I really don't know but I think a lot of Americans understand the points in that film but like that little film says the "golden arrow" of consumerism is shoved down their throats daily. So, I would say it is that they have developed these "bad habits" and human beings are creatures of habit. It's sort of comical in that we don't fix anything anymore, when something breaks you just buy a new one and this is usually because the cost to fix the old one (which a person will now just assume is a piece of junk) is almost the same as a new one. I can give you some recent examples from people I know:

1. A pressure washer purchased little more than a year ago broke down. Cost to repair the pressure washer $550.00. Cost for a new one just like it, $650.00.

2. A friends plasma tv breaks down. Cost to repair the tv, including diagnosis charge, $650.00. Cost for a new tv pretty much just like it $750.00.

and the best one:

3. A washer machine breaks down, original cost for the machine two years ago, $800.00. Cost to repair the machine, $650.00. Cost to buy a new machine they say is even better than the old one because they have a sale going on and there are two rebates available if you buy now $475.00!

So why fix anything, throw that old junk away and buy new junk!

The other thing that is sort of a great disappointment to me is that our government now seems to be working as little more than a propaganda and terror unit and this continues under Obama. Sure, now the threat is no longer "evil Muslims" hiding dirty bombs under our beds instead it is the loss of your job, healthcare, and any sense of well being and being told by the government that unless we pay more taxes to them they will take even more away from us. They basically want us to think we have to rely on them to fix the problems and this is a bad way to go.

The complete and total mismanagement of the funds we have given them is what got us here and they now say we have to pay for their mistakes...no sorry, I mean they demand we pay for their mistakes. They also demand we give our money to the giant conglomerates that played the largest part in creating that mess...why...ha ha ha ha ha...so those giant conglomerates can save us all from an even worse fate! After all the government and the giant conglomerates are all "Too big to fail!"

A child could clearly see through this nonsense but we keep pressing ever onward.

The ideal American image used to that of the rugged individualist capable and willing to take on any challenge and now it is a bitchy fat guy that owns a gun because he can, wears the same shit all his neighbors wear, eats the same shit everybody else eats, drives the same thing everybody else drives, that deep inside can't wait to get home and lock himself in a room with a tv to help him forget how fucking useless he feels.

Why do we take it? This is the question so many people here ask and in a lazy way they blame television as if it has brainwashed us all into doing nothing but sitting at home or going out to shop. I think what is wrong with Americans is we have no idea who we are anymore. We have been made to feel that we are dwarfed by the government, big business, and the media. Most people don't even know how to begin to fix anything, think the problems are too big, the entities you have to deal with are too big, the issues too complex, and that we just don't have enough time to get around to fixing things because the fight is too big or will take too long or cost us too much.

So, we don't even start and we retreat into our cocoon of comfort food and products. This makes us feel useless and small and how can somebody so useless and small fight something as big as our government, or AIG, or Enron, or Hank Paulson. So, we lose our confidence, our respect for ourselves, and all track of who or what we are...and we say please just leave us alone in our living rooms, with my toaster, and my tv, and my steel belted radials...

Yeah, and I guess that's it...I have become Howard Beale but there is no Bill Holden trying to talk me down off the ledge. If I turn on my tv no matter what channel I have on all I hear is a voice screaming "Jump you crazy fuck! Jump!"

So, I turn up the music we used to play at the orgies and play it as loud as I can hoping it will drown out the voice telling me to jump at least long enough for me to figure out how I got out on this ledge...