"Sex and death and human grime,
in monochrome for one thin dime,
and at least the trains all run on time,
but they don't go anywhere."
in monochrome for one thin dime,
and at least the trains all run on time,
but they don't go anywhere."
— Lyrics to This Vicious Cabaret
"Those forgiven Death Eaters were all from wealthy and influential families, or were closely allied with them. Money and/or favours had to change hands for that many people to drop the ball and let them go free. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Look at my godfather, and the Ministry's complete failure to give him a trial while he rotted in Azkaban – for a crime he never committed. Look at the goblins, treated as second-class citizens, despite the vital role they play in the Wizarding economy. Look at house-elves, who are treated even worse. Sometimes I wonder if the Statute of Secrecy isn't maintained more to prevent the Ministry from being scrutinized too closely by the Muggle governments. By Muggle standards, I'm afraid the Wizarding world would be considered hopelessly backward and barbaric."
"Hitler speaks of a Thousand-Year Reich, but he cannot feed his armies for a month. His troops spill their blood across every field in Europe, but still he is no closer to achieving his goals."
"...a slight diminishment in taxes does not do the damage I know you've seen. Keeping a third of the population in slavery and squalor does. Oppressing another third to the point where they self-segregate does. People do not thrive under tyrants."
— Hastet, The Kingdom of Copper
Efficiency, even military efficiency, is no longer needed. Nothing is efficient in Oceania except the Thought Police.
Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.
—Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Long live Stalin! He loves you!
Sing these words, or you know what he’ll do...
I am the man who arranges the blocks
That are made by the men in Kazakhstan
They come two weeks late
And they don’t tessellate
But we’re working to Stalin’s five year plan
Sing these words, or you know what he’ll do...
I am the man who arranges the blocks
That are made by the men in Kazakhstan
They come two weeks late
And they don’t tessellate
But we’re working to Stalin’s five year plan
I just think we're the first society in history to be ruled by incompetent fascists. Fascists, they're normally pretty organised, we're going to be going to the death camps in a replacement bus service.
We lacked self-control. We recognized no limits. Otherwise the Reich would have lasted more than 4 decades.
— Wilhelm Frick, The New Order: Last Days of Europe
Here’s something in Severance that I’ve been thinking about a ton, but haven’t seen many people talking about: the mismanagement of the severed floor.
So many pieces of dystopian media tackle the threat of corporate overlords, but they do so in a way that makes the corporation/the people managing it seem like an almost insurmountable force, in that they can and will track your every movement, or surveil your family, or spend enormous resources to close any loophole, physical or legal, that might allow you to overcome their stranglehold on your life. But not Severance.
In fact, Severance seems to go out of its way to show that the corporate overlords DO NOT have absolute power. Besides the severed workers, the floor is understaffed: a manager, her peon, and one security guard. We KNOW it is understaffed because when Helly R. does what she does in the elevator, it takes Graner several minutes to even realize what is happening, much less get to her, despite her obvious importance. When they break into the security room, there is no one there. They are able to plan and execute a jailbreak with virtually no intervention, which in any other piece of writing I might interpret as laziness, or plot armor for the main characters, but in this case I can’t get over the intentionality of it, nor the message: they aren’t always watching you. Not only that, they don’t want to always watch you. They are too complacent, too lazy, and most of all, too cheap for that. It is much more cost efficient for them to simply make you believe they can see your every move.
So much of the power we think they have over us is smoke and mirrors. As soon as we recognize the illusion, we have the power to break free.
So many pieces of dystopian media tackle the threat of corporate overlords, but they do so in a way that makes the corporation/the people managing it seem like an almost insurmountable force, in that they can and will track your every movement, or surveil your family, or spend enormous resources to close any loophole, physical or legal, that might allow you to overcome their stranglehold on your life. But not Severance.
In fact, Severance seems to go out of its way to show that the corporate overlords DO NOT have absolute power. Besides the severed workers, the floor is understaffed: a manager, her peon, and one security guard. We KNOW it is understaffed because when Helly R. does what she does in the elevator, it takes Graner several minutes to even realize what is happening, much less get to her, despite her obvious importance. When they break into the security room, there is no one there. They are able to plan and execute a jailbreak with virtually no intervention, which in any other piece of writing I might interpret as laziness, or plot armor for the main characters, but in this case I can’t get over the intentionality of it, nor the message: they aren’t always watching you. Not only that, they don’t want to always watch you. They are too complacent, too lazy, and most of all, too cheap for that. It is much more cost efficient for them to simply make you believe they can see your every move.
So much of the power we think they have over us is smoke and mirrors. As soon as we recognize the illusion, we have the power to break free.
— argonaut-blog
on Tumblr
on TumblrI don't think that 'Putin is that strong because I've seen it all around Russia. His power, his government is quite ineffective. They are highly corrupted, and they cannot solve the easiest questions. I know regions where schools are left without electricity for weeks, and Putin's government cannot do anything with that.
— Nadya Tolokonnikova, Pussy Riot, on Vladimir Putin
Vladimir PutinAll on his own, the Fuhrer reviews his troops. This is propaganda. And everyone says, 'That's order for you! They're all in line.' But you mustn't look behind the scenes. There's no order there.
— Gunter Lohse, German Diplomat and Nazi Party member, 1937-1945
Hitler was undoubtedly a genius but he lacked self-control. He recognized no limits. Otherwise the thousand-year Reich would have lasted more than twelve years.
— Wilhelm Frick
