Welcome to the Bachman Future.

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Wed, 08/16/2017 - 7:17pm

So, was looking at twitter, and noticing all the good, hearty DNC types distributing pictures of the Nazis and demanding that we bring them to justice. Good old fashioned mob justice carried out through everyone paying attention to the photos and checking their neighborhoods for the evil vicious ones who most assuredly might even be YOUR NEIGHBOR...

Aaaaand I realized if you swap out TV for Twitter... we've essentially created "The Running Man."

Not the Arnold movie, although that was a great deal of fun with Richard Dawson absolutely SLAYING it as the future face of television. Practically prophetic performance with regards to television, but that's not the topic at hand...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ceegnWSENQ]

I'm actually referring to the Novel by Stephen King, writing under the alias "Richard Bachman". The novel version of the Running Man is quite different, where instead of being a watcher of the program, the audience is expected to help HUNT the villain. The villain is demonized, and everyone is told to be on the lookout for this foul creature. People are told to watch their neighbor, and they too might be a hero for a reward.

Yes, I think we should remember, that at the heart of it all, Twitter is an entertainment medium. The entertainment of choice is the most hideous of hunts, turning us against our fellow man who has committed the most heinous of sins! How do we know that he has? Why, Twitter TOLD US that he did! The wheels of justice grind far too slowly, and we must take matters into our own hands! We must smash the citizens who dared disagree with the known leaders of our most moral society.

The end of the Running Man, in 1985, predicted that there would be no happy ending for the protagonist. He was offered a job by the corporate overlords, because he was too good at escaping. It was very clear that his choice was either to accept the subservient place in the structure, or be eliminated. The final scene is a pure example of desperation. With nothing left, and no chance to succeed, the protagonist crashes a plane into the headquarters of those who made the game in the first place.

So this is the future we find ourselves in. Justice is for sale to those who have the proper connections, be it money or favors. If you have neither, all it takes is one moment to define you for all time. If you have both, no sins will stain you. However, for the people, the ones who see the disparity and wish to strike back, there will be villains provided. They will be smirking, or festooned in the regalia of past times. They will pose a clear and present threat to you, because the PTB tell you they do. They will be punished for their misdeeds, and it will fall to YOU to help, for the rule of law is so slow...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Mg6Gfh9Co]

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Comments

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Wed, 08/16/2017 - 7:19pm

Yes, I'm using the Cabaret clip ironically.

It seems to me that the outward trappings and the behavior are both present.

All Nazis are Fascists...
But NOT all Fascists are Nazis...

—

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Submitted by lizzyh7 on Wed, 08/16/2017 - 7:36pm

Love that last line in the clip

@detroitmechworks "you still think you can control them?"

—

Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Wed, 08/16/2017 - 7:54pm

Yes, they do think they can control them...

@lizzyh7 They have to use them to stop the Communists, after all...

(History is so cyclical sometimes...)

—

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:24pm

Great execution of a very good analogy.

I knew Running Man in novel form. The movie I remember less. But there were similar story lines being produced at that time, tales of corporate-media-government home-viewer distraction and propaganda push. Rollerball was one. 1984 was another, but it focused less on the public distraction and more on what the government was doing that required the public to be distracted.

In any event, it is very hard to see such things if one is the middle of such a push, such as the the one the US has been immersed in for four years, now, which began following the Snowden affair. In the movies, it's always just this one guy who can see it. And, it's no fun being that guy. The guy who can see behind the curtain? It's a very lonely existence.

Which brings to mind Oliver Stone. A really rather regular kind of guy. Talented at research. Good at making movies. Better at making documentaries. Outstanding at seeing things he's not supposed to see. Without going into his work, I was surprised to run across him in the news today, ambushed in a foreign land by reporters anxious for his take on Trump and the current blow up. I thought Stone handled it well.

Speaking Tuesday during a master class at the Sarajevo Film Festival following a screening of his movie Snowden, Stone said he had not been in the U.S. for some time but was following events.

"You are all trying to get to Trump every day, but there is a bigger problem," the filmmaker said when asked what he thought of President Trump's initial failure to call out white supremacists in his response to the Charlottesville events.

"There is a system [in America], and that system existed before Trump," Stone said. "Putin said this is the fourth [U.S.] president where nothing has changed. There is a deep state, a military industrial security state. ... It is the system that has to be challenged. [Trump] is part of that system."

He reiterated: "It is the system that has to be challenged. That takes work and is never as exciting as talking about some lunatic president."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oliver-stone-charlottesville-trump...

But it reminded me, too, that the US cannot be challenged from inside the US. The US cannot be changed from the inside, either.

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Wed, 08/16/2017 - 11:08pm

I find that fiction of the 80's was surprisingly adroit...

@Pluto's Republic at portraying what is to come, at least in the themes. (Neuromancer is another that comes to mind.)

I knew Running Man in novel form. The movie I remember less. But there were similar story lines being produced at that time, tales of corporate-media-government home-viewer distraction and propaganda push. Rollerball was one. 1984 was another, but it focused less on the public distraction and more on what the government was doing that required the public to be distracted. In any event, it is very hard to see such things if one is the middle of such a push, such as the the one the US has been immersed in for four years, now, which began following the Snowden affair. In the movies, it's always just this one guy who can see it. And, it's no fun being that guy. The guy who can see behind the curtain? It's a very lonely existence. Which brings to mind Oliver Stone. A really rather regular kind of guy. Talented at research. Good at making movies. Better at making documentaries. Outstanding at seeing things he's not supposed to see. Without going into his work, I was surprised to run across him in the news today, ambushed in a foreign land by reporters anxious for his take on Trump and the current blow up. I thought Stone handled it well. Speaking Tuesday during a master class at the Sarajevo Film Festival following a screening of his movie Snowden, Stone said he had not been in the U.S. for some time but was following events. "You are all trying to get to Trump every day, but there is a bigger problem," the filmmaker said when asked what he thought of President Trump's initial failure to call out white supremacists in his response to the Charlottesville events. "There is a system [in America], and that system existed before Trump," Stone said. "Putin said this is the fourth [U.S.] president where nothing has changed. There is a deep state, a military industrial security state. ... It is the system that has to be challenged. [Trump] is part of that system." He reiterated: "It is the system that has to be challenged. That takes work and is never as exciting as talking about some lunatic president." http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oliver-stone-charlottesville-trump... But it reminded me, too, that the US cannot be challenged from inside the US. The US cannot be changed from the inside, either.

—

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Thu, 08/17/2017 - 12:02am

Neuromancer and the elite cyberpunk offerings

@detroitmechworks

…changed it all up. Snow Crash, too.

Stone added that the situation in the U.S. today was scarily close to the kind of world George Orwell wrote about in his futuristic novel 1984.

"1984 is here. We are there. The only thing they have not yet done is to erase history … there are still people who remember things," he said. "One week it is terrorism [that dominates the headlines], the next week Putin and the next Korea."

It was, Stone said, "just like Hate Week in 1984, where the name of the country and the face of the leader changes halfway through a rally. They are doing it now and getting away with it."

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Thu, 08/17/2017 - 11:02am

And we're having that history erasure discussion now.

@Pluto's Republic But that's another diary and another topic.

—

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Submitted by Dr. John Carpenter on Thu, 08/17/2017 - 8:27am

I'm glad Stone gets it

@Pluto's Republic Too bad he has to go overseas to say it. You're 100% right, I'm afraid. Change won't come from within. You can't make a statement like that without being accused of being "one of them" even though the them is just one side of a coin represents the true problem.

I knew Running Man in novel form. The movie I remember less. But there were similar story lines being produced at that time, tales of corporate-media-government home-viewer distraction and propaganda push. Rollerball was one. 1984 was another, but it focused less on the public distraction and more on what the government was doing that required the public to be distracted. In any event, it is very hard to see such things if one is the middle of such a push, such as the the one the US has been immersed in for four years, now, which began following the Snowden affair. In the movies, it's always just this one guy who can see it. And, it's no fun being that guy. The guy who can see behind the curtain? It's a very lonely existence. Which brings to mind Oliver Stone. A really rather regular kind of guy. Talented at research. Good at making movies. Better at making documentaries. Outstanding at seeing things he's not supposed to see. Without going into his work, I was surprised to run across him in the news today, ambushed in a foreign land by reporters anxious for his take on Trump and the current blow up. I thought Stone handled it well. Speaking Tuesday during a master class at the Sarajevo Film Festival following a screening of his movie Snowden, Stone said he had not been in the U.S. for some time but was following events. "You are all trying to get to Trump every day, but there is a bigger problem," the filmmaker said when asked what he thought of President Trump's initial failure to call out white supremacists in his response to the Charlottesville events. "There is a system [in America], and that system existed before Trump," Stone said. "Putin said this is the fourth [U.S.] president where nothing has changed. There is a deep state, a military industrial security state. ... It is the system that has to be challenged. [Trump] is part of that system." He reiterated: "It is the system that has to be challenged. That takes work and is never as exciting as talking about some lunatic president." http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oliver-stone-charlottesville-trump... But it reminded me, too, that the US cannot be challenged from inside the US. The US cannot be changed from the inside, either.

—

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Submitted by FuturePassed on Thu, 08/17/2017 - 5:56pm

Your Cabaret clip

seems to me to present a compelling case for not remaining silent. Was the murdered Bernie supporter part of the McResistance? Or was she an educated paralegal who knew more about the Nazis than many here and could not stand aside. When they are unopposed their numbers appear to be magnified. The contagion spreads more easily. I know a number of Bernie supporters who went to the inaugural demonstration. They weren't happy about the attempted takeover by Hillary supporters, but somehow they managed to draw energy and emerge uncorrupted. Made some contacts with people of similar mind in other states too.

We can't change it from within. We can't change it from without. So we type away to people who agree with us while waiting for the miracle?