Zombies in Power
Nov. 13th, 2007 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkaySo yesterday, in a futile attempt to banish the earworm that is the Portal End Credits, I tried replacing it with another JoCo earworm: Re: Your Brains. As it percolated through my brain, it struck me that the point of view expressed by the zombie in the song was reminding me of The Management in the current writer's strike in Hollywood, particularly in the peculiar redefinition of such words as "reasonable" and "compromise":
Wait a minute, this sounds familiar. That's exactly the same "logic" that President Bush has been getting away with for years now. Only apparently the WGA has more intelligence and courage than Congress, and isn't standing for it.
Y'know, I used to think that one President was much like another. That's been beaten out of me. For one thing, I've seen studies showing that, at all levels of society, the ethics of a leader figure strongly influence all those beneath him. For example, under Nixon, white collar crime went way up. Now, after so many years of a President whose greed is practically unparalleled, whose idea of compromise is "shut up and do what I say", and whose ability to even *understand* his opponents is so small -- is it any wonder that the Hollywood Producers are acting the way they are?
Some of the writers are wondering why Management is acting so irrationally. Surely they *know* that this can't end well, that they are facing united opposition that will never yield on the important points. But refusing to face such realities is how Role Model Number One in the White House does things, so they're doing it too.
I'm starting to think that this will be a very long strike...
All we wanna do is eat your brainsManagement wants to take away residuals from things like DVDs, which is perfectly "reasonable", since they're leaving residuals for traditional broadcast television intact. Never mind that broadcast television is dying. Meanwhile, the writers want a piece of the quick-growing pie called "New Media" such as the Internet. Management doesn't want to give them one. Management has proposed a "compromise" by which they study the question for three or six years -- in the meanwhile, continuing to not pay the writers anything in these areas.
We're not unreasonable,
I mean no-one's gonna eat your eyes
All we wanna do is eat your brains
We're at an impasse here,
Maybe we should compromise.
If you open up the door,
We'll all come inside and eat your brains.
Wait a minute, this sounds familiar. That's exactly the same "logic" that President Bush has been getting away with for years now. Only apparently the WGA has more intelligence and courage than Congress, and isn't standing for it.
Y'know, I used to think that one President was much like another. That's been beaten out of me. For one thing, I've seen studies showing that, at all levels of society, the ethics of a leader figure strongly influence all those beneath him. For example, under Nixon, white collar crime went way up. Now, after so many years of a President whose greed is practically unparalleled, whose idea of compromise is "shut up and do what I say", and whose ability to even *understand* his opponents is so small -- is it any wonder that the Hollywood Producers are acting the way they are?
Some of the writers are wondering why Management is acting so irrationally. Surely they *know* that this can't end well, that they are facing united opposition that will never yield on the important points. But refusing to face such realities is how Role Model Number One in the White House does things, so they're doing it too.
I'm starting to think that this will be a very long strike...