this is the central tenant of my thesis – the corporations you work for aren’t human. they’re aliens out to enslave you so they can suck all your energy for their own nefarious ends. the science fiction community has known this forever.
Post Apocalyptic America– NOW!
July 18, 2011 By Rob Kall
I’m a science fiction fan and have watched my share of post-apocalyptic movies and TV series.
I’ve been watching TNT’s Falling Skies, based on the idea that aliens have attacked Earth, killed most humans, destroyed all major cities, and a rag-tag band of survivors struggling to stay alive as they deal with human-size, bug-like aliens and their elephant-sized battle robots.
Alien from TV show Falling SkiesI got to thinking that in some ways, we’re actually facing a reality that has some similarities.
Think mega/multi-national corporations instead of aliens.
Think destruction of communities, of neighborhoods instead of cities.
Think extinction of the ligaments and ties that hold families together.The attack has not come from explosive weapons. It has come from commercial efforts to commoditize life, to replace citizens of communities with consumers of things and services.
There are a number of people writing about and creating films about this “apocalypse,” though they do not call it that. I’ve interviewed some of them:
Helena Norberg-Hodge; Economics of Happiness
Chris Hedges; Death of the Liberal Class and a Call For RebellionArianna Huffington Third World America
Naomi Wolf on teapartiers, transpartisanism, End of America Under Obama
Caroline Myss; Dark Times Require Transcendant Responses
I am sometimes accused of stretching a metaphor. That may be the case here.
Dictionaries define apocalypse as the end of the world, or some important ending of some aspect of the world. But wikipedia goes a different route, looking at the etymology of the word:
An Apocalypse (Greek: ἀποκάλ…ψις apokálypsis; “lifting of the veil” or “revelation”) is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John (Greek Ἀποκάλ…ψις Ἰωάννο…) is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. By extension, apocalypse can refer to any End Time scenario, or to the end of the world in general.
Apocalypse depicted in Christian Orthodox traditional fresco scenes in Osogovo Monastery, Republic of Macedonia (from Wikipedia)In this latest apocalyptic TV show, Falling Skies, produced, by the way with the participation of Steven Spielberg’s and Dreamworks operations, the aliens put some kind of bio-control thing on the backs of children they enslave and control the thoughts of. The few remaining “free” humans must kidnap these children, then surgically remove the bio-control things, which look like giant Helgramites.
flickr image By Kevin MattesonSo I propose to you that the corporate “aliens” have, using credit and mainstream media and pharmaceutical drugs and services that deconstruct neighorhoods and weaken family bonds, done many of the things that the aliens in Falling Skies have done.
The latest episode ends with a military leader betraying children, selling them out and delivering them to the aliens. We’ve seen countless examples of legislators doing this– betraying constituents for corporate “aliens.”
When the Aliens take over the brains and minds of humans, the humans side with the aliens. They defend the aliens. They even kill for the aliens. Sound familiar? Can’t wait to see the commenters defending corporatism on this one.
We live in the era of “boiled frog syndrome.” Our situation is getting worse as the war against the middle class, perhaps started under Ronald Reagan, if not earlier, proceeds into another decade. It’s hard for some people to imagine the wealthy paying the 50% tax rate that were the norm under Reagan, let alone the 70% taxes that were the norm under Nixon. Boiled frog syndrome. We are being lulled into thralldom. This is not fiction. This is reality.
What’s the solution to this apocalypse? The same as it always is in this kind of movie– kill the invaders. Wipe them out. HG Wells showed simple human germs doing the killing in his oft re-told WAR OF THE WORLDS. We’re not going to have it so easy. To extend the analogy, we’re going to have to take control of and massively modify the functioning of the corporations and the machines of destruction they’ve been wielding, and also the humans they’ve enslaved or taken over. I’ll again say that one step will have to include debillionairizing the planet. Billionaires serve the corporations and have no place on a planet for humans. I’ve written about how to go about debillionairizing the planet in my article “De-billionairize” the Planet.
The thing about apocalyptic movies is they always give the message that even if there are only a few humans left and the odds are overwhelming, there is always room for hope and ways to fight back.
Ditto for reality.
