The next four years are gonna suck

"The next four years are gonna suck. But they’ll suck worse if we let the news cycle — and the man who dominates it — drain the joy from our lives. We need to pay attention and we need to stay in the fight. Because of course we do. But we should spend as much time as we possibly can over the next four years with friends and lovers doing things that bring us joy.

Anyone who tells you that making time for joy — however you define it — is a distraction or a betrayal has no idea what they’re talking about. During the darkest days of the AIDS Crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for.

It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting, keep dancing."

- Dan Savage

Black Mirror_series

Black Mirror (Netflix) is a British science fiction television series written and created by Charlie Brooker and centered around dark and satirical themes that examine modern society, particularly with regard to the unanticipated consequences of new technologies, reminding us that to revere our digital gadgets is to become their pathetic slaves. Episodes are stand-alone works, usually set in an alternative present or in the near future. All genuinely unsettling and thought-provoking.

Stories tap into the collective unease about our modern world. Over the last fifteen years, technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives before we've had time to stop and question it. In every home; on every desk; in every palm -a plasma screen, a monitor, a smartphone- a black mirror of our 21st Century existence. A must-watch series. Take my word for it.

Check the plot summary of Black Mirror's 28 episodes (6 seasons) on Wikipedia or on radiotimes.com only after you have watched an episode. I personally recommend the following stories:

The National Anthem

The Entire History of You

Nosedive

Shut Up and Dance

San Junipero

Hated in the Nation

Black Museum

Smithereens

Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too

Joan is Awful

Reading is sexy

Photo: John R. Hamilton, 1958

 

Tech oligarchs

This is the cartoon The Washington Post censored last week. The cartoonist, Pulitzer prize winner Ann Telnaes, has resigned out of dignity.