The Sixties were a time of great upheaval in America. The decade saw a revolution in fashion, art, and moral attitudes. The biggest revolution by far, though, took place in popular music. Before 1964, pop music in the USA still replicated the style of the previous decade [a notable exception to this rule are The […]
A major argument against any form of truly democratic government – i.e., one person = one vote – is that The Masses simply aren’t qualified or knowledgeable enough to decide on the best way to govern. Initially, the Founding Fathers in the USA decided it was reasonable to allow only men who owned land a […]
JUST WHAT AMERICA HAS BEEN WAITING FOR. Yet another show about cops. And doctors. And lawyers. But this time there’s a twist! Meet Dr. Jack Newsome. He’s a fully certified brain surgeon. But he’s also a federal prosecutor who just happens to be the Chief of Police in Pleasantville, California. We all know America loves […]
For centuries opera was dominated by larger-than-life characters: legendary gods and goddesses, mythical figures from ancient Greece and Rome, kings and queens. But as opera became an ever more popular form of entertainment, that model began to change. The operatic form continued to evolve during the post-Romantic period. Composers began turning to stories about simpler, […]
Much of Europe was devastated by the “Black Death” during the late Middle Ages: The Bubonic Plague wiped out approximately two-thirds of the population on the continent. Urban areas in Northern Europe were severely depopulated. However, some Italian city-states like Venice, Milan and Ferrara managed to survive the times virtually intact, due primarily to their relative […]
LeiLane Nishime’s essay The Mulatto Cyborg: Imagining a Multiracial Future argues that SF cinema is so effective because it uses fantasy to tell stories about problematic social issues in our own reality. SF cinema can be more bold and take far more risks than if the story was set in the ‘real’ world. Effective SF […]
More than any other movie genre, Science Fiction (SF) cinema has traditionally been able to explore thorny issues like class, race, and gender in a manner that is thought provoking and even profound. If one examines the genre more closely, however, a different picture emerges. Grotesque racial stereotypes are a major feature in most SF […]
In his seminal book Amusing Ourselves to Death [1985], Neil Postman wrote, “[George] Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in [Aldous] Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, […]
Espionage, counterintelligence, and covert action are essential components in the military arsenal of every great civilization. This was especially true for the United States and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. The need for high-quality intelligence on the enemy’s capabilities was even more critical back then. Effective counterintelligence operations have played a pivotal […]
Scholars have recently presented critical analyses of the popularity of zombies, vampires and witches to help explain the social and psychological implications of the undead in contemporary popular culture. Zombies are quick and easy metaphors that can be used for many purposes, representing any number of different themes. The proliferation of zombies in films, video […]
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