Gandhi and Catch 22

[geckosfeet]

I watched two fabulous older movies this past week: Gandhi and Catch 22.

I am always amazed when I see the human struggles depicted in great art replayed over and over again down the course of history.

The parallels between what happened in India and what is happening in Iraq as they try to establish a constitution amenable to all religious and cultural groups in the country are spooky. In India it was primarily a division between Hindus and Muslims. And the British were all too happy to highlight this division at the negotiating table.

Catch 22 - well what can you say. Some of it could have been about Iraq today. Change the landscape and machinery. George Bush has commandeered our military and national assets for his corporate syndicate instead of the Milo character.

[MarianJack]

1. Both Good Movies,...

...but as usual, the Book Catch 22 is much better, but a BEAR to read!

It's a shame that Heller was, IMHO, a 1 quality book writer.

[Dhalgren]

2. Heller's "Something Happened" is very good, I think.

But, you are right, his books are hard reads - but worth it.

[ArkDem]

4. Except that nothing ever happened. The book started out as

sort of a corporate Catch-22 then dwindled off into the ether.

[Dhalgren]

8. Maybe we didn't read the same book. Anyway, literature is,

after all, is an art - what one person likes another may not. :hi:

[geckosfeet]

6. Yeah he was a "one book wonder." But he did do a couple of plays

and kept active. Focused on war and corporate insanity themes.

Catch 22 was little hard to get through. I think reading the book really helped in my understanding of the movie. The movie is weak in integrating the corporate opportunism theme. Its there, but its hard to make the connection between Nately's whore stabbing Yossarian and the dehumanizing and corrupting role of the syndicate.

[zann725]

7. To write even ONE such work... Ahhh. And "Major Major"...

always sneaking out the back window...never "in" to do his job, curiously parallels Shrub always being in Crawford. Some basic Truth's never change. The book is amazing, and timeless.

[MarianJack]

9. What Amazed Me...

...was how you could read a passage, understand it, and then 10 pages later have to go back and read it again to figure out what the hell he was talking about!

I first got through it at 17 on about my 3rd try. My father, who along with his brother, was a Bombadeer in WWII, said it was almost EXACTLY what the Army Air Corps (now Air Force) back then.

[ArkDem]

3. So you are saying the bush policy will be a success. India has

been a democracy since 1947. I think that you need to havew a long talk with Major Major Major.

[geckosfeet]

5. Ha ha ha. Not at all. I am not sure that India or Iraq see dividing

the country up as a success.

There are of course many differences between India and Iraq but I saw a couple of parallels that seem to be staples in the stock and trade of Imperialist occupations.

One was that a lot of industry, farming etc. was curtailed so that products and services could be imported from the Imperialist mainland or markets. Britain forbade salt production in an effort to control the populace and force them to import from England. Similar situation with textiles.

In Iraq US and foreign industrialists (and military) are re-building and "maintaining the peace" instead of Iraqis. US oil companies will control the oil production assets. God knows how much they will need to import from us over the next 5-10 years. GWB and his imperialist syndicate have that market.

I also see the Iraqi federalist constitution as a means of dividing and weakening the country. This will allow the US to claim the high ground in the role as peace keeper so they can prolong the occupation. A united Iraq would be a threat to the US.

My personal conspiracy theory is that Saudi Arabia was a significant behind the scenes driving force behind the invasion. I would not be surprised to see Saudi Arabia slowly becoming more of a presence on the Iraqi road to de-mock-cracy.