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The other night I watched a great movie from 1966 called "Born Free". It was a true story about a how a couple raised a Lioness, Elsa, and released her in the wild when she reached maturity. The story begins in Kenya when a a British game warden named George Adamson is tasked in hunting down a "Man eating Lion". George kills both Male and Female lion orphaning 3 cubs that he brings back to his wife Joy. Joy ends up favoring the runt of the litter, Elsa and build a special bond. The Adamsons tend to the three orphaned lion cubs to young lionhood, and, when the time comes, the two largest are sent to the Zoo, while Elsa remains with Joy. One day, Elsa frightens Elephants into stampede that destroys a village. John Kendall, The Adamson's boss gives the couple a few months to either release Elsa back into the wild, or send her to a zoo. Joy strongly apposes sending her to a zoo because she believes because Elsa was born free she should live free. They try and acclimate her to the wild with no success. She had been fed all of her life and was unable to catch food on her own. One day the Adamsons decided to leave Elsa alone in the wild for a week to see if she would get hungry enough to hunt on her own. The returned a week later to find an emaciated Elsa. They go-on through dialog which is the subject of this review: Joy Adamson: Elsa, Elsa [Joy cries sitting out on the hood of the truck as they ride in search of the young lioness] George Adamson: Let's try this. [2 shots ring out from his gun. George sees Elsa stumbling through the grass, approaching their vehicle] Joy Adamson: all my nightmares had come true. [Now Elsa rests in their tent as they argue over her] George Adamson: ...she can't make it. she can't think. she can't mix with her own kind... She can't do anything the wild animals do to survive. You've done too good a job on her. You've made her tame. It's too late to try to let her go wild now. All we're doing is making her miserable, torturing her. How could you be so cruel? Joy Adamson: You keep quiet George. George Adamson: I don't know what goes on in that head of yours anymore... What's wrong with a zoo, anyway? Joy Adamson: nothing. Except that she won't be free. George Adamson: and Is freedom so important? Joy Adamson: yes, yes, she was born free and she has the right to live free. Why don't we live in a more comfortable setting George? Other people do. We chose to live out here cause it represents freedom for us. Because we can breathe. George Adamson: Joy, tell me the truth. You just don't want to give her up. What you're really hoping is that she can stay out here, wild, but not too wild. That you can see her every now and then. Joy Adamson: it's not the whole truth. But I don't deny I'd like it. George Adamson: it's impossible. It cannot happen. Joy Adamson: ...at least she would be free. At least she wouldn't be in a cage for the rest of her life. George Adamson: even if she gets herself killed in the process. Joy Adamson: [stroking Elsa's leg] I'd never forgive myself I suppose. [Joy narrates] Joy Adamson: although at one time we were afraid she'd die, Elsa did recover. And when she did, she seemed somehow different. By different she was able to make her first kill and was now able to feed herself.... She was then freed! When I listened to this dialog I could only think of our current welfare state. The government, with intent to "help the poor orphans", takes away peoples ability to "hunt" and provide for themselves by making them more or less like a domesticated Animal that depends on the Master for food. Take the the American Indian community for example, at one time they rode the plains free hunting and farming, now they have been living on reservations for the last century collecting government checks and losing their culture of strength and self sufficiency. Childhood Obesity and Heart disease has become prominent in Indian communities. It is likely that this generation of children will die before their parents. These are all detriments of the inability and loss of desire to "hunt" ... Thanks to 200 years of guilt! Way to go Welfare State! Much like how dogs have been domesticated; people on government aid lose their desire and ability to provide, and willingly step inside cage that leads to the domestication of a once proud, industrious, and free species. "Born Free" is a good movie for the whole family, especially children enjoy. The movie is currently on Netflix if you want to see it.

After listening to the review of Fight Club and Seven Year Itch it donned on me that at a very early age I may have been tainted by the statist propaganda virus. I have started listening to the podcast from episode 1, currently in the lower 200's, and while I have had these thoughts my whole life it is great to have them shaken before me like breadcrumbs for pigeons. I was always a kid who would ask questions to the point of drawing anger from my "victim", teachers, parents and the like. If you told me not to do it, I wanted to do it even more just to see what would happen. This has gotten me in some trouble in my early life though I have come to understand it is best to just leave some stones unturned in certain circumstance. So I spend my work hours taking in the podcast and some leisure time picking random debates on the internet to hone my logic process to see what needs more clarification. This has gotten me to a point where I feel it would be good to help unwind the springs of my childhood to see what makes the clock of life tick. So I thought about Disney's; The Lion King. At first it seems like a very innocuous film for children to enjoy, but as Stefan says, art mirrors society. If first thought that it was a simple parallel of communism vs. monarchy, but under further scrutiny I found much more to the story. It seems that Scar represents Hitler/German Govt. Looking at the personality traits of Scar, he is smart and cunning yet also evil and physically weak. Much the same Germany was weak after WWI with reparations holding them down. It was only after he massed the hyenas behind him was he able to take down his powerful brother Mufasa. Simba would represent the United States, a young gun of sorts. The USA was just getting to its place as in the food chain of power, not sure that it wanted to get too involved in the war. So too Simba was not able to sense the danger Scar represented until it was too late to do anything. Mufasa could be said to draw on the likeness of France, just as France helped the USA in its early days to gain ground and get a feel for being a world power. Mufasa thus helped Simba grow and learn to be a king. Mufasa was killed by Scar while trying to save Simba, I view this as Frances complacency in allowing the appeasement to go on, which ultimately lead to their defeat because Germany got too close. Nala is the United Kingdom, while their spirit is crushed by Germany yet they continued to fight, so Nala remained in the pride, waiting to get rid of the evil Scar who held them at the precipice of death. Also to note the love story between Simba and Nala, who came to rule the pridelands, is a clear parable to the empire shared between the USA and UK.Timon and Pumbaa, I feel, are the USSR. They live outside the realm of the pridelands and according to their own rules. They have no specific allegiance to anyone, they just do what they have to do to get by. The USSR, being the only well established communist government at the time, also had no particular interest aside from keeping its power base. Timon and Pumbaa only join the fight against Scar when they find out, from Nala, that Simba is the rightful king. Here you see the USSR not quite willing to full out declare war on Germany. Rafiki is the character I have trouble placing perfectly, but I draw parallels from the Zionist movement, perhaps even David Ben-Gurion in particular. The physical likeness is quite striking as well! Rafiki is there to give moral support to a young Simba and give him further encouragement to press and attack against Scar. Zazu is the only character I can't really think of anything for perhaps Switzerland, but I don't really know much how they interacted within the context of WWII. The fight between Simba and Scar is also very telling of the end of WWII. Simba did not kill Scar he let Scar's own demons do the job. Clearly this shows likeness to the Nuremberg trials yet Hitler committed suicide to avoid the shame. In all the movie seems to be telling kids that fighting to get back what was birthed to you is a totally moral justification to tearing down an empire, disregarding the fact that universal suffering is the real evil. I hope you enjoyed reading this rather rough outline of a former childhood favorite of mine. It was fun for me to contemplate too! Throw some feedback my way and maybe we can work out some more of the details. Thanks!