https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/06/karen-kwiatkowski/what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-communicate/

What We Have Here Is a Failure To Communicate

By Karen Kwiatkowski

When the warden doesn’t like the way the Paul Newman character talks to him, he beats him, then proceeds to project his own weakness and insecurity in the famous ‘failure to communicate” speech. Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 anthem to the resistance of prisoners to the moral inferiors who hold near complete power over their lives.

Americans today are living this movie – we are prisoners and Washington, DC is “led” by a lecturing “Captain” and, behind him, the men with no eyes. It’s not just Tom Woods’ Rule #3, that “no matter who you vote for, you always get John McCain.” It’s that the US empire has a new down-home warden telling the story, backed by tall men in mirrored sunglasses who monitor obedience and create constant fear, at home and abroad. That’s the plot, anyway.

Instead of the anti-establishment films of the 60s and 70s like Cool Hand Luke and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, we have slick propaganda films like Top Gun: Maverick. The latter generated Western expectation and applause for exactly what happened on June 22, an unlawful, unwarranted, and extremely destabilizing attack on the nuclear energy capabilities of a country simply because of “our ally.” Mike Benz gives a great summary of the movie plot, and how it worked to suppress criticism and generate Pavlovian applause on a national scale. ......