Yoinked from Fatherdog
Oct. 16th, 2004 05:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holly_evolvingBack in 1976, there was a movie called Network.
It was about a TV anchorman who had a nervous breakdown on the air. He told the entire viewing public, live, that everything was bullshit, and he was going to kill himself on the air in two weeks.
Naturally, the ratings went through the roof.
Now, there's a lot of amazing things about the movie, a lot of interesting things, a lot of prophetic things. You should really just watch it. But even if you don't, you should read the most famous speech from it, here. This is the anchorman, talking directly to the public.
"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'
Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.
[shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'
I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it
"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
And you know what? He's right.
It's become pretty widespread among my generation to be cynical, to be flippant, to dismiss any particular political stance. This isn't because it's uncool to be conservative, it isn't because it's uncool to be a liberal - it's because it's uncool to care.
Apathy has become the ultimate trend, and I've come to think that's horribly damaging for everyone. We don't want to visibly care, we don't want to put forth the effort to research the different positions, we don't want to vote - and we don't want to accept the current government either. All we really want to do is bitch.
Well, it's NOT ENOUGH to bitch. If you don't like how things are now, you have to DO SOMETHING about it.
A lot of you vote for third party candidates for President. All well and good, but how many of you involve yourself in third party campaigns? All politics are local - how many of you support a third party candidate on a local level? How many of you even know the candidates in your local elections? How many of you care?
The idea that we shouldn't care is the most poisonous idea that's come up in the last twenty years. And if you don't like the status quo, you should care. You should be /offended/ by the idea that you shouldn't care. You should care deeply, and you should want desperately for things to change. And to do that, you should get involved.
Things can change. They really can. But they can't change unless we go and change them. And we can't go and change them unless we want to change them. Unless we care. Unless we get mad.
Repeat after me -
"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
Now go out there and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
It was about a TV anchorman who had a nervous breakdown on the air. He told the entire viewing public, live, that everything was bullshit, and he was going to kill himself on the air in two weeks.
Naturally, the ratings went through the roof.
Now, there's a lot of amazing things about the movie, a lot of interesting things, a lot of prophetic things. You should really just watch it. But even if you don't, you should read the most famous speech from it, here. This is the anchorman, talking directly to the public.
"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'
Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.
[shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'
I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it
"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
And you know what? He's right.
It's become pretty widespread among my generation to be cynical, to be flippant, to dismiss any particular political stance. This isn't because it's uncool to be conservative, it isn't because it's uncool to be a liberal - it's because it's uncool to care.
Apathy has become the ultimate trend, and I've come to think that's horribly damaging for everyone. We don't want to visibly care, we don't want to put forth the effort to research the different positions, we don't want to vote - and we don't want to accept the current government either. All we really want to do is bitch.
Well, it's NOT ENOUGH to bitch. If you don't like how things are now, you have to DO SOMETHING about it.
A lot of you vote for third party candidates for President. All well and good, but how many of you involve yourself in third party campaigns? All politics are local - how many of you support a third party candidate on a local level? How many of you even know the candidates in your local elections? How many of you care?
The idea that we shouldn't care is the most poisonous idea that's come up in the last twenty years. And if you don't like the status quo, you should care. You should be /offended/ by the idea that you shouldn't care. You should care deeply, and you should want desperately for things to change. And to do that, you should get involved.
Things can change. They really can. But they can't change unless we go and change them. And we can't go and change them unless we want to change them. Unless we care. Unless we get mad.
Repeat after me -
"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
Now go out there and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.