Apocalypse When?

“Know the enemy, know yourself and victory is never in doubt, not in a hundred battles.” - Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

“I’m here a week now…waiting for a mission… getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter.”

Apocalypse Now is an epic movie with numerous memorable scenes; incredible dialogue, multiple unforgettable characters and raw, unfiltered acting. Just a visceral, deeply visceral film making by Francis Ford Coppola.

The clip that I've included as part of this piece is from the beginning of the movie, and for me, it's my favourite scene in the whole show. One of many great scenes, but this one in particular sets out the stall for who Captain Willard actually is behind the army fatigues and battle weariness.

Brilliantly acted by Martin Sheen, although not always acted; when this particular scene was filmed, cast were under a lot of pressure. Due to filming conditions in the Philippines, the project going way over budget, the original length of the shoot passing beyond the intended 6 weeks to over a year. Sheen actually got drunk during filming this section and at the end of that scene when he flips out and punches the mirror and breaks it and cuts his hand, that was for real. When he breaks down in tears and wiped blood across his face he’s not acting and that really is his own blood. He also suffered a heart attack at another point of the filming; the making of Apocalypse Now is as entertaining as the film itself.

But it’s the dialogue, some of the words that he says in that scene that I want to look at here; he's waiting in this dingy hotel room for a mission. He’s an assassin. He could be going anywhere to kill anyone. So he's killing time, and as he's killing time there's no stimulation in that room, there's no human interaction in that room. He's just left with his own thoughts, and his own thoughts are of a failed relationship, a desire to be home, and when he gets home a desire to be back in the field, and when he gets back in the field, a desire to be back home again.

He's very confused, he's in turmoil, and he makes a statement, "Every day that I'm in this room I'm getting weaker." And every day that Charlie (referring to the Viet Cong, the Vietnamese enemy that he's there to fight and eliminate), is getting stronger and the walls are seemingly closing in.

Thinking of how things have panned out over the last (almost) five years now, many people are becoming increasingly sedentary. They're spending more time indoors, they're spending more and more time online, they're waging war with keyboards, they're sitting in their rooms, disconnected from the outside world.

Not everybody, but many people are spending more and more time online, and I believe that has the same weakening effect as Willard experienced in his Saigon sweatbox accommodation. It had a profound weakening effect. If you're outside, if you're getting exposed to sunlight and fresh air and partaking in physical activity, it helps to keep your body and your mind strong.

I believe we have weakened nations at this time. Weakened by our governments, weakened by technology, weakened by the day-to-day grind. Many people sit waiting for their mission, waiting for their call to arms, waiting to rise up, waiting for a rebellion, waiting to do whatever.

But they're doing it in their heads, not with their bodies in the real world. You can still be in a state of anticipation and preparedness but you don’t have to sit still and rot until the way forward becomes apparent. When you look at the West, what the West has become, how men and women are today compared to the way they were 30 and 40 years ago, it's shocking.

Many adult humans can't (or won’t) even define what a woman is these days. There seems to be an increasing proportion of weak, effeminate men. I understand that having a strong body does not necessarily make a man strong, mental strength eclipses physical strength in just about every scenario; but if you're going to war, it's better to have a unit of soldiers, grunts, that are physically fit and tough and possess healthy levels of testosterone versus weak, pasty, effeminate, oestrogen rich men. Those who are terrified at the very prospect of confrontation and may never have had a physical confrontation in their entire lives.

And when you look at who's flooding into the West, the legions of men, predominantly men, that are coming through the open borders of Europe from East Africa, from North Africa, from Eastern Europe, claiming asylum, you can’t help but shudder at the though of things turning sour on a large scale in the future. Maybe that will never happen, but maybe it will.

Often, we don't know who these “asylum seekers” are. They've no way of being identified in some cases. Some of them will never work. Some don't speak English. There are people that come and work. There are people that come and earn their keep, pay their bills, and exist peacefully with their neighbours. But there are those that don’t and never will.

People are asking the question, "Is this an invading army? What are these men here to do, if not to work? Where are their wives? Where are their children? Where are their mothers? Where are their fathers? Where are their sisters?"

You don't see obesity everywhere. You see young 18-40-year-old men that look like they're reasonably fit (and I'm generalising here), the dinghies that are coming week after week are not full of the obese. They're not full of men that are moisturising their faces. They're not full of men that speak weak words with weak voices. They appear to be coming as units, and then they're bunking down in processing centres where hundreds, if not thousands of men are being put together in cramped barrack-style accommodation, hotels or repurposed office blocks.

What are they here to do? There is no work in the rural areas many find themselves in. So they're cooped up, like Willard in his room. And as he's cooped up, he becomes more frustrated. He starts to lose his grip on reality. He abuses alcohol, and then he becomes uncontrollably violent.

And could this not conceivably be the end result that we will see if we have hundreds of thousands of Willards occupying processing centres, living in towns, villages and hotels around Europe? Will we not see the end result like we saw in the hotel room of Saigon? Only it's not one man that will blow a fuse. It could be hundreds of thousands of men.

Just for clarity, I believe this would be the result with any group of men (or women) herded together in close proximity to each other with boredom and restlessness gradually seeping in. It’s not just applicable to foreign men (or women), it could and would just as easily happen to a group of Irish men or women in the same circumstances, whether at home or abroad, for example.

So in the context of the Willard monologue, who is the enemy? Who is Charlie? Who is the unseen force that's squatting in the bush getting stronger while you stay in the room getting softer? Is it the people I described above?

Ultimately, anyone that would seek to do you harm, or harm your children, or harm your prospects to be able to support yourself, that would seek to harm you mentally, harm you physically, harm you spiritually, that is your enemy. And collectively the greatest enemy we all face at this time are world governments, who seek to serve themselves, first and foremost.

They're in the bush, they're in the jungle getting stronger. They're strengthening themselves. They're constantly active. They are working cohesively to further their own ends and to restrict our freedoms. Freedom to move, freedom to speak, freedom to travel. We've seen this especially since 2020.

Freedom to work, freedom to mourn, freedom to marry, freedom to retain your own bodily autonomy. So let us not lose sight of the big picture here. Charlie in the bush is your government. Think about how you have fared over the last few years mentally, physically, financially and how your family have fared. Has your lot improved? For some people it may have done, but for most people, certainly most people that I know, they've struggled financially, they've struggled mentally, they've struggled physically.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

―Sun Tzu, The Art of War

So don't remain in your room getting soft. Dwelling on the past, on what your life once was. Watching the walls closing in, then climbing them, then losing control of yourself following a bout of self medication. Stay active, physically active, socially active. Don't allow your brain to be clogged up with nonsense and fear. Don't accept injustice. Speak out against it where you see it. Fight against it peacefully, non-violently, through mass non-compliance; speak the truth always and speak it loudly. These things will help stop you from becoming soft. Stop you from withering away in your room while your enemy becomes stronger in the jungle. And above all, know yourself and know your enemy.

Rick.