by Kevin Candela
Watching They Live again a few nights ago got me to thinking about the influence of movies on my perspective. In particular, I set about figuring what movies had helped “awaken” me to my current state, whatever that might be.
First of all I should explain that I started out as a Young American True Believer. This is when I was in single digits—the 1960s, to be exact. America had done some crazy stuff, but the way I was getting it told to me it was always someone else who “started it”. You know there’s a playground/sibling parallel to that “he/she/they started it!” thing that makes it real to a little kid, bringing it home before his or her eyes, so whoever “started it” is the all-purpose bad guy. This is how it is done with our society. So if your news shows are backing up your textbooks in agreeing that we’re only violent in response to “outside threats”, as a little kid you don’t (or we didn’t) consider that Orwellian. You’re not even up to READING Orwell yet anyway. You figure Father Knows Best. And you believe.
