Has the human race gone insane? Maybe. There do seem to be a lot of nuts out there. And people are definitely dumber than they used to be too, right? Probably. Well, actually, probably not. Let’s discuss this.I don’t know about you, but I hear a lot of very, very, very stupid things these days. There are whole supposedly-professional blogs that are nothing but fountains of idiocy – HotAir, Huffington Post and (increasingly) the Daily Caller. We’ve got politicians who couldn’t count to ten if they were barefoot. Talk radio is pure fantasy. And the news is full of people who are too dumb to live. And oh good grief the conspiracy theories! What isn’t a conspiracy anymore? Morons.
So I guess something has gone wrong, right?
Well, that’s tough to say. See, the thing is that we are assuming that people were smarter in the past. . . but they weren’t. And no, I don’t mean that their science info was lacking, I mean that they were just as retarded, just as gullible, just as superstition, just as paranoid, and just as looney toons as today. Consider this.
At one point, people believed in sea monsters and witchcraft. Ha ha ha, can you believe that? Those Dark Ages fools! Yeah, only it’s not them I’m talking about. In the 1960/70s, there was a widespread belief in spontaneous human combustion, levitation, the Loch Ness Monster, alien abductions, and exorcism. People expected Atlantis to surface. There was a human face on Mars and people could spy on the other side of the world just using their mind and a comfy chair. Idiots. Scientologists followed a conman who invented a cult about dead aliens poisoning our souls. I mean, how stupid do you need to be to buy into that crap? At least no one believes in witches anymore though, right? Not since Salem. Well, yeah, except Sarah Palin got caught on camera receiving a blessing to protect her from witchcraft... not a happy moment for Republicans with brains.
These idiots were conspiratorial too. In the 1960s, fluoride made you sterile. The moon landing didn’t happen. Kennedy was shot by a vast conspiracy of people who all kept quiet... no doubt intimidated by the moon non-landers. Fed conspiracy theorists got their start in 1913. Jews have controlled the world since the 1880s at least. Well, Jews and the Masons. Oy vey.
But at least people had taste, right? I mean, they may have gone full-retard when it comes to superstition and paranoia, but dammit... they loved classics! There were no sitcoms or surfing the net for porn for them! No sirree. Well, actually, sitcoms were invented during the age of conservative Valhalla known as the 1950s... so was the Playboy club. And it didn’t start there. At almost every Roman archeological site they’ve found tons of porn. The Victorians had porn too... I’ve seen it and it’s not this “oh, she showed an ankle” stuff people like to believe. No, this is illustrated Hustler. Hollywood needed a conduct code in the 1930s because it was becoming a porno factory. And about those classics Ricky “I really really swear I’m not gay” Santorum loves so much... did you know that The Maltese Falcon is crawling with gay references? Do you know how many Hollywood stars were gay or drug addicts? Heck, they used to put cocaine in soda, never mind that Ricky “Really, I’m not Gay” Santorum’s forbearers in the prohibition movement spawned the mob because the nation wasn’t going to give up their vices.
And what about Shakespeare? Do you realize that some of his comedies are essentially written-versions of “Three’s Company”? Seriously. He just used prettier words. “Hark Janet, Me thinks Mr. Furley cometh. Hideth the hookers.” Even his dramas include lots of gore to draw in the standing-room only crowd called the groundlings. They reveled in the blood and gore and fart jokes. Sound familiar?
The point is this. As tempting as it is to think the world has gone insane, the truth is that the world is the same as it always has been. It only seems more insane today than in the past, and there are three reasons for this:
● First, we remember the past through rose-colored glasses because (1) that helps us deal with pain on a personal level by forgetting about it, so we remember things as better than they were, and (2) society only keeps the good stuff. Indeed, for every Mr. Smith Goes To Washington there were ten Mr. Smith Goes To Des Moines, but those have been forgotten. So when we look at the past, we see a much higher percentage of good things than bad and we remember everything better than it really was. Since we can’t do the same with the present, the present seems less pleasant to us.So, it may seem like the world has gone insane, but it really hasn’t. It’s only that the insane now get noticed a lot more. Everybody else is just out there doing their thing helping the world run smoothly.
● Secondly, the modern age of communication has given the idiots a much bigger platform to reach us. In the past, there were all these gatekeepers to keep the real lunatics from being heard by the public. Today, any fool can start a blog or get a talk radio show. Thus, while there aren’t more fools as a percentage of the population, the fools we have are much more noticeable. That’s why we seem to be awash in them.
Moreover, there’s a vicious circle problem right now too because the idiots tend to be the most vocal, the most intense, and the most active because they tend to be obsessed. That makes them the audience of choice because they are the most loyal listeners, viewers, voters. So, slowly but surely, everything from politics to films to news starts catering to the idiot fringe.
● Finally, related to the second, we just hear about these people more often. In the past, you had no way to know about the nut job who tortured his neighbor in London or the cannibal in Tokyo or the gang slayings in Detroit. Today, they are all over the net and all over news all the time. The news has become a sensationalizer of the obscure. And that makes it seem common.
Thoughts?
73 comments:
BTW, I news that should make everyone happy, the honor of Elvis impersonators everywhere has been restored as the Elvis impersonator accused of trying to send ricin to Obama has been released. It turns out the Fat Elvis stamp that was used was not in fact a clue after all. :P
Andrew....Imagine if we had instantaneous news in the past as we do now..."Seaside village men beheaded, women and girls all raped and children taken as slaves by Islamist terrorists!"
"Man claiming to be the 'Son of God' creating cult-like following in Middle East."
....and my favorite: "Peaceful villages in East Anglia under attack by foreign invaders."
I agree with your line of thinking here and have had similar historical perspectives for years.
the point I particularly like Andrew is the one about the modern age of communication. there is a lot of stuff that happens in the world every day. In the 18th century, nobody would know about it except those in the immediate area. Today, it is instantaneously streamed live.
The other is your point about so-called professionals who couldn't spell "cat" if you spotted them the "c" and the "a". Just look at Dick Morris. As the film Compliance indicates (note the shameless reference to the film review) people tend to believe figures who give the appearance of authority. So, if someone slicks up their communication, it must mean it is erudite, right?
In the corporate world, we paid a bunch of consultant M.B.A.'s and PHD.'s a whole lot of money to predict what trends would be ocurring in the next few years so we could "plan." Sometimes, those people were even right ;)
I think this might be a double-edged sword. Sure, the media tends to amplify everything but at the same time, the media shouldn't be used as an excuse. (You're not doing that here; it's just a general statement.)
Not to go off-topic but I say this because the other day - out of the blue - I imagined a hypothetical scenario between me and someone on the far right who wouldn't accept blame for any of conservatism's flaws because it's all "media lies." Well, that doesn't mean you don't accept responsibility for your mistakes.
Again, that was just a hypothetical scenario but I've also seen similar reactions on certain blogs.
Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions.
- Ecclesiastes 7:10
So apparently this sort of thing has been troubling people for some time.
instant access to millions of people in front of whom you can be as stupid as possible... wheee.
Hamlet: "Lady, shall I lie in your lap?"
Ophelia: "No, my lord."
Hamlet: "I mean, my head upon your lap?"
Ophelia: "Ay, my lord."
Hamlet: "Do you think I meant country matters?"
;)
And then there is Chesterton's "A Defence of the Penny-Dreadfuls". Tell me, do some of the complaints he addresses sound familiar?
LINK
BTW, Andrew, I never realized you were into Victorian porn (l.o.l.) You aren't secretly Jack the Ripper re-incarnated ... are You???
I'm confused. Was the idea to make us feel better about the world? Because now I just feel worse.
T-Rav,
Look on the bright side. The world has always sucked.
T-Rav, if you think this is bad, you should read the rest of Ecclesiastes. LOL!
Patriot, I think the best example of how the modern era would destroy the past is if you imagined today's new cycle in WWII.
Imagine the 24/7 news cycle working on Hitler/FDR, playing up every conspiracy theory, doing massive partisan attacks on the war, pointing out every casualty, demanding a total police state while screaming that we need to respect the rights of Nazi soldiers and saboteurs. Every arm chair hero would be on television telling us how they would handle the war and how the people doing the fighting are idiots.
How do you think things would have gone with that kind of chaos and disloyalty on display 24/7?
That's what we're facing today. It was all there in the past, but it just never had a voice.
Jed, "Sometimes those people were even right" LOL! Nice!
I think the points you highlight are the key for people to remember. All of this stuff happened in the past (probably worse actually) but you didn't hear about it. There's a line in Men in Black that is really smart about this point. Tommy Lee Jones says,
"There's always something going on (some threat). The way these people go on with their happy little lives is they don't know about it."
That's the problem today. We know about everything. And not only that, we hear about everything 5-6-10-100 times because everyone repeats it like it's news. And not only that, most of what they are repeating is made up -- rumor as fact. So it seems like the world is falling apart.
It really isn't.
Scott, Different points, but I agree depending on the circumstances.
The point here is that the media is overwhelming people with chaos and gloom because that is what they are selling. They are taking unique and obscure events and presenting them as common. And that creates this distorted view of the world where crazy seems to be common when it really is only a handful of people out of billions and they really are powerless... they just have this megaphone that lets them be heard.
On the other point, there are times the media smears and distorts. The media shares a huge portion of the blame for destroying discussion this country and turning it into name-calling and combat.
That said, there are people who create their own problems and then try to blame the media for the images they themselves create. Those people are deluded.
tryanmax, Very wise words, words that too many people ignore. In fact, I think I hear those words daily from people on every issues.... it was so much better when I was young. Well... no, it wasn't.
rlaWTX, Exactly! It's like crack for lunatics... "Everybody's watching me... they are listening to me... I am somebody! (insert lunatic rant here)."
Kit, Yep. And I'm not kidding about the Victorian Era porn either -- totally hand-drawn Hustler.
Jed, No, I'm not into Victorian Era porn. LOL! I'm just well traveled across the human experience and I've seen it all. ;)
Actually, I ran across it on the History Channel of all places... between shows about aliens building everything.
"In the 1960/70s, there was a widespread belief in spontaneous human combustion, levitation, the Loch Ness Monster, alien abductions, and exorcism."
Levitation was a normal thing back then. People wrote songs about it and everything:
http://youtu.be/GdWXE6La4Os
I tried but I guess I´m still not pure enough of spirit. No wonder with that guy Nixon still in the White House.
T-Rav, Yes, you should feel better.
1. It means that all the craziness people think is suddenly upon isn't new. We are not in some dangerous/immoral new era. We just notice it more.
2. It means human behavior is pretty constant over the centuries, which is kind of comforting. That means no amount of government tinkering can change humanity. Sorry Mr. Marx and Mr. Santorum.
3. It means that if you stop listening to the handful of whackos, you will see that the vast, vast, vast majority of people are just going about the lives like everyone always has.
tryanmax, I believe Homer Simpson once noticed that the Bible is a very dirty book full of murder and sex. LOL!
So much for context!
El Gordo, It's amazing that people will fall for that -- "I can do it when no one is around" and "You can do it too if you're just pure enough." Good grief.
But those types of arguments seem to work on a certain segment of the population.
Did the aliens make the Victorian porn?
LOL! Nice. Yeah, that's a useful meme these days. And having seen those programs, I can tell that the guy is so full of sh*t it's amazing. He's got all of the conspiratorial speak down pat and you know he knows he's trying to mislead people because you can see it in his body language that he doesn't believe a word of what he's selling.
You make fun of Victorian porn but that was classy stuff - hand drawn by people who had been trained! Also, poor people couldn´t afford it. Oh, and if you were poor and wanted as much sex as you could handle, you had to put on a uniform and go to India. That´s how you build an empire!
Seriously, there´s a difference between secretly trading "french postcards" and having a few million men look at online porn at any given minute. Never mind advertising, cable shows and all the rest.
In a way, it was a more innocent time. You could get away from sexual stimuli, or rather, you had to seek them out. Call me oldfashioned but that can be a good thing. Today you can´t get away from it. I´m no prude but I don´t like salespeople trying to push my buttons 24/7, which is what this is.
For all we know, Theodore Roosevelt has sex with two women in his entire life. And no one could have lead a fuller, more active life. Sometimes a Big Stick is just a big stick.
Technology changes, human nature doesn't...
Conspiracies might be merely amusing but I keep meeting otherwise "serious, educated" people who believe in the most amazing bullcrap.
Few things annoy me more than the lies and myths being created about our own past, from the crusades to the Vietnam war. Worst of all is the "temporal bigotry" of caricaturing our forebears as crude and unsophisticated. That is definitely a liberal thing - nothing to learn from the past. This from people who praise themselves as being nuanced.
We fancy ourselves so much more evolved, but somehow people keep falling for weird tales about their past - and in the end about their present, as well. I´ll just say it: these people would have marched with Hitler.
El Gordo, So that's what the British Empire was about! LOL!
I agree that we are saturated by it right now, but there is this idea going around that in the past everyone and everything was perfect and somehow we've gone wrong and entered an age where everyone is crazy and immoral. That's just not true. My point is that:
(1) It's only a small part of the population that is crazy or immoral today, and they only seem to be everywhere because our media culture floods us with stories about them, and
(2) This isn't anything new. These people have always been there, saying stupid things, believing the impossible, committing murder and adultery, buying porn, taking drugs, etc. So people shouldn't think that somehow society has spun off its axis. We could have had this identical debate at any point in history. Even in the 1950s, I'll bet you there were people freaking out about how immoral and insane the times had become.
Bev, Exactly. And the advance of media technology has made it seem that something had changed in human nature, when it hasn't.
El Gordo, The sad truth is that most people would have marched with Hitler. People love to think that they would have been the unique ones who would have stood up to history's greatest injustices... and then they spit out the exact kind of thought processes that causes those injustices. They just choose different victims. It seems that most people like controlling other people.
Yeah, the conspiracy theory stuff bothers me. Far too many people fall for those all the time -- big and small. I'm amazed how happily people will believe the most obviously false things simply because they want to believe them.
It doesn't help either that our political class, news/talk-radio, films, and advertisers have all learned to exploit conspiracy theory thinking to win over audiences. They are basically teaching this form of twisted-logic thinking to the public, which makes it easier for people to believe that they are being logical when they buy into conspiracy theories.
"We could have had this identical debate at any point in history."
Andrew - Every generation of adults throughout human history has said "Ah! These kids today!"
I think "being civilized" ebbs and flows too. Though I could make the case that Western civilization is less violent than it has EVER been through out human history.
BTW - When I was in HS in the '70's, we had bomb scares/evacuations monthly, sometimes weekly. That is a rare occurance these days
Bev, I agree entirely. Every generation has complaints about the next generation -- not as tough, not as smart, not as moral, not as responsible, etc. It's the way the human mind works. Our minds improve and whitewash our pasts and seek flaws with those around us, and as a species, we dread change. So as time marches on, the past becomes nicer, the present becomes messier, and the future remains foreign and scary. That's why each generation feels the same way about future generations.
And you are absolutely right that "being civilized" ebbs and flows. It's simply not accurate to assume that this stuff moves in one direction. (Though as an aside, I must say that I don't agree with the "pendulum theory" which seems to underpin a lot of conservative thinking: "if we just wait, everything will go back to the way it was." Society doesn't move in straight lines, it zigzags, so it will never go back to something... it will instead incorporate that thing if it chooses.)
Anyways, putting aside my aside, I agree with you. Everything ebbs and flows. And I think you are absolutely right that Western civilization is stunningly less violent than it's ever been. We are better off by any measure than any generation before us. And we shouldn't lose sight of that.
if you were poor and wanted as much sex as you could handle, you had to put on a uniform and go to India...In a way, it was a more innocent time.
I guess it's a matter of perspective. Today, if you want as much sex as you can handle, you don't have to put on a uniform. No war, no killing, no culture-shock, no spreading/contracting exotic diseases, no STDs, no illegitimate half-breed offspring that every society rejects.
Instead, you just log-on, take care of your business, go about your day. Horny predilections no longer dictate a violent career path.
BTW, in the 1950, the big boogeyman was comic books! They were warping the children's minds with violent and sexual images and weird, supernatural stories about creatures and aliens.
Hmm, maybe they were right about the aliens.
We deny our own existence!
tryanmax, I am of two minds on the sex/porn issue.
On the one hand, I have no problems with people doing whatever so long as they don't hurt anyone else, don't use kids or animals, and don't do it where I have to see it. I've seen no evidence that any of this is harmful and it's really not anyone's place to tell anyone else what they can or cannot like.
On the other, I agree with El Gordo's point that it's become inescapable. Too much of it has drifted over into EVERYTHING, so you really can't escape it anymore. It's one thing to have it on cable or late night, it's another to put it into ads in the middle of G and PG programming and to slap it on billboards or the side of buses. I believe in consumer choice, but there comes a point where my choices are being taken away by their ability to force it upon me.
This actually really struck me with horror movies awhile back. I would be watching some comedy or something and on would come a commercial steeped in blood and gore. Personally, I don't care. But I realized that if I had kids and I didn't want them to see that horror movie, I would now need to stop them from watching comedies too because the commercials are showing the very things I don't want to see.
A lot of commercials toe the line with pedophilia and bestiality as well. These are things that shouldn't be where I am looking, but they are. And that's the problem. You can rob consumer choices both with too much control and too little.
I guess I'm not seeing it as much b/c I'm a cord-cutter. The internet is my main pipeline to the media world and the ads are much more targeted when there are any. I watch a lot of broadcast TV, too, so I'll have to pay attention, but unless I'm watching The Following I'm not seeing it. I don't encounter a lot of outdoor advertising where I live, either.
I saw it more in DC than here because you got more ads from bigger brands. Here you get a lot of local car companies and "down home eateries." But in DC you got things like the Calvin Klein ads on buses, which were basically gay-teen-quasiporn. On television, it's not that they are advertising sex stuff (though that does happen on cable), it's more that they will walk right up to the line in ads for normal products.
The things like the horror movie example I gave happens on Cartoon Network a lot. In the middle of some cartoon for kids (like Scooby Doo) they will suddenly show a trailer for some horror flick that is crawling with gore and things like that.
Dear Aliens:
Is that how you hide so well? You just deny your own existance and **poof** you're invisible? If so, can you teach that trick to some people. We will make list of seminar attendees in anticipation of your response.
I thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
Your truly,
Humanity
Dear Humanity, If you say something often enough and get enough people to repeat it, it becomes true.
Conspiracy acceptance seems to have been around a long time. Whether it has ranged from the devil, to witches, to communists, to Jews. Some are fascinating convoluted stories; almost mythical. I wonder if there is something in our brains are genes that makes these so attractive.
Sex has been around for centuries and to think it is new or more in our face is just not true. It might be compared to 20 or 50 years ago but it isn't clear which is truly the "norm", that is having it around more could be more normal than suppressing it.
In the past, it was common practice for priests to have relations with specialists. Women generally would marry as soon as they started their periods (age 14-16). Many families slept not just in the same room but the same bed and usually naked long before there were separate bedrooms. Those families continued to grow despite the close quarters. It was common for children to go to prison with their parents. A chaste knight meant he only had sex with commoners and prostitutes; he just would refrain from attacking "Ladies". Homosexual relationships were probably more acceptable and common as well.
My point (did I have one?) is that we may actually be reverting back to a comfortable norm rather than declining into a new debauchery. Just don't let closet-homo Santorum hear that. It's OK Rick, be who you really are.
BTW, Victorian porn can be really hot. Almost as good as ancient Indian porn. People must have been much more flexible back then.
Koshcat, There is indeed an aspect of our brains which makes conspiracy theories so popular.
The human brain is set up to recognize patterns. That is what lets us look at the chaos around us and pick out the words from the garble, our relatives from the herd, and what is likely to feed us or kill us. It is what has let us survive this long and what allows us to be social. Without that ability, the world would be a vast mystery for us except for the things we have already experienced. In other words, without this ability, we would never learn that a heard of angry beasts racing toward us means us harm or that you shouldn't eat the big red berries on the small bush.
This translates in modern humans into our ability to do science (and most everything else) -- as we use our ability to find patterns as a way to identify cause/effect. It also is what allows us to create stereotypes, which are nothing more than classifications of "most likely traits" which we use to allow us to recognize things quicker.
Conspiracy theories derive from this. They derive from our need to look at chaos and find a pattern. Thus, we look at events, we gather all the facts that seem relevant to us, and we string them together into a pattern... a conspiracy. This is an instinct and being good at it makes us proud.
Unfortunately, this ability isn't perfect. Thus, while we are programmed to constantly look for patterns, we are actually kind of poor at sorting out genuine positives from false positive. Hence, we become suckers for these conspiracies once we find them. And it takes a strong rational mind to break through our instinctual need to classify what we've found and accept it as true. Most people don't have that kind of brainpower.
On the other end, the people pushing conspiracy theories recognize this and they've learned to use the kinds of false logic that leads to the creation of these theories as a way to direct people away from the red flags that should be warning them that they are being had.
For example, everyone knows that you can't trust someone who is biased. If I said, "I know X was an inside job," your spidey-senses tell you to take anything I say with a grain of salt because I have stated a bias. But if I say, "I'm not saying it's true, but it's interesting," then I manage to short circuit your spidey-senses because now you think I don't have a bias. It works the same way as a con does -- encourage the faulty instinctual behavior, find ways to sidestep the warning bells, and offer a huge reward for believing... "you have found something few others realize."
Koshcat,
Sex has been around for centuries -- LOL! Right. It was invented in 1274 A.D. by a monk. "Hey, what's this?" And the world hasn't been the same since. ;P
we may actually be reverting back to a comfortable norm rather than declining into a new debauchery
I think that point is an excellent one. Everything I've seen about ancient societies is that they were much more sexual than we want to believe. It seem that there have only been a couple points in human history where sex was seen as really taboo (e.g. Victorian era, 1950s) and those seem more like outliers than "the norm." (Not to mention, it was still everywhere, it just wasn't condoned by the authorities.)
I'm not sure if we are at the norm, beyond the norm, or below the norm right now, but I have to say that I don't get the sense that anything is out of control. This isn't the free-love era of the hippies or the 1970s swingers. This isn't a Roman orgy era. Maybe this is the norm?
Oops that did sound funny. Actually, I heard that prior to 1274 AD most sex was accidental and the jews and masons were keeping it a secret.
Those dastardly Masonic Jews! ;P
Actually, I believe Marco Polo discovered sex along with pasta...
Well, the two do seem to be related... at times... if Lady and the Tramp is any guide.
The moon landing didn’t happen.
There was a moon landing?
Yeah, it made all the papers -- The Enquirer, The New York Times (page 7), and the Beijing Bugle.
There was a moon landing. It was filmed by Stanley Kubrick on a soundstage some time during the making of 2001 and he placed subliminal clues in The Shining as a way of confessing.
(I'm not joking - that's someone's theory!)
Read the first photo caption.
My God! I'm sold. The whole thing was faked.
Y'know, there's also the aspect that anyone who doesn't like something tends to characterize that thing as always getting worse, even if things are to the contrary.
For example, in the years leading up to prohibition, its supporters made a campaign against ribald drunken debauchery. The 18th Amendment gets passed. Then you have the Roaring 20s.
Another example, last weekend I visited the "Women Who Rock" exhibition at the local museum. One item on display was the infamous Lady Gaga meat dress. The accompanying description included a quote by Gaga explaining the meat dress's message. "If we don't stand up for what we believe in, if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones." Because that's totally where things are going.
So your point is that Lady Gaga is an idiot? LOL!
That's true that people tend to characterize things they don't like as getting worse even if they aren't. Education is a great example of this. Our schools do keep getting better all the time. And what kids are learning today blows away what prior generations learned in most areas. But a lot of people simply won't believe it. They want to see the public schools as factories of failure where no one learns anything and where kids get pregnant, do drugs and learn to get on welfare. That's simply not correct, but people want to believe it.
Well, I think that The Shining is set in the winter as a reference to the Cold War. And when Jack kills Scatman Crothers, that's a commentary on the slave trade. And the Gold Room is a reference to the Conquistadors invasion of Mexico. And Jack typing "All work and no play..." over and over on the typewriter is a commentary on the mundane and unfulfilling nature of mechanized labor. And the "Here's Johnny" line is a reference to Jonathan, the son of King Saul in the Bible. And, and, and....
tryanmax: your future in film analysis is secure.
I have a book deconstructing animation films and found out that Disney's Peter Pan was actually about female menstruation. The amazing things these people put into their movies.
K, well what work of literature isn't about menstruation? Or penises? As Freud said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a **** in your mouth." Or something like that.
Actually, I think The Shining is a commentary on the Bush years. When Jack kills Crothers, that's Bush ruining Obama's administration. The ghosts are all the people who died in Bush's illegal wars for oil, and the blood coming out of the elevator represents the oil itself. RERUM boy represents all the little kids who won't be able to read because of No Child Left Behind. "All work and no play" represents the fact that American workers need to work but can't find jobs. That 6% unemployment was brutal -- the worst ever. The fact Wendy needs to attack Jack with an axe is because he won't pay her a comparable wage. The way he freezes to death represents Bush causing global warming, even though the earth was already cooling... very tricky Mr. Bush. And the fact Crothers had to come swiftly from Florida to save the children is a reference to Bush stealing Florida and then swift-boating Kerry.
It's obvious.
Ouch... my head hurts. How do liberals do it?
I bow to the master.
K & tryanmax, Whoever wrote that about Peter Pan needs to seek professional help. Wow.
tryanmax, We should start an internet meme and see if liberals pick that up or if they realize that Bush came later?
I think we could run with that meme for at least a couple of years. Wasn't Kubrick into metaphysical stuff? We could draw it out if we claim it was a premonition. Now there's an idea! Let's start a meme where Kubrick is the 20th century Nostradamus.
That would be hilarious... until people actually ran with it and we found ourselves beating our own heads against the wall in frustration.
I think I would laugh myself to death before the brain damage set in. I say we go for it!
Step 1: Build a really crappy website using an extremely wide variety of fonts, colors that do not work together, lots of animated gifs, grainy pictures of spacecraft, and images stolen from Wikipedia.
Ok, yeah, it would be pretty hilarious!
I think your Step 1 is an excellent first step. And don't forget to register the name as something like RealTruth.com. (As compared to faketruth.)
You know, I'll bet you would get noticed if you did enough old films and tied them to modern events. Your head would explode. But you'd get page hits -- maybe even a mention at some bigger websites.
That could be awesome. I'd try to play it as legit until I got on some prominent cable show, like Colbert or something, and then I'd blow the whole thing up in front of a large audience. Because I'm an ***hole like that.
That would be worth seeing!
I can't get past the whole menstrating Peter Pan...
"The things like the horror movie example I gave happens on Cartoon Network a lot. In the middle of some cartoon for kids (like Scooby Doo) they will suddenly show a trailer for some horror flick that is crawling with gore and things like that."
That is more or less why wars on PBS never work. PBS has kid's shows w/o the ads.
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