Soylent Green Our life and the lives of the people we love is, and always will be the most important part of our existence as human creatures.
We are mammals, we are animals just like the tiger that wonders through the pasture, the elephant who stampedes a heard of zebra, and the whale that gracefully glides though the ocean. We have characteristics of all these and many other mammals that we see and encounter everyday. What would happen if books were band? Or we were watched every day by a camera, or were forced to eat our own species without us even know it. In the three movies that were adapted from novels the authors have changed the perfect world that we know of and brought to the forefront the grim reality of what our beautiful lives are really like.Although the measures taken in the novels are very drastic many of the same themes can be found in our present society. The authors have tribe to bring to our attention what lives are like if for on day one aching minute our lives are not in our hands but in the hands of a greater power.
The basic theme of the novel 1984 is that if we don't watch out 1984 will find us. We need to realize, when we are being intruded upon by the government just a little too much. If the government proposes a new chip to be placed into all telecommunications devices so that it can tap into them.We have to stop it. (This is not hypothetical, the government proposed "The Clipper Chip" which would be used to listen to our encoded conversations, and to see our data communications.
We would be safe from our neighbors, but not from our government.) The author's predictions of the future are really advice, "Don't let the government control every aspect of your private lives." If we allow this we will be turned into robots of the system. Perhaps it is also a look at what is already. In many ways we are controlled, we are robots.
In kindergarten we are taught how to be that way."Stand in a line, don't talk, hands out of pockets, fire drill, bells ringing." We are truly controlled by words and bells. Nine-teen-eighty-four has come and gone, however that doesn't mean we are safe. The author's view of the future is no longer even close to accurate.
It will NEVER happen that way. No, today we have far BETTER ways of this happening. With computers containing almost all data, which can be quickly erased in large numbers at the touch of a but-ton, information is much easier to "rectify." With new technology we could hide micro-phones in the fabric of clothing. Video cameras are smaller today.
They could be worn about people. Maybe in the future be implanted in them. Orwell's future is dead. The reality is that it could be even worse. Orwell should NOT be discredited, he should be listened to and praised.
There are measures going through congress now that will inhibit our rights in the future. Our own congress makes measures to give themselves raises. They won't vote yes on such bills as term limits. It is not inconceivable that a bill could pass to law saying that the president and congress shall stay in power forever. They could even convince us to allow it to happen.Hitler did it when he became leader.
This is the future Orwell predicted, he just didn't have it exact. Perhaps it is closer than we think only being shaded by conspirators. Fahrenheit 451 is a novel about men and women who are torn away from the reality of life and told what to do and when to do it. I suppose they really would have nothing else to do with their lives if they've all thought the same. They're pretty much out of touch with reality.
But if people get out of touch with reality, how can they have the ability to think intelligently? To avoid reality and conflict, the people in Bradbury's book have al-lowed themselves to be diverted by technological entertainment. The entertainment, like TV, has provided a distraction or diversion for this society. As a result of this distraction, they have quit reading anything complex or insightful. Hopefully, our world won't meet Bradbury's predictions. Of course it won't, will it? Well, at least we know that to avoid the consequences the society of "Fahrenheit 451" faced, we must keep in touch with individuality and continue to express different opinions.
We must continue reading and expanding our minds so that we are able to make intelligent decisions. That way, we can work with technology so that it is beneficial to our needs, not so that it overpowers our lives. And to think, we thought a world without conflict would make us perfectly happy. Soylent Green takes place an overpopulated world, it's only to be expected that life is cheap. People crowd like refugees, living from hand to mouth; attractive young women are rented out with apartments and referred to as `furniture'.
The future is not only crowded but also polluted, economically repressed, striped of all natural resources, and suf-fering from the Greenhouse effect.We the viewer get the sense of a future by focusing on elements of daily life that have no changes as a consequence. Robinson's Sol, who is pointedly the `soul' of the film, is our emotional and philosophical connection to the unspoiled past - his memories are supposed to be ours - and provides the film's only touching moments. It's a rare film that makes death a pleasant and more preferable alternative than living, but in SOYLENT GREEN humanity has reached a dead end: it posits that at a certain level, there are no solutions.
In fact, the climax at the film's end, is not the act of evil and exploitation you'll first think, but the only viable plan left for survival - it make you wonder about the lengths humanity will go to in order to remain on the planet, and whether it is even necessary if the more noble of human qualities be projected as essential part of our lives. The three films that we have watched have all taught us something very import about our society and the human culture.The characters all have endured great obstacles to be where they are in society. We can learn from all of them many lessons of life and hopefully teach the ones that we love how to excel in a world of such chaos.
A world that our government has the power to run our lives without us even knowing it. A world where we are not the hunter but the hunted!.
