Quote of the day

[iambiguous]

The trials and the tribulations of an upper middle class white anglo-saxon Protestant male who has just graduated from college. What in the world is he going to do with his life when he has to decide this smack dab in the middle of “the Sixties”?

In other words: Can you even imagine this film being made today?!

To wit:

"The theme of an innocent and confused youth who is exploited, mis-directed, seduced (literally and figuratively) and betrayed by a corrupt, decadent, and discredited older generation (that finds its stability in “plastics”) was well understood by film audiences and captured the spirit of the times. One of the film’s posters proclaimed the difficult coming-of-age for the recent, aimless college graduate." wiki


The Graduate

Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

The rest is history.
No, really:

"Within a year of the movie’s release, plastic manufacturing companies became enormously successful. Many people attribute this to Walter Brooke’s quote about “plastics”. Brooke himself once told his nephew that he would have invested in plastics, if he had known that the remark would lead to such success." IMDb

Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, if you don’t mind my saying so, this conversation is getting a little strange.

Little does he know...

Benjamin: Oh my God!
Mrs. Robinson: Pardon?
Benjamin: Oh no, Mrs. Robinson. Oh no.
Mrs. Robinson: What’s wrong?
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you didn’t… I mean, you didn’t expect…
Mrs. Robinson: What?
Benjamin: I mean, you didn’t really think I’d do something like that.
Mrs. Robinson: Like what?
Benjamin: What do you think?
Mrs. Robinson: Well, I don’t know.
Benjamin: For god’s sake, Mrs. Robinson. Here we are. You got me into your house. You give me a drink. You… put on music. Now you start opening up your personal life to me and tell me your husband won’t be home for hours.
Mrs. Robinson: So?
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me.
Mrs. Robinson: [laughs] What?
Benjamin: Aren’t you?

Next up: he's seduced.

Hotel Desk Clerk: Are you here for an affair, sir?
Benjamin [startled]: What?!
Hotel Desk Clerk: The Singleman party, sir?
Benjamin: Ah, yes, the Singleman party.

Speaking of plastic...?

Mrs. Robinson: Benjamin, would you get me a hanger.
Benjamin [at the closet]: Wood?
Mrs. Robinson: What?
Benjamin: Wood or wire? They have both.

Of course, most hangers today are plastic.

Mr. Braddock: Ben, what are you doing?
Benjamin: Well, I would say that I’m just drifting. Here in the pool.
Mr. Braddock: Why?
Benjamin: Well, it’s very comfortable just to drift here.
Mr. Braddock: Have you thought about graduate school?
Benjamin: No.
Mr. Braddock: Would you mind telling me then what those four years of college were for? What was the point of all that hard work?
Benjamin: You got me.

So, does this explain...Ratso?

[iambiguous]

The Graduate

Benjamin: What was your major subject at college?
Mrs. Robinson: Art.
Benjamin: Art? But I thought you…I guess you kind of lost interest in it over the years then.
Mrs. Robinson: Kind of.

We know the "politics" behind that, don't we?

Benjamin: But why shouldn’t I take Elaine out?
Mrs. Robinson: I have my reasons.
Benjamin: Then let’s hear them.
Mrs. Robinson: No.
Benjamin: Let’s hear your reasons, Mrs. Robinson. Because I think I know what they are. I’m not good enough for her to associate with, am I? I’m not good enough to even talk about her, am I?
Mrs. Robinson: Let’s drop it.
Benjamin: We’re not dropping it. I’m good enough for you but I’m too slimy to associate with your daughter. That’s it, isn’t it? ISN’T IT?!
Mrs. Robinson [after long pause]: Yes.

Can you blame her?

Mrs. Robinson: Benjanmin…
Benjamin: Let’s not talk about it. Let’s not talk at all.

It'll come up later though.

Benjamin: Now listen, this was not my idea. It was my father’s idea.
Mrs. Robinson: Benjamin, I thought I made myself perfectly clear about this.
Benjamin: Look, we’ll go out to dinner and have a drink and I’ll bring her back. Because it was either that or a dinner party for the two families. And I’m afraid I couldn’t quite handle that, if you don’t mind.

The plot thickens.

Benjamin: Sit down…Why don’t you watch the show?
Elaine: Benjamin, do you dislike me for some reason?
Benjamin: No, why should I? You’re missing a great effect here. How do you like that? Could you do it?

Then, as scripted, everything changes.

Elaine: Where we going?
Benjamin: I’m trying to think of where there’s a place to have a drink around here.
Elaine: Isn’t there one in the Taft Hotel?

The Singlemans!

[iambiguous]

The Graduate

Elaine: Benjamin, what’s happening?
Benjamin: I don’t know. They all think I look like this guy Gladstone.

Among others.

Benjamin: Elaine, I have to tell you something. That woman. The older woman we talked about.
Elaine: You mean the one who…
Benjamin: Yes, the married woman. It wasn’t just some woman.
Elaine: What are you telling me? Benjamin, will you just tell me what it is all about?
[she sees her mother]
Elaine: Oh, no.
Benjamin: Elaine…
Elaine: Oh my God!
Benjamin: Please!
Elaine: Get out of here!
Benjamin: Don’t cry…
Elaine: GET OUT! GET OUT!
Mrs. Robinson: Goodbye, Benjamin.

For the time being, let's say.

Mrs. Braddock: What’s happening?
Mr. Braddock: Ben says he and Elaine are getting married.
Mrs. Braddock: I don’t believe it!!
Mr. Braddock: That’s what he says. Right?
Benjamin: I’m going up to Berkeley today.
Mrs. Braddock:: Come on, let’s call the Robinsons. We’ve got something to celebrate.
Benjamin: No, I think you’ll want to wait on that.
Mr. Braddock: They don’t know?
Benjamin: No - they don’t.
Mrs. Braddock: Well, when did you decide all this?
Benjamin: About an hour ago.
Mr. Braddock: Wait a minute. You talked to Elaine this morning?
Benjamin: No, she doesn’t know about it.
Mr. Braddock: You mean she doesn’t know that you’re coming up to Berkeley?
Benjamin: No. Actually, she doesn’t know about us getting married yet.
Mrs. Braddock: Well, when did you two talk this over?
Benjamin: We haven’t.
Mrs. Braddock: You haven’t?
Mr. Braddock: Ben, this whole idea sounds pretty half-baked.
Benjamin: No, it’s not. It’s completely baked. It’s a decision I’ve made.
Mrs. Braddock: But what makes you think she wants to marry you?
Benjamin: She doesn’t. To be perfectly honest, she doesn’t like me.

Completely baked it is then.

Mr. McCleery [to Benjamin]: You aren’t one of those outside agitators, are you?

No more than Jack Tripper was.

Elaine: How could you do that, Benjamin? How could you possibly rape my mother?
Benjamin: What?! What did she say? You got tell me what did she say.
Elaine: Why?
Benjamin: Because it isn’t true. Tell me.
Elaine: She said she was having a drink in the hotel with a friend. You waited for her in the parking lot and told her she was too drunk to drive home and you would get her a room for the night.
Benjamin: Then what?
Elaine: Then you took her upstairs and you raped her.
Benjamin: Oh, no, no, no, that’s not what happened. What happened was there was this party at my parents…

In one ear and out the other.
For the time being.

Elaine: What are you going to do now?
Benjamin: I don’t know.
Elaine: Are you going home?
Benjamin: No.
Elaine: Well, where are you going?
Benjamin: Elaine, you’re going to have to stop asking me.

Pick one:
1] the script
2] a wholly determined universe

[iambiguous]

The Graduate

Elaine: I have to see Carl first.
Benjamin: Carl who?
Elaine: Carl Smith. He’s a medical student. We’ve known him for years.
Benjamin: Who, that guy at the Zoo?
Elaine: Yes.
Benjamin: Why do you have to see him?
Elaine: Well, I said I might marry him.

We say lots of things though.

Elaine: Good night.
Benjamin: Are we getting married tomorrow?
Elaine: No…
Benjamin: Day after tomorrow?
Elaine: I don’t know. Maybe we are, and maybe we’re not.

At the time too close to call.
Cue Mr. Robinson...

Benjamin: I am trying to tell you I have no personal feelings about you, Mr. Robinson. I am trying to tell you I do not resent you.
Mr. Robinson: But you don’t respect me terribly much either, do you?
Benjamin: No, Sir.

Actually, he turns your stomach.

Benjamin: Listen to me. What happened between Mrs. Robinson and me was nothing. It didn’t mean anything. We might just as well have been shaking hands.
Mr. Robinson: Shaking hands? Well, that’s not saying much for my wife, is it?
Benjamin: You miss the point.
Mr. Robinson: I guess I do.
Benjamin: The point is I don’t love your wife. I love your daughter, sir.

Exactly the wrong thing to say.

Benjamin: Elaine.
Mrs. Robinson: Hello, Benjamin.
Benjamin: Where is she?
Mrs. Robinson [on phone]: Hello. Get me the police, please.
Benjamin: Where is Elaine?
Mrs. Robinson: I’ll be with you in a moment. [back on the phone] Do you have a petrol car in the vicinity of 1200 Glenview Road. Good, we have a burgler here. Just a second. I’ll ask him.
[she looks over to Benjamin]
Are you armed?
[back to the phone]
Mrs. Robinson: No, I don’t believe he is.

Well, that part's true.

Mrs. Robinson: Elaine, it’s too late!
Elaine: Not for me!

Cut!

[iambiguous]

Science

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood." Marie Curie

With the possible exception of radiation perhaps.

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.” Carl Sagan

If only on this side of the grave?

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” Neil deGrasse Tyson

Tell that to the folks in the Vatican.

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Carl Sagan

The Cosmos in other words.

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?” Richard Dawkins

Fuck that, right? To paraphrase Lesley Gore, "it's my life and I'll whine if I want to."

“It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” Albert Einstein

Uh, some examples please?

[iambiguous]

Two givens:

1] This is the “good” military. It is concerned only with preserving national security and spreading democracy, freedom and human rights around the globe. As opposed to what it really is: The muscle behind the military industrial complex, the war economy and Wall Street.

2] “Women’s liberation” here means enabling women to be just like men. Alpha males in particular. It’s never, ever the other way around: women suggesting men be more like them.

While nothing at all like this, I made it through basic training in the military myself by remembering the most important thing: It’s all scripted. And largely bullshit.

But these folks often do become genuine brutes. And hardly because it’s a “necessary evil”. This sort of behavior is glorified. It’s the end in itself, and not just the means.

And there ain’t nothin’ in Washington that ain’t politics.

Look for Mrs. Robinson.


G.I. Jane

Sen. DeHaven: Good. I like pissed off.

Let's run that [eventually] by Lt. O’Neil.

Lt. O’Neil: The only thing that scares me is the sexual politics. I’m just not interested in being some poster girl for women’s rights.

Right, like that was never going to be a factor here.

Royce: …The SEALS, babe? These guys are world class warriors. They see you coming…
Lt. O’Neil: I’m aware they may not want me there.
Royce: May not? They will eat corn flakes out of your skull, okay?

Or, as some might note, "before or after they rape her?"

Lt. O’Neil: I’m not here to make some kind of statement. All I care about is completing the training and getting operational experience, just like everyone else, I suspect.
C.O: If you were like everyone else, lieutenant, I suspect we wouldn’t be making statements about not making statements, would we?

On the other hand, again, nothing isn't politics.

Master Chief [quoting “Self-Pity” by D.H. Lawrence]: “I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.”

On the other hand, come on, it would if it could.

Master Chief: The ebb and flow of the Atlantic tides, the drift of the continents, the very position of the sun along its ecliptic. THESE are just a FEW of the things I control in my world! Is that clear?
Stamm: Yes, Command Master Chief!
Master Chief [to Everyone]: IS THAT CLEAR?
All the CRT Trainees: YES, COMMAND MASTER CHIEF!

It's all just a fucking scripted exchange, by and large.

[iambiguous]

Death

“I've got death inside me. It's just a question of whether or not I can outlive it.” Don DeLillo

After all, very few have.

“Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.” R.D. Laing

So far, anyway.

“It’s not that we have to quit this life one day, it’s how many things we have to quit all at once: holding hands, hotel rooms, music, the physics of falling leaves, vanilla and jasmine, poppies, smiling, anthills, the color of the sky, coffee and cashmere, literature, sparks and subway trains...If only one could leave this life slowly!” Roman Payne

Or, say, not at all?

“There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness and death.” Fran Lebowitz

Okay, but then what?

“You'll forget it when you're dead, and so will I. When I'm dead, I'm going to forget everything–and I advise you to do the same.” Kurt Vonnegut

In fact, start practicing now.

“I was thinking about how people seem to read the bible a lot more as they get older, and then it dawned on me—they’re cramming for their final exam.” George Carlin

That is one way to look at it, of course.

[iambiguous]

G.I. Jane

Master Chief: 60% of you will not pass this course! How do I know? Because that is an historical fact! Now for the bad news, I always like to get one quitter on the first day, and until I do, that first day does not end!

Try to imagine just how humilating that would be for some men.

Master Chief: Pain is your friend, your ally, it will tell you when you are seriously injured, it will keep you awake and angry, and remind you to finish the job and get the hell home. But you know the best thing about pain? It lets you know you’re not dead yet!

Unless, of course, you want to be.

Master Chief: Lt. O’Neil, when I want your opinion, I’ll give it to ya.

Sargeant Curry! My own drill instructor!! He'd say that from time to time. And he was black as coal. The fucking racists -- the draft remember? -- could barely contain themselves at times.

Lt. O’Neil [commenting on the special standard for her training]: I mean really sir, why don’t you just issue me a pink petticoat to wear around the base?
C.O.: Did you just have a brain fart, Lieutenant?
Lt. O’Neil: Begging your pardon, sir?
C.O.: Did you just waltz in here and bark at your commanding officer? Because if you did, I would call that a bona fide brain fart, and I resent it when people FART inside my office!
Lt. O’Neil: I think you’ve resented me from the start, sir.
C.O.: What I resent, Lieutenant, is some politician using my base as a test tube for her grand social experiment. What I resent, is the sensitivity training that is now mandatory for all of my men. The ob-gyn I now have to keep on staff just to keep track of your personal pap smears. But most of all what I resent, is your perfume, however subtle, interfering with the scent of my fine three-dollar-and-seventy-nine-cent cigar, which I will put out this instant if the phallic nature of it happens to offend your GODDAMN FRAGILE SENSIBILITIES! Does it?
Lt. O’Neil: No, sir.
C.O.: “No, sir” WHAT?
Lt. O’Neil: The shape doesn’t bother me. Just the goddamn stench.

The chain of command let's call it.

C.O. [after Jordan demands that he remove the dual standard]: One standard.
Lt. O’Neil: Just treat me the same. No better, no worse.
C.O.: You’re gonna get everything you want, O’Neil. I just wonder if you want what you’re gonna get.

On the other hand, it might be all scripted.

Sen. DeHaven: Captain, are you in the habit of lettin’ reporters traipse around your base, snappin’ their fill? These are supposed to be discreet test cases!
C.O.: Senator, they stand out on a public highway using telephoto lenses. There is nothin’ I can do about it, unless you want me to infringe on their civil liberties, which I will be glad to do, if you’ll just trim a little fat off the Constitution.
Sen. DeHaven: Did you just mouth off to a senior member of the Senate Arms Committee?

Wink, wink.

McCool [after one trainee mentions that things have changed for the better for African-Americans]: Have they? So you see, O’Neil, I know where you’re coming from. To them you’re just the new n***** on the block, that’s all.

Next up: transgenders...?

Lt. O’Neil: You were given the Navy Cross right? May I ask what you got it for?
Master Chief: Since it bears on this conversation, I got it for pulling a 250-pound man out of a burning tank.
Lt. O’Neil: So stopping to save a man makes you a hero, but if a man stops to help a woman, he’s gone soft?
Master Chief: Could you have pulled that man clear? Lieutenant, you couldn’t even haul your own body weight out of the water today.

Just the facts, Ma'am?

Lt. O’Neil [after being brutually beaten during a capture exercise]: Master Chief…
Master Chief: Lieutenant, seek life elsewhere.
Lt. O’Neil: Suck my dick!

She’s made it! She is now officially a man!!

Sen. DeHaven: Jordan, everyday I am forced to make decisions that would have Solomon himself shittin’ golf balls. And half of them are about my own political survival.
Lt. O’Neil: Tell me you didn’t sell me out.

Well, she did want pissed off.

Sen. DeHaven: It was never going to happen anyway?
Lt. O’Neil: Then why the fuck did you start me on all this in the first place?
Sen. DeHaven: Truthfully? I never expected you to do so well. I thought you’d ring out in two weeks, bing bang it’s over, and we’re popular. In Washington, you don’t even need the Ten Commandments when you’re popular!

Hard to trump that, right?

Lt. O’Neil: Now you get those charges voided, Senator, and you do it today.
Sen. DeHaven: Or what?
Lt. O’Neil: You like pissed off? Watch this.

Hollywood, let's call it.

[iambiguous]

I remember when I first came out as a nihilist. Not exactly the same thing as here of course but you still have to deal with a lot of ignorant assholes.

Here’s the thing though. When confronting “traditionalists” always start with dasein. Once they begin to grasp how who they think they are is all hopelessly embedded in contingency, chance and change they will, well, okay, admitedly, they will probably become even more reactionary.

But not all of them, so give it a try.

And then there’s the “culture thing”. The “honor” bullshit. Always the man’s of course.

Yeah, sure, one is a doctor, the other is a ballet dancer. They are both very beautiful. And very young. Not that this detracts from how good the movie is though.


Saving Face

Little Yu: Home to see your grandparents?
Wil: Yeah, the weekly pilgrimage to Flushing…to swim in the Chinese gene pool.

Next up: the gene pool here.

Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: Is that how you speak to your ma who worked nights so you could eat? Who stayed in labor without painkillers so you wouldn’t turn dim-witted like your cousin Jimmy? Had I known you would grow so ungrateful I would have held you in.

No, really, nowadays this can happen to anyone.

Wil: One night without Chinese food isn’t gonna kill her.

On the other hand, who can ever really know for sure.

Wil: How did you find out she was…?
Wai Po - Grandma: The receptionist at the Manhattan clinic is married to one of Grandpa’s former students.
Wil [mostly to herself]: One billion Chinese people, two degrees of separation.

The Gods probably.

Jay: When’s your Grandfather going to let her come back home?
Wil: When she gets married…or proves immaculate conception.

Never, some might say.

Randi: Why can’t she get her own apartment?
Wil: Are you insane? Do you know what kind of karmic hell I’d pay as a Chinese daughter who didn’t take in her own mom?

No, really, how does that work?

[iambiguous]

Saving Face

Wil: Ma, you can’t give him a paper plate.
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: Safer this way. Throw it out afterwards.
Wil: It’s rude.
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: I’ll give him two.

Whatever works, right?

Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma [in Mandarin]: Your neighbor is loud and dark and eats too much soy sauce.
Wil [in Mandarin]: Americans like soy sauce.
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma [in Mandarin]: I’m going to start eating less soy sauce so it won’t stain the baby too dark.
Wil [in English]: Ma, that’s ridiculous.
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: You eat less too, so you don’t grow spots.
[Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma passes soy sauce bottle to Jay]
Jay [who is black]: Thanks.
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: Too late for him anyway.

Who really knows how any of this works, right?

Wil: So how come we never met before now?
Vivian: We did meet. Nineteen years ago. I was 8, you were 9. Outside the temple.
Wil: I don’t remember.
Vivian: The Wong boys were taunting me about my parents’ divorce. You beat the crap out of them. You were wearing a Kristy McNichol t-shirt, tan cords and a pageboy. You spilled your mom’s groceries. We scooped them into a bag.
Wil: That’s right, and then…
Vivian Shing: And then I kissed you on the nose. And you ran.

On the nose, for christ sakes!

Wil: You talked to your mother about us?
Vivian: Yeah. So?
Wil: “So”? Does she know we have sex?
Vivian: No, Wil. She thinks we conjugate Latin verbs.
Wil: Did you tell her about this?

And then down [on her] she goes.

Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: No one wants to see a 50-year-old Chinese woman look sexy.
Wil: Ma, you’re only 48. Connie Chung’s sexy, and she must be nearly 60.
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: Her show was cancelled.

On the other hand, Julie Chen's is still going strong.

Wil [watching a soap opera]: Is that the good guy?
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: No, he’s marrying her for money.
Wil: Is that the good guy?
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: No, that’s his brother.
Wil: Who’s that guy?
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: He’s the most evil of them all, he wants to ruin her family to avenge a grudge.
Wil: Who’s the loser they’re beating up?
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: That’s the good guy.

Just like in real life.

Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: Wil’s black neighbor is single…always around. You interested?
Vivian: No.
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: You don’t like black people?
Vivian: Sure, I like…
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma [to Wil]: She doesn’t like black people.
Wil: Yes, she does.
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: Then why won’t she date them?

Why can't we all just get along...?

Vivian: Where have you been the last couple days?
Wil: It’s been crazy. Vivian…there’s a lot going on right now. I’m sorry if l…If this hurts.
Vivian [getting up to walk away]: At least it’s not a flesh wound.

Some wounds are just harder to describe than others.

Wil: Ma, I love you…and I’m gay.
Hwei-Lan Gao - Ma: How can you say those two things at once? How can you tell me you love me…then throw that in my face? I am not a bad mother. My daughter is not gay.
Wil: Then maybe I shouldn’t be your daughter.

Of course she is a doctor. An independent woman. She can afford to rebuff that reaction.

Vivian [at the airport]: Kiss me. Right here, in front of all these people.
[Wil can’t bring herself to do it…Vivian turns to board the plane]

The ending? Okay, so even Hollywood might be embarrassed by it.

[iambiguous]

Inspired by true events…in the sick fucking world of sex trafficking.

Man’s inhumanity to…children. Girls, in particular.

Whenever it is children they see being abused and exploited [and brutalized] many just want to explode. They want to wring God’s fucking neck and demand an explanation for why He doesn’t just reach down and smite the sick bastards. And with No God, you just endure it as best you can. Or you do what you can to make sure the future here is less egregious.

If it was up to me the men who do these things would be imprisoned under the most brutal conditions imaginable. And these conditions would be made known to any and all others who might be thinking of doing the same. With children you’ve got to draw the fucking line.

Even if the scumbags are Smurfs. Or State Department officials.

Men. Some care not at all how much pain and suffering they cause, just so they can come. Or profit from the ejaculations of others. Fortunately, that is still only a small percentage of all men. Lots of men are heroes here. Men like Peter. But in this sex [and money] saturated culture the number of scumbags can only rise.

There are parts of this film unbearable to watch. And it all unfolds in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.

human trafficking at wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking

the “real life” whistleblower at Daily Beast: https://www.thedailybeast.com/kathryn-b ... -in-bosnia

On the other hand, unlike most others, "I" am still no less fractured and fragmented.


The Whistleblower

Raya: I have to get home. Mama’s gonna kill me.
Luba: No. You are staying with me tonight. Roman wants us there at nine in the morning. Raya, we’ve been over this. It’s just a few months working in a hotel.
Raya: Yes, but…
Luba: You want to work at a Copyshack like your mother? He said it was both of us or nothing!
Raya: …No.
[walks away]
Luba: Fuck your Mom!

And how many Liam Neesons are there in this world?

Halyna: It’s 1:30 in the morning.
Raya: You don’t understand! Luba wanted me to…
Halyna: If her mother lets her do whatever she wants go live there. You’ve graduated. You’re an adult now. Do what you want.
[Halyna turns and walks into her bedroom, closing the door]
[Raya looks around the room, thinking…then bolts out of the house]

Big mistake. But such is life as we play off each other’s perceptions of reality.

Kathy: What did he say?
Interpretor [of a woman who has been brutalized]: He say the woman is Muslim and she deserves this.
[the Slavic men start shouting]
McVeigh: That’s enough!..Movin on. Next case.
Kathy: Excuse me. Excuse me. What do you mean, “movin on”? This is a felony assault. Who is going to investigate?
McVeigh: Okay, let me ask you something. Can you tell a Serb from a Croat or a Bosniac? Because I can’t. Raical and religious hatred started a war in this country. Now, as much as I’d like it to be, we are not here as investigators. We monitor. That’s it.

Besides, there's always Judgment Day, right?

Milena [who runs the Zenica Shelter]: Since the end of the war, sex trafficking has spread like cancer.
Kathy: Why-Why since the end of the war?
Milena: Half our men are dead. So, who are these girls brought in for?

Did you get all that, God?

Fred [interrupting her findings]: Where are we going, Columbo?
Kathy: I don’t know, but, um, something fucked up is going on.
Fred: Ooh. Honey, it’s like I say, this is Bosnia. These people specialize in “fucked up”.

"Human all too human", right?

Kathy [to Raya]: …If you say that Tanjo was taking payoffs from this man, Fred Miller, his name can go on the record and the U.N. has to do something. They can’t knowingly have one of their men involved in rape, kidnapping and torture.

Oh, yes, they can.

U.N. official: We have a system that works here.
Kathy: Oh, really? For who?

There's always that part.

[iambiguous]

Philosophy

“Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.” Benjamin Franklin

Get this man a kite!

“There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.” Thomas Jefferson

Get this man a plantation!

“A prison becomes a home when you have the key.” George Sterling

That is one way to look at it.

“Plato was a bore.” Friedrich Nietzsche

We'll need a context, of course.

“If there were a party of those who aren't sure they're right, I'd belong to it.”― Albert Camus

Let's start one here.

“Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.” Edgar Allan Poe

Probably got this from Benjamin Button.

[iambiguous]

The Whistleblower

Irka [to Kathy]: Please, just let me die!

Sometimes it's just the only thing that makes sense.

Halyna: What will they do to her? WHAT WILL THEY DO TO HER?!

Though sometimes it's more in the way of what they won't do to her.

Kathy: Madeleine, they’re bringing them in. I.P.T.F. are actually trafficking girls and bringing them across the border. And it’s not just them. This involves all kinds of internationals–from military officiers to diplomats. I thought I was only going after one guy.

Next up: pizzagate.

Peter: I’ve never seen I.A. overridden like this?
Kathy: Overridden by who?
Peter: I don’t know. I can’t be sure. It’s the State Department…or Democra. You do know what they stand to lose if this…
Kathy: I guess not.
Peter: Their contract in Bosnia is worth millions. Globally, just this year alone, billions of dollars in U.S. government contracts. And now you come along with this scandal…
Kathy: I don’t want a scandal. I’m just doing my job.
Peter: I know, but it doesn’t matter. Nobody cares about you.

Or the girls. You can’t work inside “the system” to change things when it’s “the system” that creates things.

News reporter on T.V.: “Mostly traffickers prey on those they know banking on the fact that the girl will trust them. Traffickers can be fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles…"

On the other hand, as God knows, every single one of them are liberal Democrats.

Blakely: Madeleine, I have to protect this organization, and so should you. The U.N. is too fragile, too important. And that’s what immunity is for.
Madeleine: Immunity, not impunity. The United Nations was formed from the ashes of Auschwitz. The United States led the way, and it’s a point of honor with me that the U.N. is not remembered for raping the very people we must protect.
Blakely: Those girls are whores of war. It happens. I will not dictate for morality.
Madeleine: So what are we dictating for? I’ll go tlo Washington. I’ll go to the State Department if I must.
Blakely: Democra isn’t even based out of the States. It’s based out of England. It’s a private orgnaization. We work in the real world.

Can anyone with a straight fucking face tell us that the powers that be couldn’t put a stop to these things if the political will wasn’t lacking and corporate profits weren’t priority one?

Kathy [to Madeline]: They killed Raya. They shot her in the head. She wanted to testify, and they made an example of her. I’m responsible for this. I promised I would protect her…Oh God, I can’t stop thinking about her mother. How do we tell people what’s happening here?

The whole truth and nothing but the truth for example.

Blakely: You’re trespassing.
Kathy: So what? What are you going to do? Fire me again? You gonna arrest me? I have diplomatic immunity. Isn’t that what you all rely on around here?
Blakely: You had immunity, You don’t have a U.N. I.D. anymore. You’re a civilian now, You’re on your own.
Kathy: Well, I’m sure the State Department will be happy to hear from me when I get back.
Blakely: Where do you think this comes from? The State Department owns your contract. They don’t want you here. Democra wants you out. You can talk to whomever you want. They’re not listening. You’re finished.

Oh, no! The Deep State!!

Titlecard: Following Kathryn Bolkovac’s departure, a number of peacekeepers, including private contractors, were sent home. None faced criminal charges in their home countries. The U.S. State Department continues to do business with private contractors like the one depicted in this film, including contracts worth billions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kathryn Bolkovac lives in the Netherlands with Jan, She has been unable to regain employment in the international community.

Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal industries. It is estimated nearly 2.5 million people are being trafficked around the world.

And now some can go back to pretending this isn’t really the way the world works at all. That folks like Bill and Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have absolutely no understanding at all of what goes on behind the curtains. When, for example, those contracts are signed, sealed and delivered.

[iambiguous]

Free Will

“Free will is the cutting edge of Creation, don’t you see? The word spontaneity derives from the Latin sponte, meaning ‘of one’s free will.’ Spontaneity is the impulse, the purest expression of freedom, and the impulse wants to do whatever it wants to do. But you are afraid of what others think, others who are just as afraid of what you think, and so you pussyfoot along the perimeter of the free-will zone, wilting like a wallflower.” Tony Vigorito

On the other hand, what if you are compelled to wilt?

"The will has no overall purpose, aims at no highest good, and can never be satisfied. Although it is our essence, it strikes us as an alien agency within, striving for life and procreation blindly, mediated only secondarily by consciousness. Instinctive sexuality is at our core, interfering constantly with the life of the intellect. To be an individual expression of this will is to lead a life of continual desire, deficiency, and suffering." Christopher Janaway

See, I told you.

"There is no free will. Human actions, as part of the natural order, are determined...As individual parts of the empirical world we are ineluctably pushed through life by a force inside us which is not of our choosing, which gives rise to needs and desires we can never fully satisfy, and is without ultimate purpose. Schopenhauer concludes that it would have been better not to exist—and that the world itself is something whose existence we should deplore rather than celebrate.” Christopher Janaway

I think we can all agree on that now, right?

“Free Will : "I made you think so."
Predestination: "I knew you had to.”

And so on and so forth.

“...if you truly want to know why I'm helping you, you won't get any easy answers. It's not because I believe in the goodness of humankind. It's not because I believe God and the rest of the monsters are evil. I only wish to have the capacity to change. To know that we have the ability to take a different direction than the one presented to us. That is more important than good and evil. Than life or death.” Autumn Christian

Whatever that means, of course.

“No, free will is not an 'extra'; it is part and parcel of the very essence of consciousness. A conscious being without free will is simply a metaphysical absurdity.” Raymond Smullyan

The "click" part.

[iambiguous]

First the child was wild. And then he was tamed. Then he alternated between being an “attraction” and a scientific speciman.
But it had to be better than “before”. Didn’t it?

In a strange way it’s almost like watching The Miracle Worker.

All through his “training” though he never lets go of nature as he once knew it. It’s always his first choice. It makes you ponder “freedom” from a whole other perspective.


The Wild Child [L’enfant Sauvage]

Doctor [examining scar on neck]: No doubt, whoever abandoned him meant to kill him.

Right, absolutely no doubt at all.

Dr. Itard: I think the only cause of his dumbness is the isolation in which he lived.

Either that or his being around pinheads.

Colleague: What now?
Dr Itard: The child will die here. All we do is exhibit him as a freak.
Colleague: See here, Citizen Itard. The boy is an inferior being. He’s lower than an animal.
Dr Itard: That’s just the point. Animals are cared for, trained. It’s useless to bring him from the forest and lock him up as if he were being punished for disappointing Parisians.

Just for the record, we are all animals.

Dr. Itard [voiceover]: What fascinates me is that all the boy has done since his arrival, he has done for the first time.

Well, sort of.

Dr. Itard [voiceover]: I must say that for the present his emotions appear unaffected. Despite the ill treatment he endured at the Institute no one ever saw him cry.

My guess: among other things.

Dr. Itard: His first pair of shoes.

Air Jordan's as I recall.