The immorality of gravity

[Omeganian]

I read on Mr. Wong's site a statement that saying evolution is immoral is like saying "that the law of gravity is "immoral" because of all the falling deaths every year."

This reminded me. There is a Soviet cartoon on the subject of the immorality of gravity (and fighting it). The subtitles may not be top quality, but enough to get the idea.

[spartasman]

Damn forest creatures, do they not understand that like the international revolution of the proletariat, gravity cannot be ignored? Also, that Elephant has the most pathetically funny voices I've ever heard.

[xthetenth]

Rather a failed argument if they're trying to argue gravity is immoral. It's more that nature plays by its own rules and they stay in effect no matter whether you like it or not. And a hilarious coverup. I'd love to get some historical context on that.

[Batman]

You absolutely can ignore gravity. You can ignore a man having a rifle pointed at your head about to pull the trigger too. With the exception that the guy with the gun might actually decide not to. Gravity won't.
Not that I really see where morality figures into it to begin with. It's, you know, a law of nature? It doesn't care if you've been good or bad. At the most it's amoral. You step off the cliff, you drop, regardless of whether you were a murderer, a saint, or anything in-between.

[Kuroneko]

The translation is alright, although at some points necessarily forced (in Russian, "to discover" and "to open" are the same word, so its proposed opposite of simply means "to close", whereas in English dis-cover<->cover-up takes on a connotation of conspiracy not really present in Russian).

Rather a failed argument if they're trying to argue gravity is immoral. It's more that nature plays by its own rules and they stay in effect no matter whether you like it or not. And a hilarious coverup. I'd love to get some historical context on that.

That's exactly the point of the cartoon. The moral is an obvious analogue of the historical "and yet, it moves" of Galileo when threatened to recant the claim that the Earth moves around the Sun. At 8:45: "and yet, it applies."

[PeZook]

Rather a failed argument if they're trying to argue gravity is immoral. It's more that nature plays by its own rules and they stay in effect no matter whether you like it or not. And a hilarious coverup. I'd love to get some historical context on that.

You seriously thought that cartoon is arguing gravity is immoral and should be fought?

[DudeGuyMan]

I just enjoy seeing bits of Soviet popular culture, such as it was. You know what I wish they had gotten into? American-style B action movies. The really nationalistic eighties kind. Except, you know, Soviet.

Instead of Russian villains named stuff like Ivan who wear fur hats even in the South American jungle, they'd have American villains named shit like Hank who all wear cowboy hats constantly and run around saying shit like "It's time to oppress the proletariat, pardner!" and trying to lasso the steely-eyed Soviet action hero.

It's be great.

[K. A. Pital]

I just enjoy seeing bits of Soviet popular culture, such as it was. You know what I wish they had gotten into? American-style B action movies. The really nationalistic eighties kind. Except, you know, Soviet.

Instead of Russian villains named stuff like Ivan who wear fur hats even in the South American jungle, they'd have American villains named shit like Hank who all wear cowboy hats constantly and run around saying shit like "It's time to oppress the proletariat, pardner!" and trying to lasso the steely-eyed Soviet action hero.

It's be great.

Except Russians are not prone to making ridiculously over-the-top B-movies full of idiocy. Even the Nazis came out human in "17 Moments of Spring" (there was this bit where the director spoke with a few of her friends and they said "Well look, because of you we're having too many Mueller fans! Bronevoi played Muller too human! He was the chief of Gestapo dammit!"). Besides, "nationalism"? What's that? And the concept of a hero doesn't really touch strings with Russians, unless it's a people's hero. And he has the masses (read: popular support) behind him. Theory of the masses being the forgers of history, heh.

There's lots of thing which never really caught on in Russian culture for a multitude of reasons. Russians are not Westerners aptly sums up all of them and even more

[Sarevok]

Is it just me or did anyone else felt this was better than modern CGI animal flicks like Madagascar ?

Edit:

It was emotionally heartwarming, funny and intelligent. It is the kind of animation I hope any kids I have would like.

[Omeganian]

Is it just me or did anyone else felt this was better than modern CGI animal flicks like Madagascar ?

Oh, the Soviet animation was definitely a good one.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... nAnimation

[xthetenth]

Rather a failed argument if they're trying to argue gravity is immoral. It's more that nature plays by its own rules and they stay in effect no matter whether you like it or not. And a hilarious coverup. I'd love to get some historical context on that.

You seriously thought that cartoon is arguing gravity is immoral and should be fought?

Nahh.

There is a Soviet cartoon on the subject of the immorality of gravity (and fighting it).

When I get sick, I tend to get overly literal reading things. This is a failing I'd be better at correcting if I weren't sick at the time.

The funny thing is, I mentioned it to a friend of mine who takes Russian and he recognized the cartoon. I do want to know when that's from, so I can get a feel for what was going on when it was made.

[PeZook]

It's probably a kiddy educational cartoon explaining the concept of scientific discovery and natural laws, there's no need to read politics into it. Believe it or not, Soviet education was not all about the glouries of communism and the proletariat

[Omeganian]

The funny thing is, I mentioned it to a friend of mine who takes Russian and he recognized the cartoon. I do want to know when that's from, so I can get a feel for what was going on when it was made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/38_Parrots

[xthetenth]

It's probably a kiddy educational cartoon explaining the concept of scientific discovery and natural laws, there's no need to read politics into it. Believe it or not, Soviet education was not all about the glouries of communism and the proletariat

Yeah, stupid me, it's just that I'm pretty used to seeing references well above kids' expected levels, so I'm kind of used to reading way too much into kids' stuff. I'll stop before my foot becomes too irrevocably lodged in my mouth, it doesn't taste all that good anyway.

Good to know what it's from, it's pretty amusing.

[PeZook]

Is it just me or did anyone else felt this was better than modern CGI animal flicks like Madagascar ?

Edit:

It was emotionally heartwarming, funny and intelligent. It is the kind of animation I hope any kids I have would like.

I wouldn't go as far as automatically declare it better, since Madagascar is obviously aimed at older kids and has an entire different feel being a purely comedy movie.

But yeah, Soviet animation was pretty big and considered a part of proper education for the children: public television had a task of producing and emitting educational and cultural programs, etc in addition to propaganda and state-sponsored news.

I remember that Polish state TV, for example, had a host of many programs about science, nature and culture as far as the 1990s. I obviously can't remember the exact mix of propaganda to content since I was born in 1983

38 parrots isn't quite an educational show, though. It's kinda like a less fairy fairy tale.

I wonder how this matter was treated in the US: did you guys have public TV with a similar mission? Barring the (very very excellent) Sesame Street, were there any other prominent children shows that were supposed to promote learning and development for kids?

Yeah, stupid me, it's just that I'm pretty used to seeing references well above kids' expected levels, so I'm kind of used to reading way too much into kids' stuff. I'll stop before my foot becomes too irrevocably lodged in my mouth, it doesn't taste all that good anyway.

Well, that holds well for shows aimed at kids and their parents above a certain age. 38 parrots is more like Sesame Street: it's not going to make pop culture references for the benefit of the parents because it has an entirely different purpose.

[xthetenth]

Yeah, stupid me, it's just that I'm pretty used to seeing references well above kids' expected levels, so I'm kind of used to reading way too much into kids' stuff. I'll stop before my foot becomes too irrevocably lodged in my mouth, it doesn't taste all that good anyway.

Well, that holds well for shows aimed at kids and their parents above a certain age. 38 parrots is more like Sesame Street: it's not going to make pop culture references for the benefit of the parents because it has an entirely different purpose.

I have an old spice commercial reference in Sesame Street that says it isn't above the occasional pop culture reference when it's able to get a good educational point across at the same time. It's also the last time I've seen Sesame Street in a long time, so my perception might be a bit colored by that.

[Kuroneko]

Of the Soviet animations, Hedgehog in the Fog is one of my favorites. Just a simple, charming story.