Over the past weekend I had
the misfortune to see the movie, “The Hunger Games”. The movie was
preceded by 7 coming attractions. One was an animated film and the rest
appeared to be trying to outdo each other in gore, brutality, and
stupidity. How staggering that our evolutionary process has culminated in
an artistic endeavor about Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter.
“The
Hunger Games” was deeply troubling for me. The thought of an elite ruling
class that entertains itself on the suffering and death of the “little people”
is no longer really science fiction. The elimination of the draft in the
U. S. has terminated any threat that the wealthy will ever have to dirty their
hands. With no threat to their own children they can so easily send “our
volunteers” to do their bidding. We appear to have all the money we need
for bombs but none for social programs.
I
watch the Republican debates in horror. Except for Ron Paul I have seen a
bunch of old men trying to convince the universe that their genitals are so
much bigger than Obama’s. (I’d just love to see them all naked on stage.)
They scream for the destruction of Iran and talk so loudly about how Obama is
an appeasing Muslim wimp. Their rhetoric is very effectively picking up
where Carl Rove left off. There are now more militia groups in American
than ever. There are now more guns in circulation than ever. This
process of dividing and conquering is working. Workers rights and unions
are under direct and very clear attack in the states with Republican
governors. Women’s rights are under attack. The ability of the poor
and elderly to vote is under attack. Medicare is under attack. The
lie is that the rich need their money so that they can create jobs. It’s
unbelievable to me that the masses have not noticed that the rich have gotten
staggeringly richer over the past few years while the rest of us have lost our
jobs.
For
me the thing that really sticks in my craw (wherever that is) is how all of
this is also guised under the pretense of “Christian values”. The beauty
of Christ was his love and compassion. In Matthew 25:40 we are clearly
told that, “… whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and
sisters of mine, you did for me.” Somehow this has now been repackaged as
“Socialism” and really bad. In my photography and in the Daily Dose my intent is to share a moment of beauty, a sense of connection between ourselves and others or our environment. It is my belief that the more we know about others the more we can see ourselves in them and feel a sense of compassion. For me this is a central core of my spiritual belief. I don't understand a spiritual pursuit that results in separation and disdain.
One
of my friends has told me that “The Hunger Games” is a trilogy and there is a
revolt in the second book. I wonder how much worse it will have to get
before the revolt is on CNN.
Posts
I recently turned on the T.V. to break away from the tedium of my other activities and watched (for only 5 minutes) a reality-based show ("My Strange Obsession", or some title like that) about a woman who compulsively snorts baby powder up her nose and an unrelated story about a young, 27-year old man who is sexually aroused by his car and makes love to it by rubbing his body up against it, etc. I was then treated to a commercial for the following week's episode, which featured a woman who not only drank her own urine, but used a Q-tip to swab it all over her face as though it were perfume. Before the commercial ended the camera showed her gulping down her own liquid expulsion and quipping, "Mmmm...lemony!" Now, I don't know about you, but I grew up with "Shields and Yarnell" and "Maude" being the most racy things on the boob tube. I'm afraid we've become so JADED that we now require the most VILE and EXTREME acts imaginable to grab our interest, it would seem, and the movie you saw would seem to be part of that trend. We're degenerating into disconnected animals as technology makes our lives increasingly more and more "comfortable" and "connected" (as Mark Zuckerberg would have us believe.) ~~Tom
ReplyDeleteThe saddest part? Our belated USA( or should I say DSA disunited - in heart & spirit States of America) is STILL the Envy of the more obtuse and hopeful & non informed
ReplyDeleteIndeed the lie is that the rich will create jobs for the rest of us, and that is why they need the tax breaks. The rest of us are too busy trying to survive to notice it isn't working. We need a movement the likes of the Civil Rights or Women's movements,unlike the failed Occupy "movement". One of five of our children, in the "wealthiest" country in the world, live in poverty! 15% of all people in the US live in poverty (the federal poverty rate is just over $22,000 for a family of 4 with 2 kids!). I was listening to talk-radio the other day (I usually avoid this form of "entertainment") and heard folks bemoaning what to do about kids who bully in school: install security cameras so you can catch & punish them, hire more security guards in school, expel the kids, force parents to home-school their bullies (like THAT would help!) and I thought.....parents just need to go back to setting good examples for their kids, teaching compassion and respect for others, paying attention to what your kid is doing, teaching "right" from "wrong". Sadly, we have become a morally bankrupt society (an over-generalization, I know), but something needs to change before common decency goes the way of the dinosaurs.
ReplyDeleteWe are eagerly awaiting your opinion on the Coup D'état that has lasted a few years now...as Prof.Robert Reich so eloquently expose in today's press
ReplyDelete