Insulting the Intelligence
Predictable, morally black-&-white tv fare whose lack of political subtlety leaves us with no explanation of what a terrorist really is. Lack of such a definition helps Whites evade the obvious problem that Whites are also terrorists. Yet this series goes out of its way to pretend otherwise and that 9/11 happened for no rational reason because the West is civilized - despite the fact that Whites believe Muslim can never be trusted and that Christianity is the best religion.
Originating from the US, none of the above is hardly surprising. The most galling aspect of this drama is that it is nothing more than an old Cold War plot welded to a present-day (2012) political situation - and there is a distinct lack of fit.
The Manchurian Candidate plotting makes sense in the context of Cold War paranoia but, since Middle Eastern terrorists do not possess nuclear weapons and are not attempting to overthrow Capitalism, the threat is of a far more insidious nature since it involves both sides being terrorists because both sides use terrorist techniques. This similarity of means and ends is elided in favor of political oversimplifications and the facile superficiality of alleged “imminent threats” to the US Homeland; the paranoia of realizing that despite spending billions on defense, Whites still have a great deal to fear – especially from psychologically-simplistic melodrama like this.
There is, for example, no exploration of the distinction between vigilance and paranoia. The very reason the US Marine sergeant here is suspected of being an Al Qaeda sleeper (he was kept alive as a POW for eight years for no apparent reason) is the very reason the premiss is unconvincing. That, and the obvious reason that terrorists only need to plan few attacks since their greatest weapon is the fear in others that they will many: Terrorists only need attack the US at its weakest point - its expensive military adventures abroad. Thus, the War on Terror is really just a war to protect Whites from their own fears of a world they cannot rule, but would like to. This is why few ethnic minorities appear in this series because Whites are scared of the non-Whites who live among them - as of the extra terrestrials in the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
The paranoia prevalent here is nothing more than the product of the tacit White realization that they are hated around the world and that their paranoia is really quite rational. But there is no explicit admission of this here. The only realistic aspect of this drama is the claim that despite Osama Bin Laden’s death, the War on Terror is going to be kept going (because all the other the terrorists the US created are still out there).
If Western Whites ever came to understand terrorism, they would be able to make really good drama about it. But, for them, that would feel like treason. Any drama that only explores one side of the issue is little better than political propaganda; offering us little in the way of insight into human nature. The Great White Fear here is that the War On Terror is a path to self-destruction in creating more enemies than it destroys. Solipsism and narcissism do not make for compelling (because dishonest) drama. As always, when Whites refuse to get over a military loss to Whites (9/11), they try their best to pretend that history can somehow be rewritten with hysterically-unconvincing drama like this; reliving the event as if it could somehow be changed – endlessly crying over spilt milk because an alleged genetic inferior blindsided them. As with 24, this is really about nothing more than the White self-doubt and insecurity, that Whites vainly believe can be solved by violence abroad and self-hatred at home.
Is this Zionist propaganda?
Curiously, the British actors give the best performances (apart from the always-excellent Mandy PATINKIN) in what is - essentially - War-on-Terror propaganda. Damian LEWIS always gives good value and it is a great shame that he is rarely cast in better work.
In the absence of any dramatic or political depth, the series simply squirms its way through plot twist after plot twist in the hope of keeping the audience’s attention in such a facile manner; while never creating convincing characters or events.
The melodrama here is designed to compensate for and distract our attention from, the fact that the script is not written from any real experience, so is little more than a student essay pretending to be drama. The dialog consists of little more than bullet points from a Western perspective. At no time is the word Justice ever uttered because to do so would mean understanding why 9/11 happened. To do this would be to completely invalidate the War on Terror. Whites do not care why terrorists do what they do since that would create validity for terrorism; that is, make it more like the kind of freedom fighting they should be supporting, not fighting.
Here, White paranoia is seen as being better than political understanding. Whites believe terrorists want to destroy the West despite there being no evidence for this; ie, just because Muslims are not all terrorists does not mean all Muslims are not terrorists. The War on Terror is a reactionary loser for Whites, since it means never understanding the problem and, so, having little chance of curing a disease not well understood; creating permanent, debilitating warfare. It is hard to fight people you understand since, this undermines the fight by hinting the other had right on its side. But not understanding means you cannot win because you cannot then predict your enemies’ behavior reliably.
Although a good primer on the inadequacies of White culture, this makes uncompelling drama. Especially as the characters are undifferentiated, as if written by a Personal Computer (PC). The entire enterprise positively reeks of political and psychological inauthenticity within the limitations of a by-the-numbers plot.
No talk of the War on Terror as a permanent replacement for the psychological certainties of the Cold War. Allied with no discussion of whether the War on Terror works or will ever end.
The Whites here are riven with paranoid/schizophrenia and the idea is presented that this madness is close to genius. Of course, only Whites can be geniuses because only they can save the (White) world from imminent destruction from the forces of Darkness
Drearily-predictable.
