The new concentration camp

Quote from the above scene:

Quote :

"But has it ever occured to you Wally that the process that creates this boredom that we see in the world now may be a self perpetuating, unconscious form of brainwashing created by a world totalitarian government based on money? And that all of this is much more dangerous than one thinks? And it's not just a question of individual survival Wally, but that someone who is bored is asleep, and somebody who is asleep will not say no? See, I keep meeting these people. Just a few days ago I met this man I greatly admire, a Swedish physicist, Gustav Jondstreim. And he told me that he no longer watches televsion, he no longer reads newspapers, and he doesn't read magazines. He's completely cut them out of his life, because he really does feel that we're living in some sort of Orwellian nightmare now, and that everything that you hear now contributes into turning you into a robot. And when I was at Findhorn, I met this extraordinary English tree expert who devoted his life to saving trees. Just got back from Washington lobbying to save the Redwoods, he's eighty-four years old and always travels with a backpack becuase he never knows where he's going to be tomorrow.
When I met him at Findhorn he said, 'Where are you from?'

I said, 'New York'.

'Ah yes, New York. That's a very interesting place. Do you know a lot of New Yorkers that say that they want to leave but never do?'

I said, 'Oh yes'.

'Why do you think they don't leave?'

I gave him different banal theories.

He said: 'Oh, I don't think it's that way at all.' He said, 'I think that New York is the new model for the new concentration camp where the camp has been built by the inmates themselves, and the inmates are the guards and they have this pride in this thing they built, they've built their own prison, and so they exist in a state of schizophrenia where they are both guards and prisoners and as a result they no longer have, having been lobotomized, the capacity to leave the prison they've made or even see it as a prison.'

And then he went into his pocket and took out a seed for a tree and said, 'This is a pine tree.' He put it in my hand and said, 'Escape. Before it's too late.'

Wow great writing. I spy a dystopian future, not too unlike what is NY as discussed in the clip. Nice find, Extant.

Thanks.

No probs. That scene is superb. Spot on I think in many ways.

I see the pine tree seed as representing reality, and the NYC as concentration camp representing the hyperreality that we live in, which covers over our reality. A strange duality, that we somehow don't even see.

What scares me is the destruction of that duality as represented by the destruction of the twin towers. Is the mask coming off now? Our collective dillusion revealed?

Ronne wrote:

I see the pine tree seed as representing reality, and the NYC as concentration camp representing the hyperreality that we live in, which covers over our reality. A strange duality, that we somehow don't even see.

What scares me is the destruction of that duality as represented by the destruction of the twin towers. Is the mask coming off now? Our collective dillusion revealed?

For me I see it as far more literal, within the context of the film. Which is ironic since it is merely a facsimile of reality itself, it is not real. Every city built now is the "new concentration camp," just as they dicuss New York there, we build our own prisons and police ourselves literally, constrained by the spectre of political correctness. The whole film is a philosophical tour de force, the closing line in the restaurant from Andre had me agasp. Stunning stuff.

My Dinner with Andre: Transcript

http://www.cloudnet.com/~jwinder/dinner.htm

ScoutsHonor wrote:

My Dinner with Andre: Transcript

http://www.cloudnet.com/~jwinder/dinner.htm

Excellent, thanks for that. I've just noticed the little errors I made when transcribing the little piece of dialogue from the scene I put in my OP. Gustav Jondstreim shuld be Gustav Björnstrand, amongst others. This film is filled with many philosophic gems and I'm glad to have the complete transcript now. Superb!

You're welcome.