Cinemexpectations #1
It seems like almost a tendency for all good movies, to be released by the end of the year. And the worst part of it? The trailers come along long before the official premieres, which is a huge tease.
So here are several movies that I am looking forward to see by the end of 2011.
As a psychology major and big admirer of Carl Jung and not admirer of Sigmund Freud at all, I am eager to see their historical relationship that gave birth to psychoanalysis on screen. I am filling my basket of expectations, mostly because this is not just a movie about Freud and Jung, but a movie about Freud and Jung directed by David Cronenberg, who just happens to be one of my all-time favorite film makers out there. I would’ve been inpatient to wait this movie out, no matter what it was about just for the sake of Cronenberg’s. On top of that, the man have casted Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung, for whom I have a great admiration ever since I saw him in Hunger. So, hold your horses people and wait till November.
Generation whY: Don’t wait out. Act.
Sociology called it Generation Y, the New York Times called it Generation Limbo and as much as I dislike Oliver Stone, his latest movie, the sequel to Wall Street, said it right on: the NINJA generation. No Income, No Jobs, No Assets.
We are the generation of post-corporate greed, financial market miscalculations, economic bubbles and failed intelligence that led to expensive for-profit wars. We are the generation facing the new war for global energy dominance, the once that grew up with the standard of living of yesterday, but will have to put up with the one of tomorrow. We go under the slogans of dot-com bubble, uranium bubble, US housing market bubble etc. We are living in bubbleland and those bubbles pop one after another. Morality, relationships, ambition, dignity and sooner or later humanity bubble will also blow-up in a massive proportions. Let it blow.
Solid points about my anti-marriage and anti-children attitude
There is a point in every woman’s life, in which her mother and/or other female relatives share their hopes and dreams of their ideal son-in-law and grandchildren. Which is where I begin to have big problems explaining my attitude towards this two glamorized institutions. And today I had to confront my point of views to my mother and aunt, who shared their dreams about my future, without consulting me first. It is weird that even today a woman is expected to get married and have children – sometimes it feels like almost a duty you have to repay to society. Marry and reproduce?
So, here is what I have to say on the subject of marriage and children:
If marriage didn’t exist, would you invent it? Would you go “Baby, this shit we got together, it’s so good we gotta get the government in on this shit. We can’t just share this commitment ‘tweenst us. We need judges and lawyers involved in this shit, baby. It’s hot!
- Doug Stanhope
Let’s start with marriage. It is over-glamorized institution with expensive PR and huge annual profit. When you peal off the scab of marriage it is nothing more than a legal contract between two people, whom by putting their signature declare they will never sleep with anyone else, but each other. There is nothing romantic about a bunch of lawyers and governmental officials, digging into your personal and sexual relationship with your partner. So, as Doug Stanhope have already put it, if marriage didn’t exist would you invent it? Would you involve bunch of judges and lawyers in this?
A generation of permanent cripples
All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create … a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody—or at least some force—is tending the Light at the end of the tunnel. This is the same cruel and paradoxically benevolent bullshit that has kept the Catholic Church going for so many centuries. It is also the military ethic … a blind faith in some higher and wiser authority.. The Pope, The General, The Prime Minister … all the way up to ‘God.
2011 Norway attacks: Xenophobia and its consequences
The attacks
The 2011 Norway attacks were two sequential terrorist attacks against the civilian population, the government, and a political summer camp in Norway on 22 July 2011. The first was a car bomb explosion in Regjeringskvartalet, the executive government quarter of Oslo, at 15:25:19 (CEST), outside the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and other government buildings. The explosion killed eight people and wounded several others, with more than 10 people critically injured.
The second attack occurred less than two hours later at a youth camp organized by the youth organization of the ruling Norwegian Labour Party on the island of Utøya in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud. A gunman disguised as a policeman opened fire at the participants, killing 77 attendees. The Norwegian Police Service arrested Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian right-wing extremist, for the mass shootings in Utøya and subsequently charged him with both attacks.
This is just bad journalism
Have you ever thought about the way the news are presented to the wide public? Doesn’t it seem to you, that most of today’s mainstream media is based on political partiality, rather than actual and affirmative information? For the past 4 years, Wikileaks, has revealed more classified documents and factual based information about the activities of the world governments, than all world media combined! Is it possible? Is it really possible, that a rather small organization of political activists is capable of getting their hands on valuable insight information about our leaders activities, than all world media combined? Isn’t a little disturbing that the media’s worldwide are doing such a bad job?
I am not planing to dedicate this blog entry to neither Wikileaks, Julian Assange and the whole Swedish “rape” scandal. Here we will be talking about bad journalism and using the recent events as an example.
The day the economy stood still
Or how much harm a pension reform can do to the economy? While I watch the morning news on euronews, I couldn’t help it wonder – is this going to be another 1995 for France? How much harm to the economy can 7 days of strikes and protests do? In 1995 the French people protested against the Juppe government’s pension reform for three weeks – three weeks of paralyzed economy.
These days, the state railway company SNCF reported an estimated 20 million euros in losses each day. On the other hand, the fuel shortage in the country is hitting hard too – more than four thousand stations have run dry, since the blockade of refineries. And the consequences of those actions already led to the rising prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene. For the past three weeks the country’s two main oil ports have been blocked by demonstrators and the cost of those actions are already topping 30 million euros.
So how far this can go? Nobody really knows. Despite all the economical damage that these strikes all over the country made, there is something very important to be learned. It is not the wealthy class of the population that runs a country – its the middle and/or the lower working class, that is the engine. Countries all over the western capitalist world can learn from this. Even a country like Denmark, who have this anti-wealth policy of high taxes towards people with higher income. If they don’t stop bragging about immigration issues on the TV 24/7, things might just get out of control (well, unfortunately not all immigrants in Denmark are like the French, who can keep up a one moth strike straight). Imagine what will happen to a country like Denmark, if all the working immigrants go on a long strike? No bus drivers, therefore no public transportation; no cleaning crews, therefore – no clean offices, streets & buildings, and the more we move up on the hierarchy ladder, the worse the situation looks.
So, be aware – those who strike the streets, control your destiny. So governmental officials, watch the fuck out!
Some shit you have to put up with, if living in the UK
I am a travel addict and so far, I’ve never felt the urge to go back home – like any addict known to man I wanted more and more and more. Not until I landed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (holy shit, those guys need some over sized passports to fit that one!). This place is nothing like Europe. As I said years ago – can’t we move this island, next to the US? It seems those two belong together.
Anyway, I have prepared a list with shit you have to put up with, if living/moving to the UK.
1. Upside-down effect.
The UK is not like any other country you will see in Europe. Everything is on the wrong side – not just their cars. Being not aware of how distant UK is I found myself unable to recharge neither my phone or laptop, due to the different electrical outlets they have over there. Check it out. If you are living west from Germany, you might as well have being used to the common EU currency, but be prepared for the English pound and find yourselves an over sized wallet, otherwise the paper money will be sticking out of you wallet. A lot of things seem over sized in the UK – not just the people (I was watching a woman on the bus stop, trying to distinguish where her tits end and her belly starts – people, there is overweight and there is FAT – a lot of English people worship the MacDonald’s/KFC/Subway/Pizza Hut temples – you could tell…they are fucking everywhere!)
A list of people I can do without
Dear readers,
you know how much I love being vicious . So let’s move on – here is a list of people who’s mother’s I hoped had medical plans that included abortion:
1. Tom Cruise.
Fuck him and his family and his scientology (shit, wordpress is underlining that word, but I won’t capitalize it – go to hell!) beliefs. The film industry won’t lose that much, I promise. There are bunch of short guys with well cut bodies out there that can perform in Mission Impossible 11. We are not losing a Marlon Brando here, let’s be clear with that. The thing that really bugs me with that guy, is not so much his acting, but his efforts to advertise scientology. I will bash about any person, who is openly advertising religion in a first place, but those who are speaking out for a dangerous sect are crossing the line. I mean, when you are a celebrity, you sort of hold some responsibility towards your audience. People are dumb and they will believe anything a charming actor tells them. What kind of a sick mother fucker you have to be to promote that shit? When I will meet an actor who openly promotes LSD? At least LSD makes you more open minded being, while religion is just retarding people even more.
We only choose to be Rational, after being Insane
In between my studies, I like to fill my spare time with observation. And if I am really in a masochistic sort of mood, I like to observe the political, financial and social structure of the world we live in today. Or in other words – watch it completely fall apart. For whatever is worth, I believe that falling apart is the only way for us to survive as a civilization at that point – the very history of our existence has proven that we only learn through collapse, pain, loss and cruelty. It took us centuries of misery, brutality and executions to realize that medicine and science in not a heresy and religion will not cure our physical pain or improve our day-to-day quality of life. It took Europe 30 years of brutal conflicts to dissolve the imperial system of governance and instill the emerging nation-state. It took the human race hundreds of thousands of years of war, terror and inner revolution, to stand where it stands today. We have evolved and changed a lot, but obviously not enough. Because we still choose chaos, war and insanity over peace, understanding and rationality.
The very existence of complex life on this planet is a result of numerous catastrophic disasters, that for what its worth, happened for the better. Although, most of the reasons why we exist in a first place is due to nature’s way of operating, we, as a species with an upper-brain, have made quite some effort to exterminate our very own existence. Even today. We might think we are more evolved and civilized today, but we are still living in barbaric times – more technologically advanced barbaric times, but barbaric times nonetheless.
You don’t think this statement is true? Turn on the TV – put some well-established international news on. Screen the recent issues of New York Times, the Guardian or any other newspaper that comes along. Look around yourself. You still believe we don’t live in barbaric times? If not – what would you call the wars in Iraq and Afganistan we have going? What would you call the recent events in Middle East? Or North Korea? Or Ukraine? Greece? Norway? USA? Czech Republic and Bulgaria these days? You call this behavior civilized? Rational? Non-barbaric? If yes, my dear reader, you need an emergency psych consult and probably a neurological interference. Because, what is going on today is exactly the opposite of civilized.
In my humble opinion, what is going on today, is not only the fault of failed governance, corruption or miscalculated risks. Nope. I see it mostly as a stage of our own evolution as people – and at this point we failed. WE as a collection of species, haven’t learned how to care for one another, respect, tolerate and understand each other. We haven’t truly evolved to the point, where we don’t need an upper-power (e.g. government or religion) to tell us right from wrong. Today, the legacy of being controlled is so ingrained, that we don’t even need chains to be called slaves. We are slaves – slaves of the upper-one percent of this population that dictates you who you are, who you should be, what are your priorities, your heroes, your political views, your goals. Yes, your goals. Do you know what your major goal is? To shut up, not pay attention, consume and not care for anybody else but your damn self. Consume all the over-priced products from unhealthy processed food to the latest iShit, so the corporate monopole can earn billions from our blind consumption, banks can earn trillions from our credit card interest rates and government can quietly continue to serve the people they were put on to serve – the elite. Not you and me. So let’s not pretend that the people you vote for every 4 years are actually defending your interests.
And when this not very well written scenario started showing its serious gaping holes, the logical thing for us to do was to peacefully challenge all forms of authority and centralized political and economic power and attempt to eliminate them for their unjustified choices of governance and try to establish a libertarian social society, in which we understand our collective responsibility and….oh, wait, wait, wait…this is what we might have done if we were rational and civilized people. And instead of seeking responsibility to ourselves and those at the top of the food chain, we did the only thing we knew how – turned against each other.
A Norwegian right-winger, after years of racial and ethnic tension that was quietly suppressed in the society, killed dozens of innocent people. The Danish Immigration authorities, on the other hand, inspired by the anti-foreigners movement started deporting people, even children, without any solid grounds and violating some basic human rights. The Greeks responded to the collapse of their entire country by violent protest, that caused numerous serious injuries to people and countless millions of euro in damages (just what they needed to not go bankrupt). The English, followed Greece’s example – no surprise there. Now Eastern Europe is going insane due to problems with the Roma communities, Sarkozy is getting more and more arrogant in his political statements, even before the French got out on the streets, the US switched from one hell to another – now they are governed by Obama, and despite his intelligence, charisma and obvious oratorical skills, his administration is from top to bottom – Wall Street. The Middle East is going ape shit after their repressive leaders started falling like dominoes (much like the Balkans after the fall of the USSR) and Israel is still holding somewhat arrogant position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (yes, I watched the entire UN hearing). The North Korean abomination is still not over and sooner or later we will witness a war between the two Koreas, Japan’s moral views cannot keep up with the ruthless capitalism, so more and more suicides occur on daily basis, Indonesia is sinking in more and more corruption with each passing day, the African population is getting progressively worse, should I go on?
Long story short – we are doing it all wrong. And I have come to live with it, because from my personal observations, for the most part, people are not ready to be rational. We would probably turn to peace, after we have exhausted any other option.