Effects of Movies

It is amazing the effect movies and music have on our lives. They evoke such a wide range of emotions, each unique to the individual. I just finished watching the Patriot with Mel Gibson, one of my favorite movies. It is a movie that makes me laugh, cry, and angry. I get pissed off because people today don’t stand up for what they believe in. They don’t fight for what they believe in. They can’t. We live in this society where we get trampled on. Yes, we can lobby, or sign petitions, sing songs, yell and scream. They all have the same effect. That is the problem with democracy. No, not with democracy, with the democracy that we have in our country. There is no more standing up and fighting for what we want. Lots of people bad-mouth the Americans. For Vietnam, Iraq (twice), for Korea. Their ideas are a little skewed now, but back in with the American Revolution they had the right idea. They wanted something, so they took it. They got their freedom, at the cost of many lives, but they got what they fought for.
Some people would argue that we have evolved, moved on. We are above fighting and brutality. It is an effective means of getting what we want. I don’t really know where I am going with this. It was like I was saying, movies evoke such emotions from us.
The Patriot was the reason I didn’t go to college right after high school. It is the reason I just went to England. It was the cause of a lot of pain, loss of money, waste of time. Though no, not a waste of time. I learned a lot by going. I went because I felt I should. I didn’t do what everyone else expected me to. I wanted to go to England. To see and experience different things. So I did.
Then I see scenes in the movies of colonial living. Ships in the harbor, the clothes they wore, horses and buggies. There is sort of a romaticness about the whole era. Yeah, there was no women’s rights, and there was slavery, and all the rest of the shit, but it was a much simpler life. Much slower.
Why is our society so impatient? With the invent of microwaves, faster computers, smaller gadgets, our society is on a headlong collision course with a big brick wall. We are eventually going to run out of steam and drop out of the air. Everything is going to come crashing down. What happened to the days of peacefulness? You can’t even escape the hustle and bustle of the city anymore. Everywhere you go people are yapping on their cell phones, Scurrying this way and that. We are a society running around with our heads chopped off. Why can’t we slow down for a little while. Teach everyone the value of patience. Of quietness. Everyone is so money driven. And living in the society, you can’t get away from it. Some days I just wish I was down in the middle of absolute butt-fuck-nowhere, building houses, or evangelizing. Doing something productive.
Life...wtf?
Movies can also make you realize the importance of things. Like family, or freedom, or any number of things. There was a guy on the radio today, a former crime boss from the Columbo family if New York, sorry, not a crime boss, just a captain. But the radio host asked him what he thought about “The Sopranos” The first thing he said was that there would never be any swearing in front of your family. Your mom or dad, or siblings. That just wasn’t done. There is a code, and one of the essentials is respect. Another thigns we don’t have much of in our society. Respect. To many people thinking they have to rebel against society. For instance, with swearing. It seems to have this sort of ‘rebel’ness to it. That I don’t understand. Coming from a tradespersons point-of-view, there isn’t anything irregular about swearing. You just don’t do it in front of women (unless they are tradeswomen) or children, and you don’t talk like that in public. At folkfest, everytime someone would say ‘fuck’ there would be cheering? Why? Is it cool to say the word fuck on stage? Or because it is normally something you shouldn’t do, they are breaking some rule, or rebelling against something that is cool. This being Folk Fest and all. Why make it into something special? It is a word. One that is part of many people’s everyday language, and in certain situations, one that should be used with a little respect. It should illicit a cheer from a crowd just because it is put in a song. It is either just a part of the lyrics, and thus should be given no more special treatment than the rest of the lyrics, or if it is used as a rebellion thingy, then that is just lame.
I think I am done ranting. So on a totally separate note...
I was listening to the radio today, and discovered this wonderful station, AM 1140. It is this Christian radio station with all these interesting programs. It is the kind of station that plays Focus on the Family and other Christian programs, most of which are utter junk (radio plays and the like).
So I was listening to this guy today, from the Christian Research Institute, some company based out of the states that has a branch here in Calgary. And it is a phone is program where you ask him a question and he will answer it for you. Anything Christian or biblical related. The show I was listening to was Bible Answer Man. This guy was so full of shit. He didn’t really answer people’s questions. He kind of slid around them. Gave them these bullshit things that were so full of holes. If I had that dudes knowledge of the Bible and Christianity, I could have done much better. I think I could have just with the knowledge I have now. He was going on at one point about how there are different levels of pleasure in heaven. Depending on how your acted on Earth would reflect on how wonderful heaven would be. Everyone there would experience the glories of heaven, some just more so than others. He used the examples of buckets of water. They are all full, some pails are just bigger than others. WTF?! The same goes for hell. Everyone there will suffer eternal torment, some just more than others. Eg. ‘Hitler’s torment will be far worse than that suffered my your garden variety pagan. This is what the dude said. This guy is so far out to lunch. He kept quoting verses which didn’t even make sense. They didn’t fit with what he was saying at all. I just think he was trying to sound smart in front of the kinda simple callers/listeners. He just really pissed me off, but I am going to have to start listening to him more because I learn things, like how to pull his arguments apart, and how I would have answered the caller.
I was listening to this other program called Back to the Bible. This is a really big program that is broadcast all over the world in over 100 languages and dialects, and has been on the air since the 60’s with TWR. So I figured this guy might have something decent to say. NOPE! He was going on about evangelizing and said that it is our duty to bring the Word of God to people that haven’t heard it. But, if they choose not to accept it, it is out of our hands. We are no longer to blame for their eternal damnation. You did what you could, now it is up to them to save themselves. That is exactly the attitude that is turning people away. Where is the compassion in that? You have to stay. Help them. Coach them along. You can’t just tell someone the story of Jesus, hand them a Bible and say that it is up to them to figure out the rest. If someone rejects it right from that get-go that you just leave it at that. Oh, they said no. Too bad, they are going to hell. It isn’t my problem anymore. I tried. I gave them the message. I did my part. Sucks to be them. They are going to burn in eternal damnation, but it doesn’t affect me any. My hands are clean. C’mon! The same book that says to spread the word of God also preaches compassion, and where is the compassion in that?
The station does make the day go by quicker though. That is a good thing.
Oh yeah, my boss is gone now, well he leaves tomorrow, after dropping my check off. But he said he is going to pay me even more for next weeks work. There is more than he initially thought, so no such luck in getting a day off. It is going to take me the whole week, maybe even Saturday. But he is going to pay me more, maybe $14/hr for the week. Because I am working alone and it is hard on the back and knees. I am crawling around on my hands and knees all day. It is killer on the back, but I figure if I load up on Advil I will be okay.
Well that is enough. There is a lot there and I don’t feel like going back and reading it over to see what I wrote. Posting time.