I don't have to tell you things are bad...

[Bonobo]

Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth.

Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.

We know things are bad — worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'

[olddots]

1. Don't know how to reply

just wish I didn't agree with you 100%

[Bonobo]

2. It is a quote from the classic rant in the film "Network"...

As true today as it was 40 years ago.

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. Whatever we're afraid of: there's someone out there to validate your fear.

Maybe it's the human condition to believe that your generation invented adversity.

You hear it in conversation; Person a) talking about a perceived symptom of social collapse, with person b) talking about an entirely different perception, also a symptom of imminent social destruction. Their pet issues may be entirely dissimilar, may be entirely false, and in fact may be mutually exclusive, their only point of agreement may be anxiety... but it's enough.

Slightly off-topic, but something I've noticed from conservatives is a fixation on hypothetical catastrophes (OMG! We need to do something about Iran!!!) as a proxy for actually worrying about current, ongoing catastrophes.

[Blue_Tires]

17. just update the last line to

"our iPads, PS3s, and DirecTV"

[Demo_Chris]

3. Relax! Once Obama passes a Trans Pacific and guts Social Security, he's got this

[graham4anything]

4. But used to be's don't count anymore,they just lay on the floor til we sweep them away

the irony was, had Peter Finch not died, the movie would be forgotten about, and he would not have won the award. Perhaps not since Liz Taylor had pneumonia had any actor garnered so much sympathy for a role that didn't have to do with the role itself.(Ala the reality style today so many garner publicity for.)
Now, not saying he shouldn't have won, but that extra, he gave ALL for the movie got it for him. (Something that alas, should have happened when Martin Sheen ALMOST gave his all in Apocalypse Now, having a massive heart attack, then continuing but not winning the Oscar as almost everyone thought he deserved to win the following winter, and even worse, not getting a makeup for that omission one for any other role afterward(we are still awaiting.)

I myself am MAD AS HELL that there could be anyone who doesn't like President Obama, and I myself am MAD AS HELL at Ralph Nader for not being part of the system he rails again.

When one rages at the machine, the least they should do is BEFORE burning it down, think a little about what is left in the ashes the day after, something Ralphie never did, did he with his big ego. Ralphie could have been a contenda, not part of the problem.

"It used to be so natural
To talk about forever
But 'used to be's' don't count anymore
They just lay on the floor
'Til we sweep them away"

(c)alan and marilyn bergman, written the same year as Network, originally for the tv show
"All that Glitters" however, never used, then in one of those luck moments, Neil Diamond heard a small part of the short at that time song and the rest is history.


most people consider the following to be the single greatest moment in live music grammy history
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?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Bluenorthwest]

19. In 1976 Network won best Screenplay, Best Actress (Dunaway) and Best Supporting Actress (Beatrice

Straight) along with Finch's Best Actor Oscar. Bill Holden and Ned Beatty were both nominated for best supporting Actor, and nominations went to cinematography, direction and Best Picture as well. At the Golden Globes the film won best Screenplay, Actor, Actress and Director.
Network and Streetcar Named Desire are the only two films in history to win 3 out of the 4 acting Oscars.

[graham4anything]

20. Jodie Foster and Cliff Robertson(or DeNiro) and Sissy Spacek should have won

Same recently that Heath Ledger did not deserve an Oscar, but he died too.

Beatrice Straight most certainly did not deserve the Oscar

and Best Screenplay should have gone to Rocky

and best score to Bernard Herrmann for Obsession (which should have been nominated for Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor(Lithgow), still the best Hitchcock homage ever.
Cliff Robertson of course was robbed, as he did this shortly after the scandal he uncovered and he was blacklisted for a while, but Obsession was the best work he ever did (and he prior won the Best Actor award).

[Summer Hathaway]

5. No, you don't HAVE to tell anyone that things are bad

and yet you do so, and as often as possible.

"The world is going to hell in a hand-basket." Thus was the wisdom of the time - a time long past. And yet we are all still here.

The average US citizen, no less the average world citizen, probably spends a lot less time in their living room worrying about their toasters and radial tires than some people spend on message boards insisting that THAT is precisely what the average person does.

[DallasNE]

7. Today There Was A Report

That said that the average pay for new jobs being created is $33,000 a year and that 25% of them pay $20,000 or less a year. Median pay for existing jobs is roughly $50,000 so that will be coming down as these new jobs get added into the statistical base.

And if that isn't bad enough, the weekly initial jobless claims today came in above 350,000 for the first time in 6 weeks. Is the effects of the sequester starting to show already? We should know more next Friday as the monthly jobs report and we can look at the trend in government jobs. If this turns out to be the case then with the sequester set to phase in over a 7 month period then this upward trend will continue. (The latest week came in at 357,000).

The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, rose 2,250 to 343,000, but remained below the 350,000 level.

[Summer Hathaway]

8. I read the news today, oh boy!

I guess we're all doomed then.

And while awaiting our collective demise, at least we can all post on message boards about how doomed we are. Passes the time and all ...

[DallasNE]

13. This Isn't Gloom And Doom

But the prediction is that the sequester will cost a half point on GDP and 750,000 jobs. This is all pretty gentle. More disturbing is the salary these new jobs are paying because they represent a very significant reduction in pay that will lock in slow growth in the best of times, more money spent on food assistamce by the government and other unintended consequences.

[SheilaT]

6. Everybody is out of work? Or scared of losing their job?

Really?

I'm working. I'm not scared of losing my job. Am I the only one? Although I have learned here on DU that I'm the only person over the age of 50 who has gotten a job in recent years. Worse yet, I've gotten work over the age of 60. Maybe there should be an exhibit of me at the Smithsonian.

[raccoon]

12. Then there should be an exhibit of me as well! I too defied the odds. nt

[In_The_Wind]

9. This has gone on far too long!

Now, what are we going to do about it? hmmm ?

[Egalitarian Thug]

10. So, I'm reading through the replies and my brain starts to hurt.

One of Paddy Chayefsky's greatest works, a fixture on virtually every "greatest films of all time" list written in the last 30 years, wouldn't have been noticed had Peter Finch not died.

It does no one anyone any good when you point out that things are not as they should be, and no one is doing anything to fix it.

And it doesn't matter anyway because lots of people do have jobs, so it's all a lie anyway.

Take your pick or any combination.


Perhaps the real problem is that none of these people are at all embarrassed to be such embarrassments.

[Bonobo]

11. I am rather disappointed.

But your reply helped a bit.

Cheers.

[geek tragedy]

14. Game over man, game over!

[FSogol]

16. I don't know. The little House Wren on the feeder outside my window sure seemed happy this morning.

Maybe he knows something we don't.

[Bluenorthwest]

18. You should credit the author and offer the context of what is being said and by whom.

Network is one of the absolute greatest films of all time. The screenplay should be read by everyone. The most quoted and most famous sections are not even close to the best parts or the most insightful. The 'woe to us' passage is my favorite:
Howard Beale: [arms outstretched to the heavens]:
Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems, and he died at eleven o'clock this morning of a heart condition, and woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble!
So. A rich little man with white hair died. What has that got to do with the price of rice, right? And *why* is that woe to us? Because you people, and sixty-two million other Americans, are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books! Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers! Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the Gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers... This tube is the most awesome God-damned force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls in to the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA - the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new Chairman of the Board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome God-damned propoganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?
======================================
Paddy saw it coming.

[woo me with science]

21. +1