V: 1983 & 2009 Part Three: 2009 Pilot Summary, Characters and Emerging Memes

The 2009 V starts with a comparison of 9/11, JFK’s assassination, and the arrival of the Visitors, as a means of foreshadowing for the generation that didn’t see the original. This version describes the state of Obama’s America with opening scenes discuss the ongoing housing crisis. However, the most important cultural aspect of V 2009 is the prevalence of terrorism and terrorist investigations in the show. In the first place, the show is set in New York City instead of Los Angeles like the original, and 9/11 is the second phrase shown during the introduction. Of course, it’s easy to see that the one terrorist cell that increases its chatter post-visitor arrival instead of dropping off like the others will turn out to be the beginnings of what becomes the Resistance. But this is not an Islamic terrorist group, it is composed of Visitor sleeper agents who disrupt the beginnings of the Resistance’s formation.

From the first scene it looks obvious that African-American buying the engagement ring will be the 2009 version of Dr. Ben, but this time he’s a Federal Agent, former militia member, and likely future Counter Revolutionary. It seems they’ve consolidated the two brothers into one this character, which makes a certain amount of sense because Dr. Ben was only in the miniseries for the first hour or so and Elias was in all 10.5 hours of the V marathon on SyFy. And the meme regarding struggles and competing visions seems to be resolved, at least in the writers’ minds.

The falling of the Catholic Crucifix inside the first 4 minutes represents two memes not especially present in the 1983 version, but which have gained increasing currency among conspiracy culture insiders. We’ll call Meme A the Fallen Christ Meme and Meme B the Questioning Christianity’s Legitimacy meme. The Fallen Christ Meme is common among those who continue to suggest that the arrival of an extra terrestrial alien species would pose an existential threat to all religions, thereby causing mass chaos. It sometimes is cited as a reason justifying government suppression of any real evidence of alien visitation. The Questioning Christianity’s Legitimacy Meme really didn’t emerge in America until after the publication of Graham Hancock’s Holy Blood, Holy Grail and the emergence of websites and books on Mary Magdalene as the wife of Jesus and mother of Merovee, the founder of the Merovinginian line of French Kings.

The “Question Authority Meme,” always favored among the now-empowered left until the Democratic Party has power in Congress and/or the Presidency, emerges 11 minutes into the pilot. This comes from the youngish priest character, whose doppelganger in the original version had served with anti-communist guerillas in Angola, but whose credentials on this front in the 2009 version are still in question.

Illustrative of women’s success in the intervening 25 years between the two series is that the sympathetic, ambitious reporter who becomes the Visitor’s spokesperson is no longer a woman using feminine wiles, but is now portrayed by a metrosexual male. Additionally, this character seems to have less backbone, and be much more compliant with the Visitors and their requests. Moreover, one primary protagonist is a female FBI counter-terrorism operative,

Significantly, the 2009 version's Hitler allusions are less pronounced. Though interestingly, the neighborhood kid who signs up as a Visitor "Brown Shirt" is driven to it due to maternal neglect by the FBI agent (thus reprising the "Law Enforcement is Hard on Families" Meme. In the original series, the character who joins is much like the guard in The Bridge at Andau: someone who is generally a loser, but has ambitions above his abilities. I preferred the 1983 motivation better because it puts the onus squarely on the child's decisions. Perhaps in our post-Columbine world they were afraid to portray similar a high-school character with these psychological motivations. The other explanation is that the "Bad Mother Meme" has picked up cultural relevance due to the ongoing culture wars.

The Europeans Really Are Worthless Allies

In this story, U.S. Secretary of Defense Bob Gates states the obvious about our so-called European allies. Of course, he had to make nice and apologize to keep up decent trade relations, but that was just to let the Europeans save face.When the chips are down they are essentially useless.

This is because they spend virtually no money on their defence budgets. Of course, they are able to do this because they have enjoyed the U.S. Security Umbrella for 60 years. During which time, Western Europe has grown fat, happy and lazy. While we have bankrupted our society to defend Western Civilization, they have been happily free-riding and using the money they don't spend on defence to fund lavish social welfare states - little wonder unemployment is so high - there's really no incentive to work when the government gives you free money.

It's not just me or Secretary Gates who espouses this view. It's also shared by Distinguished Professor and U.S. foreign policy expert Graham Allison (perhaps best known for his 1969 essay "Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis "). During the terrifying and all to real Oil Shockwave simulation in Washington last November (featuring such luminaries as Carol Browner, Robert Rubin and Richard Armitage) I had the privilege of sitting next to him and asking his opinion on this very topic. His response was that Afghanistan had proven that our NATO allies were simply incapable of fighting alongside U.S. forces because they are undertrained and their governments don't buy equipment that works alongside U.S. high tech equipment - the so-called interoperability problem.

NATO originally was formed "To keep the Germans down, the Russians out, and the U.S. in." Well, the Russians are now in, the Germans are up and if it weren't for the fact that our Eastern European friends such as Poland and the Czech Republic need our protection we should be out. With the exception of our British cousins, the Europeans are useless. The Brits, Scots and Irish are the only Westerners who share our and the Eastern European values of freedom and democracy and know that they have to be fought for generation after generation to be maintained. "Old Europe" as former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld termed it is even too tired to even manage to reproduce its population - with the exception of France which almost has a replacement rate population growth (fueled by Muslim immigrants), the entire continent can't even manage to get close to the 2.1 child per family reproduction replacement rate. It's dying and therefore not even worth defending the next time they're attacked.

Clinton Abandons Freedom of Speech

ISLAMABAD: Former US president Bill Clinton on Friday condemned the publication of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) caricatures by European newspapers and urged countries concerned to convict the publishers.

What a coward. There's a reason that we, the United States, preserve and protect the freedom of the press - because it is essential to have as many different viewpoints as possible when operating a Democracy, as well as a basic human right (the right to free expression without fearing violence). But Freedom of Speech does not end becase somebody else is offended.

Now, I'm not saying the European Union is a democracy, because it's not. But civilized Westerners have been fighting for free expression since long before our Revolutionary War. The fact that Clinton would ask the US convict publishers shows that he really doesn't care about the values enshrined in our Constitution.
Clinton is backing away from American principles to appease the middle east and those in the West who sympathize with them. It really makes you wonder (again) whether he has any real principles at all, or is just a very talented opportunist.
Shame on him.

EU Free Rides Again, and Now Wants Control

The Internet is the quintessential American invention - first built by academics and the Defense Department, and later made incredibly user friendly by grad students and young entrepreneurs. The rest of the world just sat back and watched as the hypertextual universe suddenly had a decent (and constantly improving) visual interface.

It was such a powerful invention that it swept the world, with many nations trying to keep it out, or monitor its usage. Most of the world didn't contribute significantly to its development, but the whole world has been a free rider on this greatest of all American inventions.

Information inherently wants to be free, and Americans value freedom more than any other people on the planet. It is this ethos that lead legions of American enterpreneurs, libertarians, communitarians and even socialists to do their part to make the internet the useful tool it is today.

But because of the usefulness of the internet, other nations are trying to jump on the bandwagon and attempt to steer where it might go. This should be a non-starter for the United States. Letting the UN control the internet invariably means that nations such as China or Germany which do not value the free flow of information, will have a voice in setting the parameters of the internet, and its usefulness will decrease. It is the very ethos of American freedom that made the internet what it is. Compromising this ethos will only result in a less useful hyperreality that is more full of propaganda than of actually useful information.

I specifically mention Germany above because while it shares many American values, the Germans do not brook any publication etc. that touches on Nazism or Neo-Nazism. Americans, while appalled by such an ideology, believe in freedom of the press with no exceptions. Because the rest of the world does not embrace our liberal attitudes towards freedom of the press, they should not have access to control the content of the global press, despite the best efforts of of China and others to do so.

The UN deserves no role in controlling the internet.