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Something I’ve noticed over the years is that liberals are increasingly unable to notice when they are being satirized. One thing that’s going on is that progressives simply assume that everybody involved in the making of popular culture must be a fellow progressive. They are artists, right? If they are satirists, obviously they must on our side because they are undermining the Power Structure, and we don’t yet have quite as much Power as we’d like, so that’s how we know that every person in the Media must be on our side. Or something.
For example, I never got around to watching Tina Fey’s sit-com 30 Rock until last year. Much to my surprise, I discovered that the last several seasons of the show were pretty much the sit-com of my dreams. I hadn’t heard that, presumably because nobody in the chattering classes had even noticed. Tina Fey made fun of Sarah Palin in 2008, so she must be on the side of all that is Good and Appropriate forever, right?
For example, here is somebody in The Atlantic expressing his disappointment that Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar isn’t quite as effective Climate Change propaganda as he had hoped, that while its heart is in the right place, it still needed a little script doctoring to punch up The Message.
Interstellar: Good Space Film, Bad Climate-Change Parable
A story about looking for a new world is more exciting than a movie about saving an ailing one.
NOAH GITTELL NOV 15 2014, 10:15 AM ETThere is already plenty of evidence of America’s alarming inability to reckon with climate change, but perhaps none is more surprising than this: Even Hollywood doesn’t get it. The entertainment industry is rightly thought of as a haven for progressive thought, but in the last few years, while it has made big-budget blockbusters about income inequality (The Hunger Games), the dangers of a corporate government (The Lego Movie), and the surveillance state (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Hollywood has yet to adequately address the issue of climate change. …
But no matter how you feel about Interstellar as a piece of entertainment, one thing should be agreed upon: As a climate-change parable, it fails. …
Climate change is never mentioned by name in the film, but writer/director Christopher Nolan uses its imagery to define the terms of his story….
And so it stands to reason that whatever planet the humans in Interstellar end up colonizing, they will destroy it just as surely as a virus destroys its host. …
Of course, filmmakers have a right—or even a duty—to fantasize, but a small tweak could made Interstellar’s message much more relevant to the present day. …
For those who care about climate change, the film feels like a missed opportunity.
Uh, you know, actually, “Interstellar” brutally satirizes the most prominent global warming scientist Dr. Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann, making a “Dr. Mann” who lies repeatedly about a planet’s temperature the Bad Guy in the movie.
I pointed this out to Mark Steyn, who is being sued by Dr. Mann, so he went to see the movie.
Here’s Steyn’s review of Interstellar, which he finds reminds him of something Bruce Charlton said.
Hail to You offers a metaphorical interpretation of the “blight” blighting America in the opening 45 minutes.
Keep in mind that Interstellar is an erratic movie. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but it was always on the verge of turning into a bad movie, although it never did. (Here’s my review of it in Taki’s Magazine.)
The abundance of material might have been better suited to the relaxed pace of a miniseries, but Christopher Nolan doesn’t do relaxed. All of his movies are pushed beyond anybody’s comfort zone. For example, The Dark Knight, the second of his Batman movies, reaches a satisfying conclusion around the two hour mark. But then, just as I’m grabbing my coat and getting ready to turn on my phone, completely happy that I got my money’s worth, Nolan starts up what seems like the next movie, the third installment, and we see about 45 minutes of that.
It was a terrible movie. I was shocked by how bad it was.
I stopped reading right there. The Lego Movie was an entertaining kids movie featuring a trope villain that’s been done more times than I feel like counting. It was never “addressing an issue” as this douchebag seems to think it was.
Tour de force. It seems so obvious but you are the only one that noticed. If this was Nolan’s intention rather than the lazy word play (Mann as man’s worst enemy) most critics assumed then it just goes to show why you are such a valuable critic.
Mark Steyn has to be given some credit for admitting to know you, Steve. That displays a certain laudable quality of character right there.
A couple of my commenters at Taki pointed it out.
“The story takes place a few years from now, when mankind is facing extinction because of a planet-wide crop-killing ‘blight’.”
It sounds like the Irish potato famine and how the Irish were compelled to come to the US.
It sounds like the Irish potato famine and how the Irish were compelled to come to the US.
Are the Nolans Irish Catholic? They grew up in London and Evanston, IL. Their father is named Brendan. Christopher was educated at a post public school in England, while Jonathan went to the top Catholic high school, Loyola, on Chicago’s North Shore, then went to Georgetown.
“The world doesn’t need any more engineers. We didn’t run out of planes and television sets. We ran out of food.”
If people are starving, how do they manage to fund the building of great space ships?
If 90% of Americans were starving, would the Manhattan project and internet have been possible?
The idea is ludicrous.
The idea is ludicrous.
Ancient Aliens must have done it!
.... Or perhaps societal elites are capable of amassing a large surplus for public works projects by extracting a very small widow's mite from each laboring class family.
If people are starving, how do they manage to fund the building of great space ships?
If 90% of Americans were starving, would the Manhattan project and internet have been possible?
The idea is ludicrous.
People aren’t starving in the movie. They face the prospect of starving over the next several decades if the blight continues.
If everything has been wiped out except corn, how could there not be mass starvation?
Nolan is an Irish Catholic name, and Christopher Nolan does look Irish, including his hair color. He has that red/brown/blond mix hair color that Irish people seem to have.
“Are the Nolans Irish Catholic?”
No, the Nolans are as Anglo Saxon as the Mayflower Pilgrims. They are definitely not “Ethnic Whites”.
MILF Island. Incredible.
Anyone that has worked for GE knows that it is much crazier than on the show.
It's a testament to Alec Baldwin's acting on 30 Rock that every time he spouts some lefty stuff on Twitter, I'm momentarily surprised by his un-Doneghy views.
Another thing is that Matt Damon played Dr. Mann, and Damon is a big anti-global warming/climate change guy. He made an anti-fracking movie a few years ago.
I thought the use of “Mann” was an anti-gay agenda reference. Especially with the Nolans being Irish Catholic.
“And so it stands to reason that whatever planet the humans in Interstellar end up colonizing, they will destroy it just as surely as a virus destroys its host. …”
Uh, I don’t think that’s reason that leads you to that conclusion, Noah.
Hard to imagine a more ironic name for this particular irreasoner.
“I thought the use of “Mann” was an anti-gay agenda reference. Especially with the Nolans being Irish Catholic.”
Almost nobody in Hollywood is anti-Gay. Even Hollywood actors who vote Republican still support the legalization of same sex marriage, like Hollywood Republican Kelsey Grammer who once said in an interview that he is pro-guns and pro-gay marriage.
I love 30 Rock. It certainly isn’t a “conservative show” by any stretch, but it was at least not a liberal show. In fact quite a few liberals noticed over the years and complained about the lack of easy liberal applause lights.
Jefferson,
‘Nolan’ is most definitely an Irish surname, therefore the family must have originated in Ireland at some distant time back, unless they have done that trick so favored by certain ethnicities of junking their own ‘ethnic’ surname and appropriating someone else’s.
As a tip, any surname that ends in ‘-gan’ or ‘-an’, is Irish.
But you must remember that ‘-ian’ is Armenian.
‘Miliband’ as sported by Labour Party leader is puzzling. Miliband claims to be of Polish Jewish descent, but the name ‘Miliband’ is definitely not Polish or even Yiddish.
It has always reminded me of that Irish surname ‘Milligan’, famously sported by that rather eccentric late comedian Spike Milligan.
[…] will follow here] We meet Dr. Mann in the second half of the film and he seems very much to be a satire of a climate change scientist. He is also a shockingly cowardly, murderous, treacherous rat of a man who lies, manipulates data, […]
[…] will follow here] We meet Dr. Mann in the second half of the film and he seems very much to be a satire of a climate change scientist. He is also a shockingly cowardly, murderous, treacherous rat of a man who lies, manipulates data, […]
[…] Source: Steve Sailer […]
Anyone that has worked for GE knows that it is much crazier than on the show.
Every time I see a commercial for Raymond & Flanagan, I can’t help thinking of “the conjoined twins, Raymond and Flanagan”.
It’s a testament to Alec Baldwin’s acting on 30 Rock that every time he spouts some lefty stuff on Twitter, I’m momentarily surprised by his un-Doneghy views.
Sitcoms are not totally devoid of mocking of leftists. I remember a scene in an episode of Raising Hope in which the grandparents of Hope try to get her into a good school. The grandmother hands a booklet regarding the school to the grandfather at which point the dialogue went something like this:
Grandmother: Have a look at the page with the black kid.
Grandfather: I see they have an excellent computer centre.
Grandmother: No, the other black kid.
Grandfather: Oh! I see they have a gifted program.
If I remember correctly, the next episode, as if the writers had to repent of their sins, focussed on the senile great-grandmother thinking she was back in the past and acting racist.
Don’t ask me why I was watching Raising Hope.
30 Rock was practically subversive in how it went after liberal sacred cows.
Interstellar is a movie for those who read science fiction rather than those who enjoy science/hard sci-fi (Gravity). I’m taking this from the scientific poll of 2 where I enjoyed Interstellar (because I’m more interested in the grander themes of mankind’s place in the universe) vs. my fiancée (who as Stem as can get, being a Maths major) who was much more inclined towards the starkness of Gravity. She had to stay awake for Interstellar (and Avatar for that matter).
Interstellar could have been much better if it had been less ambitious; it packed 5 different storylines in 3hrs. Amazing marketing campaign thought; the movie that “had to be watched” but unfortunately didn’t live upto it’s expectations..
Interstellar could have been much better if it had been less ambitious; it packed 5 different storylines in 3hrs. Amazing marketing campaign thought; the movie that "had to be watched" but unfortunately didn't live upto it's expectations..
They should have made it a 13 hour miniseries.
‘starts up with what seems like the next movie’
The cast of the Three Musketeers (1973) were outraged when the footage from the long shoot was cut into two films, the second, for which they were not paid additional money , was realised the following year being called The Four Musketeers. Ever since then all film contracts have a clause against the trick.
I haven’t seen Interstellar yet, but from what I’ve read I’ve got mixed feelings. When I first heard about the movie the involvement of Kip Thorne really caught my attention. Thorne is a genuinely high powered physicist, so I was thinking “oh boy, this will finally be a science fiction movie that makes some sense.” And then I read about the plot, and no, it doesn’t make much sense, at least not as science. Then I read an interview where Thorne says he co-wrote the original treatment for the movie, but that the Nolans completely rewrote the plot. Still sound like it might be worth seeing though, if only for the visuals. Apparently so much effort went into making the black hole visually accurate that Thorne thinks he is going to be able to get two papers out of it!
“People aren’t starving in the movie. They face the prospect of starving over the next several decades if the blight continues.”
If everything has been wiped out except corn, how could there not be mass starvation?
You have to kind of piece it together but the time line seems to be:
1. Overpopulation to the point of massive war.
2. War ends population problem but leaves humanity distrustful of technology.
3. Gov't emphasizes farming (you just had a war over food so this is a logical possibility). Think Mormons who up until recently emphasized keeping larges supplies of food on hand after their experience with famine.
4. US gov't even goes so far as to declare the moon landings to be faked.
5. The blight appears. This appears to have happened within the last 5-10 years. It is systematically wiping out major crops. Wiping out wheat and ocra are not going to cause famine as long as corn is still around. But, the writing is on the wall that eventually the blight will eventually (a) wipe out all of the food crops and (b) change the environment to make the planet unlivable for humans.
It's only 25-30 years in the future that the blight is hitting the corn.
I have mixed feelings about the film. Like the fact it was an adult film in the true sense of the word. Lots of good ideas. But it would have been better as a miniseries. To much in there for even one long film.
The Hunger Games isn't about income inequality. It is about an elite oppressing everyone else.
If everything has been wiped out except corn, how could there not be mass starvation?
“If everything has been wiped out except corn, how could there not be mass starvation?”
You have to kind of piece it together but the time line seems to be:
1. Overpopulation to the point of massive war.
2. War ends population problem but leaves humanity distrustful of technology.
3. Gov’t emphasizes farming (you just had a war over food so this is a logical possibility). Think Mormons who up until recently emphasized keeping larges supplies of food on hand after their experience with famine.
4. US gov’t even goes so far as to declare the moon landings to be faked.
5. The blight appears. This appears to have happened within the last 5-10 years. It is systematically wiping out major crops. Wiping out wheat and ocra are not going to cause famine as long as corn is still around. But, the writing is on the wall that eventually the blight will eventually (a) wipe out all of the food crops and (b) change the environment to make the planet unlivable for humans.
It’s only 25-30 years in the future that the blight is hitting the corn.
I have mixed feelings about the film. Like the fact it was an adult film in the true sense of the word. Lots of good ideas. But it would have been better as a miniseries. To much in there for even one long film.
The Hunger Games isn’t about income inequality. It is about an elite oppressing everyone else.
Did this guy ever have chickenpox?
I thought that was an especially genius move by the Nolans; I hope it was intentional. Whiny lefty d-bag Damon and Michael Mann mocked together!
Once you’ve got your bona-fides established, you can make fun of liberalism. Alex Baldwin has definitely established his liberal bona fides, though he gets in trouble due to his temper (the gay flap).
Sarah Silverman had some amazing anti-pc gags in her show and stand-up act, but gets away with it because she plays a clueless character and the audience is supposed to get that these are the sorts of things clueless people would say. But of course they wouldn’t be funny if they didn’t actually hit a nerve. And of course Silverman has been careful to polish her liberal credentials in her interviews and political activism. Also, Jewish.
I don’t see how comedy can survive if it doesn’t dare mock the dominant culture, which is liberalism. Poor old MAD magazine is still ragging on TV evangelists, Madison Avenue, corporate greed, rednecks, and stuffy old Republican pols who just don’t get it, like it was still 1962. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert go after the same targets and still get obedient laughs from their audiences.
People should not be surprised whenever the Nolan brothers are involved. The last batman movie was the most anti-communist movie since Dr Zhivago. Bane used the communist class warfare rhetoric to get the useful idiots to do his bidding, the show trials just like the Bolsheviks did, the patriot act/ndaa called the dent act, and there is even one specific scene near the staircase that is clearly paying homage to dr zhivago.
The Nolan brothers are probably the most right wing people in Hollywood these days other than Mel Gibson. Maybe we should keep it a secret to help their careers?
If people are starving, how do they manage to fund the building of great space ships?
If 90% of Americans were starving, would the Manhattan project and internet have been possible?
The idea is ludicrous.
If 99.9% of Egyptians were living hand-to-mouth would the pyramids and development of writing been possible?
The idea is ludicrous.
Ancient Aliens must have done it!
…. Or perhaps societal elites are capable of amassing a large surplus for public works projects by extracting a very small widow’s mite from each laboring class family.
Chris,
“The Hunger Games isn’t about income inequality. It is about an elite oppressing everyone else.”
Conceptualizing the oppression as income inequality is how the elite perpetuates it, income being change in wealth and not wealth (or, more to the point, power) itself.
Harry,
“Poor old MAD magazine is still ragging on TV evangelists, Madison Avenue, corporate greed, rednecks, and stuffy old Republican pols who just don’t get it, like it was still 1962.”
Well, many of the recruits for the vast army of lumpenintelligensia foot-soldiers were raised (sic) in evangelical households, Madison Ave has deftly branded their corporate greed (and worse) as Progressive™, and there is little evidence that stuffy old Republican pols get much of relevance.
These are all problems that still need tackling here in 2014.
Luckily, we rednecks are on the job.
Steve must still be on the early seasons of 30 Rock. Around season 4 or 5 (can’t remember which) it quit saying the outrageous things that were so funny and became just another bad sitcom.
“‘Nolan’ is most definitely an Irish surname, therefore the family must have originated in Ireland at some distant time back, unless they have done that trick so favored by certain ethnicities of junking their own ‘ethnic’ surname and appropriating someone else’s.
As a tip, any surname that ends in ‘-gan’ or ‘-an’, is Irish.
But you must remember that ‘-ian’ is Armenian.
‘Miliband’ as sported by Labour Party leader is puzzling. Miliband claims to be of Polish Jewish descent, but the name ‘Miliband’ is definitely not Polish or even Yiddish.
It has always reminded me of that Irish surname ‘Milligan’, famously sported by that rather eccentric late comedian Spike Milligan.”
There is no mention on Wikipedia or Imdb.com of Christopher Nolan being Irish. And Wikipedia has a section where it lists actors, directors, and producers in Hollywood who are either of fully Irish descent or partially Irish descent. And you know who makes that list ? People like Robert Downey Jr. Bill Murray, Conan O’Brien, Ben Stiller, Stephen Colbert, Mel Gibson, Chris Evans, Denis Leary, Oliver Stone, etc but no Christopher Nolan.
Plus if he was of Irish descent, he probably would have mentioned it at least once because Irish Americans can not shut up about how Irish they are, they always have it bring it up.
When Denis Leary does stand up comedy, he always reminds the audience about how Non WASP he is. A large chunk of his stand up routine revolves around talking about growing up Irish Catholic in Massachusetts.
Irish Catholics like to think of themselves as being by far the coolest Northern European group by a landslide, way cooler than the English, Scots, Germans, Welsh, Dutch, and Scandinavians.
The more liberal left wing Irish Catholics like to bring up “Irish Need Not Apply” signs from the past in order to try to connect with Blacks and say to them hey we were oppressed by the WASPs just like you guys.
I noticed most of the barbs thrown at conservatives on “30 Rock” were overly broad, almost too ridiculous to take seriously compared to the spot-on goofs of urban career women and minorities. The Gen X comedians/writers on that show came of age in an era when ethnic and gender jokes were the norm (and almost universally considered funny), and the censors of their youth were fighting overtly sexual and blue comedy. This emerging wave of 40+ YO comics still have an appreciation for material that would be considered “archaic”, and dislike the thought police dissecting every laugh in search of the micro-aggression.
From Steyn’s review :
“Once he’s on his new world, he sends back data telling NASA what a perfect climate it is. When Coop & Co get there, they discover it’s an ice planet – a vast frozen wasteland in which even the clouds ice up.”
That might be a historical in-joke. Eric The Red (father of Leif Ericsson) tells the Icelanders that he’s discovered a good new place to farm – Greenland, a far better place than frozen Iceland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red#Discoveries
Climate change is never mentioned by name in the film, but writer/director Christopher Nolan uses its imagery to define the terms of his story….
Whatever happened to “Show me, don’t tell me” being the hallmark of good story-telling? Are they that clueless that they need to have everything spelled out for them?
Try “The Comeback”, Lisa Kudrow’s spoof on reality stuff. It is exceptionally dry humor. She had a “first” season on HBO in 2005 and it got cancelled. And it was a “hit” in the internet with a following of people that watched it where ever they could find it. So HBO revived it. It has two episodes out. And HBO streams the original season on its web site. I haven’t actually been there to find it. I found the two current episodes:
http://watchin-it.nu/index.php?movieAct=movie&movie=18542
and
http://watchin-it.nu/index.php?movieAct=movie&movie=18753
I usually pick the vidbull version. Kill off any popups that might get started. Down below there is a “Proceed to video” button. Only click that. It will change the page and show the video. Usually there is some ad in the middle of the player you have to “x” to kill. Then the video starts.
There was one joke where Lisa to goes to see her old producer to work with her on her HBO thing. The woman says “Not Interested” and she knows the people at HBO because of her documentary “The Hidden Women of Treblinka”. (About Jewish Lesbians during the Holocaust). It won an Oscar.
Even if you decide to filter the comment because of the links to the media, I would check it out. Its kind of up your alley.
30 Rock was hilarious. If you missed out on “Arrested Development” when it aired, Netflix it
Speaking of climate change, something like half the country is dealing with snow or ice right now. And it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.
Here on the east coast close to DC, we had one of the mildest summers I can ever recall, after one of the coldest winters I can ever recall. And now this is turning out to be one of the coldest Novembers I can remember. We’ll be hitting the low 20s tonight.
Loved Interstellar but I’ve been a sci-fi nut for years and a lot of the concepts were pretty familiar going in. Civilian opinion seems to run much more in favour of Inception. This did pack a real emotional punch and I nearly welled up during the final scene between Coop and his daughter – which has never happened before.
As a tip, any surname that ends in ‘-gan’ or ‘-an’, is Irish.
But you must remember that ‘-ian’ is Armenian.
‘Miliband’ as sported by Labour Party leader is puzzling. Miliband claims to be of Polish Jewish descent, but the name ‘Miliband’ is definitely not Polish or even Yiddish.
It has always reminded me of that Irish surname ‘Milligan’, famously sported by that rather eccentric late comedian Spike Milligan."There is no mention on Wikipedia or Imdb.com of Christopher Nolan being Irish. And Wikipedia has a section where it lists actors, directors, and producers in Hollywood who are either of fully Irish descent or partially Irish descent. And you know who makes that list ? People like Robert Downey Jr. Bill Murray, Conan O'Brien, Ben Stiller, Stephen Colbert, Mel Gibson, Chris Evans, Denis Leary, Oliver Stone, etc but no Christopher Nolan.Plus if he was of Irish descent, he probably would have mentioned it at least once because Irish Americans can not shut up about how Irish they are, they always have it bring it up.When Denis Leary does stand up comedy, he always reminds the audience about how Non WASP he is. A large chunk of his stand up routine revolves around talking about growing up Irish Catholic in Massachusetts.Irish Catholics like to think of themselves as being by far the coolest Northern European group by a landslide, way cooler than the English, Scots, Germans, Welsh, Dutch, and Scandinavians.The more liberal left wing Irish Catholics like to bring up "Irish Need Not Apply" signs from the past in order to try to connect with Blacks and say to them hey we were oppressed by the WASPs just like you guys.
Jonathan Nolan enjoyed a private education at excellent Catholic institutions: Loyola HS outside of Chicago and Georgetown U.
"The Hunger Games isn’t about income inequality. It is about an elite oppressing everyone else."
Conceptualizing the oppression as income inequality is how the elite perpetuates it, income being change in wealth and not wealth (or, more to the point, power) itself.
“Conceptualizing the oppression as income inequality is how the elite perpetuates it, income being change in wealth and not wealth (or, more to the point, power) itself.”
Right, income inequality is a pink herring for wealth inequality.
“30 Rock was practically subversive in how it went after liberal sacred cows.”
As PC is entirely Liberal and as comedians must show some anti-PC credentials, of course they poke fun at some Liberal sacred cows. But it’s like Woody Allen making fun of Jewishness. In the end, it’s all in the family.
One really good time-space travel sci-fi stuff is GUNBUSTER. The character of Noriko is a pain in the ass in the early part, but the final two episodes are really spectacular and moving.
And Jung-Freud really rocks.
Sure beats Starship Troopers the movie.
As PC is entirely Liberal and as comedians must show some anti-PC credentials, of course they poke fun at some Liberal sacred cows. But it's like Woody Allen making fun of Jewishness. In the end, it's all in the family.
I agree and I’m left wondering there what Steve is thinking off. He just passed it in reference without elaborating on it. So why is 30 Rock so great Steve?
30 Rock is a subversive left wing show,as the two most funny characters are the black male (Tracy Morgan) and the white female,(Jane Krakowski).
Nolan is a totally Irish surname. Gaelic in fact. Whether these Nolans are Catholic or not is a different matter, but they probably are. I was going to correct you when you called them Anglos in a previous post, but I thought “what’s the point — we’re all ‘Anglo’ to them anyway.”
Or maybe we’re all Nazis, Cossacks, Amalekites or whatever…
As good as it gets.
Steve, here’s an article about the sound mixing on INTERSTELLAR
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2014/11/18/why-chris-nolans-interstellar-sound-mix-is-a-problem/
Or maybe we're all Nazis, Cossacks, Amalekites or whatever...
Anglo is a more expansive term than English; it encompasses those regions that are culturally part of the Anglosphere (America, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, etc).
Maybe so, but as a mainly non-English person who is also mostly of British descent, it sounds foreign and obnoxious to me. I grew up around a lot of real Anglo-Saxons; they were clearly culturally and ethnically different from me and my family in important ways. I don’t dislike them by any means, but they are not the same, and they made that clear to me from an early age. What’s more, they are a relatively small minority in most of the U.S.
“Anglo is a more expansive term than English; it encompasses those regions that are culturally part of the Anglosphere (America, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, etc).”
Never tell an Irish Catholic that she or he is an Anglo Saxon, because they do not identify themselves with the Anglo Saxon label.
If you were to tell a proud Irish Catholic like Denis Leary that he is an Anglo Saxon, he would probably cuss you out because he can not culturally identify with Protestants from England.
Denis Leary will probably tell you he has has more in common culturally with Italian Catholics than he does with English Protestants.
Do you have a preferred term? One that would include the Anglosphere nations while simultaneously excluding the French, Germans, etc?Perhaps something like Brittano?
On the other hand, you have more in common with them (simply by virtue of speaking English) than you do with Estonians, Finns, Greeks, etc
Depends on what you mean by “small.” For one thing, don’t be deceived by census data:
http://westhunt.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/being-the-dutch/
The other factor to bear in mind is the “Founder Effect,” only now in its strongest form; without the English, there would be no United States of America.
The basic premise of Interstellar is fairly ridiculous. There are plenty of weeds that can be easily bred into grain crops or eaten as-is. Mass starvation is possible only if humanity developed its population far beyond local carrying capacity.
“Interstellar” starts off from Heinlein’s 1950 book “Farmer in the Sky.” In the future, not only is the world heavily populated, but there’s some sort of world government that rations food equally. So instead of well-fed people in California and starving people in Calcutta, there are peckish people everywhere.
But, fusion power is readily available so humanity is terraforming the moons of Jupiter and sending pioneers to farm them. The labor is unending but everybody gets 4000 calories a day. Toward the end of the book, a very smart ecologist sent out from Earth to decide upon the next settlement tells everybody that he’s staying because Malthusianism will lead to world war over resources in 30-60 years.
Styne, Coulter, Darbyshire and Sailer were all among National Review’s most interesting contributors at one time or another. It’s a dull place now. I guess they like it that way.
[…] Interstellar, my review is here, here is one Straussian reading. […]
[…] Interstellar, my review is here, here is one Straussian reading. […]
Ugh, this “liberals have no sense of humor” line is sad. It’s usually liberals making fun of liberals…
“Tina Fey made fun of Sarah Palin in 2008, so she must be on the side of all that is Good and Appropriate forever, right?”
That would be a very illiberal attitude: that one person is always right about everything. Like thinking that just because President Obama was right about ACA, he is right about Keystone. No each opinion stands on its own merits.
I often feel that fictional films/books fail to make good points about economics. What’s different about this?
Finally saw Interstellar last night. Enjoyed it, and got that special long-time SF reader thrill of recognizing so many bits inspired by books on my shelf.
But there was one thing I felt sure was coming for most of the film which never arrived. I thought the older Dr. Brand wanted to build a spindizzy to carry his giant lab/space-station off the Earth (“Plan A”). I was hoping to see that liftoff!
Oh, well, perhaps in the special extended-cut blu-ray?