Believing that over a billion people are all unilaterally controlled by a single person is not only peak great man theory, but also just another extension of rabid racism
From observation it seems really handy for crushing all nuance, too. Who did the Holodumber? Stalin. By himself. WIth a big spoon. Don’t ask why Ukrainian communist officials in Ukraine were genociding Ukrainians. Stalin did it, alone, by himself.
The cultural revolution? Mao did it. Just Mao. No one else was involved. We can condemn the entire country because the entire country is just one dude on a framed propaganda poster. Or like “we’re going to sanction Saddam” or whoever, because sanctioning hte dictator is justifiable, whereas people might ask why we’re pushing millions or tens of millions of people because we don’t like the guy that supposedly single handedly runs the entire country.
That was such a brilliant, wonderful, terrible line. Just… so much… political bullshit and lies and dissembling and cruelty and indifference is tied up in that line.
I found it really authentic because everyone was totally bought-in to the camp. The things that would have been camp were part of these people’s lives, and there was so much attention to detail in how they spoke, moved, dressed, and acted that it sold the whole thing as real people in a real culture living their lives. Like the war boys weren’t dumb, mindless thugs throwing themselves to their death for nothing like in an 80s action movie. They took time to show how they were devoted to Joe, they had religious beliefs, they genuinely thought of themselves as heroes fighting for a worthwhile cause. They invested the warboys with so much depth and character that I, at least, never thought they were silly. These are warriors from a warrior culture who have their rituals of war, their symbols of valor, their pride, their pathos. When the one guy takes a bolt to the head and his buddies are praying for him to get up so he can die as a hero there’s just so much realness in that moment.
And for me, personally, I know a little bit about guys like General Butt Naked in the Liberian civil war, and some other pretty out-there gangs and warbands and mercenary companies, so a lot of the “over the top” elements were recognizably similar to things that warrior cultures do in real life.
Believing that over a billion people are all unilaterally controlled by a single person is not only peak great man theory, but also just another extension of rabid racism
From observation it seems really handy for crushing all nuance, too. Who did the Holodumber? Stalin. By himself. WIth a big spoon. Don’t ask why Ukrainian communist officials in Ukraine were genociding Ukrainians. Stalin did it, alone, by himself.
The cultural revolution? Mao did it. Just Mao. No one else was involved. We can condemn the entire country because the entire country is just one dude on a framed propaganda poster. Or like “we’re going to sanction Saddam” or whoever, because sanctioning hte dictator is justifiable, whereas people might ask why we’re pushing millions or tens of millions of people because we don’t like the guy that supposedly single handedly runs the entire country.
4chan calls us Chinese people “soulless bug men” and it’s just so cool and good that the Economist is printing the polite version of that.
Bu… But you’re brainwashed! YOU DO NOT ACTUALLY NEED FOOD! DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!
Do not, my friends, become addicted to food. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence!
That was such a brilliant, wonderful, terrible line. Just… so much… political bullshit and lies and dissembling and cruelty and indifference is tied up in that line.
It’s a great film; so much of it could easily have come across as hokey or dumb, but somehow it all works.
I found it really authentic because everyone was totally bought-in to the camp. The things that would have been camp were part of these people’s lives, and there was so much attention to detail in how they spoke, moved, dressed, and acted that it sold the whole thing as real people in a real culture living their lives. Like the war boys weren’t dumb, mindless thugs throwing themselves to their death for nothing like in an 80s action movie. They took time to show how they were devoted to Joe, they had religious beliefs, they genuinely thought of themselves as heroes fighting for a worthwhile cause. They invested the warboys with so much depth and character that I, at least, never thought they were silly. These are warriors from a warrior culture who have their rituals of war, their symbols of valor, their pride, their pathos. When the one guy takes a bolt to the head and his buddies are praying for him to get up so he can die as a hero there’s just so much realness in that moment.
And for me, personally, I know a little bit about guys like General Butt Naked in the Liberian civil war, and some other pretty out-there gangs and warbands and mercenary companies, so a lot of the “over the top” elements were recognizably similar to things that warrior cultures do in real life.
What movie is this it sounds lit
Mad Max Fury Road