Introduction
Ever since Australian mockumentary “Kenny” was released to the theaters in 2006, it made a powerful contribution to the process of Australian cinema becoming ever more popular among Western moviegoers, which is why, during the course of recent years; the actual meaning of this film has been discussed from a variety of different socio-cultural perspectives. However, only few critics were able to realize that despite movie’s clear association with the genre of comedy, it nevertheless contains many political implications of utter importance. In this paper, we will aim at analyzing these implications, while providing readers with the ultimate insight on why it is namely the Anglo-Saxon countries, such as Australia, which continue to feature world’s highest standards of living.
Analysis
Nowadays, it became a statement of good taste, on the part of neo-Liberal “sophisticates” in the West, who think of tree-hugging and organic-coffee-drinking as people’s only legitimate activities, to suggest that the realities of post-industrial living imply the elimination of euro-centrically defined sense of rationale, as the metaphysical foundation of Western civilization.1 Given the fact that many of these “sophisticates” had found themselves in position of designing socio-political policies in Western countries, it comes as no surprise that as time goes by, fewer and fewer young people feel like pursuing professional careers of engineers, technicians and mechanics, while opting for the careers of PR representatives, lawyers, psychologists, estheticians, art designers, actors etc. After all – it is so much easier to make as much as $100-$500 per hour by yapping away nonsense (lawyers, psychologists), or even as much as $50000 per hour by posing nude to Playboy/Playgirl’s photographers (celebrity actors), then making $20-$30 per hour by establishing preconditions for the people in Western countries to enjoy a civilized living (engineers, technicians, mechanics, plumbers etc.). However, it is namely the latter category of professionals, upon which the actual well-being of the rest of society’s members is being solely depended.
What causes these people to continue on with their professional activities, despite the fact that society clearly does not appreciate them as it should? The movie “Kenny” provides us with the answer to this question – it is these people’s genetically predetermined sense of existential idealism. This is exactly the reason why, despite his professional occupation being concerned with handling people’s excrements, Kenny is being shown to us as someone who takes pride in his job. Movie’s main character is far from trying to idealize his profession, but he nevertheless remains perfectly aware of his job’s utter importance, for as long as ensuring society’s proper functioning is being concerned: “I don’t try to beatify the job that I do or make it sound better. I mean, if they’ve got a problem with what I do, then it’s their problem” (01.33.26). Moreover, Kenny never ceases to remain utterly sarcastic towards those individuals, who despite their belief in their own sophistication are being utterly incapable of dealing with life’s even simplest challenges. While referring to a dorky-looking young man (clearly affected by genetic inadequateness), who wanted to make few extra bucks by acting as his assistant, Kenny said: “It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? Like I said, he’s probably studying to be an accountant or something, but can’t even clean a shitter” (00.34.15). What is the most appealing about this Kenny’s remark? It is the fact that it reflects movie main character’s wiseness – just like all people, endowed with the sense of idealism, Kenny is able to understand so much more then he could have possibly known.2 One might wonder where Kenny’s sense of idealism and his good-naturness derive out of?
In order for us to be able address this question, we will need to refer to Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen’s book “IQ and the wealth of nations”, in which authors had established an undeniable link between particulars of people’s racial affiliation and their ability to act as productive members of society: “IQs appear to be determined by the racial and ethnic make-up of the populations…The IQs of 96 are typical of Europeans. The countries with lower proportions of Europeans and greater proportions of Native Americans, Blacks, and Mestizos have lower IQs” (2002, p. 63) According to Lynn and Vanhanen, one’s ability to prioritize society’s welfare over considerations ensuring its personal well-being, signifies his ability to understand and to take highly abstract notions close to heart (idealism), which in its turn serves as preliminary insight onto such individual’s IQ – the more a particular individual is being capable of adjusting his behavior to its own socially-idealistic anxieties, concerned with the process of serving some higher good, the smarter he is. This explains the actual subtleties of Anglo-Saxon countries’ prosperity – it is not only that the average rate of Whites’ IQ is among world’s highest, but that the majority of these people derive satisfaction out of serving a society to which they belong, instead of trying to exploit it, as it is the case with newly arrived ethnic immigrants in Western countries.3
The analyzed movie substantiates this suggestion perfectly well – the main reason why Kenny appears to be absolutely comfortable with what he does for living is because he knows that by doing it, he serves a society. Such his attitude correlates rather well with Kenny’s highly developed sense of humor – throughout film’s entirety Kenny never ceases uttering humorous remarks, which despite their seeming simplicity often leave self-presumed “sophisticates” around Kenny speechless, due the sheer extent of these remarks’ insightfulness. For example, while responding to his co-worker’s whiny complaints about the “uncertainties of marriage”, Kenny says: “Don’t worry too much. If you worry too much, you’ll drive yourself mad” (00.17.53). And, as we are all aware of – one’s developed sense of humor indicates his or her high IQ. In their article “An exploration of the relationship between humor and giftedness in students”, Dan Holt and Colleen Willard-Holt state: “Students that are intellectually gifted possess a number of common characteristics, one of which is an advanced sense of humor” (1995, p. 257). Therefore, under no circumstances can we refer to Kenny’s profession as the indication of his low intellectual capabilities.
On the contrary – as the realities of post-industrial living suggest, it is namely the professional activities associated with the maintenance of Western civilizational standards, which can be considered as truly intelligent, regardless of these activities’ actual essence. The reason why many people do not seem to realize this can be explained by the fact that, during the course of recent decades, the national integrity of Western societies has been increasingly undermined by individuals who represent an “excessive populace” – specifically, those who increase the amount of energetic entropy within these societies by the very fact of their racial/professional affiliation. As we have suggested earlier, the best paid professions in today’s Western countries are being essentially parasitic, simply because the personal well-being of individuals associated with these professions, does not relate to the well-being of society, as a whole – it is actually other way around.
This is why, if hordes of psychologists, lawyers, pop-singers, journalists, movie stars and other “sophisticate” but utterly excessive “professionals” had suddenly disappeared, their absence would hardly be noticed. Yet, if even few engineers at one of America’s nuclear power plants did not show up for work one morning, this could have easily triggered the process of this country being plunged into the state of social chaos, due to the electrical blackout.
Such our suggestion directly corresponds to the motifs contained in Australian movie – if Kenny had ceased providing his services to a community, it would not take too long for the community’s members to realize themselves sitting deep in shit, in literal sense of this word. As Kenny had put it: “I had a woman say to me when I told her what I did, she said ‘How disgusting! I don’t want to hear about that’. And I said, ‘Well, how about you go in protest and never have a crap again lady, see how long you last” (01.33.44). Apparently, despite his idealistic attitudes, Kenny never stopped assessing life’s challenges through the lenses of rationale. In its turn, this explains Kenny’s clearly defined atheism, even though there can be little doubt as to Kenny’s association with Protestantism.
When Kenny’s son begins to wonder about whether his father would eventually end up in hell, due to its failure to attend church on regular basis, Kenny replies: “Look, I tell you what. When God introduces himself to me, I’ll give him my full attention. I’ll give him 150%, mate. But until then, I’m just a little bit busy” (00.21.24). One of the reasons why White Protestants were able to turn savage lands into nothing short of paradise on Earth, within a matter of very short time after their arrival (U.S., Canada, Australia), is because unlike Catholics and highly “spiritual” but animalistic Natives, they do not expect riches to simply fall out of blue sky, while understanding perfectly well that, in order to be able to attain prosperity, one must work hard.4
In his famous work “The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism”, Max Weber provides us with insight onto the fact that the concept of culturally-scientific progress is inseparable from the concept of Protestantism as quasi-religious reflection of White psyche – a fusion between idealism and ice-cold rationale: “A glance at occupational statistics for any country in which several religions coexist is revealing. They indicate that people who own capital, employers, more highly educated skilled workers, and more highly trained technical or business personnel in modern companies tend to be, with striking frequency, overwhelmingly Protestant” (2001, p. 3). Therefore, there appears to be nothing accidental about Kenny’s professional occupation – his job simply signifies the fact that movie’s main character was able to choose in favor of acting “as necessary”, as opposed to acting “as it feels like”, which in its turn, is being manifested by particulars of Kenny’s anthropological constitution.
Unlike, what it is the case with representatives of racial minorities in Western countries, who often go about “celebrating diversity” by dumping garbage right in front of their houses, as something absolutely natural, Kenny is being endowed with inborn contempt towards filth.5 This is why movie features at least five scenes of Kenny taking shower – apparently, film’s producers wanted to emphasize Kenny’s whiteness as being associated with certain social implications, while striving to provide viewers with the insight on what served as the metaphysical precondition for Australia’s prosperity, until the time when hook-nosed promoters of multiculturalism had taken over country’s governmental offices.
In his article “On some examples of the National-Socialist view of history”, Karl Werner states: “A hypothetical Aryan blood precludes history: nations are not formed by historical processes, for they are already present in the blood, predetermined; nor or can they develop, since they cannot in any case achieve more than allowing their blood to speak out, a blood which is as pure and unadulterated as possible” (1968, p. 201). Thus, it would be wrong to think of Kenny as being solely a comical character, degraded by the very fact that he handles shit to make living. If this was the case, we would have to think of Whites who go about picking up garbage after newly arrived immigrants from Third World countries as being even more comical – after all, these Whites do not even get paid for trying to their to keep their neighborhoods clean.6 They do it because of their subconscious rejection of filth, regardless of the ways in which it emanates itself. Therefore, those “sophisticated” ladies, who dared to refer to Kenny’s job as the ultimate proof of his mental inadequacy, despite being depicted quite capable of taking piss right on the street, while in the state of drunkenness, could not possibly be more wrong. And, the reason for this is simple – while handling shit, Kenny did not experience any psychological anxieties, towards the actual subject of his professional activities, which would have been the case if Kenny was mentally abnormal.
It is important to understand that, for as long as human beings are concerned, we can define three types of filth: hygienic, physiological and genetic.7 Hygienic filth can be easily washed off with soapy water. Physiological filth, which usually reveals itself in people’s tendency to emanate bad odor, regardless of how often they take bath, cannot be dealt with such an apparent ease. However, the worst case scenario is when a particular individual has excessive amounts of genetic filth in its blood – it usually results in such an individual being affected by different forms of physical and mental inadequateness. In their book “Obsessive-compulsive disorder spectrum: Pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment”, José Yaryura-Tobias and Fugen Neziroglu state: “The attraction to filth is common among patients refractory to improvement” (1996, p. 43). Yet, Kenny could not have possibly been attracted to filth; simply because there can be very little doubt as to his racial purity.
Despite the fact that ancient Aryans did not possess even a fraction of a scientific knowledge, associated with recent breakthroughs in the field of biology and genetics, they nevertheless remained fully aware that in this world, everything has to do with everything. They knew it was absolutely appropriate to run parallels between social and physical processes. Moreover, they knew that the actual subtleties of these processes are being defined by juxtaposition filth vs. purity.8 For example, if few grams of lead are being mixed with a kilogram of gold, this gold ceases to be considered a “noble metal”, and it is quite impossible to fully purify it afterwards. The same applies to people: once their genes are being corrupted by the practice of racial mixing, these people get to be deprived of their sense of idealism, which in its turn, deprives them of their existential nobleness. Nowadays, such ancient people’s awareness gradually attains a full academic validity. Apparently, it is absolutely possible to tell whether a particular individual is being endowed with socially-appropriate attitudes or not by simply examining his or her physical appearance. Therefore, we can conclude that the ultimate reason why Kenny felt absolutely comfortable about himself, while continuing to provide community with valuable services is because his physique has not been genetically tainted.
Thus, it will not be an exaggeration on our part, to refer to the character of Kenny as the unsung hero of modern times. It was not simply by a coincidence that film’s producers strived to exploit comical situations, associated with Kenny assessing surrounding reality in terms of filth vs. cleanliness – such Kenny’s tendency appears being highly allegorical. Apparently, in the eyes of film’s producers, the accumulation of human excrements was meant to symbolize the spread of energetic entropy within a society, which movie-makers subtly relate to the process of Australia becoming increasingly multicultural. 9Thus, the fact that Kenny is being depicted as an embodiment of a “true Australian” (husky, blond, blue-eyed guy), makes perfectly good sense. Besides the fact that Kenny’s physical appearance reflects psychological traits of film’s main character character – hard-workiness, honesty, unpretentiousness, high intelligence, the absence of self-identity crisis and trustworthiness, they also provide us with the insight onto the fact that it is namely people’s genetic makeup, which affects their existential mode more than anything else does.
Conclusion
As it appears from film’s context – one’s ability to function as a productive member of society, while deriving pleasure out of the process, has nothing to do with individual’s formal education, social status, and his professional or religious affiliation, but solely with the amount of existential idealism, which runs through such person’s veins. And, as we have illustrated earlier – it is namely individual’s racial affiliation, which defines this amount. Therefore, despite “Kenny’s” formal belonging to cinematographic genre of mockumentary-comedy, this movie’s semiotics is best discussed within the conceptual framework of a thriller or high drama. Such our suggestion corresponds rather well to this paper’s initial thesis – it is because there are still many people like Kenny in Western countries, which explains why these countries have not yet began rapidly regressing into primeval savagery, as it is the case with Third World “nations” that had liberated themselves of “White oppression”, during the course of sixties and seventies.10
Regardless of whether the hawks of political correctness like it or not – the notion of “White man’s burden” is not a myth. Apparently, it is in White people’s nature to act as facilitators of cultural and scientific progress – their genetically predetermined strive towards cleanliness and their existential idealism allow them to remain on the leading edge of evolutionary process. It is namely this idea, which is being subtly promoted by “Kenny”, for which movie’s creators have to be given a huge credit.
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Footnotes
- Holton, G 2000, ‘The rise of postmodernisms and the “end of science”’, Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 327-341.
- Alford, J, Funk, C & Hibbing, J 2005, “Are political orientations genetically transmitted?’, The American Political Science Review, vol. 99, no. 2, pp. 153-167.
- Chong, D & Rogers, R 2005, ‘Racial solidarity and political participation’, Political Behavior, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 347-374.
- Field, G 1977, ‘Nordic racism’, Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 523-540.
- Jupp, J 1995, ‘From “White Australia” to “part of Asia”: Recent shifts in Australian immigration policy towards the region’, International Migration Review, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 207-228.
- Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, M & McDonald, P 2000, ‘Fertility and multiculturalism: Immigrant fertility in Australia, 1977-1991’, International Migration Review, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 215-242.
- Shanklin, E 1998, ‘The profession of the color blind: Sociocultural anthropology and racism in the 21st century’, American Anthropologist, vol. 100, no. 3, pp. 669-679.
- Jackson, J & Weidman, N 2005/2006, ‘The origins of scientific racism’, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 50, pp. 66-79.
- Phillips, T. 1996, ‘Symbolic boundaries and national identity in Australia’, The British Journal of Sociology, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 113-134.
- Harrison, F 1998, ‘Introduction: Expanding the discourse on “race”, American Anthropologist, vol. 100, no. 3, pp. 609-631.