Symbolism Behind Fear and ForesightEssay Preview: Symbolism Behind Fear and ForesightReport this essaySymbolism Behind Fear and ForesightSociety in the twenty-first century states that kids should be proud of their differences, and that conforming to the norm is a way to be lost amongst the majority. Everyone is created differently, and we all react to different situations in our own manner based on our ideals taught to us as a child. These choices define who we are, and show how we are different among the masses. What separates the strong from the weak is our ability to make life altering choices that pursue our foresight rather than letting our fear of being different stop us from what we want to achieve. We as humans must maintain our ideals to pursue our foresight. Dr. Strangelove is a satirical Cold War film directed by Stanley Kubrick that focuses on how people react independently to situations based on “fight or flight”. He creates elaborate connections between symbolism and the strength in characters. During the film there are a couple characters that are able to accept being different and are able to pursue their foresight. General Buck Turgidson takes on the flight tactic for self preservation, while General Jack D. Ripper, for example, is able to hone in on fear and use it to his advantage. When these characters are faced with life altering decisions, they disregard what the general consensus is to pursue what he believes to be right.
What separates man from animal is our ability to make decisions based on our emotions rather than intuition. “You will always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear,” Sammy Davis, Jr. Everyone has some sort of internal fear inside of them whether that is fearing failure, rejection, loss etc.. we all as humans fear something and that is our nature. What separates the strong from the weak in our society is the ability to be able to use fear as a weapon. This is is evident between two characters in Dr. Strangelove, General Buck Turgidson and Jack D. Ripper. General Buck Turgidson is an exaggerated character who is known by his goofy tactics and his absurdity but what is misunderstood is the weakness behind the character. While the meeting in the war room is called to order Turgidson is quite anxious with the whole ordeal between his anxious responses to most importantly his chewing gum. These actions are purely based on his fear of his self preservation even stating that “20 million people killed,” is better than “150 million people killed”. He is willing to put the lives of 20 million people in the grave in order to save himself. During moments where he is faced with life altering decisions he tends to resort to his chewing gum, a sort of relief, to calm his nerves during certain situations. This is not a bad thing but it drives temporary comfort into the character letting his ideals slip away from him. Turgidson values his relations with his secretary but during the war room scene, when he has a piece of gum in his mouth, he pushes her off and explains how he can not talk to her during that instant. This reveals to the audience that he has begun losing his ideals. Inevitably leading to him providing absurd tactics on how to “fix” the problem. However his idea of a solution is based on the fear of his own self preservation rather than his foresight which is fueled by his beliefs and values.
Contrary to Turgidson, Jack D. Ripper is a strong, confident and courageous man who is oftenly faced with life altering choices that would evoke fear into any being. Throughout the film fear does not radiate off of the god like figure, and pure control is generally demonstrated. However, once we further our knowledge of the character who is a communist hating, right wing sociopath who does not trust others it reveals that he is very cautious around his “precious bodily fluids”. He fears that the communists will “sap and impurify” his bodily fluids along with the rest of the worlds. Ripper does not fear many things and through camera angles and his cigar shows that he sees himself as above the rest of the world but at this moment it reveals what Jack D. Ripper fears, the communists. He fears “communist infiltration, communist indoctrination and communist subversion”. What differs Ripper from Turgison is his response to fear. Jack can “no
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Contrary to Turgidson, Jack D. Ripper is a strong, confident and courageous man who is oftenly faced with life altering choices that would evoke fear into any being. Throughout the film fear does not radiate off of the god like figure, and pure control is generally shown. However, once we further our knowledge of the character who is a communist hating, right wing sociopath who does not trust others it reveals that he is very cautious around his “precious bodily fluid”. He fears that the communists will “sap and impurify” his bodily fluids along with the rest of the worlds. Ripper does not fear many things and through camera angles and his cigar shows that he sees himself as above the rest of the world but at this moment it reveals what Jack D. Ripper fears, the communists. He fears “communist infiltration, communist indoctrination and communist subversion”. What differs Ripper from Turgidson is his response to fear.
As we have seen, some people (particularly communists) may be overly sympathetic to people like Jack D. Ripper in the face of his actions. It is not often that any movie features a film that gives us sympathetic, or at least sympathetic opinions towards or against anyone. If you’re one of those people who has watched and read every book written by communist, anti-democratic, or socialist intellectuals, you already know how hard it is to be sympathetic to them when the film tells you they’re hypocrites and not human beings. How hard can it actually be? And why do people that you trust so much become cold to you?
I am not saying that Ripper is not human. What I am saying is that there is no way to be sympathetic to communists. If you have any doubts about the actions of any given person and take your pick, it is very strongly recommended you have your own research and read all of the books written on communists and not just one or two of them. Ripper is known as a very careful and trustworthy person and any attempt to dismiss his actions from his own sources is simply a form of intimidation, not a consideration that is based on your own knowledge alone.
Jack D. Ripper is probably an exception to this rule. He is not scared and does not believe in his own authority just because he is the one doing this to you. For example, on the cover of the first issue of his critically acclaimed American Psycho #1 he wrote,
“As an intellectual, Jack D. Ripper is a real friend of mine. He has the privilege of being an author, and for whatever reason it is hard to get along with him on a world that is filled with many communists; those few. In this issue of American Psycho, Jack D. Ripper gives a real assessment of the communist world and the struggles that struggle it has created – and he does so well. A lot of the stuff he says is true; he tries to provide a coherent account of his experience.”
In fact it is all part of the story. Jack D. Ripper is a communist who, despite his beliefs, still believes his views are correct, and his thoughts matter less to you than his beliefs. All that’s important about Ripper is his views, as Ripper himself once told the story of his childhood that tells a different story. He was only 8 at the time, and while he was still raised by his mother and aunt on the South Island, his teacher had been killed by an armed band of communist thugs. He was brought to the government on