Of Forrest Gump and LotR/RotK

Major Mike

As I watched Forrest Gump with my daughter two nights ago, I reflected on the messaging of the movie in a way I had yet to do. Prompted by my recent coaching of my daughter’s Creative Writing course projects, and opening her eyes to the hidden or ulterior meanings of various types of writing; I viewed Forrest with different eyes last night. Although I continuously got my daughter to laugh on cue with my imitation of “I gawt shawt in the buttawks;” I finally took the time to decipher Forrest Gump’s deeper meanings.

I began formulating this piece in my head before the movie had ended.

If my take is old hat, I am completely unaware of it, so indulge me or channel surf to another blog …I simply paid little attention to the meaning of, or relevance of, Forrest and his travels, until last night.

Forrest, the ever naïve simpleton, stumbles through his life with his every move marked by his achieving the pinnacle success via some fortuitous amalgamation of unrelated events…All-American football player, Medal of Honor recipient, successful businessman and investor, and father. All accidental. All bestowed upon a quiet, simple, sincere, unselfish, decent dolt who accepted the ups and downs of life as they came at him, and in each trial of his spirit, he is eventually rewarded for him simply being…Forrest.

Simple. Decent. Unselfish. Sincere. Quiet. …and rewarded. Rewarded with success in his personal relationships, rewarded with his national notoriety in a number of instances, and rewarded, albeit briefly, with the companionship of the only women he loved, and rewarded with the companionship of a son. The role of father…a role he seemed destined to excel at. Forrest’s trueness to his values is rewarded in spades.

Conversely, Jenny’s self-indulgent behaviors resulted in many unnecessary and painful episodes in her shortened life. A look at Jenny gives us a look at our trip through the pop-culture meanderings of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and nineties. Sex. Drugs. Protest culture. Single mother. She is rewarded with abuse, serious drug problems, and disease , likely AIDS. Her life ends with her a victim of her behaviors.

I was struck by the juxtaposition of the liberal and the conservative here.

I believe FG is a cold commentary on the “rewards” of liberalism, versus the rewards of conservatism. Jenny unquestionably represents a commentary on the pitfalls of the path of liberal relativism, and she is representative of our potential path as a country if our culture is skewed to follow that of values-less, pop-relativism. The current liberal agenda of defeat and withdraw, the liberal agenda that refuses to see the darkness and the ruthlessness in the hearts of our enemies, the liberal agenda of feticide, the anarchy created with a constant stream of negativism unsupported with constructive solutions or alternatives, the liberal imprisonment of minorities via entitlement programs, the liberal imposition of their morals onto our children via our schools and their curricula, the liberal agenda that divides our efforts against evil external forces, and the liberal agenda that makes our national will soft and feckless; is an agenda that will lead us down Jenny’s path. A path previously traveled. And a path that has demonstrated itself to take 30 years to recover from.

Ooooooo, deep. So what? Had I not followed FG immediately with Lord of the Rings/Return of the King, I may have missed the importance of the FG messaging.

We are on the precipice of making lasting cultural choices, and the direness of these choices is compounded by the evil on the horizon. If we take our eye off the ball, dark forces are ready to destroy and dominate us and our culture. Democrats in the White House, or in control of Congress, or on the Supreme Court, will not negotiate us out of the dangers posed by those that seek to destroy us. Domestic political maneuvering is not the solution to our strategic challenges.

We MUST:
Recognize that there is an evil entity (Islamofacism) that wants to destroy our culture and replace it with theirs. Their culture does not tolerate dissention or free expression of ideas. They will not be peacefully dissuaded from their mission.
Recognize that the liberal approach in dealing with this threat will not work. It sets us up for another thirty years of defeatist malaise, AND still we would face the physical threat noted above.
Recognize that the weakening of our culture by moral relativism, makes us logarithmically more vulnerable to the Islamofacist threat than re-aligning ourselves with the values under which this country was founded…English common law, and Judeo-Christian beliefs. Wild transgressions from these norms will leave us greatly splintered as a society and vulnerable to outside threats, as those with the Ho Chi Minh playbook use this internal dissent against us.
Unite again as a country of ideas and dialog, not as a country of angry monosyllabic diatribes that are meant to substitute for original thought and progressive ideas. Be heard. Work for change, but do not destroy this country simply to gain control of the government. Logic works better than foul language and ire.
Be prepared to defend this nation, as we will be attacked again. It will not call for recriminations and Congressional investigations. It will call for courage and a stoutness of heart that will challenge many of us beyond our perceived capacities. But as decent humans, as Americans, and as those in the right, we will find this strength and courage as generations of our forefathers have found before. We will find the courage to recognize all that is good in this country and defend it, rather than capitulating to our enemies because we find fault with our President, or the path chosen by our elected representatives.

We must be prepared for the words of Aragon, for if we continue to waiver on our commitment to the defense of our nation and our culture, we will surely need to heed them… “I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails; when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But not this day. This day we fight!”

Do not shrink away from what is at stake, a Neville Chamberlainesque move over the next many years, may plunge us into a world of darkness that makes 1939-1945 look like the Renaissance. We must recognize that we are in a critical, and serious struggle for our country, our culture, and our lives.

© Michael McBride 2006