In 1976 a movie called Network came out and won several Academy Awards. It was a movie about a TV anchorman who, upset with the condition of the world and his own Network’s greed and lust for power, actually tries to tell his viewers the truth on the air.
The following is a quote from the Internet Movie Database Inc., Memorable Quotes from Network :
[Howard Beale: I don’t have to tell you things are bad. 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 work, 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 TV’s 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.’ Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot - I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad.
Howard Beale: [shouting] You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
[shouting]
Howard Beale: ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:
Howard Beale: [screaming at the top of his lungs] “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” ]
Remember… this movie described conditions in 1976. What are the conditions in our world now? Has anything really changed in nearly 30 years?
I have to say that nothing much has changed. Most of us still sit at home and whine to ourselves about conditions, but few of us have the guts to do anything about it. So here’s your chance.
Corporate America in its greed has taken over our lives and while they rest in their million dollar villas, we work two jobs just to survive
Ourselves, our wives, children, and grandchildren are working in dangerous and sub-standard conditions because our government refuses to do anything about it
Every day good, hard working people of every ethnicity and gender are being forced out of jobs by discrimination
Drug and violent crimes have risen astronomically because the legal system has failed to keep up… our children are dying from drugs and crime
While giving lipservice to their constituents before an election, government officials refuse to do the jobs we elect them for
Our taxes rise every year, but our roads, our cities, our zoos, our parks, our schools, and our land continues to decline at an alarming rate
The Social Security System that we have all paid into all our lives will most likely not be there when we retire because our government has already spent the money
Illegal aliens entering our country have more consideration and benefits than many of our own citizens.
We still have people in our own country starving to death because our government would rather send billions to other countries as “foreign aid” than take care of our own people
Our elderly, rather than being respected and revered members of our society, are often locked away and forgotten in rest homes
If that list doesn’t make you mad, then you’re probably a lost cause anyway.
I don’t want you to riot, I don’t want violence, I don’t want you to write to your congressmen (like they would listen) .
I want everyone who reads my blog to do three things:
Get up out of your chair right now, go on, stand up!
Now I want you to say out loud ‘I AM TIRED OF GETTING SCREWED. I AM MAD AS HELL ABOUT THE WAY THINGS ARE AND I’M JUST NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANY MORE!!’ Now… just for good measure, say it again ‘I AM MAD AS HELL ABOUT THE WAY THINGS ARE AND I’M JUST NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANY MORE!!’
Now I want you to post this on your own website/blog… ‘I AM MAD AS HELL ABOUT THE WAY THINGS ARE AND I’M JUST NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANY MORE!!’… and give them your list along with mine and encourage them to post it on their websites as well. If you/they post a comment on my blog I will keep adding to my own list as well.
THIS POST WAS TAKEN ENTIRELY OFF OF CORPORATE CRAP AND OTHER DUBIOUS WISDOM. http://dbrooks.bfpmedia.com/ And posted here. I want to add, that as one of the lucky ones, I have a husband that makes a decent enough living, where I could choose to stay home. Although we decided this would be good for my kids, one of the very real reasons for not going back into the work force, was exaustion. Corporate America continues to expect more and more from their employees, paying them less and less, taking away benefits, and sacrificing the American family for the sake of higher and higher profits. GREED.
Eventually we will hit the wall. You cannot continue to work at this rate, with more and more expected and not top off.
Consumerism is a part of this. As long as we continue to spend and spend, they will keep both parents and/or spouses in the work force trying to pay for all the crap, that we don’t really need.
And this makes me mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!!!
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3T (3rd Times a Charm)
Sunday • 06.05.2005 •
06:57 AM •
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I AM MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!
