Wall-E for President (A Frank Rich Environmental Barf Plus how Obama Jumped the Shark)

New York Times ^ | 6 July 2008 | Frank Rich

[shrinkermd]

This is a puff piece for a movie called Wall-E; this movie is for children and does its best to portray progress as terrible and people as unnecessary. I found the below interesting:

For me, Mr. Obama showed signs of jumping the shark two weeks back, when he appeared at a podium affixed with his own pompous faux-presidential seal. It could have been a Pixar sight gag. In fact, it is a gag in “Wall-E,” where, in a flashback, we see that the original do-nothing chief executive of Buy N Large (prone to pronouncements like “stay the course”) boasted his own ersatz presidential podium.

For all the hyperventilation on the left about Mr. Obama’s rush to the center — some warranted, some not — what’s more alarming is how small-bore and defensive his campaign has become. Whether he’s reaffirming his long-held belief in faith-based programs or fudging his core convictions about government snooping, he is drifting away from the leadership he promised and into the focus-group-tested calculation patented by Mark Penn in his disastrous campaign for Hillary Clinton. Mr. Obama’s Wednesday address calling for renewed public service is unassailable in principle but inadequate to the daunting size of the serious American crisis at hand. The speech could have been — and has been — delivered by any candidate of either party in any election year since 1960.

[shrinkermd]

He even speaks less well of Senator McCain, but it is noteworthy he has seen some shortcomings in Democrat political messiah.

[Jeff Head]

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA - CHANGE YOU CAN COUNT ON, BUT DON'T WANT

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

NOBAMA '08 SIGHTED IN IDAHO, JULY 2008

[4buttons]

“This is a puff piece for a movie called Wall-E”

as Frank is a puffer, big surprise.

[aculeus]

The Obama-balloon has sprung a leak.

[maine-iac7]

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we have set. We have got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded." -Barack Obama July 2, 2008

Will someone translate this for me?

We have a Voluntary Military = to fight our enemies overseas.

We have the National Guard to 'guard' us within our borders.

What is a "Civilian national security force that is just as powerful..."

Is that the force he envisions that will facilitate the Black Liberationists goal of "Black Power" - starting with the 'Quiet Riots' he talked about the 'are simmering below the surface'?

(The SCOTUS affirmation of the Right to bear Arms was probably a real gut punch to his plans...

[Vince Ferrer]

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we have set. We have got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded." -Barack Obama July 2, 2008

[musicman]

"The SCOTUS affirmation of the Right to bear Arms was probably a real gut punch to his plans..."

[maine-iac7]

Guess I'm safe now, then?

[musicman]

THAT’ll do it!!

[BusterBear]

What is a "Civilian national security force that is just as powerful..."

See Cuba, North Korea, Taliban-run Afghanistan - something like a domestic SS or the Brigades for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

[Williams]

Wall E does not teach that humans are unnecessary, quite the opposite. The movie is anti consumerism, anti capitalism, anti fast food, anti pollution and even in one line slightly anti George Bush, but it depicts humans triumphing over technology (with the help of friendly robots). It’s a terrific picture, its underpinnings are liberal but then again it takes place 800 years in the future.

[goldstategop]

Its a liberal MSM journalist who wrote Obama jumped the shark. And his digs at McCain look more like the obligatory window dressing balance. The Left is not entirely happy with its messiah.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[wastedyears]

re. your number 4:

What the heck is he talking about?

[nathanbedford]

What is a "Civilian national security force that is just as powerful..."

MKVD?

GESTAPO?

[shrinkermd]

Yes, of course, you are right. I reviewed a number of reviews but missed the simple message you so wonderfully summarized.

But to me, this piece of whimsy is anti-human since it suggests if left to our own devices, things will turn out horribly. We need outside assistance (outside robots a.k.a. government) to lead us out of our desires to consume and remain independent and self-directing.

All that said, your summary is appreciated. Thanks.

[aruanan]

But to me, this piece of whimsy is anti-human since it suggests if left to our own devices, things will turn out horribly. We need outside assistance (outside robots a.k.a. government) to lead us out of our desires to consume and remain independent and self-directing.

Well, I guess you didn't see the movie because if you had you would have realized that it was the robots (the autopilot, who looked a lot like HAL from 2001) who kept the humans in a state of dependency and that the humans had to struggle against the robots to gain control and return to their true nature, active and engaged, not obese and consumerist. The movie did not portray their pre-revolt condition as a desirable state of affairs.

In the movie the human nature that was portrayed as essentially human was all pre-robot (as seen in those movies and in what the captain was fascinated by) and non-cybernetic (as seen in those humans who got knocked out of their chairs and became aware of the world and other people around them). The truly funny thing is that the robots in this movie had come either to yearn for and take on good human characteristics (Wall-E and his love for the white penguiny robot EVE as well as old movies and what appeared to him to be cool doo-dads and a roach for a pet) or to exemplify bad human characteristics such as the desire to control everything. If anything, the movie was saying that over-reliance upon the works of our hands robs us of our independence and humanity.

Your idea that the movie is saying "We need outside assistance (outside robots a.k.a. government) to lead us out of our desires to consume and remain independent and self-directing" is more eisegesis than anything supported by the movie.

[shrinkermd]

"... and return to their true nature, active and engaged, not obese and consumerist..."

The basic assumption is robots took over and people became "obese consumers" as a consequence? If so, then, the underlying assumption is people are so easily led they give up their true nature to become obese consumers. A belief, not a finding, at best and, at worst, a liberal, environmental fantasy.

[Moonmad27]

Wall-E is an excellent film and deserves not to be missed - or simply dismissed as a “green” movie.

However, the sight of the film’s rotund humans perpetually sitting in their hover-chairs with their super-sized drinks did make me think twice about the medium popcorn and Diet Coke that I had bought before the film started!

[Peanut Gallery]

KGB?