Children of Men
Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby

When Theo and Jasper are talking about the sorry state of the world in 2027, Theo says something like, “We’re fucked. Hell, we were fucked before the infertility.” Not quite that but something like that. More than 34,000 people were killed in the Iraq war last year. We the people of the United States of America—-which is to say, our government, more specifically the executive branch and the military, since nobody else gets a say anymore—-will go to war with Iran. Israel has destroyed Lebanon and wants to attack Iran with nuclear weapons. So do the so-called neoconservatives in the USA. If universal infertility doesn’t end our species then our orgy of torture and genocide and nuclear holocaust might. (And if that doesn’t then global warming might.) We’re on our way into another century of fascism and holocaust and death worship, but soon we may finally destroy ourselves.

We’ll see. For now, Children of Men. Ah, but most of what I want to say is about religion, but I want to wait till I’ve finished the book first. And now I’ve lost what I wanted to say in this post. Oh well. Later it’ll come to me. Observe the photograph above, read the poem below (both taken from a blogger who must remain uncredited because he has a private blog), both related tangentially thematically to Children of Men.

THOSE AT THE TOP SAY: PEACE AND WAR
Are of different substance.
But their peace and their war
Are like wind and storm.
War grows from their peace
Like son from his mother
He bears
Her frightful features.
Their war kills
Whatever their peace
Has left over.
GENERAL, YOUR TANK IS A POWERFUL VEHICLE
It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.
General, your bomber is powerful.
It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.
But it has one defect:
It needs a mechanic.
General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.

It’s an excerpt from Bertolt Brecht’s “From a German War Primer.”