{"id":2406,"date":"2009-11-18T11:45:56","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T18:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/?p=2406"},"modified":"2009-11-21T02:28:07","modified_gmt":"2009-11-21T09:28:07","slug":"the-end-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/the-end-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The End Of The World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>A<\/b> relative came to town.  We apologize for the slow posting.<\/p>\n<p>Our guest convinced the Stiftung to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/2012\/\">sit through 2012<\/a>.   It&#8217;s a mindless affair.  You&#8217;ve probably already guessed.  How Hollywood sees the U.S. in a dying future world.  And at least according to Director Roland Emmerich (yes, he of abominable <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0120685\/\">GINO &#8217;98 fame<\/a>), that world likes overlong death scenes: it&#8217;s 2 hours, 38 minutes long.   The ten other detainees in the theater also surely felt every minute crawl by. <\/p>\n<p>Bad acting, empty CGI &#8211; expected Hollywood staples.   What&#8217;s unusual?  In the near future, the powers of the world all select China to build the technological devices to save mankind.   China&#8217;s technological ascendancy in pop culture here seems unique and a harbinger of things to come.   When <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/1078021-contact\/?critic=creamcrop\">Jody Foster made Contact<\/a> in 1997 Japan was the supreme technological power in pop culture&#8217;s eye.  Then the Japanese covertly built (with U.S. approval) a super secret doorway through space.    Now?  No love.  Japan doesn&#8217;t get a good cameo at the end of the world.<br \/>\n<center> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/?attachment_id=2420\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2420\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"415\" height=\"289\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Its_The_End_Of_The_World_2009.jpg\" alt=\"Come On You Damn Dirty Heathens! Want Some?  Get Some!\" title=\"Come On You Damn Dirty Heathens! Want Some?  Get Some!\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2420\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Its_The_End_Of_The_World_2009.jpg 415w, http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Its_The_End_Of_The_World_2009-300x208.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px\" \/><\/a> <\/center><\/p>\n<p><b>H<\/b>ollywood oddly still finds the Russians as credible major players at the End.  The taciturn Putin stand-in gets gravitas.  A major but ultimately pointless narrative arc is devoted to a Russian klepto-billionaire.   Either Emmerich <i>et al.<\/i> got covert Russian financing for PR or they are clueless that Londonistan and the major Russian money flowing through the British pop and society scene crested in 1999.  Aside from the bow to Vlad, the movie sees the U.S. as largely a passive power &#8212; we offer the world moral suasion combining science with over-the-top platitudes that makes Chicago, November 4, 2008 look downright dour.  <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps 2012&#8217;s portrayal is truth in all its vacuity.   When any of us open a new Apple product, do we not see immediately in huge letters &#8216;Designed in California&#8217;?  Even though we all know where it&#8217;s made?   Isn&#8217;t our president already largely an international motivational speaker?  Didn&#8217;t Sony already outsource its top of the line television production to Taiwan?  Hasn&#8217;t Hollywood itself outsourced so much production overseas?<\/p>\n<p>Maybe the world will end not with a bang but a &#8216;Let&#8217;s play Hardball !&#8221;  Maybe Emmerich is more perceptive than we know. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A relative came to town. We apologize for the slow posting. Our guest convinced the Stiftung to sit through 2012. It&#8217;s a mindless affair. You&#8217;ve probably already guessed. How Hollywood sees the U.S. in a dying future world. And at least according to Director Roland Emmerich (yes, he of abominable GINO &#8217;98 fame), that world [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-pop-culture","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}