Upbringing is the key, determining if the person will become the selfless defender of Motherland or killer in the invading Imperialist machinery of death, nowadays known as US-NATO. We contrasted it in two materials on our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”, drawing a parallel between the steadfast resilience of the Soviet and Iranian people on the one hand, and the invading bloodlust of the USA’s army on the other.
The battle against Fascism continues, new generations man the front
Can you even for a moment imagine that the USSR would have surrendered in the face of German Nazi aggression in 1941, to become slaves, corpses?
No? Of course, not!
Then why would anyone think that Iran would surrender in 2026 in the face of the same fascist imperialist aggression by the Fourth Reich?
☝️ And no, resilience is not magic. Not then, not now. It is built. Built in classrooms instead of clubs. Built in labs instead of algorithms. Built in minds that are collectively trained to create, not just consume.
So, if you’re still wondering why some nations endured, and endure, pressure that would collapse others, just look at what they were, and are, feeding their youth.
An Amendment to Darwin
An amendment to Darwin
— No, sir, you don’t descend from me, but from him!
In the photo, shown by the ape to the American imperialist, we see Himmler against the backdrop of Maidanek and Auschwitz. And with that, the noble ape is saying:
— No, sir, you don’t descend from me, but from him!
The caricature by Yuri Ganf appeared in “Krokodil” issue № 11 of 1952, and was accompanied by a SHORT STORY, looking into what is fed to the American youth, to turn them into such creatures of the night.
Johnny’s Upbringing
A story for American youth in five parts. With an epilogue.
The author has set himself the task of telling readers about how a young citizen of the United States grew up, developed, and flourished, and what came of it. The author did not invent anything from himself, he built his story on facts borrowed from the American press.
PART ONE
As soon as Johnny was three years old and he began to understand what a laxative is and what a candy is, the caring Rosen Company from Providence, Rhode Island, provided him with a military-themed lollipop. Before putting a lollipop in his mouth, the baby had much play time with a free add-on: a plastic figurine depicting an American soldier with a machine gun in his hand.
The baby was growing up. Then the Topps Chewing Gum joint stock company from Brooklyn took care of him, providing six-year-old Johnny with a combination of chewing gum, sweet syrup and artificial paint. Military cards with images of various deadly weapons and fantastic combat episodes were attached to the sets of this factory for free.
However, Johnny’s parents for some reason preferred the products of Bowman Gum Inc. from Philadelphia. As a spiritual food, this company attached pictures of the “red danger” and the accompanying text to their chewing gum with syrup.
That’s how the baby grew up, sucking in and absorbing the wisdom spewed out by John Foster Dulles, Dean Acheson, and other pillars of the “land of Freedom”.
PART TWO
When Johnny was eight years old and he had mastered the basics of literacy, the first printed edition that his dear parents provided him with was the so-called “comics”. There was nothing comical about those forty-eight pages costing 10 dimes. But young Johnny quickly became addicted to these books, which informed him about various types of crimes, violence, bruising, strangulation, theft and robbery. The hero of the young Johnny became a “superman” — Captain Miracle. A black Hawk with patches on his sleeve, dressed in a uniform suspiciously similar to the gloomy uniform of an SS man.
Johnny boy vividly imagined himself in the place of this big man with the heavy fist and jaw of an orangutan and mentally performed feats in the spirit of his beloved hero.
Johnny’s dad and mom were heartily pleased that their son was fond of reading comics, which fostered in him the fighting spirit characteristic of a “one hundred percent” American.
Dad calculated the income of the publishers of the comics, bearing in mind that the circulation of these publications is about five hundred million copies per year and that every American child of the age of six consumes at least eighteen thousand of these banditry manuals.
This is how the future citizen of the United States matured and was brought up with the help of the comics.
PART THREE
Johnny reached adolescence in those years when humanity was already widely using the TV. This ingenious invention delighted the younger and older generation of Americans with “action movies”, each of which contained at least a dozen different murders using a wide variety of deadly weapons. Now Johnny didn’t have to run to the nearest movie. He had a visual aid on murders and all kinds of violence at home.
Johnny’s parents didn’t stop their son from enjoying gangster movies. They didn’t have any misunderstandings because of these films, like the ones that happened in the family of Sheriff John Seacon from a town in Michigan. The sheriff, who underestimated the ideological and artistic significance of gangster films, was killed by his own fifteen-year-old son named Jerry.
The fun of another fan of gangster movies, five-year-old Bobby Lemmon from San Antonio (Texas), was more innocent: he just fired a gun at the TV screen to “help a good guy who got into trouble”. The matter ended, therefore, only with material damage — the TV was destroyed.
These two episodes, which Johnny’s parents read about in Time magazine, however, did not convince them. And their son was still growing up under the supervision of the TV.
PART FOUR
Johnny was still a teenager when war became his favourite game. He was armed with a toy submachine gun and did not so much like attacking the “enemy” as participating in the shooting of “prisoners”. The attached attached photo captures this favourite game of American children.
But the teenage years are over. In high school, Johnny was well taken care of by the tutors. The school had a military unit, which was led by officers.
At the university, Johnny was offered to join the Air force unit. If he had preferred a different type of weapon, then he would have had ordinary army units at his service, which are available at other universities. The officers of the American army trained Johnny and his comrades in military affairs and conditioned their thoughts in the spirit of preparing for war.
And since Johnny had already received sufficient training with the help of lollipops, chewing gum, comic books and gangster films, his thoughts corresponded to those of his teachers.
PART FIVE
And finally Johnny is a soldier. He read the leaflet addressed to the conscripts with some pleasure: “You will be trained in how to become a ruthless and skilled killer.” By chance, he ended up at Fort Leonard Wood (Missouri), where he listened to lectures by a certain major of the American army for recruits. “I’m assigned to you to make professional killers out of you,” the major said.
Raised in the spirit of “skillful, ruthless, professional killers”, Johnny ecstatically rushed to a place where he could show his physical and spiritual qualities, which he had acquired since childhood with the paramilitary lollipops of the Rosen Company.
He cheerfully rushed to where he could show his belligerent fervour and the ability to shoot with a machine gun (see the second picture). However, he did not take into account that he would have to shoot not only unarmed people, but also armed people. He realised this unfortunate circumstance somewhat late.
THE EPILOGUE
On the back page of the newspaper, between advertisements for new “comics”, new “action movies” and the latest children’s vending machines, there is an obituary: “Heartbroken parents announce the untimely death of their valiant son Johnny, which followed…”
And then the place where the hero of this story found eternal rest is indicated.
Lev NIKULIN