Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Sci-Follywood
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2004 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
A Fox News article on politics in sci-fi blockbuster movies quotes me, a sci-fi enthusiast. I get two sentences, probably the least interesting paragraph I said in that interview. More interesting points I made:
Both conservatives and liberals used to care about government barging in on people's privacy and freedom ("civil liberties"). Washington Republicans do not care about this any more (yet another way they are not really conservatives) and have forfeited this issue to liberals.
People care about a lot of political issues that never make it into Hollywood blockbusters because Hollywood blockbusters exist to make money, not to channel or poll political views. That is what polls are for. Polls would get very different responses if you charged $10 to answer a poll, or only polled people who think Will Smith is cute.
Many, if not most sci-fi and fantasy stories feature a team of protagonists who defeat the villain. Alliances are the answer, a lesson the Bush administration would do well to learn.
