Read the news. Don’t just watch Fox News or CNN to hear someone else’s opinion; read real news like Reuters or the Associated Press. Read articles every day; get interested in global news, not just what is going on in the United States. Knowledge is power. Once you know the facts, you can actually feel like you know what is going on and can appreciate some of the art others create to cope with reality. With that being said, I am going to share some of my favorite pieces of media that offer insights I cannot get from only reading the daily news.
The Boys
The Amazon Prime Video series, The Boys, is about a group of civilians who fight against corrupt superheroes who seek to have control, without regulation, over America and its inhabitants. The show is basically an allegory for events under the recent and current government administrations. Fair warning: there are several gory and wildly explicit scenes throughout the show. However, the insights into the current political climate that viewers take away from the show make the hard-to-watch scenes worth it. It is incredible how a show about superheroes can reveal the harsh reality of the state of the country in such an accurate (and funny) way.
Amsterdam
Starring Margo Robbie, Christian Bale, John David Washington, and with a cameo from Taylor Swift, the movie Amsterdam reveals the dark origins of capitalism and big businesses. Like The Boys, Amsterdam causes you to ask yourself who is pulling the strings and how you can avoid being just another puppet. After Trump’s recent statement designating ANTIFA as a domestic terrorist organization, this movie has been fresh on my mind.
1984 & Animal Farm
In recent years, there has been public discourse about the significance of George Orwell’s books 1984 and Animal Farm. I agree that these works are important, and there was a reason most of us were instructed to read them in high school. Both works emphasize the issues that arise when a government has too much power and how power is often maintained by dividing “the people.”
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 is a novel by Ray Bradbury that takes place in a dystopian world where books are outlawed in America. The harmful effects of outlawing tools used to obtain knowledge are significant in the context of the banning of certain books by the Department of Education under Trump’s administration.
Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940
There is a lot to learn about America’s past and present from the novel Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 by Grace Elizabeth Hale. Slavery is, unfortunately, a massive part of American history, and in this novel, Hale discusses how some white Americans have tried to erase or glorify this history. The author also explains how, by trying to glorify or deny slavery, these white Americans create a more racist and divided country.