..My Dinner with Andre - a favorite of mine (actually I saw it yesterday so I hope this counts - if not, then Planet of the Insect People)
This among the always interesting dialogue: (which seems apropos of message boards)
Andre:
But the problem is that people
can't see the cigar store now.
I mean, things don't affect people
the way they used to.
I mean, it may very well be
that 10 years from now...
...people will pay $10,000 in cash
to be castrated...
...just in order to be affected by something.
Well, why...why do you think that is?
I mean, why is that?
I mean, is it just because people
are lazy today, or they're bored?
I mean, are we just
like bored, spoiled children...
...who've just been lying
in the bathtub all day...
...just playing with their plastic duck...
...and now they're just thinking,
"Well, what can I do?"
Okay. Yes. We're bored.
We're all bored now.
But has it every occurred to you, Wally,
that the process...
...that creates this boredom
that we see in the world now...
...may very well be a self-perpetuating,
unconscious form of brainwashing...
...created by a world totalitarian government
based on money...
...and that all of this is much more dangerous
than one thinks...
...and it's not just a question
of individual survival, Wally...
...but that somebody who's bored
is asleep...
...and somebody who's asleep
will not say no?
See, I keep meeting these people...
I mean, uh,just a few days ago...
I met this man whom I greatly admire.
He's a Swedish physicist.
Gustav Bjrnstrand.
And he told me that he
no longer watches television...
...he doesn't read newspapers,
and he doesn't read magazines.
He's completely
cut them out of his life...
...because he really does feel that we're living
in some kind of Orwellian nightmare now...
...and that everything that you hear now
contributes to turning you into a robot.
And when I was at Findhorn, I met
this extraordinary English tree expert...
...who had devoted his life
to saving trees.
Just got back from Washington,
lobbying to save the redwoods.
He's 84 years old,
and he always travels with a backpack...
'cause he never knows
where he's gonna be tomorrow.
And when I met him at Findhorn,
he said to me, " Where are you from?"
I said, " New York. " He said, " Ah, New York.
Yes, that's a very interesting place.
Do you know a lot of New Yorkers who keep talking
about the fact that they want to leave, but never do?"
And I said, " Oh, yes. " And he said,
"Why do you think they don't leave?"
I gave him different banal theories.
He said, " Oh, I don't think it's that way at all. "
He said, " I think that New York is the new
model for the new concentration camp...
"where the camp has been built
by the inmates themselves...
"and the inmates are the guards, and they
have this pride in this thing they've built.
"They've built their own prison.
"And so they exist
in a state of schizophrenia...
"where they are both guards
and prisoners.
"And as a result, they no longer have...
having been lobotomized...
"the capacity to leave
the prison they've made...
...or to even see it as a prison. "