Back in the old days, if you knew me then, you knew who I was.
In the Homeschool Christian Community I grew up in, I was either reviled as a loose cannon threat to public order, or hailed as the boy genius future wonder weapon that would single-handedly save Western Civilization.
Not too much in between!
But what can I say, Black Hats and White Hats are the Pulp Fiction way!
If you had known me back then, then what I will say now will be a shocker to you!
Read on below to find out more…
THE BIG REVEAL
Let’s face it: the world is changing at a faster pace than it ever has been.
And not for the better.
In this ever-changing human terrain, old friends have become foes, and old foes have become friends.
And so that is why today, I go public with a belief that has been nurtured from 2018-2022 by a number of highly intelligent people whom I deeply love and respect:
Esotericism, Hippies, Hypnotism, Crystals, Zodiacs, Yoga, Archetypes, and all the rest are critical allies in the fight for our hearts and minds against the many-headed Hydra of evil in our world today.
YOU’RE SHOCKED!
“What???” I can hear you say, “The Last Living War Hawk, Son of the Crusades, Heir to John Wayne: he’s embracing…Hippies???”
It’s true.
But not in the way you think.
But then again, nothing in Pulp Fiction is ever the way you think!
Let me explain…
I am still a Christian. I am still a War Hawk. I have not changed at all.
But I have found some new friends that I have far more in common with than I first thought.
“Just what exactly is it that you have in common with them?” I can hear you ask exasperatedly.
Well, read on and I’ll tell you!
KNIGHTS AND DRAGONS IN THE MODERN DAY
I have traditionally been opposed to what I will hereby refer to as the “Esoteric Hippy Movement” for three reasons:
- They traditionally have not supported our wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan
- They traditionally have not supported a Warrior Masculinity
- They traditionally have not supported Christianity
On the first point, I recognize that these days I am somewhat of an intellectual orphan. Anymore, nobody on the Left or the Right, the Material or the Esoteric, nobody supports our wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
I, on the other hand, hold a different view. I believe that when looked at as a whole, the evidence captured from our enemies and the testimony given by our troops lead to only one logical conclusion:
Our wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were modern day continuations of the Knight slaying the Dragon, the Eagle latching up the Snake, Good vs. Evil.
At its root, I see these wars as a modern-day continuation of the Confrontational Indo-European Warrior Culture against the Predatory Third World Warrior Culture.
The names change, the weapons change, the uniforms change: but the people, the genetics, and the lifeways stay the same!
NOT PATTON APPROVED
The second point is a follow up to the first: traditionally, the Esoteric Hippy Movement has been opposed to a Warrior Masculinity.
If we go back to its origins in 1960s America, the reason the movement opposed the Vietnam War in the first place was because it was opposed to Warrior Masculinity.
They saw the Vietnam War as an exercise in Warrior Masculinity, and believed that this was the root of all the problems in the world!
That is because many in the Esoteric Hippy Movement subscribe to a doctrine that Psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls “the No Harm/Care Only” dichotomy in his masterful book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Religion and Politics.
This doctrine boils down to two things: you can never harm any living thing, in any way, at any time. Instead, you can only care for all living things, which consequently places a heavy influence on healing.
Warriors?
Their entire reason for existence is to harm the Enemy unto death!
They subscribe to the Gen. George S. Patton doctrine:
“No dumb b****** ever won a war by dying for his country! He won the war by making the other poor dumb b****** die for his country!”
You can see how these two groups could have trouble getting along!
WHAT EDWARD LANSDALE KNEW
Finally, the Esoteric Hippy Movement has been opposed to Christianity, and consequently, the Church has declared for decades that it’s open season on these people.
And in response, people have been leaving the Church for the Esoteric Hippy Movement in droves.
I, on the other hand, hold a different view than the Church. And to understand it, you’ve got to understand a little fella named Edward Lansdale.
Edward Lansdale was a real life Pulp Fiction Action Star.
In the 1950s, he single-handedly beat a Communist insurgency in the Philippines, keeping our key Pacific archipelago ally from going Red in a time when the dominoes were falling left and right.
He took his experience to LBJ to help win Vietnam…and was ignored. We all know how that one went!
Edward Lansdale based his war-winning doctrine on a single precept:
“If you have an insurgency in your country, the first question you need to ask yourself is: ‘What did the government do wrong to make people want to join the insurgency in the first place?’”
JUST LIKE ANGEL EYES
Quite frankly, the Spiritual Caste “government” of the Church has done quite a lot wrong to make people want to join this Spiritual “insurgency” that is the Esoteric Hippy Movement.
I am Christian. I have been a Christian all my life. I will always be a Christian. And at age 27, I have been to over 60 churches in my lifetime, all across the United States.
I have gotten to see the whole gamut of Protestant Evangelical Christianity…the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
And I’ll tell you straight up:
90% of Protestant Evangelical Christians only read 10% of their Bible, if that. They just read the 10% their Pastors tell them to read, while running down the Catholics for venerating their Pope and their Priests.
On top of that, the institutional Church leaders have some kind of sick, strange war on Creativity, Intuition, and the Artistic Impulse.
Likewise, institutional Church leaders promote a strong strain of anti-intellectualism that is deathly opposed to Philosophy, History, Art, Literature, and Science.
Finally, these same institutional Church leaders have a vendetta against any sort of responsibly Confrontational Warrior Masculinity and any sort of responsibly Loyal Sexual Femininity.
They demonize all these healthy elements of the human experience as the enemy. They demonize these things because they see them as potential threats to their authority!
HOW THEY GET AWAY WITH IT
The institutional Church leaders are able to get away with this because 90% of their followers only read 10% of the Bible.
If the majority of followers read the other 90% of the Bible, they might have a few questions…
One of the 10% of Bible verses the institutional Church leaders love to invoke is 2 Timothy 3:16-17, NIV. It says that:
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
As a Christian, I believe this to be true.
So that is why I read the other 90% of the Bible…
Which says repeatedly that all these things the institutional Church leaders demonize are indeed healthy elements of the human experience…healthy elements that point back to the Truth and Love of God!
THE DUST AND THE SPECK
In our day and age, it is the Esoteric Hippy Community that picks up the slack on studying and embracing many of these healthy elements of the human experience.
They are the ones today carrying the banner of Creativity, Intuition, and the Artistic Impulse.
They are at the forefront of innovations in Art and Literature and Science.
And though Philosophy and History are not their fortes, their activities are unwittingly rooted in Philosophy and History’s rich, nurturing soil.
This fact threatens the power of the institutional Church leaders, and so instead of embracing this Community and the vast swathes of common ground it has with Biblical Christianity, they demonize it as the enemy.
What Edward Lansdale knew is exactly what Jesus preached so long ago in Matthew 7:4-5, NLT:
“How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?
“Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”
MORE IN COMMON THAN WE THINK
Because of the overwhelming common ground we share, Pulp Fiction Renaissance will always have a seat at the table for our friends in the Esoteric Hippy Movement.
We welcome you with open arms!
And on the points we disagree upon, we may find we have more in common than we think.
Many in the Esoteric Hippy Community reject Warrior Masculinity because they have been on the receiving end of Predatory Warrior Masculinity.
You know…the kind that only separates people into Predator and Prey, Top and Bottom, Master and Slave…the kind that fights dirty, from the shadows, sneaky, stab-in-the back.
The kind that likes shooting fish in a barrel, because they think the powerlessness of the fish somehow shows off the power of the man with the gun.
THE TRUE HORROR
In the past, many of our Esoteric Hippy Friends have been the Prey.
They have been those fish in the barrel being shot at mercilessly by the man with the gun. For no other reason than the fact that the man can.
Our Esoteric Hippy Friends know the true horror that is the reality of Predatory Warrior Masculinity.
And because of these terrible experiences, they equate all Warrior Masculinity with Predatory Warrior Masculinity.
But here at Pulp Fiction Renaissance, Predatory Warrior Masculinity is not how we roll!
WE WILL PROTECT YOU, TOO!
Instead, we at Pulp Fiction Renaissance are about all Confrontational Warrior Masculinity…
It’s the honorable Chivalric Code that fights the bad guys and protects the weak by punishing the Predatory Warriors for their back stabbing, double dealing, exploitative ways!
And to our Esoteric Hippy Friends:
We will protect you, too!
Because at the end of the day, we have more in common than we have different. We are stronger together.
And it’s the right thing to do.
You are our Esoteric Allies in the War on Spiritual Terror.
So let’s saddle up, ride boldly forward into the sunset toward our destinies, and claim our Spiritual Victory…
Together!
Sincerely,
Richard Barrett
12-29-2022
PULP FICTION RENAISSANCE 