We Interrupt this Blog to bring you...

Although the movie RoboCop is filled with an extreme amount of satire from beginning to end, the commercials and news breaks that occasionally occur throughout the film are the most concentrated source of commentary on our society. The news break itself is definitely a foreshadowing to 24 hour news dominating America as our primary source of news. In the short news breaks in RoboCop, significant information is quickly spewed out at viewers for a quick burst of information, and it is usually paired with an irrelevant but entertaining news piece to balance it out. For example, in the start of the film, the news break starts out by showing a rebel insurgency in Acapulco, but a humorous piece on the president floating in space quickly follows it. RoboCop's portrayal of the news has come to pass in recent years. A great example of this is the coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith in 2007. Another important element of the news clips is how the manner in which the anchors speak. Showing absolutely no empathy in their voices, they report the deaths of hundreds of people in nearly the same way as they talk about RoboCop visiting school children.

In the middle of news breaks, commercials advertising the futuristic products of RoboCop's Detroit are the norm. Verhoeven packs more concentrated satire into these commercials than anywhere else in the film. Each one stands alone to provide a look into the things that are wrong with America. The most powerful commercial throughout RoboCop is the commercial for a new line of artificial hearts. On the surface, the technology of artificial hearts is a noble endeavor that could save countless numbers of people. Unfortunately, in both RoboCop and the real world, research for artificial hearts is driven by the desire for profit. In the dystopia of RoboCop, the capitalistic market for artificial hearts is incredibly similar to the market for buying automobiles. Hearts are produced by a number of different companies, and with a little extra cash, the heart can be covered by an extended warranty in case it happens to fail. The selling of artificial hearts for profit creates an interesting conundrum. In a society where medicine and by extension artificial implants are not driven by profit, then the primary drive defaults to saving lives. In a system driven by profit, the companies that own the technology to produce artificial hearts can charge whatever price will generate the most profit. In essence, it requires money to purchase the ability to live and even more money to guarantee it with a warranty. Ultimately, the heart commercial is a warning against pure capitalism. In a world driven by profit, only those with money can survive.

World of Escapism

World of Warcraft has become a gaming phenomenon that has captured an audience approximately the size of Ohio. With so many followers, it has become a part of our culture, but how did this video game sneak into the hard disk of so many Americans? The primary culprit is the game's use as an escape from real life. While playing World of Warcraft, users suspend disbelief as they are whisked away into the magical world of Azeroth. Inside this world of fantasy, players act as elves, dwarves, orcs, and even humans to slay dragons, find treasure, and protect the kingdom. However, just as in the similar world that is associated with the Lord of the Rings, players must bind together with their allies to accomplish amazing feats of valor.

The entire experiance of World of Warcraft is very fun. However, because the world is a game, a set of rules govern it just as the real world is governed by rules. For example, just as we must save thousands of dollars to buy a new car, players must save gold coins in order to buy a horse. Because the game is carefully constructed to allow players enough freedoms to have fun while having enough restrictions to make the world at least partially mimic the way the real world works, many people slip into Azeroth as a way to escape from their normal lives. In Saturday Night Fever, Tony slips away from his mundane life by disco dancing to his heart's content on Saturday night. In a very similar manner, World of Warcraft players play the game in order to leave their regular lives behind. For most players, their normal lives are nowhere near as interesting as a life of using ancient magic and enchanted weapons to slay horrible beasts. At its core, disco dancing and World of Warcraft do almost the same thing for people; they both provide a setting where all participants are living a much better life filled with fun.

Although Tony definitely used disco as an escape from his life, he was willing to admit that disco could not completely replace his normal life. Unfortunately, many players of World of Warcraft let their playing experience turn into an addiction. At this level of escape, the real world ceases to be important as Azeroth becomes the only thing that the player cares about. Regardless of the source of escape, completely running away from the real world is a horrible thing. Although escape such as disco dancing and World of Warcraft may not be directly harmful to the person engaging in these activities, when a person's life becomes consumed by these things, the people that are close to that person can become hurt. Whenever a person becomes so engaged in escaping from the trials and tribulations of real life that he begins to neglect his responsibilities to others, then legal and safe forms of escape become just as dangerous as drugs and alcohol. Although everyone needs to have an occasional escape from real life to unwind and relax, a complete escape is a horrible thing that should be avoided at all costs.

Why I like Star Trek

I have always been infatuated with Star Trek ever since I was a child. However, throughout both my childhood and my experiences in college, I have found that most people frown upon Star Trek as a horrible television show that symbolizes the idea of a 35 year old virgin living at his parent's house while fantasizing about having sex with Uhura. Although there are definitely some Trekkies who fit this stereotype, Star Trek and the culture that surrounds it is not how most people perceive it to be.

Star Trek itself fills a spot in the mind that is completely vacant in the current world of realism in television. At its core, Star Trek is a completely fictional universe. Created completely from imagination, the universe of Star Trek does not follow the normal constraints of our real universe. Within the outer space ream of the Enterprise, travel to distant alien worlds and interaction with the inhabitants there provides stimulation to the minds of the viewers. Even though the personalities of the aliens are often simple and one-dimensional, the strange and exotic nature of these aliens can provoke imagination. Another aspect of the show itself that is unique to Star Trek and its lesser known cousins is futuristic technology. While some advances in technology that are presented in Star Trek are based on real science and engineering to some degree, other technologies are completely based on fiction. However, regardless of an origin of either science or imagination, the technology in Star Trek is very fantastic and can provide hope for the future in a world filled with inefficient technologies like coal-fired power plants, internal combustion engines, and Windows.

The culture that surrounds Star Trek is not quite as bad as its portrayal by most people. For the majority of people who like the television show, it is nothing more than an entertaining television show that is much more imaginative than most television. Unfortunately, Star Trek and its fans have gained a bad reputation because of the few fans who have taken their love of Star Trek too far. Instead of simply enjoying a television program and delving into the fantasy of the future only occasionally, some Trekkies become so infatuated with Star Trek that their lives are consumed by it. While Star Trek can be a very entertaining show that is can provoke the imagination, an entire life dominated by Star Trek is definitely uncool.

Being completely consumed by a pop culture genre is never cool. This holds true for groups of people other than Trekkies as well. For example, Tony in Saturday Night Fever is uncool for his complete obsession with disco. Although he is cool at first for his extreme skill at dancing, the dance floor completely dominates his life. Because he is inept at all other areas of life, he will always be a complete failure outside of nightclubs. If Tony had the ability to do reach outside of his closed life and make something of himself, he would have been a very cool person, but because his only skill is dancing, he is doomed to only be cool amongst his fellow dancers in the same way that extreme Trekkies are only cool amongst fellow Trekkies. Ultimately, although the average Star Trek fan or disco dancer may simply enjoy a cool slice of pop culture, the few extreme members of a group can turn a cool idea into a horribly square pastime.

What Makes Minorities Cool?

After watching Shaft, I have been trying to figure out whether or not minorities have some kind of innate coolness that exists simply because they are minorities. Take the example of John Shaft. His coolness comes primarily from the way he has to overcome great obstacles to protect the innocent people of Harlem. Because he is an African American man, he must overcome racial boundaries in addition to his struggles for justice. From this, it can be deduced that the effect of being a minority on Shaft is that it increases the difficulty of his primary struggles, and because he overcomes these harder struggles, he is slightly cooler than he would be if he was white.

Another minority that is cool is the Russian cosmonaut Lev Andropov from the movie Armageddon. When the space shuttle crews meet the cosmonaut on board the Russian space station, he is very eccentric from living alone for months with little contact with other humans. As a result of a lack of interest in space travel in recent years, Lev believes that he will be in the shadow of the heroes that are flying to take out the asteroid. However, when his space station explodes due to an accident, Lev must act to save the astronauts. From this point forward, Lev performs heroic acts selflessly to help the astronauts destroy the asteroid. Lev's Russian heritage also helps to amplify his coolness. Because he is not American, he must overcome the cultural barrier that exists between him and the astronauts. This increases the amount of work that is required for Lev to reach his goals, and because these goals are reached, he is cooler as a result.

As a general case, minority coolness is not generated as a direct result of being a minority. In all cases where a minority is cool, the ethnicity of the cool person is simply another obstacle that the person must overcome. In effect, the only cool minorities are the minorities who transcend their ethnicity in order to reach an ultimate goal which is independent of their original minority. A few more examples of this are T E Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, Bruce Lee and his promotion of Jeet Kune Do, and Dr. Foreman from House.

Minority coolness is opposed by sheer minority stereotyping. When done tastefully, stereotypes can be explored through satire to produce comedic effect. However, when done without taste, there is nothing more uncool than stereotyping. A perfect example of uncool minorities is the movie Soul Plane. When characters act in a way that does nothing more than promoting generalizations about a race, there is no way that the character can be cool. However, when minority characters overcome racial differences and fight for a good cause, they truly become cool.

Why Shaft is Cool

Shaft is cool. I wish I could leave my analysis of Shaft at that, but I must delve deeper.

Throughout Shaft, I kept questioning whether or not minorities have some kind of inherent coolness. In comparison to the majority race of white people, do the minority races have some underlying trait that causes their coolness to be multiplied? In the case of John Shaft, coolness is not generated through his race. It is instead generated by his kindness, sense of justice, and his dominance in every situation. Although he is equally harsh to both his associates and his enemies, he shows an incredible sense of kindness to the innocent citizens of Harlem. When traveling the streets, he kindly converses with both white and black people equally, and he openly gives away his money to help people out. For example, when a small child is cold and hungry on a doorstep, Shaft gives him money to buy a hot meal. His sense of justice is intertwined with his sense of kindness. Shaft acts kind only towards people who are innocent. When dealing with his allies in both the police department and the black liberation movement, he treats them nearly the same way that he treats his enemies. He does this because every member of these groups has done some wrong in trying to achieve their goals. This is why Shaft still talks Bumpy with a strong, insulting voice when he sincerely wants his daughter back; Bumpy does not have any innocence, so Shaft treats him harshly regardless of his intentions.
Another component of Shaft's coolness is his dominance. Throughout the entire movie, there is rarely a time when Shaft does not have control of the situation. From the start of the film, Shaft disregards traffic lights as he strolls across busy streets while oncoming cars are forced to stop for him. Additionally, he treats authoritative figures like Bumpy and the police as if they were subordinate to Shaft's will. The coolness that originates from his dominance is tied to the general concept of power being cool. Without power, a person's will is subject to the whims of superiors. It is nearly impossible to be cool while still being subordinated to other people. As long as freedom in personal choice is nonexistent, then all choices, regardless of their intentions, are bound by the rules of superiors. With enough power to have complete control over personal choices, coolness cannot be bounded by rules. Ultimately, this freedom of choice is an almost necessary component of cool, and Shaft, with his complete dominance over every situation, definitely has the power to project his kindness and justice enough to be an incredibly cool jive-talking cat.

Drugs...cool or not?

Throughout Easy Rider, Captain America and Billy constantly use drugs. The pair of Captain America and Billy is cool, but I believe that their drug use has little to do with their coolness. Furthermore, their use of LSD near the end of the film definitely detracts from their coolness. When they enter their acid trip, Captain America and Billy become completely imprisoned in a world of hallucinations which, instead of freeing their minds, strips them of their American freedom. Because their coolness originates from this freedom, and because acid causes their freedom to fade, LSD is definitely not cool.

Drug use for anyone is not cool. In most stories, any character that uses drugs is portrayed with a shade of uncoolness because of their drug use. For example, Dr. House in the television show House is horribly addicted to vicodin, a prescription painkiller. Even though he has the opportunity to take physical therapy in order to mitigate his pain and perhaps even back off of the vicodin, he is too attached to his drug to leave it. This ultimately leads to a lessening of House's coolness when he is brought before a trial for his drug use. During this trial, his friends are forced to risk their careers in order to falsely clear his name. The amount of pain that his addiction causes for his friends leads to a lessening of his coolness. If he had instead went through rehab and suffered through attaining a drug-free life, he would have been a much cooler person as a result.

A unique case where drug use is portrayed as cool is the movie Drunken Master. In this film, an old drunkard is a kung fu master who relies on being constantly being drunk in order to perform amazing martial arts feats. Throughout the film, he trains a young Jackie Chan into taking his place as a new drunken master. Eventually, the student slips into alcoholism, and combined with rigorous training, he surpasses his master in the art of fighting. However, even though the old drunken master and Jackie Chan are both require alcohol to fight, their coolness is a result of their fighting skills. Even though their alcoholism is cool, it is only a small shard of their overall coolness. However, in most cases, drug use of any kind is not cool. Drugs only separate people from the true coolness that lies at the heart of their personalities.

American Freedom: Cool

Easy Rider was definitely a cool film. However, I would argue that Dennis Hopper's character Billy was much cooler than Peter Fonda's character Captain America. Captain America lacked coolness because of his constant striving to reach an ideal. He did not see the real life in front of him. Instead, he was striving to reach the same kind of life that the farmer and the commune were trying to achieve. Also, instead of taking advantage of the commune's offer to join them, Captain America decided to leave the commune to continue his search. Ultimately, his lack of coolness stems from him not seeing what he really wants. When he descends into New Orleans, he is furthest away from the life he wants. Nevertheless, he decides to use acid at an absolutely horrible time in a continuation of his search. This is what leads to his bad trip-instead of using it in good company at the commune, he uses acid in the synthetic happiness of Mardis Gras with bought friends. Captain America himself proves that his path for truth is wrought with failure when he says "We blew it".

Conversely from Captain America, Billy was a very cool person. Throughout the film, he only wants three things: drugs, money, and freedom. Normally, I do not find people who are entrenched in drugs and money to be very cool. However, Billy has an almost transcendental quality about him. Instead of reveling in decadence, Billy just wants to enjoy life as much as possible, and because he sees the conventional ways of living in America as a roadblock to happiness, he simply chooses to live in his own way. Furthermore, although Billy has the mainstream want to retire in Florida and relax for the rest of his life, he is still retaining his transcendental qualities. Just because his goals and the goals of mainstream America interact, he sees no need to change his ways to match some goal of nonconformance.

Regardless of the coolness of Captain America and Billy, the absolute coolest idea in the movie is the road trip across America. The road trip symbolizes the epitome of freedom in America-the ability to travel anywhere in the country without being impeded by laws or traditions. In a way, this is a continuation of people traveling west to live in the lawless frontier. No matter when the time, the idea of being able to live without rules will always be cool.