Angry Rant #18: Oh, we're all dying again?

Ok, so, firstly the floods in Queensland have pretty much overshadowed every single news story, both major and minor, that is taking place around the world - not that that's a bad thing - but last year the floods in Pakistan left over 1 million people displaced and it got 3 minutes air-time, Haiti still looks like it was hit by a bomb and that the current floods in Brazil have killed nearly 650 people....

BUT ANYWAY!

I thought I'd try something different and get my rant on in less news related way. Yesterday I decided to watch Waterworld with Kevin Costner - a few days prior I was exposed to the filth that is the film 2012 and even Deep Impact before that. I began to see a pattern, so I figured I'd might open the flood gates a little.

When the world turns to shit, it should end like this. Wet shoes suck.

Why are we so obsessed with our own destruction? Using the excuse "I just want to see what it would look like" just doesn't hold up. What you're watching is just someones expensive money-making interpretation in a blatent attempt to suck in viewers. But then again, I get a buzz out of zombie flicks. So why the hell do we get a twisted sense of joy when shit like this happens?

Earth decided to get a little stoned on its last day at work. 

Of the few things that I have thought about, I think the one thing that stands out is our invulnerability - or the perception that we are.  Typically, western cultures are pretty damn safe places to be - I know I feel pretty safe where I am now and unless you're in a worn torn African country being forced into a diamond mine or your village is being run by a Columbian drug lord who will shoot your family if you don't work, then I guess you could say the same. So when someone is put out of their comfort zone, or in this case, engaging in someone's interpretation of being out of theirs, we enjoy it.

Angry Right-Wing Blogger: "What about those damn terrorists!!
They are always trying to kill us Westerners!! We are never safe.
We should just buy things, put security cameras in every corner
and continue to segregate those who are different"

Oh shut up.

But does that mean that everyone who went and watched 2012 hated life? Or do we secretly hate the fact that everything is the same - day in day out - and watching millions of people drown/get hit by asteroids//killed by zombies/crushed by the Vatican, is like squeezing our internal stress ball? Why do we pay to see so much destruction - and enjoy it - but when it really happens our first thoughts are ones sympathy and sadness? We watch a news story on the floods in Queensland and think that it's terrible, but when we see a movie poster with this on it...

But we still watched it.

...we think, "Cool! Lets see that when it comes out! A movie that looks this awesome just has to be good!!" Then, when we see it, we get douche bags like this

...whoops wrong picture...

Drink Vodka. It's Russian.

We get douche bags like this who put on laughable Russian accents, who use badly placed puns at the most inappropriate times to convey humour, and who use those cringe-worthy "Hang on! It's gonna be a rough landing" lines. I wonder what people are doing in Queensland? Were they making humourous remarks when the Brisbane River flooded? How could flying a plane over the planet, literally caving in on itself, actually be funny?

Person 1: (Plays It's the End of the World as We Know It)
Person 2: Ahh... I always knew you were a crack up.

There's a problem here, but I'm not a psychologist, so understanding the inner-workings of someone's mind isn't exactly my profession. However, I do know what I think, and unless the end of the world involves Zombies, both of the running and walking type (because lets face it, sometimes we feel like a little target practice) and I have access to a shotgun, a hunting rifle, explosives, a 9mm handgun, food, beer, a '67 Shelby Mustang with a snow plow attachment, a rusty chainsaw, Rambo's compass-knife and A LOT of ammunition, I don't want a part of it.

Don't believe the Lies and Spin.

Angry Rant #17: Make it stop!!!!

On News Year's Day, I watched one of the most sickening things that I have ever witnessed - heightened more by the fact that it was advertised on pay TV as "entertainment".

The show in question, Toddlers and Tiaras delves into the world of child pageants and shows the children and how they and their families prepare for them. I have been trying to decide whether or not to write about something like this, due to the fact that the very thought of this infuriates me and I wasn't entirely sure that what I would write wouldn't just be a whole lot of swearing, and also because most people would despise any show where parents use their children as currency to fuel their own selfish needs. But if you're reading this, I've obviously decided to write it.

....is how I felt. 

I've been trying to understand how a adult, a parent, could put their own child through something as bad this. I'm also thinking this comes down to one of two things:

1. The parents genuinely believe that their child is the most beautiful thing on this planet, and ultimately believe that looks and nothing else will get them to wherever it is they want to be in life.
2. The parents are a bunch of selfish, money-grubbing assholes who use their own children to make fast cash, and nothing more.

If you were to talk to any of the parents, I can assure you they would all say something similar to the first point - no person would openly admit that they use their child as currency, but that doesn't mean they don't. The episode that I was watching had a parent who openly described his child losing in the pageant like a large company dismissing a "product". How could this possibly been seen as entertainment? I can question the integrity of the parents, but this falls back on the producers of the show as well. You have to ask the question "how" in a situation like this. What has forced these parents to sell their children out? 

Bam.

The child's well being is being put last. They are being thrown into a world we're they are led to believe that looks mean everything. The children, especially the girls, are portrayed as objects that are overtly-sexualised to make them seem more appealing. Cases in point? A 2-year-old wearing Madonna's cone bra outfit and another girl loaded on Pixie Sticks because she was tired, in what I saw as an obvious attempt to mimic a drug user with cocaine. These children are brought up in a culture that emphasises the need for women to use their bodies as sexual objects as a way of progressing in life.

Can you fix this problem? Can you fix a culture? 

You just know that God doesn't exist when this is classified as entertainment, when Jersey Shore has it's own news show and when Justin Beiber is still alive.

This one has me stumped. 

Don't Believe the Lies and Spin.