tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post8080679914382759133..comments2024-03-17T03:42:21.277-05:00Comments on LEARNING CURVE ON THE ECLIPTIC: "Mad as Hell"...Paddy Chayefsky...NetworkTwilighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-35034105009086928102010-04-19T14:49:46.201-05:002010-04-19T14:49:46.201-05:00Julie D ~~ Hi there!
Glad it was of interest. :-)...Julie D ~~ Hi there!<br />Glad it was of interest. :-)<br /><br />Yes, if things carry at the same pace I dread to think what it'll be like - erm- 35 years from now (same length of time as from Network's release 'til 2010).<br />I'll not be here to see it though.Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-54047907697233310322010-04-19T13:54:53.200-05:002010-04-19T13:54:53.200-05:00Hi Twi! I just recently saw 'Network' agai...Hi Twi! I just recently saw 'Network' again, after having seen it in the 70s, and was totally bowled over by how what had seemed so over-the-top back them has become commonplace (normal!!)today. Makes you wonder what we think is satire today might turn out to be the reality of tomorrow :)<br /><br />Thanks for a great read! jdJulie Dhttp://juliedemboski.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-82490227665396167892010-04-19T10:51:04.656-05:002010-04-19T10:51:04.656-05:00Ron Southern ~ I had to look up Gene Roddenberry (...Ron Southern ~ I had to look up Gene Roddenberry (I live and learn!) Yes, your assumption seems a very reasonable one. :-)Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-22514368810738663072010-04-19T09:47:20.573-05:002010-04-19T09:47:20.573-05:00I never read that Gene Roddenberry said so, but I ...I never read that Gene Roddenberry said so, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was well aware of that 451 TV-threat when he "killed" off the monster in his future-fictions!Ron Southernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08604305014713612990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-9056372851713329242010-04-19T08:53:06.360-05:002010-04-19T08:53:06.360-05:00Ron Southern ~ Hi Ron!
I didn't watch Star Tre...Ron Southern ~ Hi Ron!<br />I didn't watch Star Trek (yes, I'm the one!) From the few clips I've seen as trailers etc. it always seemed like fantasy - and as far as the demise of TV, it has proved that way. <br /><br />The thing about TV I recall most clearly in sci-fi is in "Farenheit 451". Montag's house has whole walls as TV screens switched on all the time. The wife thinks it'd be good to have the one wall that is still blank "done", and is completely hypnotised by it all.<br />The USA's getting there. :-(Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-45127192482185420612010-04-18T18:03:06.067-05:002010-04-18T18:03:06.067-05:00I saw Network when it was released and have seen ...I saw Network when it was released and have seen it now and then since then. I would never have believed (the first time) that it would be so accurate, but the film is small potatoes as far as predicting the insensitivity and insensibility of TV productions that are currently new and popular. I always thought that one of the great things about "Star Trek"'s view of the future was the unmentioned, but obvious lack of all television that was being predicted!!!Ron Southernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08604305014713612990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-65312721999986609702010-04-18T08:51:40.712-05:002010-04-18T08:51:40.712-05:00WWW ~~ Agreed about Peter Finch.
I don't know ...WWW ~~ Agreed about Peter Finch.<br />I don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan - had a quick Google and will investigate him.<br />Maybe an interesting blog subject.<br />:-)<br /><br />Hmm I see you and TNPOTUS have similar ideas about making one's small corner of the world & personal life okay in spite of what's going on ....I appreciate your feelings, and realise that really that's the only option we have. Yet I'm not happy with that frame of mind. If everybody had always felt like that where would ordinary people be now?<br /><br />I'd like to see another Eugene Debs or Paul Wellstone in the USA, somebody with the balls to stick to their guns on behalf of the people. Nowadays it's all too synthetic, too staged, too manipulative. <br /><br /> TV gets worse with each year, newspapers are biassed as hell. Pundits are in the pay of corporations and are providing distraction from what really matters.<br /><br />Where's the huge outcry against the Citizens' United decision by the Supreme Court? Getting rid of corporate personhood would solve a lot, but would they ever dare launch a strong campaign - why would they bite the hand that feeds 'em ?<br /><br />Nothing has changed since Network, only for the worse. :-(Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-42009646174848958262010-04-17T20:39:36.747-05:002010-04-17T20:39:36.747-05:00Interesting post and interesting comments T. Much ...Interesting post and interesting comments T. Much to munch on.<br />I saw that movie way back, I think Peter got his post-humous Oscar for it, a brilliant performance from a seriously under-rated actor.<br />I've seen the movie since and it has never lost its power. Though when I did see it in the seventies I remember thinking:they allowed this criticism of the media to fly publicly? (it was the age of Marshall McLuhan too, remember?)<br />As to your comment on 'our side' I don't think there ever was an our side. I was re-reading about corporations yesterday about how they convinced government to treat them as persons and not let the shareholders be accountable. Ever. <br />And this was back in the railroad creation era.<br />And then prior to then you had the serfs and the lords and not much else apart from Big Church.<br />Utopia is personal and not collective. IMHO.<br />XO<br />WWWWisewebwomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15281689872840844191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-73570310016456367532010-04-17T17:28:48.216-05:002010-04-17T17:28:48.216-05:00TNPOTUS~ Hi!
I agree in part. Once up and runn...TNPOTUS~ Hi! <br /><br />I agree in part. Once up and running as it has been for centuries, it'd take a lot to displace The System - and I'm meaning worldwide, not just USA.<br />It'd take a cataclysm of some sort.<br />Then it'd take a century or so to crank up again and gradually reach the state we're in today.<br /><br />I don't think it's the worst of times either. The worst of times for me was World War 2 in the UK, when we didn't know if there'd even be a tomorrow to gripe about. ;-)<br /><br />What's worrying now though is that there's nobody on our side any more. Everyone's gone to the...(not the Moon like the song says) but to the corporations.<br /><br />Who's on our side now?<br /><br />I don't know about the UK, but here I can think of nobody.<br />Obama isn't, Kucinich isn't, Sanders isn't. They care more about the party and the System than about us. The socialist party is asleep and seem only interested in union members.<br />The Greens are half-hearted and ineffective.<br /><br />Sigh. <br /><br />As we spiral around things change in subtle ways. Now we have more problems about the environment, but more communication via the internet, more chances to exchange views - and become paranoid! ;-0<br /><br />What bothers me most is that nobody is on our side any more, and to me that is a very bad sign.Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-59778590641049465692010-04-17T16:57:02.898-05:002010-04-17T16:57:02.898-05:00Lots of folks "got it" in '76, but w...Lots of folks "got it" in '76, but were already hip deep in the illusion, unable or unwilling to break out. So it goes with information dissemination and commercialism.<br /><br />The System always survives. That's why you just find a place you can cutout for yourself and try to control as many things in your life as possible. I suspect it's always been that way.<br /><br />Oh, is that too pessimistic? I've never been real big on the notion a universally idyllic existence exists.<br /><br />Contrary to the general impression, however, I don't think these are the worst of times. It's just another turn on the wheel.The Next President of the United Statesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-533800134714719032010-04-17T13:23:19.329-05:002010-04-17T13:23:19.329-05:00anonym ~~ Hi!
Ah - you remember those days in the...anonym ~~ Hi!<br /><br />Ah - you remember those days in the USA - I'm interested to hear (read) that.<br /><br />Yes, the pattern seems to have recurred but on another, deeper level of some kind of spiral.<br /><br />If astrology is a guide, back in 1975 Pluto the great transformer was in Libra - known as the sign of balance and diplomacy. Now Pluto's in Capricorn another cardinal sign but diplomacy and balance are not high on the agenda any more. Capricorn represents business and status quo, Pluto = transformative power.<br /><br />We'll see! I doubt that getting mad as hell (as in Tea Party) will change anything. It'll take something drastic and cataclysmic.Twilighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14138621610593773784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16659850.post-6555836386879225272010-04-17T12:40:28.344-05:002010-04-17T12:40:28.344-05:00I absolutely do agree: “If the movie’s theme was a...I absolutely do agree: “If the movie’s theme was appropriate in 1976, it’s a hundred times moreso now.” <br />I do remeber that passage when the “Tv Mad prophet” is called by the “Big Boss” and this last explains him the “mystery of The Capital”, that no Russians or Americans - at that age - were anything else but a small element of a greater System, the greatest force on Earth, that of Capitals, the flux of money, the Market which determines anything on this planet... <br /><br />And this became even more true in our age... <br /><br />I also remember that age as a moment of rage, collective rage... <br /><br />To which the System survived... <br /><br />But now the “sense” is that it won’t survive... Something more basic is changed...Anonymhttp://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=453782385&blogId=518606217noreply@blogger.com