Monday, May 30, 2011

WALL -E (movie)

I was watching the Disney movie WALL -E and saw it more than a cartoon for children. I connected it with many of the issues we talk about in class. I also would like to mention that many movies in pop culture marinate on issues around the world and juggle with the morals they bring.

     

       The humans on the ship are completely run by a corporation who is run by a robotic autopilot. The humans are completely dependent upon their technology. They are disconnected and absent with the world around them. Addition to all this the humans all are obese from their lack of any physical movement and their diets which all consist of food in a cup.
I made so many connections with this move to what we talk about in class. In Eric Singers Fast Food Nation the book emphasizes the dominance and control corporations have over our government, which leads to the control of the regular people. WALL E had no government on the ship and the Autopilot which was the corporation had full control over all aspects of the humans life.
Even though the setting in WALL E was a deserted uninhabited earth and a huge spaceship which was built to safe hold all of earths humans, I don’t think it is a far cry of the American way of life. Every month, every year there is a new version of a product and the old product has become out dated. We are a society obsessed with seemingly new technology. These companies know we don’t need but will produce because that’s what everyone wants. In WALL-E the humans saw an advertisement for a new color in the suits they wore and all of these people pressed a button to change their suit color from red to blue. The advertisement saying “Wear blue it’s the new red.” I believe this is how humans act today, we’re not living or thinking about what we take or change into. It has simply become a robotic response.
Food consumption and health is one of the topics we disgust throughout the course. To no surprise America is the leading country for obesity, The ship’s people are all obese at an alarming rate and eat all their food out of cups. Nothing seems to be solid food, or selected healthy. The habitual eating reminds me of fast food eating and the consumption of food unconsciously in the book The End Of Over Eating. The people in the ship aren’t eating for energy or taste it has become a simple action.
The last thing I connected with was the documentaries the Eleventh Hour. I didn’t find the antagonist in the story inherently evil. “Auto” was much like the CEO’s of companies. Auto wanted the people to live a safe life on the space ship instead of living on toxic earth, it was an unintended consequence.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

unequal protection

It would only make sense that that a corporation or huge business had some rights or laws protecting the corp. What type of laws would they be and who would they be directed toward? I think I assumed like any naïve person, that these laws were to the PEOPLE in the company, the CEO all the way down to the workers.
Now averting your attention for a moment. For the next election, in whatever it maybe, you go into the booth ready to pick whom you think would be the best pick. You find once entering a booth there’s a corporate executive. This executive is in a pin straight suit and hair is perfect they put a hand on your shoulder, look you in the eye with a reassuring smile and tell you “No need to think or use too much energy, I know who you want to vote for.”   With that they turn around fill out the vote and send you off with a thank you for your “right decision”
The people do have rights, but a PERSON in the U.S government has been redefined. Instead of being a living human being as a person normally is, a corporation is now a person. With rights and laws protecting it as any human body does. With a new act that was passed recently by the Supreme Court, now corp. have the ability to spend an unlimited amount of money on a candidate for election. So the executive making your voting decisions isn’t impossible. The over advertisement of any one person is a manipulation tactic that now these “people” can do with what they want. This manipulation wouldn’t be so bad if the candidates for elections had the peoples best interest at heart. But since the persons that actually got them elected were the corporations, the candidates have those type of people interests in mind so that more laws like this are passed.