Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Blinded by the (evangelical) light.

I chuffing hate evangelical Yanks.
On a completely separate topic, I recently watched another fantastic documentary from Errol Morris. The Fog of War "stars" Robert McNamara, a former Secretary of Defense (sic) talking about his life and experiences in the diplomatic big-brain corps. He has eleven lessons that he has learnt, and which he feels we could all benefit from by using his experience. I think he is pretty much right really. The film is one of Morris's "let them talk but add a bit of archive footage" jobs which I prefer, as his earlier stuff like Vernon, Florida and Gates of Heaven left me a bit cold, with just the odd character standing out as worth watching.
The subjects discussed seem highly topical given the fact that Iraq is having the crap blown out of it and the USA (with the UK as it's lapdog) seems to be lining up Iran. Lessons obviously not learned. It beggars belief that the USA can once again see the only way forward for a slightly misguided bit of the world being to embrace free-enterprise and the dubious benefits of consumerism. Don't get me wrong, I love buying stuff as much as the next bloke (have you seen my on-line DVD catalogue?), but not everybody in the world has to sign up to the shallow vacuous existence promoted by American TV (and the Administration, to keep the rednecks in check).
Line up at the doors of the out-of-town shopping mall to buy your plastic effigies of Jesus nailed to the cross.
I chuffing hate evangelical Yanks.

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