On modern-day generosity

I am like a modern-day Robin Hood. I take from the rich...but I don't give to the poor. I give to myself.

Fabrizio Corona ('Videocracy', Erik Gandini)

p.s. Yes, I know this blog deserves much more attention than it has been getting recently. But throughout history of mankind, some resources have always been scarce. In my case, sometimes it is the lack of time that is the problem, sometimes it is the scarceness of inspiration...But I always promise myself that I shall improve. And I shall.

Actually, the movie roughly quoted above (in the dark of the movies, I was too lazy to look for a pencil to write it down word by word, and the poetry which followed Gandini's masterfully crafted documentary - that of the works of legendary Croatian author Ante Babaja, who deserves at least one post of his own - made me forget some of the details of it, including the word-by-word quote of great wisdom said at least twice by the great Italian 'businessman' and 'celebrity') was part of reminding me how great it is to be able to speak freely, to write, to have a medium of your own, and how crazy I am not to exploit it more. Caught the film today at the ZagrebDox by sheer accident and some luck (and some help of wonderful friends), and I must say I am extremely happy that I got to see it, and would recommend it to almost anyone - with the exception of those few people I can imagine who could actually find the story (and even more the ideology, the moral ground) it follows appealing. It is not that the story of the film has been completely unknown to me - au contraire, Berlusconi is a figure impossible to escape, and, while his presence is usually depicted in the  Croatian media as 'entertaining' in its banality (almost as in 'we could never have it this bad' manner), the influence he has on the media in Italy is not any kind of a secret. However, sometimes a good, straightforward reminder of how much it takes to be able to say that one lives in a democratic society can have a sobering-up effect, and 'Videocracy' should really come as an unexpected slap on the face to an unprepared viewer.