Satire Confronts Myth

“I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way.  I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.”  Jon Stewart, “The Daily Show”

Seth Rogen AGAIN

It’s no comfort, but my post of 6/29/14 (and maybe 6/15) on this subject was prescient.  While I am repulsed by North Korea’s attack against Sony, and it’s (and/or surrogates’) threats against theaters and moviegoers are highly reprehensible, and I understand George Clooney’s wanting actors, directors, and studios to take a stand against a chilling blow to artist freedom, there is a core element to blame.

Rogen’s idiocy in making the film, and Sony’s decision to back it/release it (rescinded at the last moment), need to be condemned in just as harsh terms.  A film that promotes, even in comedic terms, the assassination of a living, present leader of another country?  A country that is nuclear armed, volatile, and willing to use violence?  And from a film distributor that is at the core Japanese?  With all that would mean given the terrible history between Japan and Korea in the last 200 years?  And with the actors in the film actually coached by real CIA agents?

The sort of uninformed, brash or even arrogant stupidity displayed by Rogen/Sony is appalling but becoming too common.  Yet if it has even ANY elements of a CIA attempt to snub, warn, or make nervous North Korean leadership through a film vehicle, that’s even more disturbing.

Not Bad Enough?

The American people haven’t suffered enough or they would turn out to vote—and into the streets.

True?  Or do they instead keep believing something that is no longer correct, that things will get better or somehow “work out”?

Hollow

On this remembrance day, let us be on guard for the hollow pride.

We too often have the hollow pride of the spoiled boy who is haughtily arrogant about running the once-dominating business he inherited, and can’t grasp that the business is going downhill rapidly.