There is something wrong with this world. There really is. It’s all around you. Can you smell it? See it? You walk through the mess every day of your existence. You witness the madness every time you turn on your television. So I am asking you this one solitaire question: Can you change it?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve become addicted to two movies. These two movies are highly entertaining but I feel there is more to these movies than meets the eye. Something hidden behind the explosions, the wisely chosen words, the action.

Live Free or Die Hard.
V for Vendetta.

Hugo Weaving. Bruce Willis. Natalie Portman. Justin Long. John Hurt. Timothy Olyphant. Stephen Fry. Kevin Smith. The Wachowski Brothers. Len Wiseman.

Odds are that you know a few of those names. Those are the people, their characters rather, that have inspired me to write this article.

People shouldn’t be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.

In V for Vendetta, we witness what happens when a government takes complete control. A totalitarian leader suppressing the masses. Bringing disease. Bringing seclusion. Destroying freedom. Destroying life.

The majority of us are lucky. We do not bare witness to this kind of rule, this oppression. The majority of us live in a so-called democracy. In this “democracy” we are told we have a voice. They even let us vote. How quaint.

In reality, we are zombies. Mindless fools letting elected politicians run our world, tell us how to live, make decisions for us. This November, the United States will have their laughable presidential election. Rather, we will have our election. Yes, I will be eligible to vote and likely will because without doing so, I lose the very little voice that I have in this world. This election is ridiculous. The person who is most capable to run our country should be running our country. This person, not the one with the most money to put his or her name into the news should be made “Leader of the Free World”.

Instead of being the way it should be, we are forced to choose between two candidates. A democrat or a republican. Sure, there are third party candidates. Independents, as they are called. But they stand no chance. None at all. For one reason and one reason only: They don’t have the money. Is that right? Should a person be forbidden to win the Presidency because they weren’t born into a filthy rich family? Should a person have to be able to raise and spend millions upon millions of dollars to even get their name considered for the election when we have people starving daily. Losing their jobs everyday. Companies leaving our country to get away from our economy. What kind of sick sense does that make?

This election does bring two good things, though. For the first time in the history of our nation, a minority will be one of those two final candidates. Either a woman or a black man. There is one problem with though: You’re two and a half centuries late!

There is one good thing coming, perhaps. If Clinton is elected, the United States will likely see universal health care modeled after that of Europe make its way into our lives. Yes. Higher taxes for all. Perhaps worse service. The thing is that $100 more a year in taxes from all 300 million people in this country is worth the one life that we could possibly save because they had health insurance. You can’t even argue that it isn’t.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the real power behind our country. Corporate America lobbies, bribes, and forces laws into action every day in means that should not be legal and should not be tolerated. A company is willing to spend millions of dollars trying to prevent a company from being able to bid on a piece of a frequency (Yes, I am looking at you Verizon) and yet I know people who are dirt poor and don’t get to eat everyday.

Did you know that my father’s company’s CEO took a 10% pay increase last year? Equivalent of roughly $6 million a year. The month before he got that increase, my dad lost his pension and had to fire 6 of his 14 employees. Had to travel around the country to 5 different plants to oversee their closures and make sure things go smoothly. My dad makes $60,000 a year. He’s not a low level employee. The six that he fired were making $34,000-$36,000 a year. Do the math on that. If that CEO hadn’t taken his extra pay, a little under 200 people could have kept their jobs. If he had taken a 50% pay cut, people could have kept their pensions and plants could have stayed open. Is this right? Simple answer: No.

V did what was needed to change his country. He had the leaders killed. He showed the country that the people were in charge of their lives and destinies, not the politicians. He showed that a people united is stronger than any force in the world. He did what was needed to be done.

It’s a Fire Sale!

In Live Free or Die Hard we see the term fire sale tossed around. Basically, you take out the three main sectors of a country (Economy, Communication, Transportation) and force a restart. Have it go back the beginning. Start with zero. It’s an interesting concept, to be honest. If someone could pull it off, it would work too. The country would be forced to start all over. To rework its entire identity. By doing this, we could fix the problems that have arisen in this money-centric nation and remake everything.

Is the approach radical? Yes. Devastating? Of course. But it would get the job done without a doubt.

In the end, the Fire Sale is not completed and life returns to normal but what if it had happened? Would it have worked out the way it should work out? I think it would have. Only one way to find out, though.

The First and Second Rules: Don’t Ask Questions

I’m going to bring in another movie to the equation. One that I finally saw for the first time today and really got me to get up and write this article. The spectacular Fight Club. Yes, I had never seen it. Me. The Edward Norton freak. The rebellious and psychological thriller movie lover had never seen Fight Club. Well, now I have and it really hit me hard.

You see, you have to forget about all of the back story about Norton’s character, about the weird crap that happen and just look at what is going on in the background. The entire movie is about a single person’s miserable existence and what he does to change it. He tries to bring down the oppression. He tries to bring down the credit card companies and erase all debt. Have everyone start off on a clean sheet.

To do this, though, he creates his own army. A guerilla army of street folk facing the same oppression as he was. He becomes their leader. He practically brain washes people across the country. This is what has happened to our people. We are forced to believe that there really are only two candidates for President. That a dollar a day in extra taxes is too much to pay to allow every being in this country the ability to live a healthy life. That one more dollar a day is too much to give kids the education they deserve.

We’re zombies. You and I, alike. We live in a democracy where we are allowed to vote for President but where a person who is not able to get the most votes can still win. This democracy has people vote for you. If you voted for one person but other didn’t in your area, your vote is meaningless. The elector who will do the real voting for President is supposed to vote the way their area voted but they don’t have to. They could quite easily vote the other way and change things drastically. What kind of democracy is that?

This euphoria that we have been told to believe democracy is is far from being euphoric. Hell, we technically don’t even live in a democracy. We live in a republic dressed up to appear as if it is a democracy. We vote for people who then can cast their own votes however they wanted, no matter how you felt. If you’re pro-life, they can vote pro-choice. You’re not nearly as free as you think you are.

There are serious problems in this world. There really are. This article focused on the United States but it applies to the entire world. Something needs to be done. Something needs to be changed. Someone needs to step up and make this change happen. Will it be you?



Last Edit: Nov 3, 2008 3:18:07 GMT by Chris