I thought this was a meme. Just looked it up on the US patent database…it’s real.
Stuff like this makes me equal parts furious and immensely sad. When I was younger and first watched Wall-E, I thought the obese chair humans were funny and wacky.
Now watching it as an adult, it fills me with genuine horror. All human experiences reduced to virtualized, sterile, mini-games designed to make you as addicted as possible so you consume their products and services as much as possible.
They want us as helpless and dependant on their platforms as they can get us to be. Locked in, forced to dance like monkeys so we can get back to mindlessly consuming more sludge.
The humans in WALL-E don’t do any labour. When the captain tries to do something, a robot tells him to stop. That economic system is not capitalism. It’s a socialist utopia.
It’s not a utopia at all, it’s a dystopia. The ship they are on was built buy the mega-corp Buy N’ Large, which according to Pixar in the lore, gained a total monopoly over not just all other companies on earth, but much of the world governments.
It’s a classic Cyberpunk trope of mega-corps that effectively are the government because they wield so much power and influence.
Plus, socialism is a society where the workers own the means of production, which isn’t the case in the movie, so it can’t be socialist.
The captain works, not much but he does technically have a job, as pointless as it is. Also, at least some of the robots are portrayed as sentient, which would make them workers too, like EVA, who’s job it is to search the galaxy for organic life.
Assuming nobody actually owns the property, it could be some kind of post-scarcity AI dystopia where machines control everything. But still, all the signs tell the people to buy, purchase, and consume, which is essential to Capitalism.
Regardless if it is actually a Capitalist society, it is coded like one, and modern trends of capitalistic consumerism are headed rapidly in the same direction.
The jewel of the BNL fleet - the Axiom. Spend your five-year cruise in style, waited on 24 hours a day, by our fully automated crew. While your captain and autopilot chart a course for non-stop entertainment, fine dining, and with our all access hover chairs, even grandma can join the fun.
The humans are not workers. They’re on a luxury cruise. This society has the aesthetics of capitalism, but the substance isn’t there. The substance was probably there for the first 5 years, the original passengers were probably bourgeois leaving the workers on earth. But the society transitioned out of capitalism with nobody noticing. They still have capitalist ads, but they don’t mean anything. It’s a cargo cult trying to mimic capitalism and failing.
Capitalism is not heading towards a society where nobody has to work, everyone’s basic needs are met, and longevity is doubled. The Axiom is a noblebright future far better than what we are destined for.
I thought this was a meme. Just looked it up on the US patent database…it’s real.
Stuff like this makes me equal parts furious and immensely sad. When I was younger and first watched Wall-E, I thought the obese chair humans were funny and wacky.
Now watching it as an adult, it fills me with genuine horror. All human experiences reduced to virtualized, sterile, mini-games designed to make you as addicted as possible so you consume their products and services as much as possible.
They want us as helpless and dependant on their platforms as they can get us to be. Locked in, forced to dance like monkeys so we can get back to mindlessly consuming more sludge.
Capitalism really is a cancer.
The humans in WALL-E don’t do any labour. When the captain tries to do something, a robot tells him to stop. That economic system is not capitalism. It’s a socialist utopia.
It’s not a utopia at all, it’s a dystopia. The ship they are on was built buy the mega-corp Buy N’ Large, which according to Pixar in the lore, gained a total monopoly over not just all other companies on earth, but much of the world governments.
It’s a classic Cyberpunk trope of mega-corps that effectively are the government because they wield so much power and influence.
Plus, socialism is a society where the workers own the means of production, which isn’t the case in the movie, so it can’t be socialist.
Well, it’s not capitalism, because the people don’t work.
The captain works, not much but he does technically have a job, as pointless as it is. Also, at least some of the robots are portrayed as sentient, which would make them workers too, like EVA, who’s job it is to search the galaxy for organic life.
Assuming nobody actually owns the property, it could be some kind of post-scarcity AI dystopia where machines control everything. But still, all the signs tell the people to buy, purchase, and consume, which is essential to Capitalism.
Regardless if it is actually a Capitalist society, it is coded like one, and modern trends of capitalistic consumerism are headed rapidly in the same direction.
The humans are not workers. They’re on a luxury cruise. This society has the aesthetics of capitalism, but the substance isn’t there. The substance was probably there for the first 5 years, the original passengers were probably bourgeois leaving the workers on earth. But the society transitioned out of capitalism with nobody noticing. They still have capitalist ads, but they don’t mean anything. It’s a cargo cult trying to mimic capitalism and failing.
Capitalism is not heading towards a society where nobody has to work, everyone’s basic needs are met, and longevity is doubled. The Axiom is a noblebright future far better than what we are destined for.
Fair point, I like the analogy to cargo cults. Still, one person’s hell is another’s heaven.
I hope we end up with a far better future, but I find that hope fading slowly as time goes on.