The Hidden Message in Pixar’s Films. I love Pixar.
Who doesn’t? The stories are magnificently crafted, the characters are rich, hilarious, and unique, and the images are lovingly rendered. Without fail, John Ratzenberger’s iconic voice makes a cameo in some boisterous character. Even if you haven’t seen every film they’ve made (I refuse to watch Cars or its preposterous sequel), there is a consistency and quality to Pixar’s productions that is hard to deny. Popular culture is often dismissed as empty “popcorn” fare.
Buried within that constant and complex goodness is a hidden message. Now, this is not your standard “Disney movies hide double-entendres and sex imagery in every film” hidden message. What if I told you they were preparing us for the future? Before we begin, I ask you to watch the video below. People love these films. To understand Pixar films, one must first to go back to Disney before Toy Story was released – to be precise, The Lion King. The Lion King gives us a clean slate. Non-humans are sentient beings. How Power Corrupts. The news abounds with stories of powerful men behaving badly.
It’s a depressing yet predictable spectacle — those in positions of power can’t help but help themselves to the help. They scream at underlings and have sex with the secretaries; they assault hotel maids (or at least are accused of such) and sleep with the nanny. The question, of course, is what motivates this awful behavior? Why does power corrupt? Psychologists refer to this as the paradox of power. Consider a recent experiment led by Adam Galinsky, a psychologist at Northwestern University.
But here’s the catch: We still think we do care, at least in the abstract. Participants in the high-power group considered the misreporting of travel expenses to be a significantly worse offense. Although people almost always know the right thing to do — cheating is wrong — their sense of power makes it easier to rationalize away the ethical lapse. Image: Gwydion Williams/Flickr. A Discussion of Language. Philosophy for Real Life. My daughter died recently.
In this essay I tell the story of her death, not to evoke your sympathy or condolences or to induce you to feel sorry for me – although those things are perfectly normal responses – but because there is a philosophical point to be made. I had communication with her after her bodily death. I have reason to believe that I know some things about what happened to her and what she did after that event.
In this essay I present the evidence for those startling assertions. Please reserve your judgment until you have read to the end. Just the facts On September 15, 2013, Katherine Claire Hiles (her name from a previous marriage) was driving west out of Nelson, British Columbia on Route 3A, a two-lane road, with her wife, Mireille Evans. I did not find out about this until the next day, when some officials from the Texas Attorney General’s Office showed up at my door to tell me.
An extraordinary communication M then said that Katy said something about running. Now what? Game Theory.