, but it seems to me that there is a corporate agenda at work which is more right than left.We almost never go to the movies, choosing more often to watch older movies and shows (particularly British mystery shows as they are more cerebral and less sensational) once they have gotten to some of the streaming services, but some extended family members wanted to go. It had been so long that I had forgotten why I don't like going, but then the full ten minutes of commercials happened. They were loud and very conformist in the sense that they encouraged you to go to more movies presumably so you would be able to talk about them with your friends and fit in. They also seemed over the top in terms of the shock and action value presumably so you think you deserve more excitement than your boring life and strive to consume more.
After the ten minutes, it was safe right? Not exactly. I love that the security guard main character has such a magical life. To me it is synonymous with the rich inner life of security guards I know fueled by the freedom often to read on the job and discuss important topics with peers (they need to be watchful, but aren't busy the way many jobs are). Even with the extraordinary magic and the responsibility that went with it, the writers told us his life was less than par because he didn't have a job requiring college. There was the whole conflict with the son over college as well as the awful ending where his next step was to get a degree and become a teacher. Do the writers know how many degreed, in-debt and unemployed teachers there are in Buffalo that end up working as aides or nannies if they are lucky.
The message is clear and multifaceted. You are only worth something if you have the capacity to consume at high levels. You aren't a real human adult without a degree is another message even though it often comes with high debt loads and doesn't guarantee a better job. It is permitted nowadays and expected to look down on those in certain kinds of professions despite the major structural problems with the huge disparity of wealth in the U.S. One's whole value is determined in one's ability to please those that hire people. This wouldn't be unfair if all those that worked hard received just income and opportunity as occurred more often fifty or sixty years ago. The message is you can control what happens to you and that the system is fair and that it is one's own fault if you don't make it. Don't question the corporate system, it is fair!!!
My husband's job as a security guard allows him much freedom in terms of how his mental time is occupied and the low levels of stress allow him to concentrate on our family life more fully as well as managing our home which is partially a business as it includes a rental unit. Still, there are people in our lives that look down on us for our simple life despite its necessity for my health and its better situation for our kids. These same people speak highly of others who have high level fancy careers despite, in some cases, having situations that are fundamentally complicated by the need for more income to consume more. How come no one looks down on the two high earners with their kids in daycare or with a nanny? Once you have one high earner, is it fair to the kids to leave them most of the day to chase more money even if one "loves" their job or can "do more" for them. I am not sure I, myself, think it is wrong, but it is irritating that fewer people question it than the number of people who look down on security guards (or wait staff, or cashiers, or you get the idea).
I wish people would understand that the rich people are laughing all the way to the bank and that it isn't the poor people who are to blame. The more people away from home in the workforce the more wages get bid down. It is supply and demand. Since there is only so much paid work out there, few people question the morality of working when you don't need to just to be socially acceptable, rather news and movies have convinced most of us that it is those poor people who aren't working hard enough are the problem rather than look up and see how much has been hoarded outside our reach. It is incredibly stupid when the bottom 90% of us families only have 25% of the wealth. Hollywood is telling us to better ourselves to compete like heck for that 25% and not to look up at the top 10% percent of people. We don't have to try communism, there are many mechanisms that can force our form of capitalism to reward hard work with more resources without giving some people so many that the rest of the people worry about the basics.
I am not sure I am going to go to another movie theater for a while. I just don't need Hollywood to tell me our lives aren't good enough!
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