A STRANGE AND TERRIBLE GLIMPSE INTO THE DEEP STATE

VISUP is a website that appears to be single-handedly put together by a semi-anonymous savant going by the name of Recluse. His site is dedicated "to exploring the vast Fortean realms of mind control, deep politics, sacred geometry, onomatology and synchronicity; occult film and music; the supernatural, the extraterrestrial and the multi-dimensional; high weirdness in all its many forms", and it's currently home to an absolutely fascinating series of profound, densely-packed articles about one of Stanley Kubrick's best known movies, Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. 

In the first installment of his series - Dr. Strangelove: A Strange and Terrible Glimpse Into the Deep State - Recluse begins with an extended prolegomena, then explains his goals thusly: 

Hundreds, and likely thousands, of articles and blogs have been written on the esoteric significance of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut. A fair amount are also available on A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. For this present series I would like to address one of Kubrick's most well known films, yet one that is rarely if ever examined in depth by conventional conspiracy theorists: the 1964 "nightmare comedy" Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. That this film, despite being rich in a host of symbolism and allegories, has been widely ignored by mainline conspiracy theorists is hardly surprising for reasons that shall be addressed throughout this series.

Recluse then goes on to tie together everything from "deep history" scholar Caroll Quigley's theories about the Anglo-American Establishment, the "Four Establishment Model of Western Politics", obscure Cold War scrapes and near-misses culled from the deep biographies of Robert MacNamara, McGeorge Bundy, Curtis LeMay and other such super-powered, death-loving lunatics of the Military Industrial Intelligence Complex, with detours taken to California's "muy mysterioso" Laurel Canyon (with hyper-hipster Terry Southern) and Jolly Old England (with the spawn of super-insider John Buchan's loins, Alastair, among other Round Table cohorts), before signing off until the second installment...

Dr. Strangelove: A Strange and Terrible Glimpse Into the Deep State, Part II is, if anything, even deeper and more mind-bending than the first installment in this incredible series. Here, I won't even try to parse out the connections and flow from topic to character to event. Rather, I'll just present them as a dada jumble of alphabet soup for you to digest if and as you will: The Egyptian God Set. Cowboy mythology. Manifest Destiny. The Marquis de Sade. Oedipus. Hecate. The Doomsday Machine. General Curtis LeMay again (perhaps one of the most terrifying figures in Cold War history). General Lyman Lemnitzer of Operation Northwoods infamy (ditto). Nazi rocket-man Werner von Braun (double-ditto). JFK's assassination. The OSS. The CIA. Wild Bill Donovan. The Order of Malta. Herman Kahn. Bay of Pigs. Operation Gladio. Adlai Stevenson. The Council on Foreign Relations. The RAND Corporation. Henry Kissinger. Edward "Father of the Bomb" Teller. Project Paperclip. Google any of the above people, places, groups or events and you'll uncover a multiverse of mid-20th century shenanigans that, when taken together, begin to form a fractal, holographic image of a particular, peculiar moment in historical time. But whatever you do, by all means, read the post!

Which brings us to Dr. Strangelove: A Strange and Terrible Glimpse Into the Deep State, Part III, which, for now, is the latest installment in Recluse's must-read series. After getting a lot of the groundwork laid in the first two installments, here is where we finally get to the meat of the film's main events and plot points. It's here that Recluse examines a number of issues, including Kubrick's repeated use of sexual imagery and metaphors, the functions, history and deep psychology of propaganda, more on mind control, sex magic (bodily fluids, anyone?), the Pentagon/Pentagram symbolism, the All Seeing Eye of Providence, the caste of warrior monks and philosopher kings, and of course, the secret meanings behind all those "kooky" character names (Buck Turgidson, Merkin Muffley, etc).

And so that's where the series currently stands. Personally, I can't wait for Parts IV, V, VI and however many more Recluse has got planned for us in the coming weeks and months.

Now, I'm not saying I agree with every single point that Recluse has made so far. Because Godzilla only knows, he's made one hell of a lot of them. But what I will say is this: If, during the course of Kubrick U's existence, I somehow manage to publish anything that comes close to being as substantial, rigorous and encyclopedic as Recluse's incredible exegesis of Dr Strangelove is, I will be able to wrap things up tight and be satisfied that this blog had somehow served its purpose.

So go read Recluse's posts. Go. Now. Do it.