Deja-Doo-Doo

I took this about an hour ago from the roof of my apartment here in South Korea...



* * * *

And onto unrelated topics...

I watched Soylent Green this weekend and actually found it quite interesting. Amusingly, it was set in the "futuristic" year of 2002, complete with rampant overpopulation and even-more-processed-than-McD's kinds of foods. But what REALLY interested me was this...

In the middle of the 1970's, the United States of America was still in full swing with its anti-Vietnam turmoil. Dissent was rife and individuals were in thrall not only to the fears concerning U.S. involvement but also the inner-political turmoil that was causing the U.S. to eat away at itself. The rampant success of SOYLENT GREEN [1973] in this time period is not so surprising given its quite obvious commentary on cannibalism and American self-destruction.

Charlton Heston is a 'troubled' cop who has a problem with subjugation of any kind. He has a problem with not being able to get his hands on a piece of fresh fruit to eat, with being surrounded by overpopulation, with being surprised. Mostly he does not like being forced to eat human flesh. Human flesh "bugs" him. At first blush this could be taken as a normal anti-cannibalistic pic where fear of cannibalism is visible in the guise of "Soylent Green"; and while this is a valid analysis, it does not preclude all other analyses.

Charlton Heston is enraged because he has learned that "Soylent Green is people." The "normal" food he was raised with turns to bitter gall when faced with the harsh reality that he must kowtow instead to mass quantities of human flesh being fed to him and the rest of New York's population, unbeknownst to all of them. The rage of this realization coupled with the death of his "father figure" result in a manifestation of liminal uncertainty. He is just one more indication of American's slow-consumption of it's own best resource--its people. But nothing is resolved, leaving all questions in need of being answered, and leaving us hauntingly asking: Is Soylent Green people? Is Vietnam people? Is Soylent Green Vietnam? Is Charlton Heston EVER gonna be able to not be completely over-the-top dramatic?

Yet Charlton Heston cannot handle this realization either. He is left screaming to the world "Soylent Green is people!"--we are the cause of our own mass downfall. While the plot itself might seem rather straightforward in promoting anti-cannibalistic acts, it remains an allegorical warning that we will be the source of our own destruction, and that WE SHOULD NOT EAT OTHER PEOPLE.

A recap; Charlton Heston [as the "individual" in America] cannot cope with the realization that he is essentially the source of his own downfall and that the American population [as "America"] is slowly gnawing away at its own right leg, not even realizing that it's chewing on ITSELF for sustenance. The fact that SOYLENT GREEN was so hugely successful is evidence enough that anti-cannibalistic and anti-Vietnam kooks were right on the money and that America was scooting its ass along the path of self-destruction even back in the 1970's.

I report, you decide.

-------