Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Escapism

Given the fact that the left is so weak and so despised by our  society's leadership, it really isn't the case that the time I spend in escapism is time stolen from saving the world,  You know, if I went out today, or to whatever day there's a protest against Israel's mass-murder of Palestinians, it would have exactly zero impact on stephen harper's insane support for the slaughter.

At the same time though, I'm getting a little tired of the dedicated escapism of stuff like this:

And this:


But, you know, that's the job of special effects people, and actors and script writers and pop music singers, isn't it? Chris Pratt wanted to be an actor. To make a living as an actor, you try to get high-paying gigs. You act in things that people will want to see. Everyone from little kids to adult geeks like space-ships and super-heroes. So, there you go. And all these other super-hero movies where imaginary people with incoherent "powers" wage the battle of good vs. evil, while Wall Street fleeces them and fossil fuels fracking and GMO's poison them, and the National Security State spies on them and abuses them and jails them, while the US military rapes and murders overseas.

And Katy Perry wanted to be a pop-star. Maybe she had some sort of thing about young girls being free to have fun (which is still a "controversial" position for too many North American mindsets) and so, it's just spiraled into this big deal where the good looking young woman with the big boobs now sings about living the good life and having fun while families huddle in terror in Gaza and Barack Obama continues to ship weapons to the Israeli terrorists.

And who knows? Maybe like Mark Ruffalo (who plays the "Incredible Hulk" these days) and Selena Gomez (former "Mouseketeer" former Justin Bieber girlfriend, present pop-star/film ingenue), Chris Pratt or Katy Perry have said something good about some important subject, and in so doing, had more impact than your average left-wing nobody in ten years of activism.

I'm going to finish my son's remaining pancake.

3 comments:

Edstock said...

"Given the fact that the left is so weak and so despised by our society's leadership," — Um, you are pissed-off today. Given the fact — it's not given, and it's not a fact.

"the left is so weak": English is delightfully vague. The "left" is a whole pastiche of folks who are NOT right and it is not so much that they are weak as much as they are un-organized, because, unlike Stevie's crowd, they come from all over Canada.

"and so despised by our society's leadership": again, English is wonderfully vague. "society's leadership": well, Canadian society has a lot of people that make up our society's "leadership". Sure, Stevie despises the left, but what about Rick Mercer? Currently, he is very much part of our society's "leadership". How about Neil Young?

What the left has to do is get marketing skills. I've tried, over the years, to get the NDP to get with the 21st century, but the aparatchiki reject advice, as they've got nice jobs, in out-of-power circumstances, so they are reluctant to change something that gives them a living. Until the NDP figure this out, and the Greens read some Ted Bates and get their sales act together, it will be a Liberal-led effort — for now.

Hang tough, live long, prosper, and with a little luck, you'll be around to take a dump on Harper's grave.

thwap said...

EdStock,

Yes: "Weak" as in "United we stand, divided we fall."

And, we're divided. For a number of reasons, including our inherent inability to get our act together.

And the leadership of the Cosnervatives, Liberals, the military, corporate Canada is more powerful than a few progressive celebrities and business people and unions.

The balance of forces isn't inherently against us and the Canadian people. But it is at the moment.

Anonymous said...

On a side note, it's the late Chalmers Johnson's birthday today. I remember you posting about The Sorrows of Empire in the past. He is sorely missed in times like this.

http://conversations.berkeley.edu/content/chalmers-johnson