Everybody hates capitalism, and capitalism is everywhere, especially in our culture. Indeed, it is largely through culture that capitalism reproduces itself, and every way that capitalism reproduces itself is a thing that should be attacked.
Culture is also thing that can be attacked with relatively little consequences, because democracy sez “hey, you can think and talk about and believe in anything you’d like. We’ll just lock you up as soon as you seem like you’re going to actually DO anything with those beliefs. Oh, and we’ll call this arrangement ‘freedom’ okay? Okay.” So, while it would be way more legit to like, burn stuff or whatever, this is something we can get away with and not worry about draining anybody’s bail fund. We just REALLY don’t want to hear trolls complain about how $5,000 should be spent on things other than getting comrades out of jail again. Also, we’re cowards. Deal with it.
Also, culture is like air. You can’t stop breathing it. The time the idealized anarch hero spends between burning down a bank and assassinating a cop is spent swimming in cultural hegemony. Gross. Capitalism pollutes every moment of our existence. If we have to breathe this shit, we might as well exhale our disgust and attempt to pollute it back. Right?
Thus, Insurgent Theatre has created
Our first episode took on Mad Max: Fury Road and particularly some friends in academia who were suckered by the supposed ecofeminist and otherwise radical messaging of the newest installment of everyone’s favorite hyper-masculine, desert-destroying, post-apocalyptic action franchise.
Then, for episode two, we hit up the art house cinema, cuz why wouldn’t cultural hegemony stretch to quirky indie movies? We saw a highly stylized totally derivative horror film about the Russian revolution, except in this version the anarchists crush Stalin’s head and lure the bourgeoisie into a creepy basement for to murder them. It was called We Are Still Here, and only in our imaginations was it about that kind of thing at all.
Next, we’ll be critiquing Guy Ritchie’s pedestrian Cold War spy movie, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. which is obviously terrible, but at least not as openly fascistic as the 007 re-boots. Eventually, we’ll talk about the horrific racist misogyny and complete inanity of Ex Machina, Amy Schumer’s pretend sex-posi feminism, the crypto-lenninism of the Warchowskis, and who knows what else. Join the ride at InsurgentTheatre.org/haters or on the facevirus.
Episode 1: http://thehatersinsurgent.blogspot.com/2015/06/episode-1-haters-v-mad-ma…
Notes and time stamps (approximates):
0-13:05 Pre-game Chatter
-0:53 moped adds fury to our road
13:34-36:58 Gut Reactions
-in which Ben is too far away from the recording device.
-13:49 Toona.
-20:52 Yo dude, I killed your dad.
-21:52 the first time Ben calls a hollywood movie “totally Leninist”
37:09-1:13:51 In-depth Analysis:
– 38:39 Is this really feminist?
– 48:35 Is this really eco?
– 52:15 Let’s talk about Whiteness
– 54:43 What’s this about redemption?
– 59:18 Hollywood Economics 101
– 1:02:03 Haters gets meta
– 1:05:17 Imagination in the post-fordist economy
1:13:51 The Ratings!
(if you find other highlights you would like to cite, send an email toinsurgenttheatre@riseup.net and we’ll add it to the list. If you have anything else you wanna say, also email us, or comment on the post.)
Works Cited:
Mad Max Fury Road Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max:_Fury_Road
‘feminism, madness and revolution in mad max: fury road’:https://www.facebook.com/chad.kautzer.7/videos/10101631788190344/
Example of Mad Max as promotion for imperialist tourism:https://www.yahoo.com/travel/mad-max-moments-in-namibia-120082041077.html
Article describing the desecration of land by said tourism industry:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/05/mad-max-fury-road-namibia
Article on glaring whiteness of the film:http://inthesetimes.com/article/17986/mad-max-fury-road-and-the-glaring-whiteness-of-post-apocalyptic-films
What the fuck Ben thinks he’s talking about when he says “post-fordism”:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Fordism