Gertrude’s Diary #80 – Intermission
I’ve been taking in a bit of cinematic goodness this week. First, to the Dendy Cinema in the sprawling and tastelessly appointed Canberra Centre for The Counterfeiters. A simple tale of funding the Nazi war effort through the exploitation of technologically sophisticated Jewish printers.” What fun they had!” Making British pounds that fooled the Bank of England.” Resisting making American dollars in an effort to slow down the fascist war machine.” Listening to the poor unfortunates beyond the wall being tortured and killed.” Defending themselves against the poor wretches who eventually broke down the plywood walls once the captors had fled.” Proving their status as prisoners by displaying their tatooed numbers from Auschwitz.”
Not a lot of climactic moments in that movie experience.” A movie that leaves one saying, “hmmm” rather than “wow”.” Still, I like a bit of thought provocation.” It’s good for me.” And I can see correlations between the Jewish counterfeiters and my own role as a cog in the wheel of the capitalist monster.” I mean, I’m a class traitor as well!” (The working class can kiss my arse I’ve got the foreman’s job at last.)” And because I work for a company that sells software, I am indirectly encouraging people to spend time in front of a computer screen when I think that we all spend far too much time in a virtual cul-de-sac and not enough time on the”meaningful path of”human interaction.” I know it hardly compares with the horror that was the holocaust, but still.” People who spend their whole lives bathed in the glow of their computer screen get overweight and undersocialised and if that isn’t a blow to universal human rights, then I don’t know what is.” Plus, a lot of the gadgetry that supports our software is made by exploiting low paid people in developing countries.” Or something.
