I watched this film in the evening before UK' Brexit deal vote in House of Commons. Whether it will be a hard Brexit, or no Brexit, or even a new general election, UK is facing a historical turning point since WWII.
This film, aired exactly one week before this vote, directed more or less attention again to the Vote Leave Campaign led by Dominic Cummings in 2016.
Despite of Benedict Cumberbatch's acting skills (although he constantly played a certain kind of 'sociopath') and the playwriter's efforts to illustrate the image of neglected, marginalized lower class (he has to though, after Brexit and Trump election we cannot ignore them anymore, can we?), this film is disappointing in a way of deleting something and underlining the other deliberately.
True, it pictured the depressed dissatisfaction, anger and fear of the marginalized social groups, who are usually the less-educated, the poor, who can see no hope in their future and their voices have been unheard for almost 30 years since Margret Thatcher's regime . But it did not dig deeper to the root. Why are there so many frustrated and furious people? Why were their voices unheard? Should we not look closely at our economic and political systems and find out the roots of all the problems that we have Today? Interestingly enough, I read an article from Guardian with the title 'Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems' which is really recommendable, because it reveals exactly where the rotten part of our society lies.
Cummings realized that there was 1/3 of the British population being totally blocked out by any election or public activity, so that he used 'micro-targeting' to target them, persuaded them individually and eventually pulled them to his side. Micro-targeting is based on big data. It is a strategy already used in Obama election. It is therefore ridiculous to accuse Cummings misused this and manipulated the results of Brexit. Well, if Obama could use it, why could not Cummings? Only because Obama was the desired candidate of the Establishment while Cummings was not? One man may steal a horse, while another may not look over the hedge – a double standard set by the Establishment. It is so sad, as Chris Hedges remarks, “fascist movements build their base not from the politically active but the politically inactive, the 'losers' who feel, often correctly, they have no voice or role to play in the political establishment”. If the Establishment plays this double standard game further and treat the 'losers' as fool further on, they will be forced to see a deeply split, violent, even bloody tomorrow.
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