MovieChat Forums > The Purge (2013) Discussion > A liberal's wet dream: capitalism run am...

A liberal's wet dream: capitalism run amok

posted 9 years ago by Spurtikus
10 replies | jump to latest

Apparently, in the author's humble opinion, the point here is that after the inevitable collapse of capitalism, which is built on the backs of the poor, our elite rulers decide that the strain the poor put on the system is too great and society should be unburdened of the have-nots who have been cast away as the proverbial 'losers' in this otherwise presumably 'just' system... So this would appear to be the logical conclusion of humanity's greed, carried to the extreme, when considering the fallibility of a supposed system that feeds on human suffering and lauding the 'SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST' philosophy. So we have the 'haves' hunting down the poor and destitute for sport...

Anyway, any comparison to our current economic system is null and void, since we have NOTHING resembling 'free, laizzes-faire' enterprise as originally intended; we only have complete and total corrupt corporate cronyism, an oligarchy, rule by the few the moneyed interests, where the absolute vast majority of 'welfare' goes directly to our owners on Wall Street. Our middle class is being shat on, and a collapse of the system will occur only from the greed of the few who run the corporation known as the US, Britain, etc., and the hate they have for us little people.

To actually believe that a group of these 'freaks' would waste so much time on one homeless guy, when they could be killing dozens of other defenseless people is absurd per se. The movie has a grossly deformed view of human nature, portraying the neighbors as envious and hateful despite their own financial security, and humanity as being perfectly willing to sacrifice its castaways in a gladiatorial game so as to retain its material comforts. We may be some of these things currently, but only because that is how we have been trained, like Pavlov's dogs, to salivate at violence and the potential for another dollar of profit, no matter the source or suffering it may cause, but I completely disagree that humans are naturally violent greedy or destructive if the current social conditioning system is removed.

Thanks for viewing my arrogant rant; yes I'm full of *beep* I just needed to vent from viewing this silly crappy piece of crap that is supposed to pass for art. Communist tyranny where assets are evenly distributed is not the preference to a Republic.

Cherio!

[–] MyloMan30 9 years ago

It's a movie.

[–] Barbecue 9 years ago

we have NOTHING resembling 'free, laizzes-faire' enterprise as originally intended

And neither does anyone else, nor have they ever, nor will they ever. It's a fictional ideal, just like every other system ever propounded.

[–] ohterry 9 years ago

Exactly what I was thinking. Thanks for saying it first.

[–] Jazmataz1980 9 years ago

I viewed it more as a caricature of nowadays values in the US society. People in this country have a very harsh opinion about the poor and the have-nots. Anybody poor must've caused his or her own misery because either they are dumb or lazy, or both. This would be the perfect breeding ground to create something as crazy as the purge, because it would relieve anybody's conscience that they are eliminating one of their kind. There's always been a tendency for a certain part of the population to put people into different classes, aligning more rights with one than with the other. And this can very well have financial advantages as a consequence for the privileged class. Watch "12 years as a slave" and you'll know what I'm talking about.

[–] gino-lee 9 years ago

I think your point about the have-nots is pretty spot on. The thing is there are some of the have nots that are unable to control their situation, some with mental issues. One that comes to mind are soldiers coming back from war suffering from PTSD and leaving home to live on the streets.

In this case the soldiers would fight for their countries abroad and come back to be killed on the streets at home. We saw this in Dwayne when we see dog tags around his neck, pointing to possibly having served.

Unfortunately, this isn't far from the truth. When soldiers come home our government (Canadian at least) lets them rot and tells them to take care of the PTSD themselves.

[–] filmklassik 8 years ago

Give me a break. If the American public had a "harsh opinion about the poor and the have nots" then our elected officials (who care passionately about being RE-elected) would never have instituted things like welfare, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, etc.

Generally speaking, politicians don't introduce legislation that a majority of the public won't accept, because they know such legislation will be struck down.

And please keep in mind I said a "majority" of the American public. Because yes there are crazy people on the Left and the Right, but the operative word here is "majority."

[–] animalmother60 8 years ago

Not capitalism, fascism.

[–] Scaar_Alexander 8 years ago

Since when does fascism kill the poor, and let people do everything they want, even for one night ?

___________
"Surrender is death, and death is for pussies." (Kenny Powers)

[–] ellipsisms 8 years ago

Since always, not the poor but the oppressed and disadvantaged. Except that people can kill whoever they want as long as it's under the guise of the system.

[–] ellipsisms 8 years ago

To actually believe that a group of these 'freaks' would waste so much time on one homeless guy, when they could be killing dozens of other defenseless people is absurd per se

You missed the point. Rich people are used to having what they want and all their needs met, if the guy hadn't ran away they'd just kill him and move on, but he actually escaped, contradicting their sense of entitlement which is something that pisses them off. How many times have you read about rich people screwing over poor people in criminal cases just because they can? The system is rigged for rich people so they just take it and when their victims fight back they find a way.

But I agree with your last point, it's ridiculous to think of humans as naturally greedy and violent. I guess this was just a basic notion to convince and brainwash people that their actions are justified on Purge Night because it's their true nature and they shouldn't be held accountable for that, when in fact they should because it's not human nature to do that, we have a choice but some of us just make bad decisions and support the bad things. Some of us are petty, jealous and mean and let those fantasies run amok, which is the neighbours' case, but that either means we were raised that way or we acquired those traits through our own experiences. Lack of perspective, for example, is a high contributor and those people seemed so self-centered that I wasn't even surprised because as soon as the woman delivered the cookies at their door, her pettiness and jealousy was clear.