This blog deals in many ways with ethics. So, I pursue topics along those lines. When I saw this article in Salon I was intrigued. David Sirota is an author whose work I appreciate. He’s done a nice job on this one. He wasn’t just content to write a good article, he salted it with clips from various films illustrating his points.

Sirota is clearly having fun with his topic. But that’s okay, he’s invited us along.

Wherever you stand in the debate about what the Empire metaphorically represents — a huge corporation, your faceless county government, the vast military-industrial complex — it’s undoubtedly the kind of place in which many of us now toil: namely, inside a bureaucracy that has lots of worker-bee drones and a very clear management hierarchy. In the age of mass layoffs, de-unionization, the shredding of labor regulations, and a general desperation to hold onto a job, the “Star Wars” trilogy — and specifically, senior corporate executive Darth Vader — prepares kids for how that modern workplace operates.

Read this gem where Sirota reflects on the lessons of ET.

In their civics class, kids will almost definitely be told about the virtues of our Fourth Amendment — the one that’s supposed to protect their privacy. Most likely, though, they won’t be told about stuff that has destroyed those sacred safeguards — stuff like the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping, Facebook cyber-tracking, and the like. To prevent kids from being confused by this paradoxical conflict between constitutional principle and the real world practices of the National Security State, Spielberg gives them “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial,” whose most frightening scene tells us how little privacy they can expect. After extensively surveilling Elliot’s family (ostensibly without warrant) via kidnapper van, the faceless government lunges into his home zombie-style — arms rigidly extended, fists tearing through walls/windows, and no warrant in sight, even as Elliot’s mom shrieks that “This is my home!” Welcome, kids, to 21st century “privacy” — expect nothing but a space-suit-clad federal agent at your door.

This is my favorite paragraph.

At some point, my son Isaac and children his age are going to want to know about the economy and the tough times of their youth. And at some point, they’ll probably hear about the housing crisis from some TV charlatan who tells them that it wasn’t really about big megabanks and shady schemes — it was really all about poor, lazy selfish minorities who were irresponsible and therefore deserved to be thrown out of their homes. But by the time they hear that factually unsubstantiated tripe, we should make sure our kids have already seen “The Goonies.”

There are many more gems like this one in the article. Please read it. We can all use a post holiday laugh tempered with a satirical edge.

James Pilant