The Hidden Themes of Heliofant’s “I, Pet Goat II”
Xtraeme
ATS
I feel much of the nuance in Heliofant’s “I, Pet Goat II” has been neglected. So I would like to express what I see as the four major themes of the video. The primary message is that the current mindset of America and much of the rest of the world is one of division. The apple splitting in half and the emergence of the two saplings that unite to create the lotus blossom is representative of enlightenment.[0] This is poetically illustrated near the end of the short, as the sleeping Christ figure emerges from the tunnel and all the water lilies unfurl into full bloom.
A House Divided…
During the introduction, in the first stanza, the two (supposedly) opposite U.S. Presidents stand before the front of the classroom and cavort between a mixture of slapstick and dance.‡ At no point do the Presidents set aside the inane masturbatory[1]act to engage in a genuine dialogue to discuss how we might begin to solve the world’s problems. In effect, they are the same. Both of their actions are silly and irreverent. The nonsense of their actions is emblazoned on the chalkboard for all to see. The house is on fire and no one is doing anything about it.[2]
Trapped in the surreal Alice and Wonderland setting.[3] The snow white-esque pupil,[4] despite the misbehavior of her elders, maintains her idyllic purity—uncorrupted by society’s division and hatred the ethnocentric partisan circus creates.‡ Staring down, contemplating the apple. Lily realizes the fruit is poisoned with society’s divisive cultural propaganda. ‘”This apple is not mine,” she [thinks]. It belongs to someone else.”‘[5] As she lets go of the doctrinal apple of knowledge, ossifying the students who surround her, it rolls to the front of the classroom.
The President, as head master of the cultural indoctrination program, begins to sweat.[6]‡ He sees for the first time the younger generation is unwilling to consume the information that they are being fed. The President realizes the charade of division[7] is coming to an end and that the people recognize a world constantly at war with itself can never become whole and heal. This is visually reflected by the apple splitting in half (again alluding to division) and the two saplings merging to form the unified lotus blossom.[8]
The War that is Winter…
Here the second overture starts and the war for the soul of humanity begins. The camera exits through the window from the small confines of the theatric, comfortably understood community of the classroom to a world in chaos, where the two towers of division are crumbling and the unified flag of the nation is torn in half.‡ This much larger, complex world is nothing like what was taught in the school. It shows the world as something bigger and far more menacing. It also shows how old established symbols, while retaining their power and meaning, have begun to meld into one another becoming something altogether new.
As the blood moon rises[9] [10] far out past where the two towers lie in ruin.‡ We see Osama bin Laden standing with his armies of human bombs, under the aegis of the CIA logo tagged on his uniform. Oil bleeds from the glaciers into the black polluted ocean slick.[11]‡ The once proud nation’s self-inflicted wounds cause Lady Liberty’s light to dim as the Star of David illuminates beneath it.‡ Even from birth, the young are ensnared by the snakelike media propaganda.‡ The constant hum of the TV murmuring the news of failing economies saps everyone of vigor and hope.[12] ‡ The desperation invariably crescendos in worldwide confrontation and escalations.
Air strikes target religious structures to destroy what are falsely construed as opposing cultural identities.‡ Governments extricate resoures from foreign soil to perpetuate the illusion of an ever-expanding ever-growing economy. Conflagration of bombs vaporize the lives of parents and children of all cultures. Muslim.‡ African.‡ The war heals nothing and consumes everything. The poignancy of this depravity reaches new heights when the people observe the ill-gotten barrels of crude fail to even serve any supposed purpose because the tumultuous violence engulfing the middle east only serves to hasten the bankruptcy of the swiftly diminishing middle class. In a last gasp, the blue-collar wage earner drowns disappearing into the cauldron of class warfare.‡ The Mexican calaca[13] walks onto the battlefield with Death’s scythe to claim the brave who have marched into battle to oppose nuclear warfare and governmental injustice.‡
Yang seems to be losing to its Yin. The battle seems all but lost.
