- Sep 22, 2013
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The iconic Terminator entertainment/movie franchise presents stories about valiant post-apocalyptic humans of the future vying with an 'evil species' of spawned A.I. robots who have taken over Earth with military fascism after successfully rebelling against the human scientists that created them.
The franchise offers stories about time-travelling heroes/robots trying to 'redirect' the course of history to create more decision-making liberties regarding Earth's gloomy A.I.-apocalyptic future.
The franchise represents a modern anxiety regarding the pure consequences of capitalism-related ambition and avarice and how marketing sometimes clouds our reasoning and even sense of ethics and scientific prudence.
So how does the Terminator franchise 'guide' us about capitalism heresy (if there is such a thing)?
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As we know, humanity is fascinated by terrific fairy-tales about gorgeous damsels being rescued by valiant knights and warriors. As civilization evolved towards a Wall Street consciousness, the working-girl became the new 'damsel' and the concept of an 'ethical Adam' never really changed (which is quite interesting!). So how did we get from Sleeping Beauty to The Terminator?
American crime-films present various outlandish fictional villains or 'ghouls' who represent our basic and visceral nightmares regarding the failure of civics and law. These criminals prompt valiant cops to outdo themselves and perform great acts of heroism and valour. These criminals also symbolize our concern that civilization evolution is 'complemented' (or rather 'confounded'!) by the presences of serpents, devils, minions, and psychos. These fictional movie-criminals are the proverbial 'wolves' who stalk our beloved damsels (even in the modern American city!).
As science and technology have progressed, humans have sought greater production and higher levels of efficiency. Consumers today can watch nationally-televised American college football games from the comfort of their homes, using handy-dandy remote-controls to flip through channels to find their favorite spotlighted game on a bright NCAA Saturday afternoon in autumn. This demand for convenience and efficiency has affected our sci-fi storytelling regarding 'armies and seas of robots' marching to create a more 'rigid' form of civics and business. So, naturally, there's no reason to assume these 'intelligent robots' are any more compassionate than the human scientists (guilty of gross-errors such as Eugenics) who invented/created them(!).
America is a 'haven' for capitalism, so Americans love to take vacations in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, perhaps enjoying blackjack-games with friends while sipping on whiskey-sours. Capitalism (e.g., Wall Street) is of course a sort of 'giant gamble' so various pirates and profiteers are naturally drawn to its systemic highlighting of risks and rewards. Gambling and casinos are symbols of modern civilization 'etiquette' (in other words). Since risk/gambling is so conspicuous in modern times, we can consider how 9/11 (when terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center) impacts the world's sensibilities regarding 'capitalism engineering.' Amsterdam (Netherlands) has legalized/normalized marijuana, and America has done likewise with gambling (sports, casinos), so how will modern global capitalism affect 'hospitality aesthetics'? Will we want robot-butlers, and will these robots rebel against our strange preoccupation with beer-nuts?
Americans love comic book stylized storytelling, and perhaps that's because America is such a terrain-varied land of multiple peoples/ethnicities, requiring constant negotiation, imagination, and even 'spice.' These outlandish stories/tales/movies capture Americans' interest in crazy adventures, risk bravado, justice paranoia, and of course courage. Captain America, Chuck Norris, G.I. Joe, Carmen Sandiego, Magnum P.I., the Little Rascals, and Robocop all capture America's peculiar fascination with 'crazy psychology.' We can see why the Terminator franchise would therefore capture America's general curiosity about 'capitalism potluck.'
A key component of the Terminator franchise is the presentation of very bizarre robots/machines with extraordinary capacity to mold, meld, and adapt to very adverse environmental pressures (such as gun-fighting human rebels!). One robot from the franchise, the eerie T-1000, is comprised entirely of a liquid-mercury like substance, enabling him to quickly absorb the impact of bullets and constantly change shape to make weapons-on-the-fly. If Darwin told us about the eccentricities about various species 'shape-shifting' to match/meet the pressures of Mother Nature, then the T-1000 tells us about modernism fears about the dangers of capitalism-inflexibility perhaps. So is this all capitalism idol-worship or a kind of 'Orwellian Satanism'?
As long as doomsday-storytelling is not censored by the forces of pseudo-McCarthyism/fascism, we can entertain why creative folklore/movies in America reflect a new age social interest in production and consumerism. We love colourful Disney wrist-watches with shiny metal wrist-bands, and we purchase Energizer batteries for our convenient TV remote-controls...without ever worrying that the scientists working for the U.S. government are diabolically developing an army of super-strong military robots for a global war (say, against North Korea or ISIS!). That's the double-edged sword of consumerism (it seems) --- conveniences of tech-toy enhanced home-life 'colored' by the vanities of ethics-arrogance (e.g., Enron, Napster).
As many Christians will tell you, the Bible states that at the End of Days the AntiChrist will ascend to Earth and seduce humanity away from civics. Perhaps the AntiChrist will be an unruly movie star making 'capitalism-allegory' films such as The Wolf of Wall Street and A History of Violence. Christians in America enjoy the simple and charming conveniences of accessing EWTN (Catholic-TV) with their handy-dandy remote-controls, so will the Terminator franchise be remembered as a sort of 'capitalism-diarism' omen? Anyone a fan of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (game-show)?
====
The franchise offers stories about time-travelling heroes/robots trying to 'redirect' the course of history to create more decision-making liberties regarding Earth's gloomy A.I.-apocalyptic future.
The franchise represents a modern anxiety regarding the pure consequences of capitalism-related ambition and avarice and how marketing sometimes clouds our reasoning and even sense of ethics and scientific prudence.
So how does the Terminator franchise 'guide' us about capitalism heresy (if there is such a thing)?
====
As we know, humanity is fascinated by terrific fairy-tales about gorgeous damsels being rescued by valiant knights and warriors. As civilization evolved towards a Wall Street consciousness, the working-girl became the new 'damsel' and the concept of an 'ethical Adam' never really changed (which is quite interesting!). So how did we get from Sleeping Beauty to The Terminator?
American crime-films present various outlandish fictional villains or 'ghouls' who represent our basic and visceral nightmares regarding the failure of civics and law. These criminals prompt valiant cops to outdo themselves and perform great acts of heroism and valour. These criminals also symbolize our concern that civilization evolution is 'complemented' (or rather 'confounded'!) by the presences of serpents, devils, minions, and psychos. These fictional movie-criminals are the proverbial 'wolves' who stalk our beloved damsels (even in the modern American city!).
As science and technology have progressed, humans have sought greater production and higher levels of efficiency. Consumers today can watch nationally-televised American college football games from the comfort of their homes, using handy-dandy remote-controls to flip through channels to find their favorite spotlighted game on a bright NCAA Saturday afternoon in autumn. This demand for convenience and efficiency has affected our sci-fi storytelling regarding 'armies and seas of robots' marching to create a more 'rigid' form of civics and business. So, naturally, there's no reason to assume these 'intelligent robots' are any more compassionate than the human scientists (guilty of gross-errors such as Eugenics) who invented/created them(!).
America is a 'haven' for capitalism, so Americans love to take vacations in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, perhaps enjoying blackjack-games with friends while sipping on whiskey-sours. Capitalism (e.g., Wall Street) is of course a sort of 'giant gamble' so various pirates and profiteers are naturally drawn to its systemic highlighting of risks and rewards. Gambling and casinos are symbols of modern civilization 'etiquette' (in other words). Since risk/gambling is so conspicuous in modern times, we can consider how 9/11 (when terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center) impacts the world's sensibilities regarding 'capitalism engineering.' Amsterdam (Netherlands) has legalized/normalized marijuana, and America has done likewise with gambling (sports, casinos), so how will modern global capitalism affect 'hospitality aesthetics'? Will we want robot-butlers, and will these robots rebel against our strange preoccupation with beer-nuts?
Americans love comic book stylized storytelling, and perhaps that's because America is such a terrain-varied land of multiple peoples/ethnicities, requiring constant negotiation, imagination, and even 'spice.' These outlandish stories/tales/movies capture Americans' interest in crazy adventures, risk bravado, justice paranoia, and of course courage. Captain America, Chuck Norris, G.I. Joe, Carmen Sandiego, Magnum P.I., the Little Rascals, and Robocop all capture America's peculiar fascination with 'crazy psychology.' We can see why the Terminator franchise would therefore capture America's general curiosity about 'capitalism potluck.'
A key component of the Terminator franchise is the presentation of very bizarre robots/machines with extraordinary capacity to mold, meld, and adapt to very adverse environmental pressures (such as gun-fighting human rebels!). One robot from the franchise, the eerie T-1000, is comprised entirely of a liquid-mercury like substance, enabling him to quickly absorb the impact of bullets and constantly change shape to make weapons-on-the-fly. If Darwin told us about the eccentricities about various species 'shape-shifting' to match/meet the pressures of Mother Nature, then the T-1000 tells us about modernism fears about the dangers of capitalism-inflexibility perhaps. So is this all capitalism idol-worship or a kind of 'Orwellian Satanism'?
As long as doomsday-storytelling is not censored by the forces of pseudo-McCarthyism/fascism, we can entertain why creative folklore/movies in America reflect a new age social interest in production and consumerism. We love colourful Disney wrist-watches with shiny metal wrist-bands, and we purchase Energizer batteries for our convenient TV remote-controls...without ever worrying that the scientists working for the U.S. government are diabolically developing an army of super-strong military robots for a global war (say, against North Korea or ISIS!). That's the double-edged sword of consumerism (it seems) --- conveniences of tech-toy enhanced home-life 'colored' by the vanities of ethics-arrogance (e.g., Enron, Napster).
As many Christians will tell you, the Bible states that at the End of Days the AntiChrist will ascend to Earth and seduce humanity away from civics. Perhaps the AntiChrist will be an unruly movie star making 'capitalism-allegory' films such as The Wolf of Wall Street and A History of Violence. Christians in America enjoy the simple and charming conveniences of accessing EWTN (Catholic-TV) with their handy-dandy remote-controls, so will the Terminator franchise be remembered as a sort of 'capitalism-diarism' omen? Anyone a fan of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (game-show)?
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