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The famed rock journalist Al Aronowitz recently passed away. Here is a fairly recent interview he gave, post '04 election. Personally I think he's being a bit melodramatic to make his point, as writers often do. But still, I think he puts it all in an interesting focus.
"Al: Because the movie industry is part of the robot empire that is taking over the world. You didn't know humankind invented robots a long time ago. And like in the movie, I. Robot, the robots have turned against humankind. Humankind's robots are called corporations, robots invented to accomplish what humans couldn't accomplish individually. The robots have succeeded in programing the minds of America to think like robots think, which is not to think at all, because robots can't think. Robots have no human concerns. Robots couldn't care if the world burnt itself to a crisp---except that robots would achieve what they were built to achieve in the run-up to a thermonuclear holocaust---an accumulation of wealth and power. The results of America's recent presidential elections shows how far robots have come in taking over this country."
and this
"What do you think lies ahead?
Al: I see more disaster ahead until the evangelists wake up to find they're just tools of the super-rich, that they've been robotized by the robots humankind long ago invented. These robots are called corporations and they were invented to accomplish what their inventors couldn't accomplish individually. And now the robots have grown so powerful that they're robotizing the world. They've already succeeded in robotizing America to the extent that the robots have taken over control of America, which has been programmed to think like robots. which is not to think at all but to do things automatically, like robots or worker ants---or soldier ants. It's an old, old story. Humankind invents a robot and the robots turn against humankind. Iraq is going to become a worse mess and the aim of the neocons is to starve the beast, meaning shrink the government, leaving the U.S. dead broke like the USSR went in Afghanistan. Now the U.S. has two Afghanistans to take it broke. Then the whole government gets privatized. We'll be like a third world country with no middle class, because the middle class always gets troublesome. There'll be only the super rich, the peasants and the military to keep the peasants suppressed. The only good thing that might happen is that the people will rise up against oppression.
On the other hand, I foresee a lot of American Tiananmen Squares. There'll be bloodshed, I'm afraid."
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