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Looked over your shoulder recently? Biting the nails you’ve forgotten to clip? If you’re not anxious about work piling up or time passing by, you should be paranoid about the unprecedented weather. Why are there still leaves on the trees? Just yesterday, I thought I caught a whiff of spring.
A sentiment echoes across the United States, and it stems from “the people.” Just last week, “the people” elected a president. How can we understand this political moment better? Let’s go back to Plato and his cave. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” from the Republic, helps us understand populism in the U.S. today and its role in Donald Trump’s rise.
The “Allegory of the Cave,” aims to understand the effect of education, or lack of it, on our nature. Plato describes his allegory as follows: There are humans living inside of a cave that extends far with an entrance leading to the outside world.
The first film from Big Things Films, Cillian Murphy’s production company, Small Things Like These is a beautiful adaptation of the 2021 Claire Keegan novel of the same name. Murphy’s performance brings a grounded, hopeful note to this melancholic exploration of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries. Small Things Like These follows Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy), a coal merchant and father to five daughters. As Bill begins to uncover the sinister inner workings of the town’s convent, he struggles to grapple with his own past as the son of a young mother who very well could have ended up in a Magdalene asylum like it if not for the kindness of Mrs. Wilson (Michelle Fairley), who took them in.
For American audiences, this film may very well be their first introduction to Magdalene laundries. These institutions housed “fallen women,” like Bill’s unwed mother and the young girls he later discovers inside the convent, and sentenced them to long periods of intense labor under the strict supervision of nuns.
Anora is unsettling. In the film directed by Sean Baker, Anora (Mikey Madison), who prefers to go by Ani, is a sex worker who is swept off her feet by mysterious Russian nepo-baby Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). Their relationship is a fast burn underscored by the transactional nature of their interactions, and is so overwhelming in its portrayal as an endless crash of hedonistic scenes. When Ivan offers Ani $15,000 to be his girlfriend for the week, she gladly takes the offer, and they party from clubs to Vegas where the two elope on a whim. Their idyllic romance is halted in its tracks when three henchmen (hired by Ivan’s parents) go to force the two to annul the marriage.
Last night, we witnessed an event straight out of the 1940s — an event that proved a culture of hatred for Jewish people is spreading across the world. For those of you fortunate enough to have never heard the word being used for this event, a “pogrom” is a Russian word meaning, “to wreak havoc.” It historically refers to violent attacks on Jewish populations in Russia and across Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of the largest pogroms in history was Kristallnacht, “the Night of the Broken Glass” which occurred in Germany on Nov 9th, 1938 — ironically, or perhaps intentionally, almost 86 years ago to the day.
The pogrom which occurred last night in Amsterdam was an organized and pre-orchestrated event against Israeli soccer fans after a game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax. After the game, mobs crisscrossed the city searching for Jews; according to Dutch authorities, they were “riled up by calls on social media to target Jewish people.” In footage taken by the attackers (an action frighteningly reminiscent of Oct. 7), fans were seen being beaten, chased with knives, and running from vehicles attempting to hit them.
Election Day was this Tuesday, Nov 5. Hundreds of students lined up in RPCC to vote, while thousands of residents voted throughout the county.
We know we cannot simply face these threats passively. Rather, we encourage our readers to use this election as a galvanizing force for participation in democracy. That starts here at Cornell.
Dystopias remain terrifying because of how close we remain to achieving them. Black Mirror, an anthology Netflix TV series, often utilizes dystopias to make social and political commentary. Each episode is unrelated in content but they all aim to critique or expose human nature. Sure, I could list the most entertaining episodes but, in this political moment, wouldn’t it be more fun to look at the ones that hate us the most?
The well-known Netflix Series Outer Banks has a new season. The show first came out and quickly became a quarantine favorite, as many people dreamed of a summer without a lockdown. Season two followed on July 30, 2024, and the third season on Feb. 23, 2023.
On a gorgeous fall day, with the sun peeking through the leaves as they painted the world orange, I sat outside and I felt lonely. The grass beneath my fingertips was my only companion as disgustingly happy couples surrounded me.
I’ve found that as the days get shorter and the sun says goodnight earlier, it’s easy to feel like everything is falling except you. The temperature plummets, leaves tumble down branches and people fall in love. Suddenly, everyone around you is enjoying the foliage, holding hands and making heart-eyes at each other as you bundle yourself up just to keep warm. It becomes a reminder of what you don’t have rather than an appreciation of all the things you do; a fairytale you’re not part of, it’s too good to be true.