truths and dares.

[i_kcuf_dead_ppl]

"I know they hate the independents and if you're not part of a megaconglomerate, they'll do what they can to screw you. I read an article in the New York Times yesterday on Pat Robertson - he just sold his Satanic Broadcasting Network or whatever it's called to Rupert Murdoch. You know what Robertson said? He said, 'It's about time we got involved in consolidation.' As if that was a good thing! As if all businesses joining together into three or four huge monolithic, oppressive regimes was a good thing! Mr. Religion! Kill mom and pop. Kill the independent businessman. Kill the hearts and souls of the everyday people out there trying as hard as they can to grab just their own little tiny piece of the world. But really, for those everyday people. it's all just an illusion. There is nothing else to grab. Because the megaconglomerates won't let anyone have anything, whether the tools they use are theft, monopoly, intimidation, humiliation, or physical violence. There really isn't an America anymore. There's just those few super-companies that run the world. They're the only nations left. We're living in a time of war, a war fought by those who pledge their allegiances to corporations, against those independent thinkers who pledge their allegiance to something a little more substantial, whether it be humanity, art, knowledge, or God. And you know what, Barry? Those of us on the independent side, we're losing. We're losing badly. I've seen the bodies of my fellow filmmakers strewn across the battlefield of art and ambition. We all cared at one point. But now they're all a part of the mindless machine, or they're dead, gone, working in restaurants or babbling in an institution, sucking their fingers, pretending they are what they should have been. Sometimes I feel guilty writing this book, Barry. Because maybe this book a little too much hope. It may make them believe that these corporate superfuckers can be overcome. But at least it gives them a few of the rules. It gives them the rules and tells them to break them. Fuck them. Destroy them. Because in the end there are more of us then there are of them, Barry. And perhaps I'm grandiose in saying it - but I don't give a fuck anymore - this stupid and ridiculous book is one small splinter of light leading to somewhere better. Even for me. I feel like there is something good about it, like I need to do it. It started with my own vanity - hey, a book about me - and the money I'll make from it, but now this book means something more. it's holy. And someone found out about the book, Barry, and they got to you, either directly or indirectly. Because that's what they're all about. Destroying light and putting absence in its place."

- Lloyd Kaufman, "All I Need To Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger"