The Return… of the Man Who Stole a Leopard

November 15, 2023July 31, 2025 / Tigereye / Leave a comment

The Return… of the Man Who Stole a Leopard

The Banality of Evil: A Fairy Story

Photo of a snow leopard crouching to pounce in green grass.

“Snow Leopard” by Captain Chickenpants is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

No-no-Notorious
Notorious
I can’t read about it
Burns the skin from your eyes
I’ll do fine without it
Here’s one you don’t compromise
Lies come hard in disguise
They need to fight it out
Not wild about it
Lay your seedy judgements
Who says they’re part of our lives?

You own the money
You control the witness
I’ll leave you lonely
Don’t monkey with my business
You pay the prophets to justify your reasons
I heard your promise, but I don’t believe it.

That’s why I’ve done it again.

No-no-Notorious

Why such a strong start? Well, some of us have to cope with challenges to reality with art.

*******

Skin Trade, Photo by cottonbro studio

It all started with a handshake between “good-looking” White Men … “the successful business merger.” Now, Leopard is Invisible because of it.

“Some joke, huh,” Leopard thinks. “We’ll see who gets the last laugh. Karma’s a bigger bitch than I am,” she thought. She did wonder, though, “How will I survive in the Wild while The Beasts keep me caged? How’d it happen anyway? How did I get here? Why does it keep happening? What can I do to stop it?”

It began one afternoon as Captain Chickenpants entered the meeting room late, disorganized, and disheveled, his usual MO. He had no good reason for his usual state; it’s not like he had a family, like Leopard who was successfully managing his affairs and the business of this great state we call the land of…well, Rumor has that one under lock and key.

Nevertheless, this literal rock star rolled into the meeting well after it started, expecting everyone to just drop everything for him. Captain Chickenpants was very used to people catering to him as a local celebrity.

As Chickenpants entered the meeting room, Chief Damntheman looked him in the eyes, gave him The Shake, and proceeded to make a motion to move the monies from Leopard’s protective watch to his wife’s careful guard, a clear conflict of interest that Leopard raised during the meeting only to be met with viscous disapproval.

Chief Damntheman’s wife was known as The Wicked Witch by Leopard – a name given to her by Leopard after she revealed her true colors, mind you. Before that, she gained Leopard’s trust. She was the “steward” of “higher” education, after all – another tough Texan with a background in psychology and education. So what could go wrong? She was ethical and trustworthy, right? I mean, you have to be to work in the field, right? Right?!

It was unfathomable to Leopard that the Wicked Witch could be anything but trustworthy due to her professional background, and being trained in the same discipline herself, Leopard gave the Wicked Witch the benefit of the doubt, at first. But later, her sinister plans were revealed.

“Leopard doesn’t know shit anyway,” Damntheman recalled as he thought of her quick wit and wild ways, even though he knew that she had been “tamed,” so to speak. Mind you, anything that anyone else did the same as Leopard was given a free pass, but Leopard? Nah, anything she does is wrong, bad, evil! (They say this so They can steal and copy Leopard – pretend she’s “crazy” to jack her shit. This is gaslighting at its finest.)

Damntheman was of the “respectability politics” camp and They always knew that Leopard didn’t belong, but she’d sure bust her ass for you and she happens to know her shit like fire, so why not use her ’till she’s dried up and then throw her to the wolves?

Hungry Like the Wolf | Photo by Steve

Damntheman owns many businesses throughout the state – from medical to commercial properties – and has his tentacles in both the public and private sectors, in addition to being a real estate broker and politico. The guy’s a regular empire builder and he’s embedded everywhere – well known and loved by both sides of the political spectrum, but known to be a double-crosser and liar of the deep state variety.

So when Damntheman thought just how “easy” Leopard would be to jack to himself, Captain Chickenpants responded silently in kind during the meeting. “Roger that,” he said to Damntheman in his creepy-assed telepathic mind as they met eyes.

Never mind that “the successful business merger” was a clear conflict of interest. Damntheman was married to the Wicked Witch, who worked in a key position for the Queen of Old Hexico.

“There’s nothing to see here,” They acted as they whistled in the wind.

Leopard knew there was a problem and it was her duty to report it so when Leopard felt safe, she told the Powers that Be and she gave it up to God, as they say. Naturally, “They” came for her when she did that and They came for her again when she tried to rectify the situation, yet again, and again, and again, and again, ad infinitum. And here she remains to this day, entrapped.

Who are They anyway? They know a lot, don’t They? They do, whomever They are (usually public relations snakes and politicians).

The Union of the Snake | Photo by Donald Tong

Leopard knew what happened wasn’t ethical and it wasn’t Right, but it was a done deal. Leopard always knew there was no justice in this world, so she wasn’t surprised. She expected it. After They ultimately took her charge away from her and the rest of the pride, she carried on with the rest of her life in the absence of any Pride due to Their abuse. They handed her contract to the Opposition – a collective of animals who were originally on her side and under her charge free from the constraints of bullshit, but Damntheman and The Wicked Witch coaxed the Others onto their side; They came for Leopard with all of Their Might over what was Right – and animals they were. They tore her to shreds and locked her up in a gilded cage.

Leopard tried to lick her wounds and limp along in captivity but Captain Chickenpants and Chief Damntheman would not leave her alone. They would not let her out of her trap, nor let the beatings subside! ”Leopard knows too much,” They thought silently to themselves. “And Leopard talks. That bitch has a way with words. We must annihilate her!” “They” were scared, so They determined to Rule with an Iron Fist, and they beat Leopard some more, and then again and again and again. Just as Leopard would heal from one round of wounds, They would be ready to dole out more, never once letting her recover from any round of beatings as a form of psychological warfare.

“If we can’t kill her literally, we’ll just do it slowly over time and maybe Leopard will do the work for us, if you know what I mean…” thought Damntheman.

“I do,” thought Captain Chickenpants.

“They didn’t think to buy me off with a legal settlement and NDA?” Leopard wondered throughout the beatings. “They were actually going to blackmail me instead? Frame me? Entrap me? I guess since I’m not already wealthy and powerful, a settlement isn’t an option for folks like us. We just get crushed. Ok! (not really).”

“What a ‘manly’ reaction,” Leopard thought. “How does this help anyone, such as the other animals who I worked so hard to protect? It hurts, and it hurts ME MOST!” she thought as her wounds oozed with infection. “Why fight the good fight?” she now wonders. “Do good when no one is looking. Karma is a bitch.” Leopard finds solace in those words.

Hell, it was an easy move to make. The structure of Leopard’s trap wasn’t a fair one, but Leopard tried to make it so. She knew that the ever-connected Damntheman had traps set everywhere. Despite this, she tried to give freedom to all animals on earth. Leopard managed to do this with equality and fairness until she had to tend to her own private needs. Therefore, when Leopard was pregnant with her first cub and again with her second, They came for her. The merger happened just as she birthed her first child. Leopard was in no position to battle as she once was, but this new soldier will fight with fire and so will her brother, the Wolf.

A View to a Kill | Photo by Darshak Pandya

Leopard was, and still is, a hard working, trusting, and well-meaning sort of Leopard, so inside of her cage she remains to this day, a victim of entrapment. The beatings still occur when the heavens flare up (such as when the sun or moon are in Scorpio). It’s like They know when it happens with their sixth senses, so they strike at that time to keep Leopard in her place, tightly held in her prison.

Naturally, evil enters the hearts of the weak and the faint, so everyone in the wild fell pray to what transpired. They didn’t resist it. They didn’t fight it, as they once had. They didn’t even know what was Good anymore. All they saw was profit by partnering with Damntheman and Chickenpants – CYA. They saved their own asses. They compromised their standards for selfishness and profit, for greed…

Now just remember, there’s always a backstory, and there’s more to this one.

What happened to Leopard sounds a lot like the plot to Animal Farm by George Orwell, the prophet. Every person who can read in the United States has *hopefully* read Animal Farm. It used to be required reading and should still be required in areas where it is not. You can read it now. There’s nothing stopping you, and of course you should also read Nineteen Eighty-Four by the same soothsayer and generally awaken your mind so you don’t fall pray to anyone.

Orwell’s recurrent themes center on the banality of evil in the form of human corruption within institutions and systems. In particular, he was obsessed with the rejection of totalitarianism and his contemporaries for their failure to protest against the corrupt world they lived in and well, we might have a case of that here. You see, the animals rose against Leopard because “They” dangled red meat before them in the form of Leopard’s contract – cash and power. Rather than side with Right as they had always done against these long assaults from the Forces – who were trying to take down Leopard for two decades – they took the side of Might.

The move to take Leopard’s charge was made fully during a worldwide plandemic of Biblical proportions. The Forces put the nail in Leopard’s coffin when the world was weak this time, as Evil does – They struck when everyone was down, not just Leopard. The other animals were made to turn against Leopard, based on lies spread by The Wicked Witch, Damntheman, and Chickenpants. Had they any shred of integrity or wisdom themselves, they would not have fallen for such lies, but they were promised a major cash reward for going along with the plan.

Leopard knew that old MO. It was the same red meat that Damtheman dangled before Leopard after she had her first cub. Damntheman promised to secure the monies for Leopard unprovoked. Leopard never asked for unfair advantage. It was quite the opposite – Leopard believes in merit, not collusion.

“It helps to have an ace in the hole,” Damntheman told Leopard as he illegally awarded the contract to Leopard’s agency.

“But I never asked for this…this is wrong,” thought Leopard. Leopard had no one to tell. Her board was in on the fix. So was the Queen.

Therefore, when the winds of change blew the other direction and The Forces decided that Leopard was too independent and objective – truly mission-based, in other words, They decided it was time to strike, as she had outlived her usefulness and must be “put to pasture…permanently…and silenced,” They thought.

“Yes, Leopard knows too much…and the bitch remembers, too,” Damntheman thought and he conveyed his orders to eliminate Leopard to Captain Chickenpants.

“Roger that” Captain Chickenpants thought in his creepy-assed telepathic mind.

But don’t worry, because time will tell the story and so will this author – in other words, in other worlds…

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

– Animal Farm, George Orwell

Still Breathing | Photo by Samira

A wild animal can turn into a corrupt, “domesticated” Human, as in Animal Farm. It can turn against the Good it had in nature before it became something Other, that which is tapped into the Bad. It’s social Darwinism. So why be Human, then, in a world with no Mercy?

No matter what you call it, a pig is still a pig. Go ahead – put lipstick on it. It is what it is. You’re not gonna change it. And in that sense, being piggish is exactly what this fairy tale is about.
(Breaks down the 4th Wall to the 5th Dimension)

Are you trapped on Manor Farm, too? Or are you entrapped, like Leopard?

Would you rather live with the animals who are wild and free, as Leopard once was?

You decide. These are social constructs of your own device.

To “Serve” Man?

November 22, 2022 / Tigereye / Leave a comment

To “Serve” Man?

We Come in Peace?

Today, quite by accident, we rewatched an episode of the Twilight Zone called To Serve Man. We’ve been rewatching the series with our children in order to teach them well, and we’ve been viewing the episodes in order. Today, this episode was up. We make a point of rewatching the show every few years to keep its themes fresh in our mind, lest we forget its important lessons. So it was quite the coincidence indeed, given that Thanksgiving is in just a few days and the episode centers around colonization and the evolution of humans, or de-evolution more appropriately. This theme comes up time again in The Twilight Zone and in Rod Serling’s other work, like Planet of the Apes. There are some powerful lessons to be learned there, if you care to listen.

In short, To Serve Man is about colonists who are similar to Christopher Columbus traveling to The New World. In this case, aliens from another sphere travel to a new world, which is Planet Earth. The episode is a classic, known as one of the greatest episodes in television history due to its incredible plot twist and equally powerful message.

Almost everyone on Planet Earth has seen it. If you recall watching it for the first time, you’ll remember feeling your heart drop when you realize that the book, To Serve Man, which was delivered to the humans of earth by aliens called Kanamits, is not what it appears to be at all. In fact, the book ends up being a cookbook with recipes on how to serve man as a dish and not as a public servant since “To Serve Man” can be interpreted in a number of ways.

The Kanamits land on earth with the book in hand and leave it behind after meeting with world leaders to share news of how they come in peace. The earthlings find it and are perplexed by it. The title and text are written in the Kanamit’s language, so cryptologists work to decipher the title, To Serve Man. The humans think the aliens have arrived to help them as public servants just as they said they would, but a few people remain skeptical.

Over time, the Kanamits gain the earthlings’ trust. They offer the humans state-of-the-art technology. They promise to heal the world with their techne and create a regular Garden of Eden on earth. As it turns out, they are lying to the the humans but the people of earth are unaware until it’s too late and their literal goose is cooked. You see, “To Serve Man” can also be taken quite literally, as in serving man as a dish to eat. The Kanamits successfully trick the humans into visiting their home planet where they are well fed and then served as a meal. It’s a brilliant play on words that tricks the humans into their utter demise.

The story is a familiar one unfortunately, much like the history of colonists who came to the Americas with new technology and an empty promise to help the native peoples with it. Indeed, the colonists poisoned the native people during the harvest celebration known as “Thanksgiving.” Talk about kismet in terms of timing. That happens to us a lot.

When the Kanamits first land on earth, the humans are initially skeptical of them and they charge the US military with the task of deciphering the text to determine whether they are friend or foe. Humans from around the world work through the United Nations to understand these alien creatures and they use their own technology to analyze the Kanamits. The humans even give a lie detector test to the Kanamit’s leader, who passes with flying colors.

Never do the humans imagine that they might be anthropomorphizing the Kanamits. No, they don’t question it. Over time, the humans come to trust Kanamits and even agree to visit their planet. In exchange, the Kanamits bring more of their kind to Planet Earth, but the humans never return. Instead, they are imprisoned on the Kanamit’s home planet after being duped to travel there.

Michael Chambers, lead cryptologist and protagonist, is tricked into traveling to the Kanamit’s alien planet before he learns about their true intentions. Chambers is warned by his assistant that the aliens are actually lethal when she deciphers the text and learns the real meaning of “To Serve Man.” Chambers realizes that evolution never changes – whether human or alien – as he worriedly waits to be served as a meal in a prison cell on the alien’s home planet.

No matter how technologically advanced a race may be – whether human or alien – base desires remain. Greed remains. Deceit remains. There will always be the drive to trick, hunt, and conquer in the desperate quest for survival – if one has no morals.

We couldn’t have rewatched this episode at a better time. Coincidences like this always happen to us with the Twilight Zone. Make of that what you will. We’ve decided to write about it in the hope that the message isn’t lost on the world.

Below is a case in point. We last blogged about To Serve Man on March 30, 2021 and it originally aired on March 2, 1962. At the time, we felt it was kismet, too. We just happened to be rewatching this episode then. What a coincidence. Perhaps something is in the ether, some sort of universal truth on which we’re picking up.

That blog post follows, with slight revisions. It’s an analysis of the episode on a much deeper level, as if it couldn’t get any deeper.

Original Post

The Beginning

🎶 [Cue spooky music] 🎶

You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of the imagination. Next stop, The Twilight Zone! 💫

Opening Narration

Respectfully submitted for your perusal – a Kanamit
Height: a little over nine feet.
Weight: in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty pounds.
Origin: unknown.
Motives?
Therein hangs the tale, for in just a moment, we’re going to ask you to shake hands, figuratively, with a Christopher Columbus from another galaxy and another time. This is the Twilight Zone. 💫

Plot Summary & Analysis

At a United Nations news conference, the Secretary General announces the landing of aliens on earth. An alien known as a “Kanamit” communicates by telepathy to the delegates and journalists. The alien ambassador says its kind will provide humanitarian aid through technology to all peoples of the world if only the people of earth would TRUST them. They promise to end famine and war. They say they will help the earthlings with endless, inexpensive atomic power to meet the world’s needs. They promise a regular Garden of Eden.

The Kanamit, who may also be known as a Candidate (if you listen to the subliminal message very carefully, you’ll hear the resemblance in words), leaves a book called To Serve Man (in Kanamit) behind as it silently exits the press conference without further telepathic comment. Yes, the Kanamits communicate with their minds and do not speak words.

The US assigns a cryptographer to decipher the title. Surely, if earthlings can determine the alien creature’s motives, then they can learn whether to trust them and return to the land of milk and honey only dreamed of in fantasies and Bible stories.

The reluctant and suspicious US team cracks the title of the mysterious book, “To Serve Man.” It seems positive to them, as they ponder the Candidate’s intentions. They believe the Kanamits to some degree now, some more so than others. Over time, they learn to embrace the Kanamits. They set their reservation aside. The leader of the Kanamits even submits to a polygraph test at the request of UN delegates, so trust in the Kanamits is cemented.

The aliens end world hunger and warfare. They provide an abundance of energy. It’s too good to be true. It is important to the Kanamits that the innocent earthlings be willing participants in their own conquest. Eventually, the Kanamits succeed in establishing embassies in EVERY CITY ON EARTH and the humans willingly let them do it.

Now that the basic needs of earth are met, the humans are ready for an adventure. The Kanamits subsequently begin to caravan the willing and curious earthlings by spacecraft to their home planet for a “vacation” in what they claim to be their own Garden of Eden, a land of milk and honey.

Just as the lead cryptologist is boarding their spaceship for a visit, his assistant lets him know that SHE (an important plot point) deciphered the remaining text!

The code breaker then explains the mysterious book’s meaning to her lost comrade as the alien spaceship scoops him away to his fate on the Kanamit’s home planet just before he can break free. He is trapped. They got him. By then, it’s too late as he’s forced into the spaceship against his will. While living in prison on the alien planet, the cryptologist resists cooperating with the Kanamits.

The Kanamit who duped him mocks the imprisoned American while attempting to fatten its prey, and he refuses to eat in protest. His rage is palpable – his despair relatable – and in time he breaks down. The imprisoned cryptologist finally ends his long-term fast in despair and enters a state of hopelessness. At long last, our fallen hero succumbs to his fate and eats his own kind as a broken man, out of surrender. What will be … will be? You see, the Kanamits fed the humans each other to eat. What a metaphor.

As the episode concludes, the cryptologist breaks what is known as the 4^th Wall in performance. It’s the invisible, imaginary barrier that separates actors from the audience. It’s a wall rarely broken and when it is the effect is powerful if used correctly. And the protagonist, Michael Chambers, asks the audience:

How about you? You still on Earth, or on the ship with me? Really doesn’t make very much difference, because sooner or later, we’ll all of us be on the menu… all of us.

Closing Narration

The recollections of one Michael Chambers, with appropriate flashbacks and soliloquy. Or, more simply stated, the evolution of man. The cycle of going from dust to dessert. The metamorphosis from being the ruler of a planet to an ingredient in someone’s soup. It’s tonight’s bill of fare from the Twilight Zone. 💫

Conclusion

Mr. Serling begs the viewer to consider the fall of man, from perfection to powerlessness. He demonstrates the cycle of life and the evolution of man – from ashes to ashes, funk to funky. We know Major Tom’s a junkie alright. Just look at the Kanamits. The earthlings receive no real service from the Kanamits, or Candidates as you’ll recall, much like elected candidates and politicians on Planet Earth who cannibalize the public. “Kanamit” and “cannibal” sound similar as well, and that is likely no accident either. The allegory is powerful.

Patty, the assistant to Mr. Chambers – a woman – seems to be the real hero of this tale, but she ran out of time to save the world with her Knowledge. She cracked the code, but no one would listen to her until it was too late. She always had doubt in her mind about the Kanamits, but she was dismissed. Patty eventually played along and even scheduled a trip to visit the alien planet, but she persisted in her quest to crack the code nevertheless. She trusted her intuition but no one trusted her. They trusted the Kanamits instead.

In the Old Testament, Eve’s desire for Knowledge supposedly causes the Fall of Man from his Garden of Eden fantasy. In this story, the female’s insatiable quest for Knowledge would actually save the day and thereby vindicates all Women. Patty would have been the heroine of this tale if only her instincts had been trusted by Man. However, the tragic cycle of history repeats because a woman speaks but is not heard. Her reservations are ignored and her instincts brushed off. If only the cryptologist had listened to his assistant sooner, they could have saved the world together. Instead, Patty served man. She loyally served her boss and didn’t push him too hard. She deferred her intuition to him. In so doing, the two served no one at all. Instead, they led people to slaughter.

Perhaps women could learn an important lesson from this, too. Serving “Man” helps no one when Man’s motives are impure and they almost always are. Men have been ruling the world for centuries and the net gain to humanity is almost nil.

Trust your instincts above all else and keep your morals about you. The desperate quest for life doesn’t have to come a the expense of someone else’s.