In the past two years, several pundits have referenced the 1976 movie Network. Paddy Chayevsky’s Oscar-winning screenplay under Sidney Lumet’s direction is a tour de force, tracing the evolution of television journalism from reporting the news to entertainment and punditry.  In some corners, it has been described as a visionary prediction of the rise of 24/7 cable news.

It is also one of the most quoted films in the annuls of American cinema. There is the always popular Howard Beale (Peter Finch) rant, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  Or Ned Beatty’s soliloquy as Arthur Jensen, the fictional head of CC&A, the corporate parent of USB, the network for which Beale works.  To convince Beale an Arab buyout of CC&A is not the horror story Beale envisions, Jensen waxes philosophically about how the world is made up, not of sovereign nations, but global corporations.  His monologue has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the most outstanding screen moments since the addition of sound to moving pictures.

As we approach the end of this election cycle, Jensen’s words are less important than their impact on Beale, whose renewed popularity and ratings began when he started speaking up for the common man.  On the first episode of The Howard Beale Hour following his confrontation with Jensen, Beale serenades his audience with a completely different tune.

Last night, I got up here and asked you people to stand up and fight for your heritage, and you did and it was beautiful. Six million telegrams were received at the White House. The Arab takeover of C.C. and A. has been stopped. The people spoke, the people won. It was a radiant eruption of democracy. But I think that was it, fellers. That sort of thing isn’t likely to happen again. Because, in the bottom of all our terrified souls, we all know that democracy is a dying giant, a sick, sick dying, decaying political concept, writhing in its final pain.

I don’t mean the United States is finished as a world power. The United States is the most powerful, the richest, the most advanced country in the world, light-years ahead of any other country. And I don’t mean the Communists are going to take over the world. The Communists are deader than we are. What’s finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It’s the individual that’s finished. It’s the single, solitary human being who’s finished. It’s every single one of you out there who’s finished. Because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. This is a nation of two hundred odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter- than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as piston rods —

November 6th, we have the chance to prove Howard Beale wrong.  There can be another “radiant eruption of democracy.”  This is our opportunity to remind the powers that be in Washington, D.C. and state capitals across the United States, this remains a country “dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual.”

WE THE PEOPLE are neither “unnecessary” nor “replaceable.”  Replaceable are public officials who enable and embolden a modern day Arthur Jensen who values personal wealth above the common welfare.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP