Television is a goddamned amusement park! [Network]

The following clip is from the excellent movie Network:

Will the New Iron Man movie Peddle or Decry the War Machine?

As propaganda is our bread and butter here, I just saw the trailer for the Iron Man movie, and was dismayed to see few arguments against the Military-Industrial complex within it. I haven’t seen the movie, but according to the book “Comic Book Nation” :

The most political of Marvel’s superheroes was Iron Man, a hero literally forged on the battlefields of Vietnam. In his first act as a superhero, he demolishes a Viet Cong military base and overthrows a sadistic Communist warlord. As Tony Stark, he serves a vital function in America’s military-industrial complex, both as a weapons inventor and a defense contractor. As Iron Man, he foils Communist agents and battles Soviet supervillains in symbolic Cold War contests of power and will….. The Iron Man series showed the extent to which Marvel endorsed Cold War assumptions. There was little room for dissent. As Iron Man once asserted, “No one has the right to defy the wishes of his government! Not even Iron Man!”

Now replace Vietnam with Afghanistan, Communist/Soviet with Terrorist, and Cold War with War on Terror and suddenly the film may be updated to modern times while pushing the same agenda.

In fairness, the comic did take a turn and begin to question the initial premises during the early seventies and the film may take a similar approach. Yet taking a peek at the trailer below, especially Iron Man flying “majestically” alongside high-tech products of the war industry, it doesn’t bode well that the film will be a critique of the Military-Industrial Complex. For that, I recommend Lord of War, Why We Fight (documentary) .

Robert Downey Jr. is one of my favourite actors who usually picks interesting roles, and it’d be a shame if he’s compromised himself to land the big paycheck.

Here’s Eisenhower’s warning on the Military Industrial Complex:

Here’s the Iron Man Trailer:

Technologically Advanced, Socially Fucked

When we talk of peace
We talk about war.
When we write about peace
We inevitably write about war.
When we dream of peace
We still see war.
Which reality do we believe
Which reality do we manifest.
Resolve the war within in our minds
Until then we shall not know peace.

The images we see
Do they reflect the world we live in ?
Images bombard us day and night
of strife, violence, hunger and poverty

where is the joy?
Where is the love?
Where is peace?

We stand alone
We forget community
We struggle alone
We get confused by the messages
delivered to us through different forms
of technology.

Television, computers, messengers
and e-mails, texting and cel phones.
Have we lost our way of communicating
to one another ?

We fear the strangers.
They have now become the new demon.
No longer the ones we read
from the many books that have been written
so long ago.
Still passed on to instill a new fear.
Fear of one another.

Trust only a higher power
Not the power within’
What is this “ higher power”?
Have we lost touch
with our inner selves.

Are we so out of touch
that we have lost faith in humanity
Faith in ourselves
Stop and listen

Silence..

The noise of technology
drowns out the song in our soul.

Express your true voice
Find your own voice
Music,art,writing
Find your individuality
create a new self
Not what a 30 second spot
magazines or even Oprah
define who you are.

Turn off the television
Tune out even this blog
Make your own choices
We need no more sheep.
We need more individuals.
We need more love
which has many new faces.

How To (or 10 Ways) to Waste Time Reading Productivity Blogs

1. Feel the shame of not implementing the brilliant systems you stumbled upon
2. Verb the noun into success, money and/or happiness.
3. Read 10 productivity blogs saying the same thing in 10 different ways
4. Read the 10 reasons you should do something you aren’t doing.
5. Enjoy the fun of being patronized by titles like “How to” instead of the more accurate “How I”
6. Shit, I gotta pull 4 more bullet points out of my ass.
7. Read “Rules” and “Laws” in the title and give added reverence to the opinions.
8. Salivate over productivity tools you can’t afford, using systems you can’t understand.
9. Get more tips than a mob of porcupines.
10. Rinse and repeat to avoid the shit you should be doing now.

11. Look frantically for goals. Its all about goals you know… get some now.. shit, I went over 10… hmm.. hey, you got a bonus way/tip/law/rule! Be grateful I’m sharing my wisdom and eradicating your ignorance.

[Related: Time Exists Only in the Mind ]