Homework

Your homework assignment is to watch two movies; Lord of War with Nicolas Cage and Syriana with George Clooney & Co.

While the story in Lord of War is, I assume, fictional, it is a great present-day commentary that countries (yes, including the USA) are the biggest illegal Arms Dealers in the world! Which makes sense. We are constantly developing new weapons that kill other humans more and more efficiently. What to do with the old weapons? Why, sell them, of course! It's not quite the thing you can put on e-bay, though (15,000 M-16's, slightly used, sold as is, buyer pays shipping). So, we sell them to third world countries so THEY can kill other humans with them. Of course, it may or may not enter into the US Gov't thought that one day these weapons may be used to kill American soldiers. Maybe they figure that by selling them the weapons they gain an ally. Or maybe they just don't give a shit. It's no secret, by the way. It's public knowledge that the US Government is one of the biggest illegal arms dealers in the world. They know that you know. They also know that there's nothing you can do about it. As long as the masses remain happy they can do what they want. It may not be morally right but since when has Business and Morals ever co-existed?

Syriana is about oil. Even though Clooney (who was also one of the Producers) in his interview states that it's just a set of fictional stories that don't point any finger of blame on anyone, if you have at least 2 brain cells you can pretty much connect the dots and see where the blame falls. And who pulls the strings in the White House. Don't fuck with Big Oil! This makes sense also. Why don't we have a huge push to develop cars that run on water or Hydrogen? Because there's still plenty of oil. Plenty of money to be made. When the oil finally begins to run out, THEN the companies will pull out their plans for these water cars, which they already have (I can see it now; the Ford Wave or the Toyota Tsunami. Buy yours today!). Syriana even ties Middle East suicide bombers into it and while the circumstances that lead to it may be true on a very small scale, the fact is that Middle East Hardcore Muslims hate the West. Our religious differences are too great. We are Godless Materialist Heathens to them and they are Religious Fanatics (i.e. Terrorists) to us. It's pretty much been this way for thousands of years so I doubt it'll change anytime soon. If ever.

Two good movies that, by the end, will really have you thinking. And it should.