Job Discussion Forums

[benno]

[benno]

[stillnosheep]

............

[moonraven]

distiller--What precisely is the "good stuff" not exported from the US that you so coyly refer to but never give us any examples of? What is being kept for Yanks only?

You can't be talking about films--as at least here in Latin America every piece of Hollywood drivel ends up in a multiplex or as a bus pic on the first class buses.

In all fairness, I saw a pretty well done one when I went to the US to vote--set, appropriately in west Texas doggone close to Midland, the oiltown in which the Bushburger began his interminable adolescence--about the bumps and dumps and slumps of highschool football. Not exactly what I wanted to know about, but a few good performances--including by Billy Bob Thornton. Friday Night Lights.

To get back to the original topic of this thread: exporting terror as the War on Terror, war as peace, McDonald's as food, and the rest of the double-speak of globalization leaves everybody on the planet holding the bag--and it ain't filled with cheap burgers.

[dmb]

Am I alone? I actually like Big Macs. My stomach doesn't do politics.

[moonraven]

You aren't alone--there will be thousands like you sporting colostomy bags from frequenting McDonald's.

I think there's a film floating around out there called "Supersize Me"--about the health hazards of eating at McDonald's. Haven't seen it, but don't think it's political.

[distiller]

[moonraven]

As usual, distiller, you didn't get it. Either that or you have a reading problem--in which case there will be no more interchanges between us. When I said you couldn't be talking about films being kept For Yanks ONLY I mentioned specifically that they all end up here either in multi-plexes or on buses. Almost ALL of the films you mentioned have been shown here in Mexico--and though I don't see very many films from the US, I did see several from your list, including Ghost Dog, Being John Malkovitch and a few by the Coen brothers (liked The Man Who Wasn't There--heck, I'll even watch Woody Allen in black and white....)

For those who are watchers of TV here in Latin America--on the cable channels there are quite a number from the US including A&E.

The real crap from the States hits the Latin American screens in non-cable stations because it's CHEAP.

[distiller]

As everyone on this forum has pointed out numerous times it is you raven who don't get it. If you want me to name a bunch of movies that you've never heard of I can do that quite easily but showing an erudite collection of films was not the point. The point, which you missed, is that there is plenty quality American entertainment that for the most part does not reach the outside world or does so in a much more limited way than the crap entertainment does. How can you even begin to compare the exposure of the movies I listed with ones like Shrek, The Matrix and Finding Nemo? I don't know how much clearer I can make this: America has loads of great media but the majority of the stuff that is marketed overseas is not good and while some of the good stuff does reach overseas it does so in a very limited way.

And somehow I really doubt that Manufactering Consent, OT, You Can�t be Neutral on a Moving Train, American Movie, The Party�s Over, and The Corporation have shown at a Mexican multi-plex any time in this universe. It is even improbable that Coffee and Cigarettes, American Splendor, Crumb, Capturing the Friedmans, Spellbound, and Fog of War were shown at one either. If so then moonraven is living next to the best cinema in North America. So those are are 12 out of 19 of the films that I spoke of and you tried to say "ALMOST ALL" of those films have shown shown in Mexico. There's no need to lie just to make a point. Once again you've been exposed as being willing to compromise facts just to make a point. You're more like Bush than you know.

It's really pathetic to see how bigoted raven is in her anti-Americanism unfortunately it reveals a strain of anti-intellectualism that fits very neatly with her evidence lacking rants and raves about how the election was stolen.

[hamel]

the original film i mentioned, 1984, is not a hollywood film. it had john hurt and even richard burton. it is an english production--and a classic.

i went to college in seatle which used to be a great film town. now i live in korea where you can see hollywood junk every night and action films. i'd like to watch films in mexico actually.

korea has great milkshakes, but the big macs aren't good.

cheers to you all.

[Lyov]

I found this to be a very interesting and well written article. The parelles between Orwell's book and present day America are quite illuminating. Of course a sign of a great book is that it can be reflected in any age and time. The point is to see what realizations can be brought out of it.
This article makes has two important points. One is that the US government is decieving people and the second is that the US people are willing to be decieved. For those that say this article shows a lack of experiencal understanding of America simply fit into the second category. "Big Brother is watching you!" Those people are watching themselves and that means not understanding this article. If one who is actively being decieved reads this article and has a great revelation it would undermine the significant of the process that this artice hopes to explain. This deception is far deeper than where your recieve your information, it is the rearrangment of your life around a faith in something that you simultanously don't believe in. This is the nature of double-think.
After this whole thing is over (if it ever is) America will need some serious deprograming.
Peaches - I believe that your faith in relitivism is shortsighted and will only lead to passivism and malaise. Your philosophy is made to destroy and has no capacity to create.

To everyone else I know one good thing that comes out of Mongolia that I think comes from no where else. Buffelo flavored ramen! It even comes with a small tube of real buffelo fat for flavor. You can't get better than that. There is some genetic evidence that Mongolians are the ancestors of Native Americans. Imagine if white Americans hadn't wiped out both the natives and the buffelos, maybe americans would be enjoying buffelo flavored top ramen right now.

~Just a thought

Lyov

[moonraven]

distiller--this is my last word to you: take it or leave it. I live one hour and a half from one of the best cinema complexes in this hemisphere: it's called Cineteca, which is the Mexican national film complex and archives. In addition to showing better quality film offerings from the US, it also shows better quality films from other countries. (When I am in Caracas, Venezuela, I live 2 blocks from Venezuela's counterpart of Cineteca.) The National University of Mexico also operates cinemas both on and off campus that only show non-commercial films, and many of the HUNDREDS of museums in the Mexico City area include films series in their programming. I am sorry to disabuse you of your RACIST notion that Latin America is not completely filled with half-wits slobbering in front of tv soap operas. It's the US which has always been rampant with anti-intellectualism, and that anti-intellectual population has grown substantially in the 12 years I have not lived there.

The films that you mentioned are also not widely distributed in the US, as they are not money-makers, so stop trying to snow me with how they are available on every corner in Podunk, USA. They just aren't. I didn't spend more than 10 years as a film critic in the US without knowing where to find non-commercial films. Your idea of rattling off an "erudite" list of films to someone who gets PAID to do that is really infantile!

BTW, you are not EVERYBODY on this site. Not that it matters....

[distiller]

[Deborann]

The article drew parallels between current events and actions/reactions in the USA and in Oceania. It seems to me that most responses to this article ignored the content and were directed at other posters - a typical defence mechanism when the insights come too close.

Were there any parallels in the article that were not accurate? Are there other parts of '1984' that could equally be applied that provide a counter-view to that posited by the article? Are there other actions of the US government or a majority of American people that indicate the author was too narrow or extreme in the views presented?

[David Bowles]

T'was indeed thought-provoking stuff... but I'm not sure that the article's points couldn't be applied to lots, if not most, of the world's countries. On the comparison points the author raised, I'm sure that actual dictatorships come much closer to 1984 than the USA; the obvious example (me being there and all) being China.

Here the stuff about a permanent wartime mentality, the manufacture of fear, isolation from the rest of the world, and the ability to manipulate emotions and rewrite 'history' seems to ring much more true, with one possibly crucial difference. In China there is no public mechanism to remove those in power, or even to question them, since the media operates entirely on the government's say-so (the only potential exception, as I prove by writing this, being the interent).

Fox and other (undeniably politically involved) media agents may seem little better, except that in the USA there are alternative views publicly available. For all of the self-interest and corruption and lies involved, I think the independent media is one of the greatest assets of 'western democracy', and it guarantees the limitation of the abuse of governmental power.

To end on a positive note... In China the TV and newspapers and textbooks and teachers sing the government's song, and the extent to which millions of people consequently hold EXACTLY the same opinion on world events is frightening. Even here, however, there are people who question and doubt- strong as the Orwellian 'self-policing' of China appears to be, it's still far from complete. So I think there's hope after all.

(There, I didn't mention George Dubya Bush once. Oh, damnit.)