Strange Stuff #32-Maleficent

This year another movie starring Angelina Jolie as the Disney character Maleficent is releasing in theaters. That character is of course a witch and I’m starting to wonder if the character’s name is inspired by the book, the Malleus Maleficarum. This book was written by Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, a duo of Dominacan friars that had a role in the Inquisition, whose job it was to catch and burn witches, in the 1480s. This book was created by them as a manual used to hunt witches with and during its time, it became the mostly wide read witch hunter’s guide in Europe and led to the torturings and killings of thousands of people suspected of being witches in the past.

A Thinker On The Loose

“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or where it will end. There is not a piece of science, but its flank may be turned tomorrow; there is not any literary reputation, not the so-called eternal names of fame, that may not be revised and condemned. The very hopes of man, the thoughts of his heart, the religion of nations, the manner and morals of mankind, are all at the mercy of a new generalization. Generalization is always a new influx of the divinity into the mind. Hence the thrill that attends it.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Haves and the Have Nots

First of all, I want to apologize to fans of the Tyler Perry show with the same name as this post, like my grandmother, since this post isn’t about it. Instead, it is about where I think the world is heading. I believe in the future of the world, the have nots will become the haves, so what is happening right now is that the world is taking away from the haves and giving to the have nots. Certain things, as well as the anger and conflict they produce, like the college admissions scandal involving actress Lori Loughlin, the taking down of certain prominent people, riots and protests worldwide, and even Hollywood and storytelling becoming more diverse are all a part of this process, or at least, laying the groundwork for it. But, it won’t come easy.