“Screenslaver interrupts this program for an important announcement.”
Here we see that Screenslaver has the power to interrupt a broadcast and take it over for his own (nefarious?) needs. And we hear him claim that what he is about to say is important.
“Don’t bother watching the rest.”
Hmm. Contradicts what he just finished saying about the importance of his speech. Here he tells us what we want to hear—give up, go home, the show’s over, there’s nothing to see here.
“Elastigirl doesn’t save the day. She only postpones her defeat.”
This is very reminiscent of the great speech on The Man, by the always hilarious Man Jack Black, in School of Rock. He says, “So don’t waste your time trying to make anything cool, or pure, or awesome. Cause’ the Man’s just gonna call you a fat, washed up loser, and crush your soul! So do yourselves a favour, and just give up!”
This is a defeatist attitude; a slave mentality. It comes from a place of laziness; from a place of decadence. It comes from one fed up person and goes to another.
This is clearly either the Enemy attempting to make us give up, or the Ally attempting to make us wake up. Both of these examples are most likely the latter.
“And while she postpones her defeat, you eat chips and watch HER confront problems that YOU are too lazy to deal with.”
A very clear attempt to open eyes. Screenslaver points out that we have become fat and lazy and complacent, and can no longer be bothered enough to fight for our own wellbeing, let alone the wellbeing of others.
“Superheroes are part of your brainless desire to replace true experience with simulation. You don’t talk; you watch talk shows. You don’t play games; you watch game shows. Travel, Relationships, Risk—every meaningful experience must be packaged and delivered to you to watch at a distance. So that you can remain ever-sheltered; ever-passive; ever-ravenous-consumers who can’t bring themselves to rise from their couches, break a sweat, and participate in life.”
Two things come to mind. One is WALL-E—a Movie about humans who turn the Earth into a junkyard and move out to a spaceship to sit on chairs with food and entertainment delivered right to them, and robots doing all of their chores. Two is Dio’s song “Stay Out of My Mind,” which proclaims:
All you see down there,
Could be yours for the taking!
All your heart's desire,
Would be yours,
But you don't want it,
You don't want it!
You keep telling me:
Stay out of my mind!
Stay out of my soul!
I can't get you out of my life,
So stay out of my mind!
Which paints the picture of a person who is oblivious to all of the many wonders which surround them, and oblivious to the ease with which they could look up from their screens and take these wonders for their very own. And the picture of an Ally who cries out in vain for the sad broken man to open his mind and soul to all of the possibilities, and to simply reach out and take that which by Divine Right is already His.
“You want superheroes to protect you, and make yourselves ever more powerless in the process, while you tell yourselves you’re “being looked after”; that your interests are being served; that your rights are being upheld. So that the system can keep stealing from you—smiling at you all the while.”
Very powerful language here. A very heavy and dense section of the monologue. It talks about giving up freedom for safety, giving up rights for protections, and yet still believing that you are in fact not being robbed or swindled, but rather, are being helped in some unimaginable way.
This reminds me of a picture and a quote which was quoted by Tucker Max to go along with it:
“ ... the devil doesn't come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you've ever wished for … ”
“Go ahead: send your supers to stop me. Grab your snacks, watch your screens, and see what happens. YOU are no longer in control. I AM.”
And finally, it comes around to the issues of freedom and control.
It is a great monologue. I wish I had written it. When I heard it in the theatre, it gave me goosebumps, it made me tingle, it shook me up, and I went back to see the movie two more times just for this one short scene. And for elastigirl’s cartoon ass, of course. ;)
