A Millennial Meltdown? Sony’s The Interview, North Korea, and the USA ~ A Rich Idea

This Sunday morning the whole talk show circuit, from Meet the Press to Fareed Zakaria to Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, will feature Sony’s decision not to release the movie “The Interview” and whether this decision was right or wrong.

Without watching, we can surmise the content of each show: Meet the Press will feature an equal number of Sony sympathizers and haters who rationally discuss the positives and negatives of Sony’s decision. Fareed Zakaria will bring his normally measured, international perspective on why we need to tread carefully. And Fox News will feature a bevy of Republicans who will talk about how Obama is weak and we need to be strong on this one to demonstrate that we are America the Almighty. They’ll also have one token Democrat who is dismissed by all the others.

It’s the Fox News perspective, the one that purports to “keep America safe”, that scares me.

I am currently reading the third book of Ken Follett’s Century Triology called the Edge of Eternity. This book takes you through the goings-on in the world after 1960 and I have just finished the section which covered the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I wasn’t alive during this time but the book indicates that people really did think that the end of the world was at hand as the two mighty super-powers–the USA and USSR, nearly entered an all-out war over the USSR placing nuclear missiles, that could reach the USA In minutes, in Cuba. I have confirmed this sentiment with my family members who were around during this time. For a few nights, people literally were unsure whether the world would as they knew it would exist the next morning.

Since the deterioration and dismantling of the USSR, the talk of a nuclear world war has subsided. Most Millennials (those born after 1980) have never even considered this. The idea hasn’t surfaced on their Facebook or Twitter feeds.

But should it? From the outset, the great fear in the nuclear world came in the form of a question: “What if nuclear weapons fall into the hands of a crazy dictator?”

Hello?

Meet another Millennial—Kim Jon-un, the leader of North Korea, who purportedly orchestrated this all-out cyber-attack on Sony because of a movie, The Interview. The movie features two extremely popular, likable, and often stony Millennials, Seth Rogan and James Franco, and was written and directed by Rogan and his other millennial cohorts.

I wonder if they considered the ramifications of a movie whose plot is to assassinate a world leader. I don’t think I would have but, in talking with some elder people—non-Millennials—their immediate reaction is: “What did they expect making a movie about offing a world leader?”

Certainly, they didn’t expect this. Take a look at the Interview below with Seth Rogan on Bill Maher. I am quite certain that he smoked a blunt with some buddies and hatched the plot for this movie, all the while laughing, contriving, and thinking This would be f***ing hilarious!

Real Time with Bill Maher: The Interview with Seth Rogen (HBO)

Bill Maher and Seth Rogen discuss North Korea and the movie The Interview.

Meanwhile, on this Sunday morning talk show circuit, gatherings of non-Millenials, mostly aged white guys sitting at and doing their self-important roundtables, will discuss this issue ad-nauseam. As they do so, I hope they remember that oft-asked, pre-Millennial question of their time: What if nuclear weapons fall into the hands of a crazy dictator?

And, in asking this question, I hope they remember that Kim Jon-un’s greatest American hero is…Dennis Rodman.

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Richard Cummings

Author at Obvious Conclusions

Richard Cummings is a writer, traveler, and web content developer.

Get your copy of his latest book entitled Obvious Conclusions, stories of a Midwestern emigrant influenced and corrupted by many years living in San Francisco and abroad. It just received its first outstanding review "...reminiscent of David Sedaris or Augusten Burroughs" on Amazon UK.