Wow. Its amazing what a movie can do. Last night I watched “Office Space” for the first time. It was like a beautiful drug that settled into my psychosis and made me feel like I had an ally in the corporate world. This movie is pure genius. Not just for its comic value but for its really pretty original message: screw money and do what you want. I think everyone who works in a cubicle needs to not only watch this movie but get it into their system and memorize its dogma. Allow me to wax boring for a minute.

Why Should we fight the system if the system works?

Peter, the film’s main character, becomes at one with himself due to a botched hypnotherapy session. Because of this new found mental peace, he’s able to, in essence, give his job the finger and do what he’s always wanted; nothing. Now, many corporate goons would say that doing nothing is not only a ridiculous pursuit but a detriment to the system because it costs money to do nothing. As I watched “Office Space” and thought about our society, I thought maybe this guy Peter is the only sane one among us…in a cinematically abstract way being as he actually doesn’t exists in real life at all. But his mantra is one that makes sense to me.

Making the Most of a “Learning Experience”

I’ve spent the last little while working in a cubicle on the “business” end of the workforce (a first for this liberal arts major who spent more time mocking the accounting majors than actually studying for her finance test). Its amazing to me how much people will do to make money. I guess the main drive for so many isn’t just to make money but to make lots of money. Then they can buy more ‘things’. In the words of Tyler Durden “The things you own end up owning you.” So what’s the end result? You spend your life making money to buy things so you can fill the rest of your life taking care of the things you own.

Now Go and Do Likewise

Ah, hail to “Office Space”. This movie should be virally installed on every computer in every gray office complex in America. Ironically the people who built the computer on which I am writing probably sat for hours in an oppressive 4×4 cubby hole wondering how to make a better lap top for me to use. Thank you! I guess what is comes down to is what I see as the core of Peter’s message: do what you like, no matter what the cost…or lack of cost. We may not all have the luxury to do what we want for a living but at least we need to remember that there’s a lot more to this life thing than a bunch of furniture and time shares. The end. Watch “Office Space”.

We should all do this at least once in our lives *language warning*

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 5:48 pm and is filed under Rants, movie reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.