Mark of the Debit Card

I finally had the misfortune to see one of Mark IV's quartet of 'end times' themed films.  Made between 1972 and 1983, these crudely made religious movies have proven popular with certain Christian denominations in the US.  The one I caught was the second, A Distant Thunder (1978), which followed the first, A Thief in the Night (1972) after a gap of six years, with the continuing cast members looking correspondingly older but, sadly, no better actors.  This one follows the heroine of the first film, Patty (played by Patty Dunning - most of the main cast seem to play characters with the same first name as their own), and her friends in trying to deal with the aftermath of 'The Rapture'.  With all the devoted Christians - including Patty's grandmother and their husbands - having ascended to heaven, the US starts to slide into chaos as the Book of Revelations is enacted.  In the makers' warped version of Christianity, converting after the event won't help: anyone who couldn't be bothered to accept Jesus into their lives and unquestioningly follow the tenets of some cracked fundamentalist theology has to suffer as Armageddon looms.  'But what about God as love?' asks Patty of her silver haired granny in a flashback.  Apparently, according to grandma, that only applies before 'The Rapture' and to people who give over their lives to Kick Ass 'Take-No-Prisoners' Christ and his war on any rival belief system.  Being secular, showing tolerance to the beliefs of others or merely mildly questioning the scriptures will get you condemned - first on earth during the 'End Times', then eternally in Hell.

The world view of these people is truly terrifying, rejecting out of hand science, reason and even compassion if it conflicts with their own narrow belief system.  Even more scarily, though, is the fact that these beliefs seem to persist: A Distant Thunder lays out many of the fundamentals of the current conspiracy fantasies that seem to grip so many idiots.  There's the whole 'World Government' created via the UN and trying to control our lives on the pretext of saving us - post 'Rapture' the United Nations Imperium of Total Emergency (UNITE) is created to govern the world during the emergency, restricting free movement and rationing food, fuel and access to vital services.  If you don't comply with UNITE's edicts, you get rounded up by their armed paramilitary and taken away.  Sound familiar?  Then there's 'The Mark of the Beast' - if you don't agree to be stamped with it, you lose your access to food and services.  Going back to Patty's grandma - the old codger makes an analogy between the mark and having to use a credit card instead of cash to buy things - both are a form of control.  Another familiar refrain - only yesterday I saw on Twitter all the usual nutters fawning over Piers Corbyn, (a crackpot of such magnitude that he makes his brother, the cult leader Jeremy Corbyn, look sane and reasonable), for his 'defiance' of attempts by 'them' to impose the 'cashless' society by paying with cash at a card payment only supermarket.  All the same nonsense about 'state surveillance' and the like were trotted out, (I'm pretty sure that neither MI5, GCHQ, the CIA or the WEF have any interest at all in the fact that I bought some yoghurt at Lidl yesterday and paid with a card).  The 'cashless' society is the modern 'Mark of the Beast' and the WEF the new UNITE, it seems - and social media is the new Mark IV productions, spreading and sustaining this nonsense.