(www.pixabay.com)
“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”
Albert Einstein
“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”
bigotry
Favorite Science Fiction Films: 7: The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
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The 1956 film The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is a seminal piece of cinema. This movie combined the theme of alien invaders with that of xenophobia and the fear of communists infiltrating American society. Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter starred in the film, and directed by Don Siegel, in an Allied Artists film. The film was based on a novel by Jack Finney called The Body Snatchers.
This black and white movie is atmospheric and establishes quickly a tone of distrust and disquiet, by creating a world in which normalcy seems just out of place. This questioning of normalcy, especially in the context of 1950s America, in which conformity was seen as a virtue, is a strength of the movie. In post World War Two America, many people lived in a segregated world, divided by race, class, and religion. Also, the United States was suffering through the hearings run by Senator Joe McCarthy, which were a modern version of witch hunts. The level of paranoia that was permeating American society is reflected in this film. Additionally, the possible effects of scientific research on humanity as well as the omnipresent nuclear threat also inform the tone of this film.
Certainly, there were people who opposed the insanity of the time, people such as the writers Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman, and the journalist Edgar R. Murrow, but I will discuss their courage in another post in the future.
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers has grown in popularity and has become recognized as one of the most important science fiction films of the 1950s, if not in American cinema as a whole. The idea of the loss of humanity behind the façade of a person’s face gives rise to the current explosion of zombie movies. This movie also gave America the term that would live in our consciousness of “pod people.” It is a brilliant movie, and one that I suggest that you see if you have not.
Quotations on Bigotry
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“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”
Albert Einstein
“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
Nelson Mandela
“There should be no discrimination against languages people speak, skin color, or religion.”
Malala Yousafzai
“Bigotry of all kinds is intolerable, unjustifiable, and immoral. We, as human beings, must always be willing to stand up against any kind of bigotry.”
Charles F. French
FAVORITE SCIENCE FICTION FILMS: 5: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
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The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) was a brilliant science-fiction film that set the standards, in many ways, for other following films. One of the great strengths of the genre of science-fiction as well as horror and fantasy is its ability to comment on direct issues in contemporary society. In this 20th Century Fox film, the director, Robert Wise uses the arrival of an alien spaceship on earth as a cautionary message about the potential of the human race to cause its own self-destruction through atomic warfare.
The core plot element is that beings from advanced civilizations on other planets have found people on earth have developed both nuclear weapons and a space program. They have sent an emissary, Klaatu, played by Michael Rennie, to deliver a gift and a warning to the people of Earth. The gift, a small box, was destroyed by a frightened soldier who thought it was a threat. In reality, it was a device that would have allowed humans to study the universe. With the gift gone, what is left is a warning that if human beings insist on bringing their atomic weapons and violence into space with them, then earth and its inhabitants will be destroyed utterly. This message is a quietly subversive challenge through what was seen as just a movie to the nuclear states of the world.
http://highlandcoldwar8.wikispaces.com
A staple of science-fiction, both cinema and television is the robot. This kind of machine will figure into film in many ways from the earliest days to recent film. The Day The Earth Stood Still has such a machine in Gort, a robot that serves as an aide to the alien Klaatu. Earth people view it as a threat, as they do everything alien, which is yet another point to the movie. Xenophobia and bigotry, unfortunate human capacities, were at the forefront of American society in the late 1940s and 1950s. If someone was different from the so-called norm, then they were somehow bad and immoral. This will be the main point of the next movie I will examine in this series: Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
The Day The Earth Stood Still was a critical success and has been named by several film organizations as one of the most important films of American cinema. If you have not yet seen this movie, and I am NOT talking about the remake, then I recommend it highly.
Martin Luther King, Jr Day — 2022
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Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and I would like to offer a few of this extraordinary American’s quotations as a tribute to him. He was one of the finest, most decent, and empathetic people in the history of the United States of America. We should all remember him and honor his teaching, his legacy, and his call for justice for everyone.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
Quotations On Prejudice
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“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”
Albert Einstein
“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
Maya Angelou
“Bigotry must never be accepted, must always be confronted, and must never become the way of our country. We must always recognize its past and the consequences of its present existence, and we should always strive to eliminate bigotry, in all forms, from the future.”
Charles F. French
Quotations on Bigotry and Taking Action
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“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”
Albert Einstein
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
(https://commons.wikimedia.org)
“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Elie Wiesel
“Wherever and whenever bigotry and oppression exist, we must oppose it. We must not remain silent–tyrants, fascists, and oppressors count on our not speaking out.”
Charles F. French
Quotations on Bigotry
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“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”
Albert Einstein
“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
Nelson Mandela
“There should be no discrimination against languages people speak, skin color, or religion.”
Malala Yousafzai
“Bigotry of all kinds is intolerable, unjustifiable, and immoral. We, as human beings, must always be willing to stand up against any kind of bigotry.”
Charles F. French
The Sleep Of Reason Breeds Monsters, and It Can Do That In The United States of America
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(Francisco Goya ~1799)
This image is one of Francisco Goya’s most well known and important. It has been debated if its meaning lies in the personal for Goya or on commentary on society. We can never be sure of what the artist intended.
It is possible, however, to see how when people abandon reason and analysis, that horror follows. Fascism arose in the 20th Century as people in Germany, Austria, and Italy primarily abandoned reason to follow the emotional cults of personality that would lead to the worst evil the world has ever known.
In the United States, which has a terrible history of bigotry, nationalism, and violence, driven by right wing forces that abandon reason and, using tactics of Hitler, such as blaming others through scapegoating and pull people to their worst impulses and the use of the big lie, in which an untruth is repeated loudly and often, we must recognize that such evil is here.
The United States, on January 6th, experienced an attack that was directly against the sovereignty of the country, against freedom, and against democracy. This was the worst attack against the foundation of our nation since the Civil War. This was not a riot gone terribly wrong; this was a planned insurrection, an attempt to overthrow the government of our nation, and those responsible should be held to account for their actions. The insurrectionists responded to a President who used Hitlerian tactics of the big lie about the “stolen election”, which was fair and secure and not stolen, and scapegoating members of Congress as the enemy rather than members of a different political party. These actions were real, and they were horrific and abominable.
Americans, of any party, who believe in democracy must repudiate such beliefs. If as some suggest, we simply move past this insurrection, then we are agreeing once more, to abandon responsibility, analysis, and reason. The consequences of such ignoring of the enormity of what happened can be devastating to our nation and our democracy.
White power groups are an extension of the evil that Hitler manifested. Let there be no mistake about it. They represent bigotry and evil and dictatorship. And they are a direct threat to our freedom and democracy.
We must not fall into a national sleep of reason. We must stay awake, otherwise, the fate of this nation, of the United States of America, for which so many fought and died in many wars, will be at risk.
Martin Luther King Jr Day–2021
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(www.pixabay.com)
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and I would like to offer a few of this extraordinary American’s quotations as a tribute to him. He was one of the finest, most decent, and empathetic people in the history of the United States of America. We should all remember him and honor his teaching, his legacy, and his call for justice for everyone.
charles french words reading and writing 