Corpocracy
Every one and their brother has already weighed in on CBDTPA, the version of SSSCA that Senator Hollings introduced last week (although few mentioned this doozy Pennsylvania Law Requires ISPs to Block Child Porn -- talk about some technical hurdles). So, I'm going to be different.
Last Saturday, while at Fry's to pick up a couple things before my trip, I saw Rollerball (the original, 1975) in one of those bins they use to shove inventory which won't move. At $10, I snapped it up. I'd liked Rollerball a lot as a teenager and remembered it having an impact on me.
I saw it on a rainy weekday night with Ned (the name is there somewhere), who worked with me on the 'Optimist Queen', a bluefish party boat out of Belmar, NJ. We didn't have enough customers to go out and had the rest of the night free. I assume it was in the late spring or early fall, because during the summer we had a third mate (the way I'd gotten started).
I watched it again last night and I was right. Rollerball isn't a game, it's another commercial, one intended to demonstrate that individuals should not strive for too much, because the game (of life, control, what have you) is just too hard. Settle for what you have because the corporation has given you so much. One player, Jonathan E (played by James Caan), has had so much success in the game that he becomes a problem and is asked to retire. Of course, he balks. John Houseman plays the primary executive at Houston Energy (oh, the irony), one of six members of the Corporate Directorate, who control all major corporate decision making. He does an effective job of communicating the ideals of the Corporate Society to Jonathan E and embodying them in his corporate interactions.
Since everything is now digital, books no longer exist, all that wasteful data having been transcribed by the corporations and stuck into the data banks (of the corporations). Jonathan begins to try to understand why they want him out which leads to my favorite line (by Ralph Richardson) "Pity, poor old thirteenth century." after Zero, the primary computer has lost track of all data associated with the thirteenth century. He shrugs it off and tears up a punch card (yeah, this movie is that old). When Jonathan asks Zero about corporate decisions and how they are made, the computer basically has a fit. It's actually quite silly.
This is no 1984, but it is an interesting view on what might happen if corporations ran the world. I'd be a nice solid conservative if I wasn't so paranoid about corporate America. Somehow, I think this might have something to do with it. Worth seeing at least once.
7:12:00 PM 
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