Wall-E Seminar Questions, Part 1

1. Quote from NY Times article, Walt Rich, "Wall-E for President": This movie seems more realistically in touch with what troubles America than either the substance or the players of the political food fight beyond the multiplex's wall. Do you agree or disagree with this statement, and why?

Wall-E touches upon many problems which are facing America today that are ignored or touched upon in a superficial way. The first time I watched this movie, the first thing I noticed was the jarring environmental message. We are consuming resources and producing at a rate at which the Earth can not keep up with. Our population has been growing rapidly since the industrial revolution, and as a group, we do not behave responsibly enough to handle everything we are doing to the world around us. I remember learning in Environmental Systems last year that some scientists see this as another wave of extinction- this is how severely we are harming the other species around us .

This movie also focused on corporatism and mass production, which contribute heavily to the irresponsibility in environmental matters. They also make consumers dependent on them- without these corporations and mega-stores, so many would be without a source of income or a place to buy products. I think that Wall-E demonstrated how becoming reliant on a company such as Buy n' Large and their products diminishes our individual autonomy and puts too much power in the hands of company owners. I especially liked Jordan's comment on how people in oligarchic-like states can turn to these cheaper, easier kind of stores, which then turn into tyrannies.

If one has been paying any attention to the GOP primaries, it is pretty easy to see that the political atmosphere is not centered around the big problems which are relevant to the country as a whole. We are taking up a massive amounts of debt, greatly hurting our environment, and having a lot of problems internationally. Yet, because some of these problems are difficult to face, politicians chose to ignore them outright.