the really sad part about political satire is that most of the time those jokes turn into truth. when i read dark knight returns for the first time a few years back, i didn't get that the news vignettes were supposed to be funny. because i grew up in a reality where on the news the reporters would talk about how a terrorist bombed an orphanage, then cut to the next story about the latest pop star scandal. while treating the previous matter as if it were trivial. because in that book, popular culture, and media, and trends, were viewed as more important than the true dire issues. but i grew up in the age of the "corporate run america" that many musical artists and comic books and tv shows and movies warned us about. and it didn't REALLY hit me until today when i was watching robocop and saw so many similarities (though the world of robocop may be slightly more heightened than ours) with what was going on in that movie, and what's going on currently. and what's even scarier is that there's a book called "prez" that's satirizes absurdities in our culture...but are real enough for me to believe could happen in my lifetime. and i guess the really scary part is, the stuff in that book, while played up for comedy, is really scary. and i honestly feel like if i ever have kids, they're gonna grow up in a society that mirrors that exactly. and if they ever read prez, or watch robocop, they're not gonna understand that a lot of the rich material in them is being played up for laughs, because they'll be living in that reality. much like myself when i read dark knight returns and watched robocop. and that really horrifies me.
