For those of you who have not seen Network, I urge you to rent it, a clip from “the Famous Boardroom speech is linked above. Paddy Chayefsky was prescient in 1976 and would have been appalled 38 yrs later. The only question remaining is where do we see ourselves in 20 yrs?
Commercial media no longer serves our needs as we are bombarded with entertainment to keep us subdued instead of being “Mad as Hell” ready to shout out the windows “I’m Mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more”? Based on our current economy and the plight of our people , we should be screaming our rage on a regular basis instead of remaining the Silent Majority
As we remain silent, let me quote a famous scene from Network, as the gospel, according to it’s UBS Board Chairman Arthur Jensen, is proclaimed: ( I loosely paraphrase) “people no longer matter, only the Corporations matter, remember this was 1976, IBM, AT&T, EXXON , and they matter because they control the flow of money in this world, thru $’s, petro dollars, rubles & pounds, etc. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. This is the natural order of things today.” It’s the rhythm of money flow that is important. Nothing else. ” The World is a Business. ” People are just humanoids to be cared for and sedated so that cannot impede the flow of money “as they serve the common profit for a share of stock.””. The only thing that Paddy Chayefsky forgot, because how could he know, in the future Plutocratic quest to control all the money in the world, they grievously neglected to take care of the needs of the people. Therein, ” lies the rub” and perhaps the eventual undoing of this Society of Greed.
As further evidence of Corporate disdain for the People, please read the following critique by David Clay Johnson , a Pulizter Prize Winner while at The New York Times, in his Al Jazeera Comment on The Comcast/Time Warner proposed merger. It can “make you mad as Hell”. Please note,” he correctly states, this is part of the larger problem, one of corrupting corporate influence and misguided government policies.
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/2/comcast-monopolycompetitiontimewarnerinternetcable.html