I'm (not) to Blame

I had the misfortune of having The Project in the background a few nights ago.

Of course, the show being on had nothing to do with me; I just happened to be working in a room where someone was watching the show.

Unfortunately, no matter how much one tries to ignore it, sometimes the idiocy creeps across the room.

That's how I came to proclaim to anyone in earshot, "I've had a gutful of this nonsense".

It reminded me of the "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore" scene from the movie Network.

The iconic monologue from that movie resonates fully today.

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust...

...Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.

...We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster, TV, and steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone'."

It concludes with the main character telling viewers to get MAD at what's happening.

That's where I found myself last night.