Rebellion comes from revival, and there can be no revival without a rugged area that cleanses pathogens and creates strength. Vultures are the archetypal symbols of this strength; their guts are rugged enough to deal with the infestations of dead meat by parasitical bacteria.
Vultures and other raptors are on the wane because the age-old equilibrium of stable systems is on the wane. The stability implies scavenging and the presence of detritus that is thoroughly cleansed and disinfected.
Strength requires two things to be present: the presence of detritus (dirt), and the presence of rugged cleansing agents like vultures. Detritus is necessary for the cycle of events: past-present-future.
In terms of human culture, I always think comic book continuity is a type of detritus that decays then revives, and that continuity is like a type of bizarre underworld of the psyche.
The strength of comics is in their bizarre continuity - past-present-future. Grant Morrison in Supergods thinks of the comics industry as a type of organic lifeforce, but where there is life there is also decay followed by revival
Comic book continuity establishes an equilibrium of the bizarre underworld psyche. One of the most bizarre was Neal Adams' Deadman (1968), and his first splash page features a trio of aphoristic raptors.
The notion of someone being dead or in the underworld crops up also in Greek comedy. As was noted in PM1, the physical comedy is probably associated with the cerebellum rather than the cerebrum, the former controlling autonomic areas of breath, blood, bodily movements and sight. The obscene or the deathly are equally prevalent.
Our own culture is cerebral to a fault, and perhaps may explains why rebellion is difficult to orchestrate from a mundane system of number with no attachment to desire or personal reaction to events (in the moment.)
The cerebral culture becomes variable in time (machines, ones and zeros), while physical comedy takes place in a moment of time (past-present-future). The progression of events has to implicate the revival from decay and the presence of detritus.
Deadman is somewhat Greek in its dark comedy since the realisation is one can't just pay for a coffee and so forth; one has to go through different procedures. Here, the bizarre Rama Kushna worshipped by the circus fakir.
Adams took over the writing from Jack Miller for a couple of issues, and he clearly enjoyed the comedy to the point of parody!
The cerebellum or hindbrain is much more into the bizarre confusion of life than the cerebrum, since the physical progression from past to present to future is bizarre, in a way. The worm conquers and vultures feast.
It's not that mundane, but it does supply strength to reality. Physical health and therefore the spirit. Leave things be to restore vitality is the refrain - see Buffy quote on dried buffalo manure and campfires HB70.
The problem is that hygiene is a response to a system that's weakened and cannot deal with the pathogens in its midst.
A system in equilibrium has detritus that is dealt with by the cleansing agents such as maggots, vultures, ravens. The bizarre nature of comics is a cultural parallel of that fact.
It is the bizarre psyche of comics continuity that acts to continually revive characters and situations. It's probably the hindbrain at work as opposed to the more conventionally-minded cerebral word-cruncher.
Unfortunately, where there is no past-present-future revival (spirit), words lose their meaning (semantics taking in epistemology), and meaningless acts seem to recur (see PM1, the culture of sameness, the domination of social-media.)
The future as a state of mind (PM3) - words, numbers - has to be countered by the revival of the future from the past. This is the state of the spirit that fosters rebellion.
It comes essentially from the cerebellum and from physical comedy, the bizarre underworld. The meaning of things is quite difficult to appreciate unless one moves from past to future via events in the present (moment of time.)
Aging populations, for example, are imbalanced and a sign of weakness. The only real use for the elderly is really to compost them and restore the fertility of the land. It's because without equilibrium meaning itself ceases to have significance. One has to escape from meaninglessness, and the only way out is through the strength of revival.
