There’s a song in the film/play Finnian’s Rainbow explaining the consequences of “(W)hen the idle poor become the idle rich.” At this point, according to the lyricist, “… you’ll never know just who is who or which is which.” Much the same can be said of today’s villains of every size and stripe. It used to be fairly easy to determine the “good guys” and the “bad guys” back when I was a child – a long, long time ago! – the culture was filled with markers that easily identified this phenomenon.
For instance, that chronicler of the culture, Hollywood, before it became engaged in “realism,” in especially their “westerns” identified who was who by the color of the character’s hats. Good guys wore white hats while the villains wore black. The rest of the cast usually wore nondescript toppers that identified them as often outside of the main moral thread if not the plot of the film involved. This mode of “ID” was ideal for black and white films, but it held over well enough when Technicolor entered the picture, so to speak.
It is interesting to note that back in 1967 during former actor Ronald Reagan’s first run for the governorship of California, his Democrat rival, Pat Brown, tried to make a villain out of Reagan, saying such things to California school children as, “Did you know, an actor assassinated Lincoln?” But Brown was warned by his own people that Reagan had always “worn a white hat” in his movies (he only played a villain once and not very successfully!) and that it would be difficult to “recast” him in a black one.
But today, many things have changed that have clearly affected our viewpoint regarding just “who is who and which is which.” For instance, when one sees headlines about the present “war” in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas, most Americans see an easily definable “white vs. black hat” scenario – but is that really the case? I tend to doubt it. Oh, Israel is believed to be America’s staunch ally and friend in the Middle East, but the dead and wounded sailors of the U.S.S. Liberty would have taken issue with that finding. According to (left-leaning) Wikipedia:
The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research (a/k/a spy) ship, USS Liberty by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats on June 8, 1967 during the Six Day War. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two marines and one civilian NSA employee) wounded 171 crew members and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula about 25-1/2 miles northwest of the Egyptian city of Arish.
Despite claims that the ship was mistaken for an Egyptian vessel, eventually Israel “apologized” and paid millions of dollars (with interest) to the US in compensation for the dead and wounded and the damage sustained by the ship. Of courses, most of that money – if not all! – probably originated in this country, but at least we got some of it back!
However, it later became known that President Lyndon Johnson was aware of the attack even as it was taking place and did nothing to stop it or, in the alternative, warn the Liberty of its danger, neither did he ever make known that our government was cognizant of the assault even before it happened. So, by this time – 2023 – you have a plethora of the entities involved in that act of war wearing black hats including our own government.
Of course, Israel has been a stalking horse since World War I when the Balfour Declaration was made public. This political statement issued by the British Government in 1917 announced its support for “the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine” an area then located within the then boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. Of course, the Turks fought with the Germans in World War I, thus making them “enemies” of Great Britain and subject to whatever claims might be made upon their territory by the victors in that war.
But the establishment of Israel in the oil rich Middle East was not uniformly embraced by many “important” people of the day. In fact, two highly public men – British Colonel T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and American statesman James Forrestal – were very much against the idea of creating a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. Fortunately for the Jews and their fellow Zionists, however, both men just happened to die violently and mysteriously before their viewpoints could “muddy the waters” of public discourse.
But black hats aren’t limited to the Middle East. At the present, an almost bankrupt United States is throwing money and material into a war in the Ukraine that is – frankly! – none of our business. Indeed, about the only connection between the US and the Ukraine is the Biden family’s political involvement in the former and criminal monetary gains in the latter. And while Vladimir Putin may also wear a black hat, at least he is not claiming to be acting in the best interests of the people of America as are both Biden and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy!
And then we have the various warring factions such as the Muslims and the Jews. Many of our ignorant (and frequently stupid) fellow countrymen have chosen sides. Jews and those “evangelical Christians” who still believe in the Old Testament promise to Abraham choose Israel while the rest of the left embrace the dear, kind, sweet, peaceful Muslims, unfortunately – and conveniently – forgetting videos showing Muslims setting fire to enemy captives held in cages as well as killing every Christian that these “peaceful people” were able to seize! In other words, instead of white and black hats, we are in a scenario wherein all the hats are black while most Americans seeking a side worth supporting do not understand that there is, in fact, no such side!
Of course, we must also remember that to back the Palestinians or even question acts done by Israel immediately invokes the indefensible and unforgivable crime of anti-Semitism! Now, of course, there is such a thing as anti-Semitism* just as there is such a thing as bigotry against any group whether based upon religion or race or ethnic origins! But in the case of the Jews, to even look into issues that might – just might – produce embarrassing information detrimental to them as a group is now considered a “hate crime” and can lead, in some countries, to arrest, trial and, if convicted, incarceration. When truth itself becomes a criminal act because of what it reveals, this is no longer a matter of bigotry but of control and, thereby, tyranny.
But this gross lack of “white hats” is found throughout society. In the name of “tolerance,” Blacks have been excused for any type and kind of behavior and any fault found with them by virtue of their acts is another “hate crime” as evil as anti-Semitism. Our entertainment industry has been dipped in the tar of overcompensation to the point at which one’s television experience would lead those unfamiliar with our culture to believe that we are 87% Black and 13% White. Only in re-runs of our classic TV shows do you see a preponderance of Whites, leading many to wonder how long it will be before such timeless entertainment treasures are removed from the programming. Meanwhile, commercials are even worse!
And Whites, believing in tolerance even to their own destruction, find no fault in seeing themselves continue to disappear from their own culture to be replaced by minorities who no longer even pretend to practice America’s former – that is White – cultural values! In the beginning, shows like “The Cosby Show,” “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times,” and other Black sitcoms retained ordinary American values. But that is going by the boards and we see today programs that illustrate Black “culture,” something that completely changes American society.
Of course, as happens whenever a cultural icon is installed, those who followed the former culture embrace the new system and you have White kids with their pants around their knees, their hats on backwards and their morals and intellect at the level of da boyz in da hood! Remember, a culture can be lost long before population numbers indicate that the minority is now the majority and vice versa. And, of course, all of this again indicates that not only White people are disappearing, but white hats as well.
Another area in which white hats are becoming invisible is our economic environment. There have always been black hats in commerce – and I don’t just mean the fellows robbing banks! Crooked “businessmen” are nothing new, especially when they join forces with the next group spoken of in the paragraph below. Still, on the whole most American businessmen whatever their size have been reasonably honest. Whether that was because they wanted to be or because the laws were written in such a way as to permit them to appear so, I don’t know. But, of course, it is reasonable to believe that as the culture declines into “black-hatism,” American commerce will follow if not lead in that direction. It has something to do with the effect bad apples have on the rest of the barrel.
And then we have the final area in which white hats should be expected to appear in great numbers. Why? Because these are the people who are supposed to protect the innocent citizen from those black hats that prey upon them. Here we’re talking about our various governments, their military and those systems of justice and other institutions designed to protect Americans from our enemies – foreign and domestic. If white hats are needed anywhere, they are needed here. But, alas, there appear to be fewer here than anywhere else in the culture and getting less everyday – and that is proving disastrous to our freedoms and our very survival!
The ancient board game chess, uses white and black figures in the game. As each side plays, pieces are taken until one side takes the King of the other. Now, no moral attributes are bestowed upon the sides though white does go first in every game. So, when the game is over, it doesn’t matter (except to the players, of course!) whether there are more white than black pieces left on the board or vice versa. The preponderance of the number of either color’s pieces usually determines the winner whether they be white or black and that’s fine – for chess! In the “hat” game, however, it very much matters whether we are left with more black hats than white or even if there are any white hats remaining. For what is being “played” here is the game of life and that concerns all of us.
*Editor’s note: Be sure to check out the final essay in my “Let’s see the forest for the trees” series for a look into the meaning of the word “anti-Semitism” and the undue power it wields.
