Sleeper

A man is accidently cryofrozen in 1974 but is re-aminated into today's world.

Hi my name is Cornelius Lynch but my friends all call me Connie. I was re-awoken into today's world and the doctors working on my mental health asked me to jot down some of my thoughts on how society and technology may have changed in the past 50-years.

First off let me just say that I'm struck by the obvious parallel between my case and the Woody Allen comedy Sleeper. But happening the same week that Elon Musk has his We, Robot event is kind of scary. I mean electric driverless cars going fast and household robots performing menial every day tasks like serving food, drinks and cleaning up was what was just shown right? Makes you wonder if Elon gets some of his ideas from old movies. I know that the movie is supposed to take place in 2174 but I have to wonder if he just glimpsed the future.

Speaking of scary I then come to find out that Woody Allen married his adopted daughter and is now a pariah? That was a twist I did not see coming as the follow up to Rosemary's Baby. Mia Farrow the star of that movie was at one-time Woody's wife and adopted mother of Soon-Li Previn for those who might not get the reference.

While on the topic of movies - one of my favorites is Three Days of the Condor where a rogue CIA department shockingly kills US citizens on US soil only to have hero Robert Redford survive. The movie ends with Redford telling CIA chief played by Cliff Robertson that he's given his whole story to the New York Times. Robertson then poses the chilling question of what Redford would do if the NYT doesn't print his story. Having learned of how the supposed journalistic bastion was quite willing to cover for plagiarists and also submit like lapdogs to government censorship that question now takes on even more relevance. I don't think they would run that story. Poor Condor. Yes the movie came out a year after I was frozen but I watched it trying to get my bearings. Did not go as planned.

Haven been frozen in 1974 when I was 53-years old that would make me over 100 today so its no surprise we've lost an actor like Cliff Robertson. He died in 2011. As an aside - having seen the price of a gallon of gas today compared to what it was in 1974 I'd be willing to go to war too!

Was a big baseball fan and was told that Field of Dreams was one of the best baseball movies ever made and it was suggested I watch that. Since it starred one of my favorite up and coming actors James Earl Jones I readily agreed. Saddened to see that he recently passed away but I have the bonus of watching many the top films of his life for the first time. One of the things that was confusing to me was the scene where Kevin Costner's wife argues for free speech and against book banning while a woman who is supposed to be "far right" is arguing in favor of banning a book from the local school. Today it's reversed with the right arguing in favor of free speech and the left wanting to "cancel" books and censor free speech. Feel like I have been awoken into bizarro world.

This is how Charlton Heston must have felt at the end of 1968's Planet of the Apes. And speaking of Charlton Heston - one of my favorite movies was Solent Green which came out the year I was accidently frozen. The big reveal in the movie is that "Solent Green is people" but now you have people actively pushing "fake meat" that doesn't contain any meat. Call me old fashioned but I'm not eating either people or fake meat. No thanks!

Another big difference is back in my day the saying "what's good for GM is good for America" was popular. But now GM is known for moving their manufacturing from Detroit to Canada and Mexico for cheap labor costs while still getting massive tax advantages from the government. And the roles of Democratic Party and Republican party have reverse in support of GM too! Now Tesla which still makes cars in the USA is actively shunned by the Democratic White House. Shouldn’t the new saying be “what’s good for Tesla is good for the USA?”

Talk about waking up in bizarro world. Don't think my hero JFK would even be welcome in today's Democratic Party. It's a lot to process.