Almost Anthem

Now!

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My Mind Wanders

Dystopia Now

The other night, the velomiwidow decided we would watch the 1987 movie The Running Man.  As I watched, I noticed two things.  

First, the movie was not good, even for the 1980s.  The plot, dialog, and acting, were all much worse than I remembered.  Even if you assumed the movie was purely tongue and cheek, it was bad.  Seriously, who thought casting the Governator, the Governator Wannabe (Jesse Ventura), Jim Brown, Mick Fleetwood, and Dweezil Zappa was a good idea.  The only bright spot was Richard Dawson who parodied his long running (and somewhat lecherous) role as the host of Family Feud.

Second, despite the cornball plot and dialog, the movie was… well… prescient.  As I look around the world today, the film accurately predicted economic downturns, the increasingly large gap between the wealthy and the poor, and societal obsessions with Reality (i.e., Freakshow) TV.  Spend some time watching Sister Wives, Dance Moms, Cheaters, Jersey Shore, The Real Housewives of…, or anything with a Kardashian.  I predict that you will not have a single intelligent thought for hours, even days, afterwords.  I wonder what Marx would have said if he had access to Reality TV.

Reality-TV ist das Opium des Volkes?

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Matthew M

Dystopia Now

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Almost Anthem

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Ecstasy!

My Mind Wanders

Dystopia Now

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