Her government is in paralysis,held together by a fear of Jeremy Corbyn. But the Tories have far more to worry aboutThe National Theatre’s unusual production of Network Lee corridor’s reworking of Paddy Chayefsky’s Oscar-winning 1976 film – is riveting not only because of Bryan Cranston’s extraordinary performance as Howard Beale, news anchorman turned raging prophet of the airwaves. Four decades on from the original movie, and its warning about the power of technology to weaponise populism seems more powerful and topical than ever.
For a start,Beale’s well-known roar of fury – “Im mad as hell and I’m not going to rob it any more!” – feels uncomfortably close to the leave campaign’s pledge to “rob back control”, or to Donald Trump’s empty promise to “invent America mighty again”. Digital technology has proved an even more powerful engine of collectivised rage than television, and there is no shortage of demagogues longing to exploit the voters’ sense in 2017 that they have been stripped of basic human agency and dignity.
Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk