D.I.S. Information

Last Updated: 1008.03

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Department of Ideological Significance and Information (DISInformation)

The Department of Ideological Significance role is very simple: We live in a world where we are taught to be complacent, and accept things the way they are. At PI we reject this principal and look to those resources that seek revolution in the way we live our lives. While Hollywood film is the enemy, occasionally a film is released into the mainstream that challenges the status quo, and contributes important ideological insight. The DISinformation is there to expose that significance, and repeat it until we learn. The DISinformation is not limited to film, as literature, theatre, music and the spoken word all have renegade elements to them as well. However, film is the most significant of all social apparatus.

American Beauty - Cecil B. Demented - Fight Club The Matrix - Starship Troopers

Pictures Courtesy of Internet Movie Data Base IMDB.COM

AMERICAN BEAUTY

American Beauty was a film that was unique as both a drama and comedy. A man realizes his life in
traditional America is pointless, and he rejects the constraints that society has placed on him.
His rejection of material possessions, of social constraints in the pursuit of making himself happy
exposes the failures of those around him to obey the system.

Directed by Sam Mendes
Released in 1999

"This isn't life, it's just stuff. And its becoming more important to you than living. Well, honey, that's just nuts" The realization that our society is focused on material possessions is a waste of civilization

Cecil B Demented

Cult director John Waters has been pushing the boundaries of film taste for years. This film, which
is quite mainstream for Waters questions Hollywood and the bloated industry that it is. Cecil B Demented
uses the rebel directors to show both the ridiculousness of mainstream film, but also the failures of
extremism.

Directed by John Waters
Released in 2000

"The first take is the only real truth" Hollywood has too much money, and directors have less vision because they rely on too many takes, from too many angles. Only the first take represents what really happened

"No rules in Outlaw Cinema, only edges" Outlaw Cinema, while not a real movement, is important to understand its role in breaking down the status quo of Hollywood

"Parents are the enemy of film" Parents wish to shield their children from reality. In the days before technology children had to face the real world.

"Family is just a dirty word for censorship" Censorship prevents our youth from understanding society. Disneyfying society can only lead to a weak generation, happy in its compliance.

"We are the orphans of cinema" Independent film is too often abandoned by the masses for the Hollywood viagra it produces

"Film revolution can never be stopped" The masses will one day understand that Hollywood exploits society, and once it does, the revolution won't be stopped

FIGHT CLUB

Although attacked by many critics who misunderstood the film, Fight Club is an excellent example of
a Hollywood film that seeks to fight the system. Attacking the capitalist system we live in, Fight Club uses
action, a well written script, and camera techniques that alienate the viewer from the film reality that
forces the viewer to question what s/he sees. While the film does critic the feminization of society,
blaming women for the fall of society, one can see in the end of the film that the two working together
can bring about the new society.

Directed By David Fincher
Released in 1999

TYLER DURDEN - NARRATOR/RUPERT/CORNELIUS - MARLA - OTHER

"When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything: IBM Stellarsphere, Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks"

As Corporate America infects culture with product placement, we lose the integrity of all that it touches.

"Slave to Ikea nesting instinct"

We are obsessed with 'nesting' by filling our homes with material objects that we use to define our identity

"Losing all hope was freedom"

"When people think your dying they, they really really listen to you, instead of"
"Instead of just waiting for their turn to speak"

When you speak, how much of it is just verbal diarrhea? In an era of excessive media communication, we rarely listen and learn from one another

"Marla's philosophy was that she might die at any moment, the tragedy she said, was that she didn't"

Understanding that we have no purpose is the beginning. Buying things does not make us

"Single serving friends"

We meet people everyday and they mean nothing after we pass them. Community is required to rebuild society

" Do you know why they put oxygen masks on planes?"
"So you can breath?"
"Oxygen gets you high, in a catastrophic emergency your taking giant panic breaths, suddenly you become euphoric, docile, you accept your fate"

Our society is a cycle of fear and ignorance. The enemy of the people wish you to fear what they tell you, but to ignore that which you should struggle against.

"I had it all, I had a stereo that was very decent, a wardrobe that was getting very respectable, I was close to being complete"
"Shit man now its all gone"

It is so easy to see ourselves through the products that we buy to represent us. But identity is on the inside, not the out.

"What are we?"
"Consumers"
"Right, we're consumers, we're byproducts of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me what concerns me is are celebrity magazines, televisions with 500 channels
some guys name on my underwear, Rogain, Viagra, Allestra"
"Martha Stewart"
"Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha's just polishing brass on the Titanic - it's all going down man. Fuck off with your sofa unit and string green striped    patterns. I'd say never be complete, I'd say stop being perfect, I'd say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may"

North American civilizations are based on the continuous system of consumption. But we are beginning to realize that a civilization built on sand will sink. We try to hard to fit the roles that advertising tells us. Be yourself, not what the corporations tell you.

"Its just stuff"

Ask yourself, how long will this last? Is this worth it?

"The things you own, end up owning you"

How long can you go with out tv? the internet? GAP? Starbucks? Sony? Your life is manipulated by products. It is the failing nature of our society

"How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?"

The quest to understand who we are

"My dad never went to college, so it was REAL important that I go"
"Sounds familiar"
"So I graduate, I call him up long distance, I say dad, now what? He says, get a job
"Same here."
"Now I'm 25 - I make my yearly call again, say, Dad, now what? He says, I don't know, get married"

The father represents our patriarchal, capitalistic society that relies on compliance, stasis, and routine to mold the masses.

"Self improvement is masturbation. Now, self destruction . . ."

. . .

"Worker bees can leave
        Even drones can fly away
                The Queen is their slave"

Although the suit in the Ivory Tower seems to be in control, without the masses they could not be there. Real power is in the hands of the masses.

"We reject the basic assumption of civilization - especially the importance of material possession"

Rejection of our Capitalist society is necessary for our continued existence.

"The condom is the glass slipper of our generation. You slip one on when you meet a stranger, you dance all night, then you throw it away"

A generation that wastes, that is not interesting in building community, but instead serving ones own interests

"The first soap was made from the ashes of heroes, like the first monkey shot into space. Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing."

Nothing can be achieved without hard work and giving up that which makes us superficially happy

"Our fathers were our models for god - if our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about god? Listen to me, you have to consider the possibility that god does not like you, never wanted you, and in all probability he hates you. This is not the worst thing that could happen to you.
"It isn't?"
"We don't need him."
"I agree I agree"
"Fuck salvation, fuck redemption. We're god's unwanted children. So be it"

We have to understand we have been taught to believe in lies to keep us in line, in order. When we understand that, we can begin to fight the ignorance that is imbedded in our society.

"First you have to give up, first you have to know not fear, know that someday you're going to die"

We follow the idea that we are going to live forever, and that change will come. But we need to act now.

"Its only once we have lost everything, we are free to do anything"

Think about how often you want to do something, but are tied down by other commitments. Money, security, possessions. Think what could be done if all of that was gone. Think of the freedom if we were not tied down.

"An entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves of the white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need. We are the middle children of history man, no purpose or place. We have no great war, and no great depression. Our war is a spiritual war and our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't, and we're slowly learning that fact, and we're very very pissed off"

Our media, our society, our culture teaches us lies and we believe it. We are the most educated and technologically advanced society in the history of this planet, and we fall for corporate propaganda which tells us how we should look, talk, act, and dress. Some of us understand this . . . the rest of us need to wake up to this fact

"No fear, no distraction. The ability to let that which does not matter, truly slide"

We cannot achieve our goals of equal, strong, safe society without giving up those 'necessities' in life that we do not need.

"You are not your JOB. You are not how much MONEY you have in the bank. Your not the CAR that you drive. Your not the contents of your WALLET. You are not YOUR FUCKING KHAKIS. You are the all singing, all dancing crap of the world"

Material possessions do not make a person. You are what you make yourself.

"Listen up maggots - you are not special. You are not unique or a beautiful snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We are the all singing, all dancing crap of the world. We are all part of the same compost heap"

Forget what you have been taught and think about who you are, what you are made of. What other lies has society told you? Stop trying to compete with your neighbors.

"The people you are after are the people you depend on: we cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us"

Control seems to be at the top, but it is the workers who have the power.

"This does not belong to us - we are not special"

The revolution does not belong to us. This is not PRAXIS Industries', nor that of the Founder. It is not Marx's, or Lenin or Malcolm X. This is everyone's.

"Hitting bottom isn't a retreat, its not a goddam seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go"

The Narrator was trying to do what is right without the sacrifices. You cannot reach enlightenment from reading a book on Buddhism. You cannot learn what is right and wrong from the movies you watch. You have to take things into your own hands, by letting go of everything that holds you back.

"In the world I see, you're stalking elk through the damn canyon forest around the ruins of Rockafeller Centre. You will wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of you life. You'll climb the roots of thick cuts of vine that wrap the sears tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison in the empty car pool lanes on some abandoned super highway"

The technological advancement of man has lead to us destroying our environment, and weakening our species as whole. We may have learned how to wipe out diseases, but at what cost? For the thousands that have died, millions more have been enslaved.

"In Project Mayhem, we have no name. In death, we have a name"

The collective good is more important than the individual. But we are all still individuals.

THE MATRIX

The Matrix was a revolution in many senses of the world. Not only did it utilize new film technology and stunning
cinematography, it brought forth a message of resistance and struggle. Unfortunately, too many people only
disseminated the action, ignoring the philosophy and focusing only on the violence of this masterpiece.

Directed by Andy Wachowski
Larry Wachowski
Released in 1999

NEO - MORPHEUS - TRINITY - ORACLE - AGENT SMITH

"Wake up Neo . . . The Matrix has you"

The Rage Against The Machine song at the end of the film spouts these words, WAKE UP. Our eyes are closed to the true world around us. WAKE UP!

"I know why you're here Neo. I know what you've been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night you sit at your computer. You're looking for him [ . . .] he told me I wasn't really looking for him, I was looking for an answer. Its the question that drives us, Neo. Its the question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did"
"What is the Matrix?"
"The answer is out there Neo. Its looking for you . . . and it will find you, if you want it too.

We are beginning to understand there is no purpose to the life that society has planned out for us. We look for so many things to fill our lives: religion, heroes, products. But when we stop to give faith to any one thing, we end our quest for the truth.

[Boss] You have a problem with authority, Mr Anderson You believe that you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously you are mistaken. This company is one of the top software companies in the world, because every single employee understands they are part of a whole
thus if an employee has a problem, the company has a problem.

This is a manipulation of the idea of the greater good serving the interests over the individual. However, the 'greater good' is being dictated instead of explored. Those that seek to disrupt the harmful routine are punished.

"The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your takes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth"
"What truth?"
"That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage, born into a prison you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison . . . for your mind."

Although we may not be in the Matrix construct, we are in a prison that is all around us. Everything is part of the apparatus, and once we realize that, we are one step closer to freedom.

"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure it was real. What if you were unable to wake from that dream. How would know the difference from the dream world and the real world ?"

"This isn't real?"
"What is real? Ho do you define real? If you are talking about what you can feel, what you can smell what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain"

The big question - what is real is what we make real. We cannot accept the reality that the enemy dictates to us.

"What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer generated dream world, built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this [holds up battery]

Our society is a system of controls. Influenced by the American media, we live in a culture of fear, in which

"You have to let it all go Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind."

Our limitation holds us back. Let go of the world around you and embrace change.

"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. When you are inside, you look around what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, the very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand that most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it."

We cannot blame those around us that do not understand how the system corrupts us, for this is what we have all been taught to believe. But we cannot let these people stand in the way of change.

"This, this isn't the Matrix?"
"No, its another training program to teach you one thing: if you are not one of us, you are one of them"

Until everyone understands the true nature of society, of the system, they will fight to stop us in our quest for freedom.

[Cypher] "You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy. . . and delicious. After 9 years you know what I realized . . .. ignorance is bliss"

Not everyone will accept the difficulty and the sacrifice required in the struggle. Ignorance may be bliss, but the truth will set you free.

[Mouse]"To deny our own impulses is to deny us that which makes us human"

We are human, and in such a species we have certain qualities, emotions, urges that our bodies require. Letting these impulses controls us, but denying them is equally harmful. Equilibrium is the key.

[Kid] "Do not try to bend the spoon, that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth."
"What truth?"
"There is no spoon"
"There is no spoon?"
"Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself"

It is our mind that holds the key.

"I believe that as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering."

"I'd like to share a revelation I've had . . . during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that your not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply. You multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague."

In the history of mankind, there have been cultures and civilizations that worked with and respected the environment. But the evolution of Capitalist culture has lead to the colonization of the world, and the destruction and waste of our natural resources.

"I'm going to be honest . . . with you. I . . . hate this place, this . . . zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer. Its the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink. And every time I do I feel that somehow I've been infected by it. Its repulsive, isn't it. I must get out of here, I must get free.

Even those at the top of the power pyramid are controlled by the system, without even knowing it. Everyone is a victim and must be freed.

"I know you are out there. I can feel you now. I know that your afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how its going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world, where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

Utopia may be fantasy, but fighting for a world that is free from the physical and mental boundaries of the system of society is worth fighting for.

STARSHIP TROOPERS

This satire on war and society did poorly both with critics and viewers. The intentional over-the-top acting
alienated many, and often left the audience from missing the critique of fascist/American ideas on
patriotism and war propaganda. Although the film is a satire, some of the points satirized are significant
in understanding society and how we act.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Released in 1997

JOHNNY RICO - Lt J RASCZAK - DIZZY FLORES

"Freedom of choice is the only real freedom any one of us has"

We may be held by what the government tells us to do, we may not be able to speak out against society, or live at equal levels. We are all prisoners, but we still choose our actions.

"Something given has no value"

We take for granted what freedoms we have, but those that struggle to accomplish something understand the value in fighting for what you believe.

"When you vote you are exercising political authority, your using force, and force is violence - supreme authority upon which all other authority is derived"

Hobbes believed that we are all equal in that we each have the ability to kill one another. A balance is created only because we would die fighting an equal, but once one side had an advantage, the stronger dictated to the weaker.

"Naked force has solved more problems than any other method"

Violence has brought about the strength of every empire, every power. But violence is not THE answer. Ghandi understood this, and gave birth to the non-violent revolution.

"My mom always said violence never solved anything"
"Wishful thinking at its worst. People who believe this always pay"

While this thinking is naive, it is not incorrect. Violence begets violence. I kill your brother, you come to kill me. While the struggle does require violence, it is not the only way.

"Moral difference between civilian and citizen: A citizen accepts personal responsibility for safety of body of politic - defending with life - a civilian doesn't"

Most people are compliant, hiring public officials to think for us. Very rarely does society stand up for itself. We must all begin to take responsibility for society as a whole for us to evolve. Our culture makes us compliant with the status quo.

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