Watching Mad Men, wishing I was back in the 60s, then realizing that I was there, but in my version everyone spoke Korean.
Ok, I don’t really need to explain this, as all you have to do is listen. But, before you do, make sure you put on headphones and close your eyes!
When you’re ready, go ahead and take your Virtual Haircut!
PS. And while we’re at it, here’s the funniest thing I’ve seen all day and possibly all week: Slow Jerk
Popularity: 2% [?]
I’ve been following US politics a lot more than normal and it’s making me depressed. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I can’t wait for the election so that George W. Bush will, once and forever, be gone. Yet, looking at the candidates that line the stages of these debates, it seems that the US will be getting another moron in office quite soon. This is, in itself, quite a normal thing. Politicians are always like that. People who make a career out of saying they know what you want aren’t usually up to any good. We, the voters, seem to be happy with this kind of society because we keep voting the dickheads in. But now I’m starting to see exactly why this is happening.
When we were in high school, we had the task of reading the news and critiquing it. We were told to examine different sources for consistency and not to just believe everything we read. This was, in my humble opinion, one of the most valuable skills to teach us impressionable youngsters. Flash forward to 2007 and me in my room scanning Google News. Now, during the first debate, I was particularly impressed with a guy named Mike Gravel, a candidate whom nobody had heard was running. Mike who? people said. That was, until you hear the guy speak. It was like a real person on that stage, not a prop-speech-reading robot. He spoke clearly and directly and never dodged an issue once. In the following days after the debate, he made appearances on a number of different networks, giving his opinions on everything from gay marriage, to drugs, the war and healthcare. The more people threw at him, the more you became impressed because here was a guy who you knew was speaking off the top of his head about subjects which he was passionate about. The best part was, he made absolute sense!
The social news website digg.com featured article after article of user-submitted links about the man and his policies. He was generating a genuine buzz from people who wanted to hear more. Yet, go to Google News and you hear about Clinton and Obama. I suppose this is to be expected to a degree. The mainstream press had little time for candidates they deemed non-contenders, even expressing this view in interviews with Gravel. Yet, when it comes to unedited news stories, digg, and de.licio.us was awash with news about the candidate.
The same thing happened with Ron Paul, a nine-term Republican, former candidate for the Libertarian party. His post-debate buzz was enormous, coming from the outside to win the debate in MSNBC’s audience poll. The network, however, quickly refuted this poll as unscientific and withdrew it from their website. Despite the obvious sense that he spoke and rapport he developed with the audience present, Google News was silent on the matter. As the buzz hit the social bookmarking sites, the pundits all jabbered on about the front runners, despite their lackluster performance and low polling results.
Spin forward even more to a couple of days ago, as the second Republican debate takes place. Asked about the causes of 9/11, he said that American foreign policy was to blame. “They attacked us because we’ve been over there; we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years,” Paul stated. His view is shared by a little thing called the 9/11 Report, an official investigation into the causes of the 9/11 attack. But who should enter the fray once the words 9/11 are mouthed but uncle Rudy, who just had to remind everyone that he was there and that he was appalled by the congressman’s words. He even urged him to retract his statement. Rudy then set the record bent with the Bush mantra “they hate our freedom”. It was pathetic and in obvious contention with the facts, but it got cheers from the audience and endorsements from the other candidates.
In the news the next day, the papers were writing about how Guiliani was up and Paul was on the out, despite winning the MSNBC poll again and coming second in the Fox poll. No-one seemed to address the issue of Guiliani getting all the facts wrong, or just ignoring their existence. The media continued to promote the idea that Paul was wrong. For everyone who didn’t learn the lesson in high school, you’d be wise to note that media has its own agenda and it’s pushing that agenda even as we speak. Quite simply, certain topics are black topics, hot potatoes of debate which have to be thrown off as fast as possible, whether you’re standing on the stage or in the newsroom. Mouth anything but the fluff you’re meant to say and someone will come down on you hard.
Here’s a YouTube clip to illustrate the venom that this response drew from a Fox News pundit:
Voters can be manipulated. Truth can be spun. These are the rules of politics. But who is playing politics more, the candidates or the news outlets? Or are some of them on the same team? Even when someone speaks candidly and openly on the stage, like Paul and Gravel did, it is immediately spun by commentators who seem to have a thousand facts at their disposal but never once practice honesty. It’s one thing to say a true thing and quite another to be fully honest. Meanwhile, the rest of the world sits on the sidelines and wonders just how stupid the American voters are. It’s a brilliant strategy that has been paying off big for George W. Stupid people are easier to control. Stupid people respond to simplistic analyzes of complex problems. Stupid people vote for guys who are down to earth like them. So why would it be in any politician’s interest to fix education and make people smarter?
Americans aren’t dumb though, they’re just too proud for their own good. An evil cloaked as a good is far more dangerous than pure evil. For evil which seems good is merely a Trojan horse that we invite into our hearts and minds, unable to see the danger lurking within. Americans can’t admit that their system is letting them down. This democratic system that is idolized nationally and implemented in foreign countries around the world isn’t quite the beacon of freedom that most US citizens are told to believe it is. In the wake of 9/11 there has been a frenzy of nationalism to the point where anyone questioning America is strung up and burned, despite the truth of their claims. The hard medicine that America needs, however, it may well get too late. As long as big business is allowed to line pockets and push agendas into law and the media, the cycle will continue and America will lose credibility and money and finally control over it’s destiny.
Now I remember why I don’t usually follow politics. It’s the same reason I don’t watch WWF; I just don’t like rigged games. Look closely at the next debate lineup. If you squint your eyes and stare close enough, you might just be able to make out the strings.
PS. Here are some of the stories that I’ve been reading and say what I’m trying to say, but better:
Popularity: 2% [?]
Totalitarian states make for great stories. Dark, gloomy streets and downtrodden faces are usually the main players, along with a host of ranking officials, almost always on an immense power trip. In The Lives of Others it is no different. Set in 1984 East Germany, some five years before the wall fell, it traces the story of Gerd Weisler, a member of the secret police whose job it is to find and root out the “dangerous elements” of their society. As Weisler becomes involved in the surveillance of a famous writer, he finds himself becoming involved in his life. Slowly, as the plot thickens and as new twists arrive, Weisler finds himself questioning those whom he had once served blindly, but who are apparently the real dangerous elements.
What’s remarkable about this movie is the pacing of it all. It moves slowly but steadily to it’s climax. To the director’s credit, he avoids hammering home the senselessness of communism. Everybody knows how terrible it was, and it was a relief to not have this obvious fact shoved down my throat. Nor were there unnecessary climaxes involving people being seen in places they shouldn’t be seen and just escaping at the last minute. As the movie goes, the plot thickens and thickens, which in the end is far more satisfying. It did have it’s occasional flat moment, but as the storyline was so compelling, the strands all came together to make a satisfying whole.
First-time writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck deserves credit, not because it’s a remarkable first film, but because it’s a remarkable film in it’s own right. The fact that it’s his first, just makes it more outstanding. Of course, he did get seven German equivalents of an Oscar and numerous other European awards, so perhaps I’m not alone in my regard for the movie. Seeing this, I realize I must get out and see more movies from Europe. With their subtle narratives and unconventional style, they allow you to appreciate the art of film making from a different perspective. It’s refreshing and that’s why I’m giving this movie two thumbs up.
Popularity: 3% [?]
The world can be a pretty confusing place. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of what you really desire. There are always other influences, people’s expectations, social stigmas, peer pressures and a whole host of powerful forces pushing you one way or another. How can you maintain or even know the path you want to take amidst all the noise?
The other problem is, it’s hardly even noticeable. One minute you’re playing cricket in the backyard with your friends, the next you’re stuck in a job you hate with a baby on the way. Well, maybe not that fast, but something along those lines. Things happen, and we make decisions along the way that we didn’t realize were that important, that wind up shaping our future. The words of our friends, our parents, some dude on TV, lead us astray from the dreams we had when we were young.
But all is not lost. For within us all there is still that child that we used to be, looking out with eyes of wonder at the world. It may be buried under a mountain of adult problems, but you can rest assured that if you search hard enough, you’ll find a familiar face in there. It’s never too late to discover your inner child, the child of the past who knew what they wanted out of life.
The problem with life is that people grow up. The older you get, the more you think you know and the more you think you know the more you start to believe that you’re smart. Older people categorize everything, whether they’ve seen it before or not, whether they’ve experienced it or not. They categorize and judge things based on their years of experience and think that there’s nothing new to know. It gives us confidence, but takes away our curiosity, it makes us sound smart at the cost of losing the wonder we had when we looked at the world as a mysterious place. I challenge you that most of the things you think you know, you don’t really know at all. You just think you know and you never bothered to check if you were right or not. Go on, check. I’ll wait.
No actually I won’t, because I had a more important point. If you forgo the idea that you do know everything, it may just be possible to learn something new or head your life in a different direction. Some people like to imagine that they are living their last day and wonder what they would do. I don’t suggest this, unless you plan to do a bunch of crazy things with little prospect of any future. I suggest that if you’re struggling to find perspective as the winds of influence buffer you about, do the opposite and imagine that you will live forever. Now, imagining that your body would stay young for another half a millenia or so, ask yourself, what would you do first?
If you worry that it’s too late to change what you’re doing, that there’s not enough time to do that traveling you always wanted to do or to learn how to play the guitar or to join a local club, think again. Worrying about time is a fools past time because worrying only stalls us further. By the time we realize we’re stalling, a whole bunch of time has passed, which makes you worry about it more. What we all have to realize is that life is like Wheel of Fortune (I know, profound isn’t it?). We have no idea what fortune we’ll have, but the game has a definite end and unless you spend your money in the gift shop, you may well come away with nothing. But in life, it’s not money but time that will run out at the end of the game. You can’t take any of it with you, so what good is it wasting all your time to do something that doesn’t make you happy? Are there really greater factors at work in life than people being happy living?
“I do it for my children” the struggling fathers of the world say. “I slave away at this job to send them to college so they won’t have to work as hard.” Which is an honorable thing to do. But will they be happy after all that? Or will they do the exact same thing as you and then tell me that they’re doing it for their kids.
But don’t think about it from a purely selfish perspective. It’s in the interests of humanity that you do find the thing you love. Happy people don’t start wars easily. They work harder out of sheer joy and make advances in their fields to the benefit of the rest of us. You owe it to humanity to stop putting up with that crap you call a life and start living your dreams fella! Too harsh?
Look inside. Go on. Ask your inner child what they make of your life. Find out what mattered to you then, what dreams you had when you still had the ability to dream. Picture your life stretching out into eternity and go for the first thing that takes your fancy. You may well discover a part of yourself that you had forgotten existed.
Popularity: 2% [?]