July 13, 2008
Another american icon bites the dust
Earlier this week it was the Chrysler Building bought by an Abu Dhabi invetsment group; today it's Anheuser-Busch. Reminds me of this exchange that appeared in a prescient film over thirty years ago:
Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.
It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?
You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.
What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.
And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.
Beale: But why me?
Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.
Beale: I have seen the face of God.
Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale.
And I'm still mad as hell.
Posted by George Moneo at July 13, 2008 11:41 PM
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Comments
Paddy was a modern day prophet. Everything he envisioned in Network has come true.
Posted by: Cigar Mike Pancier ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 14, 2008 12:02 AM
InBev operates the Bucanero S.A. Brewery in Cuba. They have “570 full-time employees, distribution centers located throughout the country, and sales accounting for 44 percent of total beer sales on the island. They are engaged in a joint venture with the Cuban government in selling Bucanero, Cristal, and Mayabe beer.” Sure looks to me they could be in violation of the Trading with the Enemy Act.
Posted by: Firefly at July 14, 2008 12:32 AM
Maybe we should send letters to the Justice Department or FTC informing them that InBev divest itself of the Cuban holdings or no deal. Any suggestions from our readers?
Posted by: George L. Moneo at July 14, 2008 12:54 AM
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