I refuse to take my Happy Pill™
A little background:
My friend Doug is fairly conservative guy who labels himself Republican even if he doesn't agree with the direction the party appears to be headed. He and I have had several, sometimes-spirited debates concerning politics, both local and national. Leading up to the elections on Nov. 2 and during one of our debates, he made the statement "Why won't you just take your Happy Pill™?" That comment stems from the movie: Equilibrium.
The basic premise of the movie is that emotion and critical thought are BAD - The solution in the movie is to take a pill which counteracts emotion and critical/free thought and do what the government tells you - Emotion and Free thought are crimes.
I guess I kind of equate that to the current political landscape. If I don't subscribe to President Bush's policies and speak out against them, then I can be potentially be convicted of a crime at worst or, at best, could become an "interesting" person to the FBI-CIA-NSA or whatever acronym they go by these days. Of course, rational political discourse is something that is still lacking in this country where our President has claimed a mandate with only 51% of the popular vote. I'm blaming both Democrats AND Republicans for that. There has been altogether too much vitriol spewed by both sides towards each other this past year. Here's to hoping things calm down a bit politically, and that the Democrats actually come up with a unified view/mission in 2005.
My friend Doug is fairly conservative guy who labels himself Republican even if he doesn't agree with the direction the party appears to be headed. He and I have had several, sometimes-spirited debates concerning politics, both local and national. Leading up to the elections on Nov. 2 and during one of our debates, he made the statement "Why won't you just take your Happy Pill™?" That comment stems from the movie: Equilibrium.
The basic premise of the movie is that emotion and critical thought are BAD - The solution in the movie is to take a pill which counteracts emotion and critical/free thought and do what the government tells you - Emotion and Free thought are crimes.
I guess I kind of equate that to the current political landscape. If I don't subscribe to President Bush's policies and speak out against them, then I can be potentially be convicted of a crime at worst or, at best, could become an "interesting" person to the FBI-CIA-NSA or whatever acronym they go by these days. Of course, rational political discourse is something that is still lacking in this country where our President has claimed a mandate with only 51% of the popular vote. I'm blaming both Democrats AND Republicans for that. There has been altogether too much vitriol spewed by both sides towards each other this past year. Here's to hoping things calm down a bit politically, and that the Democrats actually come up with a unified view/mission in 2005.
posted by Bulldog at 1/02/2005 08:26:00 PM
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