The Invasion (of My Car)

Last night I saw The Invasion, which is supposed to be an update of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I saw Body Snatchers when I was a kid, and I found it freaky, creepy, and scary. The Invasion, however, was none of those things. It was dull. No suspense; not even a good "Boo!" It was also a bizarre vehicle for a right-wing political message.

See, what's happening in The Invasion, is that microscopic alien lifeforms are "infecting" humans and turning them into socialists. There is no "other" among them. They all work to help each other out. They've also achieved world peace. Unfortunately, they've done it at the expense of human emotion and individuality. Fortunately, a cure is found, and humanity is restored to its messy, violent, individualistic ways. The message is that we might not like crises like the war in Iraq (mentioned more than once throughout the film), but hey, we're only human. You can practically hear Rumsfeld in the background guffawing “Freedom’s untidy. Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things." So, you know, golly, when our governments and other maniacs trigger calamity after calamity at the expense of [i]other[/i] people, we should shrug it off as the untidy business of being free human beings. Phew!

Naturally, this put me in the right frame of mind for wandering into the parking lot and discovering my car had been broken into and about $500 worth of stuff stolen. Under normal circumstances, I might have become angry. Instead, I was able to see that my inconvenience was nothing more than the byproduct of being a free person in a free world. I counted my blessings as I filled out the police report, grateful that I didn't live in a world where people cooperated, looked out for one another, and didn't feel the need to steal from or hurt each other. Because that would be too awful -- too inhuman.

God bless George Bush and the 101st Airborne.