Culture Clash

Okay, let's move on to a, a-

Yeah

... kind of a movie that, again, I bet very few people are thinking about the movie that we wanna start this conversation with.

So I'm gonna start us down this road with yet another quote, and the quote is, "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has been destroyed from within."

Ooh.

Now, yeah, powerful quote.

That's actually by a man named Will Durant, who was a 20th-century historian and philosopher, and it's the first image that you see on the movie we'll now be talking about, which is Apocalypto.

That's a movie by Mel Gibson that came out in 2006, and the interesting thing is that quote was an, actually an excerpt of something larger, which is equally relevant to the world we're living in today.

Here's the full quote: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.

The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars." Now, [laughs] is America a modern-day Rome? Are we ripe to be conquered? Could it be? I've wondered lately.

Is this the reason that we are on the verge of disclosure, that the powers that be want to maybe prepare us for the potential alien invasion coming? Obviously, we can't answer that today, and I know that's a scary thought.

But I think the most important thing to take away from this is what we talked about in the beginning, which is there is a culture clash that happens in Apocalypto that does not go well [laughs] for the indigenous tribes, and yet the whole movie becomes a metaphor for that idea that there's always a bigger fish.

Yeah.

Boy, I gotta tell you, I love Apocalypto, and I know Mel Gibson is a controversial character, and I would like us to be able, folks, to separate ourselves from his personality or whether you love him or hate him or whatever and concentrate on what this film is about, 'cause it, it really does ask a brilliantly large question, and it doesn't really ask it even until the very end of the film.

So the one thing I do have to say is, look, this movie, as Brent said, was made in 2006.

Th- this is not the kind of show where we can respect people that call spoiler alert.

We...

The c- the ability to discuss what this film does needs for us to actually look at what it says in its entirety.

So I guess if that's the problem, maybe bounce ahead 10 minutes and you'll be okay.

But here's the thing.

This is the story that takes place with the May...

Is it the Aztec or the Mayan civilization?

The Mayans.

It's Mayans.

The Mayans.