I watched the 1978 animated film version of Watership Down over the festive period last December. I had last watched the film as a child, and at the time saw the storyline in terms of good versus evil, along with friendship, alliances, and the universal fight for survival. I had never read the book, but felt curious to appreciate the full source material, so I have since ordered and read through a paperback copy from my local book shop in Bangkok. You can read the book for free from the internet archive’s digital library here.
What struck me throughout the brilliant storytelling architecture of Richard Adams, was how the plot could be used as a template to explain (to children) what happened in the early 2020s - and is still happening today. In summary, here are the key themes from the book which I see as directly relevant and familiar to our current lived experience:
Attempts made by a minority to warn the rest of the population of impending genocide are ignored by the majority.
Those trying to warn others are framed as spreading dissension and inciting violence.
Large swathes of the population are duped into accepting a totalitarian society, trained to degrade and humiliate themselves, yet embracing this as being necessary, for the greater good.
There is a sense of fear and paranoia as surveillance is rampant with citizens policing their own totalitarian society.
The vocal minority eventually inspires the silent majority to rise up against their tyrannical rulers; freedom becomes the most important and sought after common goal.
The initial threat
The story begins with an affable group of rabbits living blissfully in their warren. One of the smaller, frailer rabbits, named Fiver, has an extra-sensory perception of something terrible coming; imminently threatening the existence of the warren and its inhabitants. Fiver tries to persuade his brother Hazel of this unspecified yet perceived threat to their collective existence.
‘Oh, Hazel! This is where it comes from! I know now – something very bad! Some terrible thing – coming closer and closer.’ He began to whimper with fear. ‘What sort of thing – what do you mean? I thought you said there was no danger?’ ‘I don’t know what it is,’ answered Fiver wretchedly. ‘There isn’t any danger here, at this moment. But it’s coming – it’s coming. Oh, Hazel, look! The field! It’s covered with blood!’
Reluctantly, Hazel gives into Fiver’s pleading to take action, and they take their concerns to the Chief Rabbit, only to be met with condescension and ridicule.
‘Well, sir,’ said Hazel, ‘my brother doesn’t really think about these feelings he gets. He just has the feelings, if you see what I mean. I’m sure you’re the right person to decide what we ought to do.’
‘Well, that’s very nice of you, to say that. I hope I am. But now, my dear fellows, let’s just think about this a moment, shall we? It’s May, isn’t it? Everyone’s busy and most of the rabbits are enjoying themselves…
We may observe how the initial dismissal of Fiver’s warning, quickly turned into hostile persecution, as the idea spread throughout the local population. What followed were stern accusations of spreading dissension.
‘Spreading dissension and inciting to mutiny. Silver, you’re under arrest too, for failing to report to Toadflax this evening and causing your duty to devolve on a comrade. You’re both to come with me.
Just as ‘conspiracy theorists’realists found themselves at first shunned by friends and family, silenced, censored, fined, arrested, sectioned in mental institutions, fired by employers, disowned, and generally persecuted via propagandised encouragement at the behest of the state’s corporate captured media apparatus.
The characters of the book shortly thereafter find themselves split into those who are able to cope with the mental strain of their rapidly changing circumstances, and those who cannot, who appear to be paralysed by fear.
Hazel and his companions had spent the night doing everything that came unnaturally to them, and this for the first time. They had been moving in a group, or trying to: actually, they had straggled widely at times. They had been trying to maintain a steady pace, between hopping and running, and it had come hard. Since entering the wood they had been in severe anxiety. Several were almost tharn –that is, in that state of staring, glazed paralysis that comes over terrified or exhausted rabbits, so that they sit and watch their enemies – weasels or humans – approach to take their lives.
We can draw a direct parallel here with the stupefied, mindless state, in which so many of our nearest and dearest drifted into during the ramped up Covid propaganda campaign. Fear is the mind killer. Fear paralyses rational thought processes of human beings. Fear inhibits critical thinking, with the fearful then being (mis)led by false idols; those wretched psychopaths we have all come to know and loathe - Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, Chris Witty, Rochelle Walensky, and June Raine, to name but a few. Despite our best efforts to break through the weaponised applied behavioural psychology, we have watched our loved ones transform into a chronic state of being terrified and exhausted.
Our families, friends, and co-workers were manipulated and ruthlessly preyed upon by their darling ‘experts’ on the tee-vee.
Menticide was induced so ferociously, that they were spellbound into being catatonically entranced; either unable or unwilling to listen to their very own family members and lifelong friends - those few, who could see (or see when shown) - who tried to warn them, yet who were dismissed, again and again and again.
Quoting from a former piece published by this Substack:
The British public were primed to be subjected to this same form of applied behavioural psychology when the injections were rolled out in December 2020.
This campaign of billboards started in April 2020 in the UK:
It is imperative for our children of the future to understand how it all unfolded, if they are to have any chance whatsoever, at withstanding the increasingly sophisticated information warfare tactics being deployed against us - warfare, that is being waged for our hearts, our minds, and our very souls - for total and absolute dominion over the corporeal form, mental faculties, emotional loyalties, and the very essence of the human being’s core spirit.
Preying on the helpless
During the book’s chapter The Crow and The Beanfield, the rabbits are attacked by a crow that singles out the weakest among them.
‘Keep at it!’ cried Bigwig. ‘Come in behind it! They’re cowards! They only attack helpless rabbits.’ But already the crow was making off, flying low with slow, heavy wing-beats. They watched it clear the farther hedge and disappear into the wood beyond the river.
This observation made of those that only attack the helpless describes multiple incidents which we bore witness to during the early tyrannical 2020s.
Midway through the rabbits’ perilous adventure, in search of a new place to call home, they come across a warren full of healthy looking rabbits, with an abundance of food, and spacious, comfortable dwellings, providing safety and security. The price of admission, our protagonists soon learn, is to be ruled over like slaves, in a totalitarian society.
‘Aren’t you coming to learn to carry, Fiver?’ asked Hazel at length. ‘It’s not too difficult once you get the hang of it.’ ‘I’ll have nothing to do with it,’ answered Fiver in a low voice. ‘Dogs – you’re like dogs carrying sticks.’
“Those are rabbits down there, trotting along like a lot of squirrels with nuts. How can that be right?’ ‘Well, I’d say they’ve copied a good idea from the squirrels and that makes them better rabbits.’
This is akin to a new (ab)normal for the main characters of the story, by being forced (in reality, choosing to submit) to change their behaviour, because they are told it is for the greater good.
In our real world, it is worth repeating here for posterity, the numerous dehumanising acts of ritualistic humiliation and self-degradation, that people chose to participate in, globally, everywhere, all at once.
The rabbits enjoy story-telling, often centered around fables about their ancestral leader of generations long since past - ‘El-ahrairah’. One such story details how El-ahrairah used his cunning to trick a rival king into believing his (intentionally poisoned) royal food supply of lettuces was contaminated with a virus. In effect, the rival king was fooled into believing that this was leading to widespread sickness within his kingdom.
“What is the sickness of a little king to the chief physician of the land beyond the golden river of Frith? I will return and tell Prince Rainbow that the king’s guard were foolish and gave me such treatment as one might expect from a crowd of flea-bitten louts.”
‘He turned and began to go away, but the captain of the guard
became frightened and called him back. El-ahrairah allowed himself
to be persuaded and the soldiers took him to the king. “The lettuces?” cried King Darzin. “Impossible! They are all grown from good, healthy seed and guarded day and night.”
“Alas!” said El-ahrairah,-“I know it well! But they have been infected by the dreaded Lousepedoodle, that flies in ever-decreasing circles through the Gunpat of the Cludge – a deadly virus – dear me, yes! – isolated by the purple Awago and maturing in the grey-green forests of the Okey Pokey. This, you understand, is to put the matter for you in simple terms, insofar as I can. Medically speaking, there are certain complexities with which I will not weary you.” I would strongly advise Your Majesty,” went on El-ahrairah, “not
to leave the lettuces where they are, for they will shoot and flower
and seed. The infection will spread. I know it is disappointing, but you
must get rid of them.”
We can use this story to help convey the following points relevant to the lies and damned creative statistics foisted upon us since 2020:
Here is a DOD showman James Giordano. He is not a real scientist, his business is spinning clickbait science propaganda. In this lecture he is explaining how to fake pandemics in four easy steps in a video from 2017 “Neurotechnology in National Defense”:
Step 1:
Poison a few people in a few geographic locations (“sentinel cases”) with a drug (chemical toxin or bio-toxin) that causes “highly morbid” central nervous system (CNS) effects . [I told you “covid” was a synthetic toxin, didn’t I?]
Step 2:
Pretend it was “a bug, a virus modified with CRISPR Cas9” (what James means here is - “oops, forget what I just told you 45 seconds ago about
A DRUG. I really-really mean a bioengineered GOF virus!!”)
Step 3: Use the “REAL BUG” - the Internet! Broadcast on social media that everyone is infected with a “highly lethal agent” that has “asymptomatic, prodromal effects” - anxiety, sleeplessness and worry. When you worry - those are the signs that you have a “lethal asymptomatic infection”. M-kay. That means the undergraduate students in a garage someplace released the bioweapon. Or it “leaked” from BSL4 facility in Wuhan (that sounds scarier, doesn’t it?), and it got to you all the way in Iowa. Believe!!!
Step 4: All hypochondriacs and “worried-well” run to their doctors and flood the hospital ERs, yay! Now we can get them with the fake PCR-remdesivir-ventilator protocol! and call it “covid”!
The moral of the story
The core message of Watership Down is one of survival, comradery, morality, and awareness.
Ultimately, the story could help to teach children that there are two types of people in this world:
Those who will always do what they are told, no matter what the instruction is, its implications, resultant harms, and regardless of how immoral the command and the subsequent actions are.
Those that will always do what is right, no matter what they are told they should do for the greater good, in spite of insurmountable odds of success, regardless of the personal suffering and negative consequences for the individual.
**We can be astutely aware that the aforementioned descriptions may be twisted to portray evil as good, and blind following and acquiescence as being morally righteous - we are in the midst of the great inversion of all that is true, real, and known to be self-evident**
The child can decide which type of person they shall grow up to become.
Nicholas Creed is a Bangkok based writer. All content is free for all readers, with nothing locked in archive that requires a paid subscription. Any support is greatly appreciated.
Ultimately, the story could help to teach children that there are two types of people in this world:
Those who will always do what they are told, no matter what the instruction is, its implications, resultant harms, and regardless of how immoral the command and the subsequent actions are.
Those that will always do what is right, no matter what they are told they should do for the greater good, in spite of insurmountable odds of success, regardless of the personal suffering and negative consequences for the individual."
Well, i would say that there are actually a majority of good hearted people ( to varying degrees, of course) ........... that manage to get along if the "instructions" are not that bad . But the worse the demands on peoples freedoms and livelihood are , the more people drift toward the side of complying to instructions in order to insure THEIR survival . At that point..... consideration of others goes out the door , and the ugly side of humanity comes out the window .
Nicholas ........ i just read this post of yours ( by going back a bit in your writings .
I am very impressed ! really great insights , as i personally would not have the ability to put the effort in that you have . BUT..... i do get what is going on. I have always ( and i mean from an early age) .... distrusted authority . I guess that, unfortunatley, I was right to do so . I was a minority then, fifty years ago. And it appears I am still in that small "group" who will not comply .
What is going to happen to us ? Whatchu gonna do when they come for you ??
Ultimately, the story could help to teach children that there are two types of people in this world:
Those who will always do what they are told, no matter what the instruction is, its implications, resultant harms, and regardless of how immoral the command and the subsequent actions are.
Those that will always do what is right, no matter what they are told they should do for the greater good, in spite of insurmountable odds of success, regardless of the personal suffering and negative consequences for the individual."
Well, i would say that there are actually a majority of good hearted people ( to varying degrees, of course) ........... that manage to get along if the "instructions" are not that bad . But the worse the demands on peoples freedoms and livelihood are , the more people drift toward the side of complying to instructions in order to insure THEIR survival . At that point..... consideration of others goes out the door , and the ugly side of humanity comes out the window .
Nicholas ........ i just read this post of yours ( by going back a bit in your writings .
I am very impressed ! really great insights , as i personally would not have the ability to put the effort in that you have . BUT..... i do get what is going on. I have always ( and i mean from an early age) .... distrusted authority . I guess that, unfortunatley, I was right to do so . I was a minority then, fifty years ago. And it appears I am still in that small "group" who will not comply .
What is going to happen to us ? Whatchu gonna do when they come for you ??
btw: i am unvaxxed . And you ? Love and peace ...