Well, I hope
so, because...
SPOILER
ALERT!!!
If you haven't
seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it! Simply put, it's one of
the greatest movies I've ever seen (as well as Quentin Tarantino's
best work), and had the same impact on my perception of the world as
“Schindler's List” did, all those years ago.
For those of
you who haven't yet seen the movie and who want the basic synopsis,
read on; but understand that I will be discussing parts of the movie
that might tell you more than you want to know. If, however, you
HAVE seen the movie, please either bear with me, or jump ahead to
where I start to make my point.
“DjangoUnchained” is the story of a slave who comes into the employ of a
German-American bounty hunter, in order to identify certain specific
bounties he wants to collect. The two enter into a pact. Django
(the slave, played by Jaime Foxx) agrees to help the bounty hunter
find the men he's after, and the bounty hunter agrees to help Django
track down his estranged wife (who had been sold to another
plantation), once the winter months have passed.
This movie is
an exquisite example of Quentin Tarantino's ability to simultaneously
tell an amazing story and shock viewers with harsh reality and extreme
violence. The script and it's portrayal are equally engaging, which
makes the three hours you're sitting in the movie theater pass as
quickly as a commercial break.
The Academy
Award given to Christoph Waltz, while appropriate, fails to
demonstrate the captivating nature of both the character and the
performance of the character. I hold this character and
corresponding actor in the highest regard. I believe that his is one
of the greatest performances in cinematic history.
… but I'm not
here to talk about the movie, itself...
I'm here to
talk about the movie as a reflection of society and history... I just
wouldn't be “me” if I didn't put it into a greater context, now,
would I?
Perhaps I
should include a little personal context, as well...
This movie held
a very personal meaning to me, because I know slavery from first-hand
experience.
I was held as a
slave by my ex-wife for over four years (of the six and a half that
we were together). Until I saw the treatment of the slaves in the
movie, I failed to fully see the reality of my own previous
situation. While sitting in that movie theater, I found myself
confronted by ghosts of my own past; which may have had an impact on
my own personal feelings about the movie.
Aside from my
own history, I also saw frightening correlations to modern American
society, as well... things that angered me... things that disgusted
me... echoes of the past that are re-visited in the modern future.
Let me put it
this way... rich, white assholes haven't changed much. They still
seek to own slaves; and the fact of the matter is, they've been
widely successful in doing so; with a few caveats. Let's be honest,
here... the only thing that's changed is the fact that slavery isn't
confined to one race anymore. If you've been working for one of the
corporate giants that rule America, then you are either one of the
slaves, or you're one of the slave masters (if you're one of the
executives in charge of these criminal enterprises).
I don't think a
lot of the people in the workforce realize that fact. I don't think
a lot of people realize that they, themselves, are slaves to the
billionaires and executives who have the ability to simply buy our
government in order to change the laws to fit their own narcissistic
whims.
Where's the
proof?
Well, let's
start with the lack of balance with regards to wealth distribution.
The rich keep getting richer, while the rest of us are drowning. The
executives get raise after raise, and massive bonuses, and other
benefits that they don't seem to think they can afford the rest of
us. Their wages have gone up while ours have gone down... that says
to me that we're doing all the work while they're reaping all the
rewards of our work...
… sure as
fuck SOUNDS like slavery to me...
We're
threatened with termination if we get sick...
We're
threatened with homelessness if we lose our jobs...
We're
threatened with disease and death because our meager wages can't
afford visits to the doctor...
We're
threatened with termination if we speak up about what we perceive to
be problems in the workplace...
… so, if our
very existence is threatened by the way these douchebags run their
companies, and we have no choice but to bow to their narcissistic
whims, and our lives are in constant jeopardy due to their lack of
accountability regarding working conditions, and we have no voice as
to the way things are, then doesn't that make us all slaves?
Yep, it does.
Sure, it
doesn't FEEL like it; because we DO have the freedom to live where
and how (to a point) we want, and we do receive SOME pay (however
insufficient). But the wages we receive aren't really very different
than the cost of upkeep for the slaves owned by the honkey plantation
owners before the Civil War (as adjusted for inflation). They still
reap all the benefits of our labor, and we get little more than we
need to afford basic housing and food... but no more than that.
Maybe our
employers CAN'T whip us or beat us; but they would, if they could...
gotta keep us peons in line, you know. Believe me, I've had more
than a few jobs where I knew the bosses wanted to hold us hostage to
their greed (American Web Printing, I'm looking at you)!
So, when a
company decides that they DO want to be able to beat their workers
into submission, then they just move their operation overseas
somewhere that WILL allow them to do so; as seen by Apple (and other
technology companies like Hewlett Packard), with regards to their
manufacturing operation at Foxconn factory in China.
… all of
this, just so you can have your shiny, new iPhone... don't you just
LOVE the injustice you've bought just so you can stay current in
technology?
Now, they
couldn't get away with treating their laborers that way, here in
America; so they had to go somewhere that WOULD allow them to do it.
Doesn't that say something about how THEY THINK we should be treated?
Doesn't that just show the malice that they feel towards all of us,
whom they deem to be “beneath them?”
Apparently, Wal
Mart doesn't think that their employees deserve such basic things as
EMERGENCY EXITS in case of a fire... I guess emergency exits are
simply not “cost-effective” expenditures. The factory's ownerdidn't even know that there weren't any fire exits, until they were
faced with the fire and all the people dying around them as they were
trampled and burned alive. What a compassionate asshole... he must
REALLY care about his employees, huh?
Either way,
American corporations prove, time and time again, that they really
don't think their employees are worth a shit. They don't seem to
think that we're human beings, deserving of reasonable lives. They
don't seem to think that we're worthy of being viewed as actual
“people”... which demonstrates the fact that they view us as
SLAVES! If they saw us as PEOPLE, then this shit wouldn't happen!
Getting back to
my point about “Django Unchained,” there was a pivotal scene near
the end, where Leonardo DiCaprio's character (Calvin Candie); who ran
the biggest plantation in Mississippi, called “Candieland;” posed
the question as to why the slaves didn't rise up and overthrow the
white people. He pointed out the fact that white people were vastly
outnumbered, and nobody could possibly LIKE living in slavery, so why
didn't they rise up?
His
physiological explanation was racist beyond ridiculosity; but the
question, itself, was valid. Sure, there were a few slave uprisings;
but nothing successful until the Civil War. In truth, things didn't
improve for the slaves unless they jumped on Harriet Tubman's“underground railroad.”
It seems to me
that there was both a lack of ability to organize (primarily because
the slave owners went to great lengths to keep them from
communicating with other plantation slaves), and a deep-seated terror
as to the consequences if a rebellion was unsuccessful (which was
entirely warranted, as only white people could own guns; the Second
Amendment was put in place, in part, to allow for enforcement of such
laws by militias of racist crackers with guns).
Putting this
back in a modern context, I beg the question...
… well...
Why DON'T we
overthrow the slave lord billionaires, bankers, and executives?
Are we blind to
our own plight? Yes... most of us are.
Are we afraid
of the consequences? Some of us are.
Are we lacking
the organization? ABSOLUTELY!!!
In Part 2, the
answers; the pressure WE can apply; the knowledge we need to share
and spread to make the bastards FEAR US; like they SHOULD!
Just like slave
times, there are a SHITLOAD more of US than there are of THEM... the
only things they have more of is money and ego; neither of which can
out-scream hundreds of millions of pissed-off, disgusted,
bloodthirsty slaves seeking freedom from their untouchable masters!
I'll tell you
how we can not only unseat them from their positions of power; but
take every stolen penny back from those bastards and throw them
behind bars where those soulless shitwaffles belong!
… but it all
starts with the understanding that we are nothing more than ants in
the billionaires' ant farms! The sooner we understand that, the
sooner we can take the bastards down!
