WISDOM
OF THE SAGES
EPISODE VII: SUMMER 2016
EPISODE VII: SUMMER 2016
Hello People of the
World;
Here we are, beyond
the mid-point of the year. Are you still writing “2015” on everything? So many
people are already giving up on our society because are not getting the things
we want. Suck it up.
Let’s get this
month’s edition started, shall we?
1:[ I do not know what is
worse, every artist ironically covering Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball"
or stupid John Mayer Trying-to-be's covering it un-ironically….
2:[ I read this story about
how a black woman was comforted by a policeman after the Dallas Cop shootings,
saying "it's a tough time to be either of us". Sorry, but it's not.
When cops are killed, the entire nation searches for justice. When a black
person killed by police, without reason, the entire nation searches for
justification.
Also, stop sending
thoughts and prayers. Your thoughts and prayer do nothing. Not, unless your
thoughts and prayers are "I hope the police keep killing black
people."
Let’s get real: if you
are posting or supporting “ALL LIVES MATTER” shouldn’t you be out there with
the protestors too? Because when All Lives Matter, that means Black Lives
Matter too….
3:[ The whole Presidential
Election debacle is the primary reason I became apolitical. No matter how much
you espouse a revolutionary epistemology, you will always sell-out your core
beliefs and your followers to maintain a status quo, all because you think you
made “small gains”….
4:[ Neil Postman references
Aldous Huxley in the Forward to his great work, “Amusing Ourselves to Death”; “As
Huxley remarked in Brave New World
Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the
alert to oppose tyranny "failed to
take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions".”
We now live in a
world where we are chained to our cell phones in almost every capacity. We
attack those who do not have the latest versions of this technology and we
attack those who do not share in the enjoyments they bring. I am reminded of
George Lucas’ most overlooked and underrated work “THX-1138” about a dystopian
future where mankind only exists to produce to consume. They work hard to earn
credits to purchase thing like the new Orange Geometric Sphere. Even
reproduction is used to produce more workers and consumers. It is revealing in
how long-sighted Lucas was.
Which brings me to
the Hypocrisy of defending Pokemon Go: "At least it makes kids go
outside" has been the rallying cry and is such a lazy argument. If it
takes a phone game to get your child outside, then you are a shitty parent to
begin with. Beside, almost all of the players I have seen thus far have been
THE parents.
Funny, (not funny)
story; I was on a CTA bus where every single person was on their phones,
playing the game. There was a mother who was on her phone the whole time. When
her daughter asked to play, she was shushed and told her, "It's not for
you."
Instead, the child
got wiggly and looked out the window remarking to her mom and pointing out all
she saw. Then, "Mommy, I think that man is being hurt by that other
man."
I looked and there
was a fight going on, but it looked like many people where trying to stop it
and calling 911. The mom just shushed her again, without looking up, swiped her
phone and said, "gotcha."
Then, told her
child to sit still.
On the way here to this
coffee shop where I type this, I ran across a mother dragging her son through
the streets. All the kid wanted was to go to the playground and climb and play
and be a kid. But no. "We have to go over here first!"
I love seeing these
folk pat themselves on the back like they are doing something revolutionary,
when they just sold out more of their autonomy to their cell phones. I love
seeing people defend their brainwashed enthrallment to a phone device that
schedules their lives. I love how divisive it gets when other people simply do
not like the same shitty things YOU like….
5:[ My Thoughts on The New
Ghostbusters Movie: I honestly have no clue as to why this received the
vehemence it did. We all screamed “not another remake” and “has Hollywood run
out of idea?” Yet, we are on the cusp of a huge wake of remakes and reboot, yet
now that this movie opened and did okay, we are not screaming but those things
any more.
Let’s face it. This
was never going to be a well regarded as the original. I hate defenders of the
sequel, as if that was a good movie. The original is a lot like “Raiders of the
Lost Ark” in that you cannot recreate the conditions to keep making sequels
with the same feel and success of the original. You cannot bring the cast, many
of which REFUSED to do any more Ghostbusters movies, back to make a third film
that would somehow magically be unlike every other late-coming sequel. You just
cannot.
So, I agree with
Mike Stolaska of Redletter Media when he said that you can only change the
gender. While he ended up hating this movie, he is correct. Is doing this a gimmick?
Well, it is not a gimmick to the women actors taking part, it's another big
project they are included on. I mean, right now there are two John Carpenter
remakes in the works - "Big Trouble in Little China" with The Rock,
which every one seems okay with, and "Escape from New York" which
everyone states "Could be good in the right hands". Which prompts me
to ask, Why are we not as outraged about THESE REMAKES as we were about
"Ghostbusters"?
Why did we dig in
on this one, why this one movie in particular?
6:[ Why Boycotts NEVER work:
Someone will always break the boycott…
And Walk Out
Protests never work because, aren’t you just getting rid of the problem for
them? Out of sight, out of mind…?
That is it for this
month. As always, I invite you to comment, correct, or contradict anything I
write here. I am open to a critical debate. Thanks for taking the time to check
out what I write here and I will see you in a month.
Until next time, remember
“I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything
really are.”
2016 Ernest M Whiteman III