities and even joined the Israel Defense Forces.

Twelve Bnei Menashe served in the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon in 2006. One of them, Avi Hanshing, a 22-year old paratrooper, was injured during a clash with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Hanshing’s father was among those who arrived here earlier this week in an emotional reunion at Israel’s international airport.

“As much as we might think that Israel is helping the Bnei Menashe, it is the reverse that is true. It is they who strengthen us – with their faith, with their commitment and with their undying love for Zion,” said Freund.

Bnei Menashe member (Courtesy Shavei Israel)

According to Bnei Menashe oral tradition, the tribe was exiled from Israel and pushed to the east, eventually settling in the border regions of China and India, where most remain today. Most kept customs similar to Jewish tradition, including observing Shabbat, keeping the laws of Kosher, practicing circumcision on the eighth day of a baby boy’s life and observing laws of family purity.

In the 1950s, several thousand Bnei Menashe say they set out on foot to Israel but were quickly halted by Indian authorities. Undeterred, many began practicing Orthodox Judaism and pledged to make it to Israel. They now attend community centers established by Shavei Israel to teach the Bnei Menashe Jewish tradition and modern Hebrew.

Freund said he hopes the arrival this week of more Bnei Menashe would “jump-start the process of bringing back the rest of the 7,000 Bnei Menashe who are in India yearning to return home.”

Fear Fills the Air in Poland

Fear Fills the Air in Poland
By David Frum
Posted: Monday, August 27, 2007

ARTICLES
National Post  (Canada)
Publication Date: August 25, 2007

Resident Fellow
David Frum

It’s been almost two decades since I last visited Poland. In 1990, communist rule had only just barely ended. The police still wore their former uniforms–and still treated citizens and travelers with the former arrogance.

As my wife and I flew out of Poland to East Berlin, a border official quizzed us: “Were we taking anything of value out of Poland?”

“Out of Poland?” I asked incredulously. “Out of Poland?! There isn’t anything of value in Poland.” The police scowled–they were not used to back chat. But they had lost their power to punish back chat.

Many Poles feel that the United States disregards Polish security concerns–especially the threat that Poles continue to perceive from Russia.

Arriving in Poland today, the border police flip through passports speedily. Much of their job will soon vanish: Next year, Poland joins the Schengen group of European countries whose citizens can cross each other’s borders without passports.

Polish water plants and roads are being rebuilt with European Union funds, and the zloty will likely be merged into the Euro within the next five years. The economy is accelerating, unemployment declining, incomes rising–and a roaring property boom is giving Warsaw the appearance of a modern city.

Poland remains a low-wage country. The average income (adjusting for purchasing power) has only just recently crossed north of US$15,000, approximately equal to Argentina’s. Still, life is improving rapidly for almost everybody, including the more than one million Poles now legally employed in the other countries of the European Union.

Yet it is too simple to present Poland as a purely happy post-1989 success story.

In 2002, the U.S. defence secretary hailed Poland as a leader of a “new Europe” that would form part of a “coalition of the willing” with the United States. Poland acceded to NATO in 1999. Eager to be perceived as a reliable partner in the new alliance, the Polish government dispatched troops to Afghanistan and Iraq: Some 900 remain in Iraq today; about 1,100 serve in Afghanistan.

These missions have become deeply unpopular here: 80% of Poles oppose the Afghan and Iraq missions according to the latest surveys.

The “willing” are not so willing as they used to be.

Poles do not see the Middle East as central to their security. With only 5,000 Muslims living in Poland, Islamic terrorism feels a very remote threat.

At the same time, many here feel that the United States disregards Polish security concerns–especially the threat that Poles continue to perceive from Russia. Russia’s behaviour toward its former satellites has grown steadily more aggressive since Vladimir Putin’s arrival in power. This summer, Russia waged a weird cyber-war against Estonia, jamming its Web sites and damaging the commerce of one of the most wired nations in Europe. Russia is deploying missiles along its western border in ways that Poles perceive as threatening.

The United States and NATO have guaranteed Poland’s security. But there are hardly any Western troops stationed in Poland, nor has NATO ever staged any exercise to war-game a defence of Poland–not exactly a far-fetched scenario.

The United States wants to build a missile defence base in Poland. Poles complain that the base will be aligned to defend western Europe against Iranian missiles, not Poland against Russian missiles. A recent survey shows 56% of Poles opposing the new base, and only 28% supporting it.

American policy-makers fear that taking precautions against Russia will only provoke Russia. They worry that treating Russia as a potential threat will hasten the transformation of Russia into an actual threat.

These U.S. fears and worries are reasonable. But they may already have become obsolete. Russia is already waging economic warfare against its neighbours. Russia last winter abruptly halted exports of gas to Ukraine. It bans imports of Polish meat. It is planning a pipeline to Germany that bypasses Eastern Europe, enabling a future Russian government to cut off its former satellites without confronting the more powerful Europeans of the West.

Alarmist? Maybe. But here in Poland alarmism naturally fills the air. I am staying at a country house overlooking a lovely pond. The air buzzes with the soft sound of crickets. Everything seems soft and gentle. Yet not five kilometres away, there still stands the walls of a Nazi concentration camp converted into a Soviet prison. Inside what is now the local furniture factory, Jews and Poles were once enslaved to build parts for German fighter planes.

The past lingers just around the corner everywhere in Poland. The Poles have not forgotten. Perhaps those who have undertaken to be their allies should make it clearer that we remember too.

David Frum is a resident fellow at AEI.

http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.26694/pub_detail.asp

Review of Bourne Ultimatem from Relevant Magazine

Two Perspectives: Bourne Ultimatum
Chris Fletcher And Christie Hudon

With skilled camera work, a great cast and action sequences that never slow down, the latest (and probably last) installment in the Bourne saga packs a satisfying punch. RELEVANT’s Chris Fletcher and Christie Hudon give high praise to the current film about the man without a name.

True Identity: Chris Fletcher
Relevant flames: 4.5 out of 5

His name is Bourne. Jason Bourne. And with the advent of his third film, he’s convinced me that he could knock the cool right out of that other guy who shares his initials.

In this era of terror and counter-terror, movies have become acutely aware of the moral dilemma facing those who work in the clandestine agencies. The films in question are usually bloated and boring time-wasters, but The Bourne Ultimatum is not.

Quite the opposite, in fact. The Bourne Ultimatum is relentless in its action sequences and the plot drives forward to the inevitable conclusion at an exhausting pace. “Bourne-sickness” is the name I have given to the feeling in my stomach that occurs after watching about 10 minutes of a shaky-camera action scene. There are at least 37 such scenes in Paul Greengrass’s new film, and I must say, he’s getting better at filming them.

The latest (and possibly last) Bourne adventure centers on a familiar theme: the real identity of one Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). But this time, Bourne’s not fighting for freedom from surveillance and capture; nay, he wants into the heart of Treadstone. He wants closure.

And boy, does he get it. After breaking a lot of other people’s bones, of course. A new enemy presents itself in the guise of Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), the chief of a post-Treadstone operation named Blackbriar. Strathairn is good enough as the film’s principal bad guy, but does not attain the level of pragmatic evil that Chris Cooper did in The Bourne Identity.

Joan Allen reprises her role as Pamela Landy, the CIA operative who believes that Bourne is after something other than taking down the organization. Her calm rationality in the face of the male upheaval around her causes me to see The Bourne Ultimatum at its core as an unintentionally pro-feminist film. The men in control at the CIA are only concerned with the use and possession of power and the man with the most power to do anything about it—Bourne—doesn’t know enough to use it effectively without the help and guidance of women.

Which brings us to the very capable Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles). Nicky was Jason’s handler in The Bourne Identity and she’s back in his life, if only for a moment. We get a hint of a pre-Marie romance, and she’s whisked off into the darkness. Jason Bourne has bigger fish to fry.

When he finally does come face-to-face with his past and the man responsible for it, he is faced with an ultimatum of his own. He can either remain as Jason Bourne and get revenge on his creator, or he can give up his desire for vengeance and become his original incarnation—David Webb. The tension in the scene is palpable thanks to over-the-shoulder close-ups and a pounding soundtrack. As a viewer, I wanted both vengeance and restoration, but I knew that only one choice would make Bourne whole.

I wonder how many of my fellow theater-goers realized that they too have become a distortion of their true selves—that they were born for a different identity. The Bourne movies help awaken in us a latent desire to be more than what we are, and for that, I applaud them.

In the end, Jason Bourne is faced with the choice every person must make at some point in their lives. Either we choose to act according to the standards society deems “logical” or we can choose to reject the values of the system and assume our true identity. Either way, I can’t hope to decide with as much finesse and physical acumen as Mr. Bourne, so I’ll stick to some witty wordplay and a dry martini.

A One-Man Mission Impossible: Christie Hudon
Relevant flames: 5 out of 5

Car chases, guns and fast cuts—The Bourne Ultimatum delivers everything you’d expect it to. Ultimatum lives up to the first two movies of the franchise, and though some say it’s the best, I can’t put one above the other. I think of the Bourne films more as one ongoing saga of the man without a name, one long hunt for answers that both Jason Bourne and the audience are grasping to know.

Ultimatum follows Bourne as he is tracked and once again branded a threat to world security. He is nearer to finding out the reason he became a ruthless killer and the organization that is responsible for his transformation. On their hunt to find Bourne, the CIA tags anyone he comes in contact with for death, sealing their own fate and bringing Bourne to their doorstep.

The Bourne saga has taken shape as a one man Mission Impossible. His story is internal. He never uses a disguise. He walks calmly into danger with no weapons but his own bare hands (and maybe a gun). That’s what makes him so fascinating. He is the Batman to Bond’s Superman. The only thing helping him is his fierce will to live and impeccable fighting skills. That Bourne kills and gets caught in gunfights and rooftop chases is exciting, but it’s not the only reason for the film. Thrust into a situation where he regrets his life as a hired hit man but can’t live without his life-taking capabilities, the Bourne films are more than just shoot ’em up movies. They actually have a beating heart at their center.

Bourne lives with guilt. “I can see the faces of everyone I killed,” he says. We can see this guilt played out as Jason Bourne only kills when absolutely necessary. He is vulnerable, yet his compassion doesn’t make him an easy target. That’s satisfying to witness and makes Ultimatum both exciting and heart-wrenching.

As for the mechanics of the movie, director Paul Greengrass heads a team of skilled cinematographers and editors. Most shots can’t last for more than two seconds and fights are shown from more angles than a house of mirrors. Some moviegoers may get seasick from the shaky handheld camera shots that cover many of the film’s quiet moments. I like to think it’s symbolic of Bourne’s unstable world, but that may just be my uber-English geekiness coming out. I thoroughly enjoyed the raw camera work in the film and thought it perfect to show Bourne’s point of view.

Location shots are fantastic throughout the film—nothing feels like a set except for the office shots of the CIA. In a lot of ways, the film feels like a documentary crew is following Bourne at a running pace.

Matt Damon shines once again in his role; his hard face and vigilant eyes never stop being Bourne. When I think of his versatility over the past year or so, I’m even more pleased with his performance. From a nerdy thief in Ocean’s 13 to the double agent cop in The Departed to the chilly Bourne—he’s certainly surpassed his cohort Ben Affleck.

More than a summer popcorn action flick, The Bourne Ultimatum is a shining jewel on the trilogy’s crown. For a different take on Bourne’s story, try reading the books by Robert Ludlum. My husband’s been re-reading them for years and is pleased with the adaptations—though he says since they killed off Marie, they aren’t the same Bourne story. I’ve not read the books, but we both enjoyed the movie and had a lively discussion after the film. I give the film five out of five flaming cars.

—

Chris Fletcher is a writer who’s avoiding writing a screenplay because it makes him feel like a professional. Besides, he’s got too many movies to watch. Email him at written.reality@gmail.com.

Christie Hudon is in love with the arts. She writes, sings and acts for various venues in Central Florida. Christie and her husband also lead a drama ministry called Verve that seeks to present quality theater to the community for free. She is working on publishing her first novel and is grateful to spread her words wherever she can.

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/pc_article.php?id=7488

Illegal Immigration and the 1st Amendment

Illegal Immigration is a hot button issue of this election.  It’s something I will likely talk about more in the future, but I want to ponder on a couple of things that I have heard said in recent months concerning the topic.  This is far from a complete argument, or much of a post, but more will come  in the future.

It has been said by some that deportation (or anything short of complete amnesty), and building a border fence is a racist action.  It has also been used as an argument (by those who want to use Christianity against a conservative argument) that since Scripture mandated that the Israelites be loving and caring towards foreigners, we should to.  There are a few flaws in this argument.  First, the original Hebrew of the text indicates that the foreigners are those who have become residents of Israel, or in some verses it indicates those who are traveling through.  Second, those who make this argument are also the same people who believe in the secularism of the 1st amendment.  When it comes to abortion for example, they argue that creating laws against abortion would enforce a religious belief and that goes against the first amendment.  Wouldn’t providing amnesty and open borders because of something found in the Old Testament the same exact thing?  Of course I’m generalizing, but you never know when a generalization comes in handy.

Yet, with all that aside, I do believe that the United States should show courtesy and hospitality towards travelers, new residents, and immigrants.  However decency does not come at the loss of justice and civil order which is necessary to provide a society that can be hospitable.  If we were to allow illegal immigration to continue, the rises in crime and the cost to the government would be so great that there wouldn’t be a country to come to anyway.  We wouldn’t be around to provide kindness and hospitality.  We need rules for a safe and prosperous society, and rules must be enforced to work.

-SK Johnson

‘The Soviet’ by mewithoutyou

The following are the lyrics to a song called ‘The Soviet’ by a band called mewithoutyou. I am not entirely sure if the band has indicated this themselves, but the rumor is that the name of their band comes from John 15:5: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

Mewithoutyou is a band of Christians, and their music falls into the angst/experimental genre. Their latest album, ‘Brother, Sister’ sees them leaping more into experimental music as opposed to their earlier hardcore roots. Vocals are by Aaron Weiss. Yet, it would be a stretch to say that he sings. At the same time, mewithoutyou is not a screamo band. Instead, Aaron Weiss ‘loudly speaks’ lyrics in a way that feels like having poetry read with music put behind it. The music follows the poetic rhythm of the lyrics instead of vice versa in typical music (where the lyrics follow the rhythm and flow of the music).

‘The Soviet’ by mewithoutyou

God is love and love is real, but the dead are dancing with the dead and through all that’s charming disappears.
All things lovely only hurt my head as I gather stones from fields like pearls of water on my fingers’ ends and wrap them in boxes.
Save from windows, from things that break, as the night-time shined like day it saw my sorry face.
Hair a mess but it liked my best that way
(besides how else could I confess? When I looked down like if to pray, well I was looking down her dress…) Good god, please! Catch for us the foxes in the vineyard – the little foxes.

Turn your ear, musician.
To silence because they only come out when it’s quiet, their tails brushing over your eyelids – wake up, sleeper, and rise from the dead!
Or the fur that they shed will cover your bed in a delicate orange-ish cinnamon red.
Ah, I don’t need this!
I hate my loves, I have my doubts.
I don’t need this.

———

There are two obvious references and inspirations for this song.

The first is from Scripture in Song of Solomon 2:15, ‘Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom. ‘ (World English Bible). If you study Song of Solomon in depth, you come to realize the important symbolism of the vineyard. The vineyard represents the relationship between the man and the woman. It is the backdrop of their relationship. The reference to foxes, then, refers to something that comes as a destructor to their vineyards (or their relationship as a whole).

The next obvious inspiration is displayed in the line, ‘the dead are dancing with the dead’ which originally comes from a poem by Oscar Wilde entitled, ‘The Harlot’s House’ which discusses a love lost when the narrator’s lover is enticed into the house (the harlot’s house) where the dead are dancing with the dead. A house where the inhabitants are barely alive because of their sin, and…

“the ghostly dancers spin To sound of horn and violin,
Like black leaves wheeling in the wind.”

Wilde’s poem is very dark and hopeless. Although ‘The Soviet’ certainly has a great level of darkness in it too, it has more desperation to it. Wilde’s poem comes across as hardly lucid. The alternative desperation in ‘The Soviet’ is most obvious at the line ‘turn your ear musician’ where the music builds up, and an orchestral-like crescendo is brought in by background vocals. The other main difference between ‘The Soviet’ and Wilde’s poem is that ‘The Soviet’ includes a plea to someone (likely God, although it’s hard to tell if the reference to God is as profanity or not. My guess is that it is not meant as profanity, and the lower-case ‘g’ is a typo, or a false assumption), a plea to ‘catch for us the foxes’

I personally wonder if the line, ‘turn your ear you musicians’ is meant as a response to the allusion to musicians leading the dance in the harlot’s house in Wilde’s poem. Weiss is pleading for the musicians to stop living in their naive blindness, as the foxes come and pillage the vineyards. Namely, the narrator in Wilde’s poem that leaves him for the dance with the dead. Just like Nero who played music as Rome burned to the ground.

It’s so easy for us to let lust (or the foxes) come into our lives. Lust gives way to adultery of some form, and after that, the foxes have been let in. It’s too late. Turn your ear musician, and oh God, catch for us the foxes.

-SK Johnson

Welcome

Welcome to this humble outpost of thoughts, ideas, argument, beauty, justice, and fervor.  This is a blog set aside as an experiment in the new Christian Reformation that is growing out of the ideas of those like Francis Schaeffer, C.S. Lewis, Ravi Zacharias, and Nancy Pearcey.  It is a picture of Christians taking a stand to look at the world around them and stand up for Christ in it.  This blog is to encourage Christians to have a love of justice, beauty, truth, and building the kingdom of Christ in the world around them.

Something that I can not get past is the idea that some Christians might have that spending time discussing art, music, politics, philosophy is wasting time that could be better spent in evangelism.  I understand the sentiment.  Yet, I am a firm believer that Christians who live a live pleasing to God in whatever he calls them to do (a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, an artist, etc…) is in fact preaching the gospel in a profound way.  Furthermore, when we look at the world and see how we can better bring about God’s kingdom by creating and exposing beauty, in standing up for justice, and in seeking and exploiting truth for the world to see (even small nuggets of it), we are also preaching the gospel then.  I do not wish to diminish the need for the gospel to be spelled out in words, but I do not want to diminish that the gospel can work alongside and often because of the other things God calls us to do.  That is the thesis of this blog.

I would love to go on and on about the ideas and the foundation behind this blog, but let me leave you with the description I have already written for our ‘What we do’ page:

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What We Do.

This is an experiment, born out of the mind of a young, home-schooled, Christian rebel against the neo-platonism that dominates our day. This is the first front for the beginning of the new reformation.

What is this new reforamtion all about? The church today has slowly found itself slipping back into the bad, unchristian philosophies that led to the need for the first reformation. The reason for this can be attributed to several things, one of which is that the reformation never truly finished its job because it got cut off by the secularist enlightenment. A group of Christian leaders both celebrity (C.S. Lewis, Nancy Pearcey, Ravi Zacharias, and Francis Schaeffer) and obscure (the strong coalition of professors in Christian colleges for example) have been planting the seeds in my generation (I am entering my final year of high-school at this writing) for a new reformation. I have encountered countless spiritual leaders who are convinced that this generation will bring about a reformation of the Christian Church unseen in history. This blog is one small attempt to ‘get the ball rolling’ by simply being a tool of living out what I believe in.

We will feature interesting news, reviews on music, art, and film, guest posts, my political rants, and etc. All of it is designed to let you, the reader, take everything around you one level deeper and hopefully find the truth and beauty of your Creator at the root of it all. All in all, this is the attempt of a Christian to live out his faith in a new, relevant, convicted, timeless, and true way. We believe in standing up for justice, in exploiting and creating beauty, in discussing truth, and we believe in a God who is the author of all those things.

I hope you find your time here encouraging, enlightening, and dangerous.  But ultimately, I hope that it teaches you how to think too much, so that you time after time stumble upon your Creator.

Sincerely,
SK Johnson [administrator]

Meet our writers/contributors: (to be updated as we grow)

S.K. Johnson
[Administrator/Renaissance man]
My name is SK Johnson. I am a homeschooled high school student. I am also the owner of the Duncan Hunter Grass Revolt (www.dhgrassrevolt.wordpress), which was the beginning of my blogging career. I am obsessed with ideas, books, music, politics, and my heroes: William Wilberforce, James Madison, William Blackstone, C.S. Lewis, Ronald Reagan, Brother Andrew, and Jon Foreman. I hope to one day be a college professor and/or involved in politics, depending on where the Lord leads me and when.
I also have a weakness for sweet tea and European cities.

Disclaimer on politics: In the church today, it is almost taboo to talk about politics in certain atmospheres and occasions. It is my philosophy that as Christians we are called to affect culture in all means necessary to further the work of Christ. That means standing up for justice, and for fulfilling the Biblical mandate of creating a society pleasing to God. I do not mean that I believe government itself should create a Godly society, but I believe that it is a piece of the puzzle. On the surface, I suppose that sounds like a communist statement. Let me be clear, I am an ardent anti-communist and an ardent anti-socialist. What I mean by my statement is that government shapes society and as Christians we are obligated to be a part of that, yet it is not the only way we affect the world for Christ. In my opinion, a government based upon the US Constitution is something consistent with Christianity and something I support and fight for.

The point I am finally getting to is that I believe the church needs to have open discussion about politics and a Christian’s role in it. We are not always going to agree, we are not always going to be right, but we should look objectively to Scripture for truth on this subject and do something about it. That is why, with this blog, I will not be shy in expressing my political beliefs. However it should be noted that any political statements about specific politicians made through banners or on any sections of this site that are not actual blog posts are the opinions of the administrator (SK Johnson) and not necessarily of all contributing writers. As contributing authors are added, it is my position to enforce a certain amount of content control but overall I am not against having differing opinions within these posts.

This is how to think too much.

-SK Johnson [administrator]