About

I’d like to pre-empt criticism before it arrives whenever I write something. It’s an indication of the times we’re living in.

Table of contents

• About the site
  • What is this blog all about?
  • Why do you use the name ‘Popular Symbolism’ when your blog postings are not really about symbolism?
  • Are you spamming Wikipedia/MobyGames/etc?
  • I find your articles to be misleading!
  • Are you trying to be pretentious?
  • Do you have any particular agenda?
  • I take great offence at something you wrote!
  • You’re trying to be a smartass because you don’t have anything meaningful to write on this page, don’t you?
• About the movie articles
  • About the ‘Gangs of New York’ article
    • Well, Ralph Nader shouldn’t have used that term anyway! He could have used something more appropriate
      • Are you a Ralph Nader supporter?
• About the videogame articles
  • About the ‘BioShock’ article
    • In the article, you state that the game contains allusions to the MKULTRA experiments. Could you elaborate on that?
  • About the ‘Final Fantasy 7′ article
    • Do you subscribe to the ‘peak oil’ theory?
    • You say that the Reichstag Fire was a false flag, yet when I go to Wikipedia, it tells me that most historians agree that Marinus van der Lubbe caused it/was involved in it
  • About the ‘Ghost Recon’ article
    • In your article, you imply that Bob Woodward is an intelligence spook. What sources do you base this on?
  • About the ‘Political indoctrination, environmentalist propaganda in games’ article
    • The Obama advertising/product placement were just usermods – the Obama campaign was not involved in any way
  • Footnotes

  About the site

  What is this blog all about?

  This blog mostly covers videogames and movies – with videogame articles by far outweighing the movie articles.

  The articles’ primary purpose is to point out real-life connotations in movies and videogames, while trying to avoid digressing too much from the main subject.

  The second purpose of the blog is to show popular symbolism used in videogames, movies, and other media. Mostly these are ancient symbols often containing occult (hidden) meanings.

  Why do you use the name ‘Popular Symbolism’ when your blog postings are not really about symbolism?

  Well, there’s a ‘Symbolism in popular culture‘ section that I try to update regularly. Let’s put it this way: why does Nike use the name and likeness of the Greek goddess Nike? Does every Nike shoe necessarily entail success or victory? Are all Nike personnel female? Are they all from Greece?

  I find your articles to be misleading!
  I have heard this complaint once – if memory serves correctly it was about the BioShock article. Apparently the issue here is that I was interjecting stuff into the essay that was not specifically related to the game itself. Well, there are plenty of typical videogame reviews out there on the Web that would no doubt float your boat if that is what you’re after. I’m not really interested in doing that kind of stuff. So while you could make the case you find them [my articles] to be misleading because I sometimes dwell at length on non-videogame related things, I don’t see a real issue here.
  Are you spamming Wikipedia/MobyGames/etc?

  Not that I know of. But again, why don’t you tell me?

  Are you trying to be pretentious?

  Not really. But, then again, you’d expect me to say that,don’t ya?

  Do you have any particular agenda?

  If you mean from a political perspective: no, I’m not into partisan politics. For those into partisan politics, I’d suggest you read Carroll Quigley’s book, Tragedy and Hope¹.

  Oops, that might be misconstrued as me pushing an agenda. For those offended, just pretend that link and footnote doesn’t exist.

  I take great offence at something you wrote!

  Well, I wasn’t trying to. Free speech is a pesky thing, eh? Would you rather we got rid of it?

  You’re trying to be a smartass because you don’t have anything meaningful to write on this page, don’t you?

  Hey, you caught on to it! Besides, why do you even bother reading the ‘About’ page, anyway?

  About the movie articles

  About the ‘Gangs of New York’ article

  Well, Ralph Nader shouldn’t have used that term anyway! He could have used something more appropriate

  He could, or he couldn’t. Honestly, it doesn’t affect your life one way or another, and it smacks of engineered outrage. Remember that news corporations often have to invent a back-and-forth argument where there previously was none, and both sides of the political spectrum get caught up debating over semantics that don’t mean squat at the end of the day.

  Are you a Ralph Nader supporter?

  No, I’m not even an American.

  About the videogame articles

  About the ‘BioShock’ article

  In the article, you state that the game contains allusions to the MKULTRA experiments. Could you elaborate on that?

  Sure, there are numerous similarities. Chief among those is the electroshock therapy that is part of the Little Sisters’ conditioning process and eventual bonding with the Big Daddies.

  The MKULTRA experiments concerned mind control – to achieve the desired outcome (control over one’s mind, unwittingly), the patients were subjected to extreme doses of electroshock therapy and LSD usage. The end goal was to make the mind a ‘clean sheet’ (‘tabula rasa‘), on which the scientist could write as if it were anew. To quote a passage from Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine‘:

  Cameron believed that by inflicting an array of shocks to the human brain, he could unmake and erase faulty minds, then rebuild new personalities on that ever-elusive clean slate.

  This brings us to Jack’s conditioning process, the silent protagonist of the game. From birth, Jack is subjected to Suchong’s conditioning routine. Like Rachel in the movie Blade Runner, Jack has been given a false self image – that of having a family, being born and raised in rural America, suffering an airplane crash. Ryan confronts him with this ‘inconvenient truth’ later on (again, similar to how Deckard in the movie Blade Runner explains to Rachel that her memories are not really her own):

  You think you have memories. A farm, a family, the airplane, the crash, and then this place.

  Was there really a family?

  Did that airplane crash?

  Or was it hijacked, forced down?

  Forced down by something less than a man. Something bred to sleepwalk through life, until activated by a simple phrase spoken by thier kindly master.

  The simple phrase in question is ‘Would you kindly’, itself a reference to a session in the Canadian parliament where the late Mr. David Orlikow was remembered for his efforts in exposing the CIA’s MKULTRA experiments on some 40 (unwilling) Canadian patients, including his wife.

  About the ‘Final Fantasy 7′ article

  Do you subscribe to the ‘peak oil’ theory?

  No, I don’t. Investigative journalist Greg Palast has written extensively about ‘peak oil’, and why he thinks the ‘peak oil’ theory is a scam by the oil companies. He likens it to ‘artificial scarcity’ – creating the appearance of scarcity so that the price stays high – thus benefiting the oil companies.

  See this article for more information.

  You say that the Reichstag Fire was a false flag, yet when I go to Wikipedia, it tells me that most historians agree that Marinus van der Lubbe caused it/was involved in it

  They do, eh? Then why was he exonerated recently?² Wikipedia states here that:

  Historians generally agree that Van der Lubbe was involved in the Reichstag fire.

  An ambiguous statement, since Marinus van der Lubbe was a handicapped person, so it wasn’t all that hard for the Nazis to make him an unknowing accessory. But since Wikipedia also likens the accusations of ‘mental retardation’ to ‘Dutch Communist propaganda’, I guess Wikipedia really wants their readers to believe that the Reichstag Fire caught the Nazis entirely by surprise, even though they link to articles suggesting otherwise, stating clearly that since 2001, the consensus has been that the Nazis did it themselves.

  About the ‘Ghost Recon’ article

  In your article, you imply that Bob Woodward is an intelligence spook. What sources do you base this on?

  Read the book ‘The Silent Coup: The Removal of a President‘ by Len Colodny/Robert Gettlin, available here in its entirety.

  Link: – http://www.nixonera.com/etexts/silentcoup/contents.asp

  About the ‘Political Indoctrination, environmentalist propaganda in games’ article

  The Obama advertising/product placement were just usermods – the Obama campaign was not involved in any way

  Actually, that is not true. First, let’s take Burnout Paradise – the billboards in Burnout Paradise do not allow for user-generated content to be placed there. Furthermore, there’s no way to actually create any user-generated content (UGC) on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation3, so that automatically excludes those platforms.

  Second, the Mercenaries 2 Obama/Palin DLC were actually created by Pandemic, the official developers of the game. Once again, not user content by any means I’m sure you would agree. Third, it’s practically inconceivable the Obama campaign was not at some point involved in getting these ads/product placements in the games – whether it was giving their approval to it or actually actively lobbying for exposure. For instance, when Bethesda wanted to include former President Bill Clinton in their game Fallout 3, they had to ask for permission to use his likeness – and his agent respectfully declined the offer.

  Link: – http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/10/obama-palin-com/ (Obama, Palin to Join Mercenaries 2 Cast)
  Link: – http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/10/09/report-obama-ads-burnout-paradise (Gamepolitics.com – Report: Obama Ads in Burnout Paradise)
  Link: – http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/14/in-burnout-paradise-obama-courts-the-gamer-vote/ (Washington Wire: IN Burnout Paradise, Obama Courts the Gamer Vote)
  Link: – http://kotaku.com/5266627/bill-clinton-was-asked-to-voice-fallout-3 (Kotaku: Bill Clinton Was Asked To Voice Fallout 3)

  Footnotes

  1. ^{[^]}The book can also be read in full here.

  Link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4047296/Carroll-Quigley-Tragedy-and-Hope-A-History-of-The-World-in-Our-Time

  2. ^{[^]}Several articles in January of 2008 were dedicated to recent revelations that Marinus van der Lubbe was exonerated of all charges. The Guardian goes further, the headline reading:

  “Dutch activist exonerated under 1998 law – Hitler used fire as pretext to establish dictatorship”

  Link: – http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/world/europe/29nazi.html?_r=3&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
  Link: – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jan/12/secondworldwar.germany