“That scene from Rocky IV.”
It’s round two, and so far the Italian Stallion has gotten clobbered. Drago has kept him at arm’s length due to his greater size and strength. Our hero just can’t get inside.
Then, toward the end of the round, Drago muscles Rocky into a corner and gets the command from his trainer to drop the hammer. It’s there, taking heavy fire from the bigger man, that Rocky finds his footing and connects with a devastating right hook.
“The Russian’s cut! And it’s a bad cut!” the ring announcer exclaims.
No. The fact that Ivan Drago is Russian has absolutely nothing at all to do with the point being made here. These two fighters could’ve been duking it out in a barn in rural Iowa. Nationality, and any reality-based geopolitical connotations that would normally apply, simply don’t play in this context. Don’t try to force them. This is make-believe. A story about overcoming odds.
So everyone’s stunned. Drago, the ring announcers, the crowd…Hell, even Rocky looks a little surprised. But then he steps up, seizes the opportunity, and starts the long painful process of chopping the big man down. Takes him thirteen more rounds but he gets the job done. Our hero has won the day.
So that’s what I said when someone asked me to reflect on 2016. What does it all mean, looking back?
“That scene from Rocky IV.”
Because 2016 was the year alternative media drew blood.
The eye of the corporate media isn’t just black. It’s been ripped open, and the blood is flowing down to where it can be tasted. That’s what’s happening right now. For the first time ever, the corporate media has truly been cut. And it’s a bad cut.
They were beaten. That’s the long and short of it. The objectives on both sides of this particular battle were clear. The corporate whores would do everything in their power to ensure their queen whore slithered into the throne room. And alternative media would do everything in its power to inform the citizenry of the true nature of the supposed queen.
The prostitutes failed in their task. They lost the battle, and got a nasty scar in the process. Unlike Drago, however, who embraces the challenge and stands toe to toe with Rocky until the very end—even admirably proving himself to be no one’s puppet, not even his government’s—the corporate media is throwing a tantrum.
And truthfully, what else could one expect from cowards and liars of this magnitude?
Alternative media won a battle. No doubt. But no one believes the war is over. One could argue, in fact, that it’s only now truly beginning. Because the corporate media, while applying clean dressings to its wound, has been forced to turn and face the enemy. It’s Rocky and Drago at the beginning of round three. The big man got his bell rung. He sees now the little man won’t go down easy, if at all. The fight, as they say, is on.
Much of 2016 was ugly. Just about all of it, really. But at the tail end, after being absolutely steamrolled by election cycle propaganda for months on end, the people were still standing. They survived. And then hurled a wrench into the machine.
That’s what we should take with us into the coming year. Not the trouble down the line. Not the fact that the mechanisms necessary for a full-blown police state are already in place, and the cult following of a would-be tyrant are already calling for the boot to come down. Not the fact that the government has finally succumbed to the inevitable and created a real Ministry of Truth and—hand in hand with the corporate media—will now come at independent voices with everything it has.
That’s for the first Monday in January. For now, in the few remaining hours of 2016, we should reflect on what’s been accomplished. Because, as history will show, it was no small thing.
Ask Drago. He’ll tell ya.
