Lurker Rants, Too!

[Joe Varo]

On Tue, 25 Feb 1997 Andrew Dinn <andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk> wrote:

> ...
> You overestimate the intellectual content of my observation and
> underestimate the intellectual abilities of yer average Joe in the
> street. It's not lack of nous that stops people being fooled again
> (and again and again). It's the lack of any support network to ensure
> that those who have money are stopped from using it to queer the pitch
> of those who don't.

Well, here in the USA, money has been judged to be a form of speech and
covered by the 1st Ammendment.  Some people want to limit how much money
one can donate to a politician, others say that this would be an
infringement of free speech.

Shit, Money and the Word.

> ...
> But consider if Spielberg had not made this film. It's not as if
> people would thereby have had *less* exposure to the truth of the
> Holocaust.

Here in the USA, I'd have to say that, yes, there might possibly be less
exposure, especially in the areas other than NYC, LA, Chicago and the
other major cities.

The amount of reading people do in this country is abysmal and many run
with dread at the mention of the word "documentary".  There are only two
places here in my town where you can see non-hollywood-type films:  on
the local PBS tv station or occasionally at local college film festivals.

In some cases, yes, I think that SL, as cockeyed as it may be, might get
people to dig a little deeper and discover the Spielberg version for what
it is.

> ...
> The population at large is neither stupid nor wilfully malicious.
> ...

Well, sometimes I wonder about that.

Joe