Week 4

Neither

Left / right division cannot explain the new events that we are experiencing. You are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole; on the way, you are making up stuff to make analysis ring true. There is no Free Love in ST. This is dumb ass conservative talk. You have bunch of grown adults who have professions, they date, marry, etc. Yeah - like today. The main cultural rift in US is between "freedom / prohibition". Therefore new, tectonic social shifts are "experienced" through this division, this cultural lens. This does not mean that is what is really happening out there in daily life.

"No money" thing can be an exaggeration, but think about what would happen if energy became so abundant. Energy is the major diminishing, un-abundant resource, yes? Well, what if it was free. As in beer.

"No apparent culture or art"? This is bunk. I clearly remember episodes where the crew play in concerts, have theather. Also there must be some people who "program" the that VR room called holodeck. I am sure it does not run by itself, or run on fart. Which, it seems is what your site runs on.

Expansionist, shmantionist. The so-called 'federation' accepts members, they stay away from non-spacefaring planets (non-interference), and they help if help is asked. What's not to like?

F..ing A!

Republibot: "Is Star Trek Liberal or Conservative?"

Motherlover

What the f..k are you talking about

Science gets a good support in this movie, the scientist are usually portrayed as evil master planners who concoct some kind of weapon for world domination (or work someone who has such plans) but in this movie, they are the good guys. Illiteracy for path to grace? C'mon.

White messiah comment makes no sense either: The movie canon specifically mentions some other dude from the past who has ridden that large beasty dragon lookin' flying shabang, and that dude was no outsider. Our white guy is only following his footsteps (according to the movie).

Listen: Avatar is Dances with Wolves with better CGI, minus Kevin Costner. Nice huh? :)

That's it!

"[The movie] rests on the assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace. It also creates a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism. Natives can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration. It’s just escapism, obviously, but benevolent romanticism can be just as condescending as the malevolent kind — even when you surround it with pop-up ferns and floating mountains."

Mad Men is making good on its promise of taking us through a whirlwind tour of US political, social landscape, thereby highlighting major issues that came to define America. We left last season with Betty leaving Don for good, after so many mishaps they lived through as a couple.

If we think back for a second, we will remember how Betty came to a point where she could not take it anymore.

It was RFK's assasination.

Think about it: She lived in a modern world, living in a nuclear family, in a suburban home, with a working husband and her 2.5 kids (well 3, but you get the point -they started with 2 though-). In this life, you do things because they are expected of you. It's how things are done. It is said that in this world, people are so detached from what they are producing, they simply become pieces in a machine that simply works. That was the case for Betty. She did not question, things were just the way they were. There was a contract.

But her life was being shattered by social changes triggered by new working habits. First of all, her husband, Don Draper, is working in advertising sector, a 3rd wave creative white-collor job. He has all the opportunities and the temptations that come with the job, along with the desychronized, irregular working hours and lifestyle.

We mentioned before that Don Draper is a man torn; this fact is made much more clearer through a literary device; Don has a past he is trying to hide. The fact that this past is rooted in World War II is no coincidence. This was the exact moment after which America started to change dramatically, a watershed time period after which US's "past" could not guide its future anymore. Don is a symbol, coming from a past we cannot rely on, into a future that brings more questions than answers.

Back to RFK assasination [1] - this event became last drop in a torrent of bad news ripping through Draper household. Betty did her part in her home, waiting for her husband, raising her kids, but the world around her just did not seem to care. She could even partly ignore the fact that her husband was cheating on her [2], treat this event as an "outlier" in a linear world of nuclear families, predictable lifesytles, but after RFK assasination (which came after JFK assasination) you can see the dramatic change in her, she came to the conclusion that the entire world had gone mad, and she started asking the timeless question:

But what about me?

If the world was not following the same contract she had been following, what was to become of her? Then she decides to leave Don Draper. She decides to go after what she wants, instead of what everyone (the system -family, friends, etc-) is expecting of her.

[1] JFK's and later RFK's assasinaton were a sign of military / industrial complex's structure breaking down. For the first time, the complex took out a president who was not suitable for them. But in this system a president is supposed to be the head of the military / industrial complex, hence the assasination caused a major problem for the system's structure.

[2] Each society lives through 3rd wave changes through its own culture codes. In America, the main cultural rift is between freedom and prohibition. Hence when social order starts to break down, people started living "free" (as in free sex) because the old way was to "prohibit" self from doing such things. This rift could occur in different places in different cultures.