No More Mr. Nice Guy!

Nuts!

The TV series 24 jumped the shark for me long before it became the wet dream of extreme-right loons who get their rocks off fantasizing about torturing people. I could only take so much stupidity from Kim Bauer, the dumbest blonde in the history of the universe.

On the other hand, I've been following Jericho since it started and it has been getting more interesting all the time. The last few episodes have been downright seditious, with not-so-veiled references to Halliburton, Blackwater, a corrupt politician from Wyoming who's also an executive of an equally corrupt corporation, fake terrorist attacks staged by a government as a pretext to waging war for profit and shredding the Constitution - hmmm! (On the other hand, the good guy who rides in to the rescue is - Texas. Not so realistic after all.)

Tonight was the series finale, and they went all out, with numerous characters declaring that the government that ruled them was corrupt, illegitimate and criminal, and there was no alternative to overthrowing it and bringing on the second American Revolution. Gee, I wonder if the producers are in Camp Guano yet?

I'd love to think that this sort of contribution to the popular culture raises people's awareness of what's going on in real life. And there's no question the show has a lot of devoted fans - it's pretty unprecedented that pressure from fans forces a network to rescind a series cancellation.

On the other hand, remember "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more"? What a difference that movie made, huh? The American capitalist machine has an infinite capacity for co-opting anything that might threaten it, offer an alternative to it, or simply get people to think for themselves instead of being mindless, passive consumers. I remember watching a documentary about the Summer of Love, and seeing how its counterculture and iconography were being used to advertise Coca-Cola and the like even before Autumn rolled around. How depressing.

Anyway, this post is dedicated to all those who refuse to be sheeple, and insist on being individuals. To all who refuse to cower in fear. To all who realize that the emperor is naked, and respond: Nuts!