13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.
14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.
Spoilers Ahead maybe: I try not to ruin either show. Don’t bother with the last episode of The Last of Us, I am sure you get it. Pop Squad is so good, you will want to see it anyway.
The final episode of The Last of Us was recently praised as a “Pro-life masterpiece” by National Review writer, Luther Ray Abel. It isn’t. Article here.
The better Pro-life yarn is the animated episode “Pop Squad” in Netflix’s Love, Death, and Robots. It is beautiful and brutal and don’t let young ones watch it
But first, the stink-bomb Abel praised as a masterpiece; it is not a masterpiece if the makers didn’t intend to “master” the theme.
A pro-life theme is there, yes, just as there is an anti-speeding message in The Fast and Furious franchise. The Last of Us writers certainly did not mean to be “pro-life.” The hero, Joel, saves a child’s life because he loves her like a daughter: Would he save her life if he did not? In earlier episodes, he shows us sufficient amorality to doubt he would.
Joel committed himself to deliver Ellie to Colorado. Once there, Ellie could help save humanity because she is immune to the zombie fungus that ruined the world. The problem is that the organization Joel to which delivered her must kill her to do so. Joel gets angry and after about a 1,000 rounds saves Ellie (the efficacy of shot-guns in urban settings is lost on the future).
But Joel did not save Ellie on principle, he saved her because he loved her. Children who are wanted get to live.
“Pop Squad” is the deliberate masterpiece. Based on a short story by science fiction writer, Paolo Bacigalupi it is, of course, better than the short film in all ways except one: Redemption.
The story is set in a future New York where the best place to live is above the clouds in giant skyscrapers. The streets below are largely abandoned to the poorest people, the criminals, the encroaching wildlife and vegetation. The lower levels are also where the mothers try to hide. Mothering and fathering is outlawed and children are summarily murdered.
They are murdered because humanity has found a therapy to remain young, essentially immortal. And if humanity is immortal, it needs no more humans. In fact, new humans are only a stress on already scarce resources. Population squads (Pop) enforce these laws. Birth control is provided in the rejuvenation therapy; you are automatically barren. To stop means you will age and die, but you can make babies.
The protagonist cop is over 100 years old and has killed hundreds of children. These traumas catch up with him one evening when attending a concert his girlfriend has spent 20 years perfecting. Society is bent on utter pleasure and the refinement of beauty beyond its creator’s intent; ever sharpening the point of a crayon they could never create. What is art without mortality?
The cop cannot take his mind off the little children he recently “popped” and later follows a young woman who he thinks might be a mother. He wants to ask her why she does it. Why would she choose exile, mortality, squalor, screams and poopy diapers over a clean and immortal life?
The layers of metaphor in this film are a rare treat. Indeed, the labors of parenting are off-putting and incomprehensible to the childless, especially those who chose that life and were not inhibited from it. Why do we chose the self-sacrifice: all the money, the time, our health, our looks? Why do we give up the potential for boundless hedonistic pleasures?
The answers are myriad and primordial, sublime and inexplicable.
The ending of the episode is very different than the short story, which ends with indifference. In the film, the Pop cop becomes a true Pop of sorts, standing for something. In the last moments he looks up into the rain and greenery of encroaching nature and in that instant seems to know he is home and a father to something other than death.
But that cop didn’t have anything on us.
Watch Pop Squad this weekend.
Vale!
One of the sadder things to watch over my life has been how the pro-choice position has moved away from when human life becomes worthy of protection. Now, at least in academia, they openly admit that even if the fetus had the full cognitive abilities of a Beethoven, his mother could choose to end his life at any time or, at best, remove him from her body and leave him to die on his own.
It sounds like the show really captures this loss of humanity. Thanks for bringing some attention to this. I’ll be sure to watch it.