INSTIGATING LOGIC
Apocalypto
By JARED PUTNAM

Over the Thanksgiving holidays I had what might have been the most stress-free week I have had in a while, maybe since before I started working here. Now that elections are over (with the exception of one run off), festival activity has slowed down considerably, and sports have condensed down to basketball and cheerleading, my life is a little less hectic, at least for a while.

During the break I happened to run across a couple of things that might seem completely unrelated, but actually tie together in an interesting, "where is the world headed" sort of way.

The first was an ABC Primetime special about Apocalypto, the new Mel Gibson film. Second, while in Best Buy on "Black Friday," I ran across what is possibly the most absurd invention I've ever seen, a refrigerator with a tv built into it's door.

First of all, Gibson's upcoming film is set somewhere around 900 A.D. and tells the story of a young Mayan trying to save himself and his family. But the movie also tells a larger story, one of the disappearance of the Mayan civilization.

So how does the fall of the Mayan civilization relate to a refrigerator with a tv in it's door?

Lets get to the more important question. Why would anyone need a television set in their refrigerator door? Is this consumer so afraid of missing the previews for tomorrow's episode of Dr. Phil that they just have to have a set in every nook and cranny of the home?

Or does this person have some strange fascination with watching refrigerator doors, and thus finds themself in need of something more interesting than a stainless steel icemaker to stare at?

Odds are it is probably more of a, "Hey, look at me" item. One of those things that people buy, just because they can, so other people can see that they can afford to own a refrigerator with a TV in its door.

In his Primetime interview, Gibson acknowledged that the movie is something of a warning to our society today, a warning of what can happen when you carelessly abuse your resources as the Mayans did.

In the interview Gibson said that, like the Mayans, our culture has reached a point where we do so many things not out of a need or even a want, but simply because we can. Gibson used examples such as cell phones which we pay sometimes hundreds of dollars for, only to throw away within a year or so.

His other example was gold plated urnials. Granted, we may not see a lot of those here in northeast Georgia, but is a refrigerator with a TV in the door really any better?

I don't typically sit around thinking about doom and gloom, or spend a lot of time feeling guilty over the priveledges our culture has over others, but I like the point Gibson is trying to make with this movie, and now is as good of a time as any to release it.

Comedian Michael Richards (better known as Kramer) seems to have taken Gibson's place in Hollywood's doghouse, having made Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks feel tame compared to his own videotaped rant.

Maybe that will help Gibson's movie and message, not his personal problems, be the focus. Apocalypto opens on December 8.