Culture Change

Tuesday, 08 July 2008

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Day of Dependence, our Fifth of July annual holiday – a proposal

Written by Jan Lundberg

Culture Change Letter #190, July 5, 2008

Our Fourth of July holiday ought to be critically evaluated for the word “Independence” -- what we are celebrating. Since the concept of U.S.’s birth was based on just a document, so it seems sometimes, one might emulate the Declaration of Independence by issuing a Declaration of Dependence. What better day than every July 5th, when we can easily recall our previous day’s independence-revelry?

It would be too easy to just harp, “We are not independent of oil!” As a nation we are addicted to oil, as the current president said. Dare we go deeper with reflection on reasons for the addiction and the materialism it originates with?

WALL*E – A push-button fable

Written by Albert Bates

Disney is not breaking any new ground with its overly advertised full-length animation, WALL*E. This is just Lady and the Tramp set in 2700 AD.

Nor is Pixar a stranger to the theme of rehabilitating consumer culture remnants that nobody seems to love anymore. Think Toy Story for out-of-fashion toys, The Incredibles for Super-heroes, and Cars for Route 66. It reminds you of the Jawa recyclers who drove their huge Sandcrawler around the Tunisian desert in the first Star Wars. Pixar could change its name to Fixar.

WALL*E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), a cross between R2D2 and Johnny 5 from Short Circuit, falls for a svelte Japanese-style robot named EVE (Extra-Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). EVE comes to realize that WALL*E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to reclaiming Earth, a living plant, with roots and leaves and everything, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans, who are wandering, Battlestar Gallactica-style, on an endless journey that employs consumerism in the place of cryogenics. After 800 years of wandering, the whole colony looks like Super-Size-Me Tele-tubbies. consumerism in the place of cryogenics.