"I'm Mad As Hell..."

I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE.

In the movie Network, possibly the absolute best depiction of canned, spoon-fed, mind control and ratings-hungry news stations, Jensen, the CEO of CC&A, a company who has just taken over the fictional news station UBS, spoke to the 'Mad Prophet of the Airwaves,' news anchor, Howard Beale. (When Beale had been notified he was about to be fired because of low ratings, he promised his audience he would commit suicide on camera - ratings skyrocketed.) Jensen said: "You think you've merely stopped a business deal." This after Beale had ranted, raved and informed his viewers about the take-over of America by foreigners, and the Saudi deal to buy CC&A. "The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West! There is one system of systems, one vast interwoven, interacting, multi-varietals, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds and shekels." The magnificently clever and prescient writer, Paddy Chayefsky could not have known over thirty years ago about the Euro; neither would he have considered the yen or the yuan. "It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?"

Jensen berates him for thinking he can effect change from his news desk. "There is no America. There is no democracy." He tells an incredulous Beale there are only the huge corporations who matter: Exxon/Mobil and Halliburton come to mind. Jensen likens the corporations to today's nations and asks if Beale thinks the Russians talk about Karl Marx when discussing business. "We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale!" Jensen tells Beale he has been chosen to preach the 'evangel.' When Beale asks why, he is told because he's on television with 60 million viewers, Mon - Friday. When Beale states he has seen the face of God, Jensen sneers, "you just might be right, Mr. Beale."

In the final shocking scene, after Beale’s segment is introduced, he is gunned down by two revolutionary radicals in the audience who had been hired by the network. Beale had gone too far! Another newsman delivers the story: "The network news anchorman on the UBS Network News Show was shot to death tonight in a fusillade of automatic rifle fire just as he began this evening's broadcast. The extraordinary incident occurred in full view of his millions of viewers. The assassins were members of a terrorist group called the Ecumenical Liberation Army, two of whom were apprehended. The leader of the group, known as the Great Ahmed Khan, escaped."

Millions of years of evolution made us social beings. We lived in tribes for millions of years, and members of a tribe didn't have a greed-is-good mentality. In the tribal environment, generosity was admired and rewarded. And one didn't become a chief simply by being the strongest. An aspirant for chiefdom had to build coalitions of supporters, had to be willing to listen to the wisdom of the elders, and was most likely to become and remain chief if he was known as a brave hunter and warrior, but also as a generous person. Those were indeed 'olden times' which sadly, no longer apply. Jensen acknowledged that Communism was deader than what we think of as Capitalism. He admitted that the individual, single solitary human being was finished. "The idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual is over." Chayefsky was ahead of his time when he allowed that America was no longer a nation of independent people. That's three-hundred million people "as replaceable as piston rods." He saw the entire world as becoming humanoid, dehumanized. "The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, numbered, insensate things….."Thirty years ago Chayefsky allowed that the US was the most advanced country, so would move first and get 'there' first.

Too bad the effects of oxytocin were not clearly understood years ago. Actually, the best way to pile up a healthy store of the drug, short of giving birth, is having sex. If you want a flippant way of saying it: Sex is good for the economy; when individuals care about each the atmosphere helps working at the most mundane of jobs. That ought to scare the socks off the sexophobic evangelicals. Oxytocin is a hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. It is involved in bonding and the formation of trust between people. You can be sure that neo-conservative ideologues will never accept this truism, as long as rage and incivility are exploited and encouraged. To quote our fictional Jensen: "And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war and famine, oppression or brutality, one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused." If this frightful global business 'nirvana' should come to pass, there will be much suffering, dehumanization, hunger, starvation and war.

Nobel Prize winner, John Nash, subject of the book and movie, 'A Beautiful Mind,' proved mathematically that complete self-interest is not in the best interest of the group. But, we have been brain-washed and spoon-fed pap by some whose motives are clear and others whose motives are suspect and Jensen's world is almost upon us. It is up to us, the American people to regain our individuality and as Beale advised, throw open the windows and scream, "we're not going to take this anymore!" 1984 is already in the works, albeit over twenty years since Orwell's prediction; but in the inexact timing of predictions it's pretty close. Don't forget the Oxytocin or it's Welcome to the New World Order.

==================as I was saying ============

Wendy England Binnie a novelist and op/ed columnist lives in Oak Trace Villas with husband, Bill. Binnieocal@aol.com