Comics and graphic novels make up one of my weaknesses, and one of my particular weaknesses is the Marvel graphic novel Wolverine: Enemy of the State. This is not because I think it good, but rather because I think it a great example of camp in the Susan Sontag sense. (Her points 19, 33, and 37 are particularly relevant.) In Enemy of the State, we find out that HYDRA is run by moderates who are into the orgiastic blood sacrifice of children, and that radicals displeased by HYDRA's moderation are planning to take over. What do these radicals want? Their leader, the super-centenarian Satanist Baroness Elisbeth von Strucker, is blunt.
Whatever else the Baroness is, at least she is direct.
Over the top as Enemy of the State is, it does contain the seed of an interesting idea. In a world where globalized liberal democracy is hegemonic and has no plausible challenging ideology, what else is left for the radically discontented to do but challenge everything? This would require radical Islam to not develop terrorist offshoots. Could this sort of nihilism possibly sustain a lasting terrorist movement, one akin to HYDRA under the Baroness?
Whatever else the Baroness is, at least she is direct.
Over the top as Enemy of the State is, it does contain the seed of an interesting idea. In a world where globalized liberal democracy is hegemonic and has no plausible challenging ideology, what else is left for the radically discontented to do but challenge everything? This would require radical Islam to not develop terrorist offshoots. Could this sort of nihilism possibly sustain a lasting terrorist movement, one akin to HYDRA under the Baroness?