The only time I was ever in the midst of a large group of wild animals was on a trail leading into Fern Canyon, north of Arcata, CA. (Supposedly they shot part of Jurassic Park near there - I can see why.)

The wild animals were elk and there were about thirty of them all together, but 6 or eight large bulls with full racks. We walked through their ranks cautiously, I and my girlfriend at the time (though she nor any girlfriend I’ve ever had would suffer to be called “my girlfriend” ever). The biggest, oldest and most beautiful of the bulls sat stately off to our left, haunched over on all fours. It’s head did not swivel, but his eye turned slowly watching us pass. I kept eye contact with him, as one would any obvious master whose territory through which you are allowed to pass - partly out of respect, and partly out of fear that you don’t know what he’ll do. But he left us alone and let us through. Seemed even, to give us his blessing, or so I thought at the time. Maybe I just wasn’t ready for it then. I wonder if I am now.

The thing you realize being out in a group of “wild and uncivilized” animals like this is that they have a code of behavior, a system of government, a series of rules which they all living according to. They have customs and habits and patterns which they manipulate in order to communicate, just like we do too. I wonder if that’s what lies behind George Orwell’s Animal Farm, though I’ve never read it and haven’t even seen the whole animated movie of either. No, I only know the reference through those times my (non) girlfriend and I spent watching this YouTube clip together (one which combines Animal Farm animated footage with Rage Against the Machine - which I can’t currently find!), for some reason over and over. But we didn’t even use the audio from that file, we would mix it with the audio from “Silent Lucidity” and watch them at the same time, so that there’s one part where it looks like the animals onstage are giving lessons in “dream control”… It’s fucking scary and weird.

The point is animals have no need for formal government (being self-governed) because those who are the fittest amongst the community are apparent and respected by all. Those weak hands who reach for power do so out of personal impotence and their crimes are apparent. This is what the Founding Fathers were talking about with a “state of nature” - it does not mean there there was no government, but that each man was sovereign and that together as a community men gave or witheld consent to all things.

Does Hollywood portray a more accurate media image of and compared to the original values and dreams upon which this country was founded than Washington, DC?