There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
This famous rant by Mario Savio is included within the two-channel video installation entitled “Conspiracy Theory” by Robert Boyd. A 10-minute long opus, several different conspiracy theories are featured, including the 9/11 truth movement, the establishment of a New World Order, AIDS being created by the government, the Illuminati, and a weird theory that all of the world’s leaders are actually members of an alien race known as reptilians. All of this is juxtaposed with dance music (wonderfully provided by Kerrin below) that continually repeats “I believe in you.”
What I found compelling about the work, is that the dance music is both making fun of the conspiracies and making these people’s anger and fear positively entertaining. The video clips fly at you at a rapid pace, one instant yelling that “9/11 was an inside job” and the next showing you clips of people pulling off their skin to reveal their true reptilian form. It would be very serious and creepy if it weren’t for the pulsating grooves sarcastically making fun of the whole thing.
I think that this idea of “fear as entertainment” is one that is continually spoken about. Newscasts are constantly parodied with their dire warnings about African Killer Bees, or new discoveries of a common household item that will kill you if you don’t watch our show. In these instances fear is used as a device to keep you interested and ultimately entertained. Robert Boyd takes similar fears—which are more transparently false and sensational—and makes them function as entertainment in the purest form… a dance party!
Some links for you about reptilians:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_humanoid#Conspiracy_theories
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgZPryMAsLE
http://www.truthism.com
And this is the Mario Savio rant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcx9BJRadfw
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