Of the most damaging films to my psyche was one released in a year near the ‘End of the 21st Century’ with a protagonist from a part of the planet I am grossly unfamiliar with, India. The film was called ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’
My likely malformed understanding of their culture is that the herd people of their labor market are sold the potential of upward mobility the way ours are, in what they call a caste system. Where you are in the social power layercake is determined by family of origin in a eugenics program I don’t quite understand, but seems to result in one ‘knowing their place’ in society. One of those social strata is apparently the ‘slums,’ and those that grow up there apparently are ‘slumdogs.’ At least the males. I don’t want to imagine what they call the ladies that grow up there.
One of the facets of existence portrayed in the film is a thing we know of as ‘Bollywood,’ which comes across as a flamboyant version of Hollywood, a little ridiculous for the sake of ridiculousness, or contrast… that’s a motive that’s pretty hard to discern from this far removed. Anyway, ‘Gaudy Knock-off Version’ of Hollywood is probably the more accurate generalized perception of Bollywood, and as such that they would have a knock-off version the American Gameshow ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ falls right in line. They may actually have one.
In that Gameshow, contests answer trivia questions to climb ladders of increasing monetary gains, risking those gains to make an attempt at the next question. The gist of the film being that a Slumdog Kid ends up on the Gameshow and his seemingly random collection of life experiences provide him all the right answers in this moment of fate aligning ‘just so.’ That, my friends, is how it rocks one’s psyche.
What’s being sold here, that might just be a ‘bill of goods’ (whatever that means), is that the reality we exist in is one in which such a turn of fate is possible, that somehow all the things you’ve been through and put yourself through are somehow preparing you for some pinnacular momentous turn of events in which holding on to the goodness in your heart through all that might have embittered or corrupted it will somehow be rewarded in a stunning turn of Fate.
As rational humans of the Snoring Twenties, I don’t know that we have the evidence to support that notion.
My Little Pipe Dream
Around the time Captain Kirk was going back in time to save the whales, Spock was neck-pinching punk rockers, and Scotty was talking to a mouse, I was leaving what I’d come to know of family to live with my mother. We hadn’t spent a lot of time together, as she was a single parent and active duty military and I’d ended up in the Guardianship of her mother until then. She had finished her ‘year overseas’ and was able to take me to her duty station in Hawaii to be her dependent.
The military was held in much higher esteem in the eighties, what with what they called the ‘cold war’ going on. We were better and we were proud of being better. Iron Eagle proud, and since Americans weren’t Ninjas, the Fighter Pilot was the heroic archetype burned into my mind.
I had grown up gamer, Donkey Kong on Collecovision and Pitfall on the 2600, and with the dream sown by Death Blossom was watered by Wing Commander on the SNES, the dream evolved into Space Fighter Pilot as the simulations started getting better.
To this day I wonder if how good Wing Commander was, or how much better Wing Commander Privateer was, justify the probable Billion Chris Roberts has bilked out of the Star Citizens.
Unfortunately, I was trapped in the 1990’s and Space Fighter Pilot wasn’t yet a possibility. It is only through the Magnanimity of the Great Biff Tannen that the Youths of Today can join Space Force!!
In exploring SubStack as an avenue toward personal Sustainability, and my desire to not hide what people might find useful behind a paywall, I am beginning the Shadow Cabal Draft series experiment.
What this means for you:
If it’s in LarpGate Year 4 (20230919 - 20240918) and it’s a paid post, it’s still in Draft. Once a thought is finally completed, it’ll go open access.