This seems a little funny, but I used to enjoy a “good” action movie/TV show or thriller type novel that may involve… well the basic plot of the show “24” sums it up pretty well. “Good guys” going around and doing amazing things to take out the “bad guys”. After spending a few years in history and libertarian thought, most of that stuff just disgusts me.
Anyone else gotten passed this? I know where to find the good non-fiction now, but when I just want to lighten up and just be entertained where do I look to keep myself from shooting Jack Bauer on the TV?
Out of curiosity, what about the genre bothers you exactly? For me it’s frustration at the moralism and socialism that is peddled by american media so often these days. Situations where people take the moral high ground at the expense of saving millions of lives or when a movie portrays big business as purely evil and can do no good.
A perfect example of morality taken too far is Batman and his policy of not killing anyone. Millions of people are put in danger because he refuses to kill the joker even when given every opportunity to do so (and get away with it).
A perfect example of portraying corporations in an evil light is Resident Evil where, even after 99.99999% of humans on earth have been killed off the big mega corporation is still hell bent on squishing the little guy and forcing them into slavery, genetic test labs, etc.
It is rare but every now and then a show pops up that has a realistic view of the world such as Torchwood. In that show moral high ground isn’t taken, survival (of humanity) is what matters in the end and the means to that end are sometimes grusome/costly. Doctor Who is actually not so bad either with The Doctor taking no religious views on the universe and while he generally tries to lead a “good” life, he is willing to make the hard decisions.
Sometimes the show is just packed with enough action that the moral/socialist viewpoints can easily be ignored such as in Die Hard or Transformers. If enough things are blowing up I am able to look past the preachiness.
“A perfect example of portraying corporations in an evil light is Resident Evil where, even after 99.99999% of humans on earth have been killed off the big mega corporation is still hell bent on squishing the little guy and forcing them into slavery, genetic test labs, etc.”
Just curious, as I don’t know much about the storyline, but how did they explain how a corporation would ever want to kill off people?
The story in the movie series is vague, perhaps there is more in the video game, but the general premise seems to be that there is a mega corperation that is working on making some virus (presumably for profit that will make people super human) that results in turning most of the world into zombies. However, they don’t want to be blamed (by who, I don’t know since the whole world is zombies) so they try to cover it up initially. In the later movies in the series (when it’s down to like 10 people known to be left alive on the planet, save the infinite supply of mega-corp minions) this company is still trying to make super humans. Of course, this requires that they capture humans to use as test subjects in gruesome and brutal experiments so their infinite army of minions is constantly trying to capture or kill the remaining “little guys”. For whatever reason, this mega-corp doesn’t seem to care about the fact that the surface of the planet is overridden by zombies and there is no way to produce food, collect clean water, etc.
Interesting. I like sci-fi movies…maybe I will check them out. The idea of a huge business trying to make super humans seems a little weird. That’s something a government would want to do – unless the business was contracted to do so? I don’t know…I’m just wondering, besides contracting with a government, what demand would be filled by creating superhumans, especially at such a great risk?
They don’t really talk about why the corporation was doing this, which is usually the major hole in all of the anti-corporation themes seen in movies. The big bad companies are always doing something terribly evil but for no aparent reason besides just so they can be evil and keep the “little man” down.
The movies always claim that what the big bad corporations are doing is for profit in some way, but anyone who takes a legitimate look at the situation can realize that the endeavor would clearly not be profitable in the real world.
“but anyone who takes a legitimate look at the situation can realize that the endeavor would clearly not be profitable in the real world.”
This is what severely irritates me about Hollywood movies; it destroys the effort viewers go through to suspend disbelief. Except for being in league with the state, there’s no reason for any corporation to be destructive at all, even if for something as abtract as their reputation.
I read a comment once on a blog post about deforestation, where someone said “I can’t believe these corporations are clearing land for no good reason”. Why the heck would a corporation – if they are dead set on profits – bleed resources to “kill trees” for no good reason?
I swear people have let Hollywood kill their critical thinking.
Love Firefly but I would rather they bring back the show then produce a comic. Perhaps sales will show interest and interest will bring back the show. Heres to hoping.
Well, I hate most modern television in general. However, aside from it’s tendency to cast drug dealers as bad guys, I still like the 80s-style vigilante action movie like those starring Eastwood or Seagal.
Furthermore, I don’t know what it is with libertarians who need all their entertainment to fit libertarian standards. It annoys me when movies have stupid presumptions, such as that cops are all good guys, but only because that’s unrealistic even from a normal-human viewpoint. I don’t demand that all the historical and fictional characters I like be ‘libertarian’; most of my favorite fictional characters are villians anyways. I don’t see why you can’t just appreciate style and power for its own sake. Even if evil in the real world is usually some banal pudgy liar with the charisma of a newt, every once in a while you get an Aaron Burr. I like Burr better than Jefferson, because trying to become an Emperor is a lot cooler than trying some crazy scheme of populist government.
Be more Nietzschean in your outlook, you’ll appreciate it. One has to admire the guy who can fool a million putzes into making him rich on a half-baked Ponzi scheme; even if I think he should probably be thrown in the clapper.
“You emerge into this vast wasteland to discover humanity working to rebuild itself against such forces as raider gangs, mutants, and the Authority – an oppressive government regime that has a special interest in you in particular.”
My favorite shows are actually those where there isnt really a set ‘good guy’ or ‘bad guy.’ where characters constantly shift their aligencies and goals. Heroes or Lost are great examples of this.
Although for pure entertainment value, you cant beat Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Or really anything by Joss Wheadon. In fact if you are looking for a good show with explicitly liberterian themes, Firefly is a good choice(even though it was way too short lived).
To be honest, I dont watch too many shows when they actually air. I prefer to look them up on Netflix or dvd later…
The story in the movie series is vague, perhaps there is more in the video game, but the general premise seems to be that there is a mega corperation that is working on making some virus (presumably for profit that will make people super human) that results in turning most of the world into zombies. However, they don’t want to be blamed (by who, I don’t know since the whole world is zombies) so they try to cover it up initially. In the later movies in the series (when it’s down to like 10 people known to be left alive on the planet, save the infinite supply of mega-corp minions) this company is still trying to make super humans. Of course, this requires that they capture humans to use as test subjects in gruesome and brutal experiments so their infinite army of minions is constantly trying to capture or kill the remaining “little guys”. For whatever reason, this mega-corp doesn’t seem to care about the fact that the surface of the planet is overridden by zombies and there is no way to produce food, collect clean water, etc.
Let me point out that the movies are a horrible, horrible bastartization of the games. In particular the whole ‘the T-virus wipes out 99.99% of all life on earth’ never happened.
In the games the T-virus was created as bioweapon to be sold to the government and(presuimably although I dont believe its ever actually stated) on the black market. The government also paid for research into creating super-humans(Tyrants, nemesis and G-virus monsters), although Umbrella Corp also used them for their own neferious purposes(mostly hunting and killing people who found out about their experments).
And actually in the last game we found out that the company’s founder was slightly derranged and thought he could use viruses to achieve immortality. Although in the games Umbrella Corp seemed to use psych evaulations to ensure they ONLY hire people who are bat-**** crazy.
Due to some accidents, the T-virus does leak into Racoon City, and lead to a zombie outbreak, and the city does get nuked at the end of RE3. But by Resident Evil 4, Umbrella Corp is gone, due to a series of lawsuits, government investigations, and investors deciding that maybe its not such a good idea to put their money into a compnay that destories midwestern towns.
So yea, the Resident Evil movies suck, ignore them…
The t-virus was spread through public water systems -though oddly enough fictional evil co. are not susceptible to calc. problems so technically it was umbrella’s fault too that the public water system was mismanaged (umbrella had sold its own computers, beer, operated the police, and basically governed Racoon City).
Well I wasnt trying to claim that Umbrella was completely without blame in the games. The games portray Umbrellas activities as vauge, but clearly sinister conspiracy involving both government and corporate officals. Which is actually quite typical in Japanese pop-culture(bear in mind that the games are essencially interactive Japanese ‘b-movies’)
