Monday, July 05, 2010

How Reagan Charted a Dismal Future

By Gray Brechin
July 5, 2010

Novelist Arthur C. Clarke and director Peter Hyams proved less than prophetic in the optimistic vision presented in the movie 2010, but they gave the audiences of 1984 what they wanted to hear.

Read on.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gray Brechin

Good article. I wonder if the BP accidental oil spill, had something to do with this. A link one could say.

It has been reported that George W. Bush has recently purchased a 98,842acre farm in Northern Paraguay. What on earth does the President of the United States need a 98,000+ acre farm in Northern Paraguay for?.
The land has one of the planets largest water aquifer, the Guarani aquifer.

Makes you think.

Christopher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Christopher said...

Bad article. I don't know what country Gray Brechin lives in. Blaming the BP mess on the Free Market is wrong, because the USA doesn't have a free market since Theodore Roosevelt passed the first regulation on the beef industry. Once you pass any type of regulation your no longer under the Free Market. Some of this miss is also caused by the US regulation on forcing the oil industry to deeper waters.

Anonymous said...

Christopher

It has been the removing of regulations that has brought about the BP mess. It has also led to the financial mess we are in.

It is not a case of "what country Gray Brechin lives in". It is a case of what planet do you live on?, not to know the above.

big em said...

Excellent article, especially the analysis of Reagan's appeal to a public that actively suspends political disbelief, as if they're watching a 'magician' at a Vegas show. It brings home a lot of the chickens to roost at the feet of too many of the US public (perhaps a majority), who love being lied to in a pathetically obvious way. After all, there have ALWAYS been the corrupt dullards like Reagan & W, and there probably always will be, but the the difference is that the US public didn't knowingly vote them into the office of POTUS. It takes a appalling amount of self-imposed ignorance to vote for people like that in this day and age of communication, but too many of the US voters accepted the challenge and did it, with the help of religion, new-age optimism and a dollop of greed.

casey said...

I love the mention that Atlantis will sink again. Oh the irony! The movie choices seem to be inspired: 2010, Dr. Strangelove and On the Beach all different but with much in common.

Anonymous said...

"How Reagan Charted a Dismal Future"

Thatcher and "Reagan Charted a Dismal Future"
Reagan being the VERY junior partner.