LEPERS

Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. 

So my disguise must be able to strike Terror into their hearts. 

I must be a creature of the night, black, Terrible...

via GIPHY


via GIPHY

"I've seen Horrors, 

Horrors that you've seen. 

But you have no Right 

to call me A Murderer. 

You have a Right to Kill Me. 

You have The Right, to Do That - 

But You Have No Right 

to Judge Me. 

Because it's Judgement 

that defeats Us."

The Batman: 

You're garbage who kills for money.

The Joker: 

Don't talk like One of Them. You're NOT. 

Even if you'd like to be. 

To Them, you're just a freak... like me..!!

They NEED you right now. 

But when They don't....

They’ll cast you out....

Like a Leper!

 

"I’m sure you’ve heard old fossils like me talk about 

Pearl Harbor, Yindel. 

Fact is, we mostly lie about it. 
We make it sound like we all leaped to our feet 

and went after the Axis on The Spot. 

Hell, we were scared. 
Rumors were flying, 

we thought the Japanese had taken California. 

We didn’t even have an army, so there we were, lying in bed pulling the sheets over our heads – 
and there was Roosevelt, on the radio, 

Strong and Sure, 

taking Fear and turning it into 

a Fighting Spirit. 

Almost overnight, we had Our Army. 
We won The War. 

Since then, Presidents have come and gone, 

each one seeming smaller, weaker… 
The Best of Them like faint echoes of Roosevelt -

A few years back, I was reading a news magazine – 
a lot of people with a lot of evidence 

said that Roosevelt knew Pearl was going to be attacked – 

and that he let it happen. 

Wasn’t proven. 

Things like that never are. 

I couldn’t stop thinking how horrible that would be… 

and how Pearl was what got us 

off our duffs in time to stop The Axis. 

A lot of Innocent Men died. 
But we won The War. 

It bounced back and forth in my head 

until I realised, 
I couldn’t Judge it. 

It was Too Big. 
He was Too Big…”


The Nazis are The Enemy. 

Wade into Them. 
Spill their blood. 

Shoot them in the belly.

When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was Your Best Friend's Face --

You'll Know What to Do.

I worry that My Son might not understand what I've tried to be. 

And if I were to be killed, Willard, I would want someone to go to my home and tell my son everything – everything I did, everything you saw – because there's nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies. 

And if you understand me, Willard, you will do this for me.

 

Dear Son. 

I'm afraid that both you and your mother will have worried at not hearing from me during the past weeks, but my situation here has become a difficult one. 

I have been  officially accused of Murder by the army. 

The alleged victims were four Vietnamese double agents. 

 

We spent months uncovering then and accumulating evidence. 

When absolute proof was completed, we acted. We acted like soldiers. 

 

The charges are unjustified. 

They are, in fact, and under the circumstances of this conflict, quite completely insane.

In a war, there are many moments  for compassion and tender action. 

 

There are many moments for ruthless action. 

What is often called ruthless, but may, in many circumstances, be only clarity. 

Seeing clearly what there is to be done, and doing it directly, quickly, awake.

I will trust you tell your mother what you choose about this letter. 

As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned. 

I am beyond their timid, lying morality, and so I am beyond caring. 

You have all my faith. 

Your Loving Father.

Col. Walter E. Kurtz

 

“This negro, in the eyes of many, has been persecuted. Perhaps as an individual he was. But it was his misfortune to be the foremost example of the evil in permitting the intermarriage of whites and blacks.” 

 

— Asst U.S. Attourn. Gen. Harry Parkin 

 

“No brutality, no infamy, no degradation in all the years of Southern slavery, possessed such a villainous character and such atrocious qualities as the provision of the laws of Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and other states which allow the marriage of the negro, Jack Johnson, to a woman of Caucasian strain.

 

Intermarriage between whites and blacks is repulsive and averse to every sentiment of pure American spirit. It is abhorrent and repugnant to the very principles of a pure Saxon government. It is subversive to social peace. It is destructive of moral supremacy, and ultimately this slavery of white women to black beasts will bring this nation to a conflict as fatal and as bloody as ever reddened the soil of Virginia or crimsoned the mountain paths of Pennsylvania… 

 

Let us uproot and exterminate now this debasing, ultrademoralizing, un-American and inhuman leprosy.” 

 

— Congressman Seaborn Roddenberry 

 

“It comes down, then, after all to this Unforgivable Blackness.” 

 

— W.E.B. Du Bois

 

I watched a, snail crawl along The Edge -- of a straight razor. 

That's My Dream. 

That's My Nightmare: Crawling, Slithering, along The Edge, of a straight razor --

and Surviving.

Have you ever considered any real Freedoms? 

Freedoms from the opinion of Others... even the opinions of yourself?

As long as cold beer, hot food, rock 'n' roll, and all the other amenities remain expected norm, our conduct of The War will only gain impotence.

I've seen Horrors, Horrors that you've seen. 

But you have no Right to call me a Murderer. 

You have a Right to Kill Me. 

You have a Right, to Do That - but You have No Right to Judge Me. 

It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what Horror means. 

Horror! Horror has a Face, and you must make A Friend of Horror. 

Horror and Moral Terror are your friends. 

If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. 

They are Truly Enemies.

I remember when I was with Special Forces. 

Seems a thousand centuries ago. 

We went into a camp to inoculate the children. 

We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. 

He couldn't see. 

We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. 

There they were in a pile: a pile of little arms. 

And I remember I...I...I cried. 

I wept like some grandmother. 

I wanted to tear my teeth out. 

I didn't know what I wanted to do. 

And I want to remember it. 

I never want to forget it. 

I never want to forget. 

And then I realised, like I was shot — like I was shot with a diamond...a diamond bullet right through my forehead. 

And I thought: 

My God, the genius of that. The genius! 

The will to do that: perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. 

And then I realised, They were stronger than We, because They could stand it. 

These were not monsters. 

These were men, trained cadres — these men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who have children, who are filled with love — but they had the strength — the strength! — to do that. 

If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. 

You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilise their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, judgement. 

Without Judgement!

Because it's Judgement that defeats us.

We train Young Men to drop Fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes because it's obscene!

I worry that My Son might not understand what I've tried to be. 

And if I were to be killed, Willard, I would want someone to go to My Home and tell My Son everything – everything I did, everything you saw – because there's nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies. 

And if you understand me, Willard, you will do this for me.

Let me tell you one story here, 

of a Samurai Warrior, a Japanese warrior, 

who had The Duty to avenge 

the murder of his overlord. 

And he actually, after some time, 

found and cornered the man 

who had murdered his overlord. 

And he was about to deal with him 

with his samurai sword, 

when this man in the corner, 

in The Passion of Terror, 

spat in his face. 

And The Samurai sheathed The Sword 

and walked away. 

WHY Did He Do That?

BILL MOYERS:

Why?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL:

Because, he was made angry, 

and if he had killed that man then, 

it would have a Personal Act, 

of another kind of act, 

and That was NOT 

What He Had Come There to Do.