Down the Memory Hole

And the Entire 13th Century Disappears

One of my favorite scenes from Rollerball (1975) is when James Caan tries to get answers about the “corporate wars” and how corporate decisions are made in his dystopian society. His visit to the “library” doesn’t go well:

The library computer “misplaced” the entire 13th century! Well, no matter. Just a bunch of hooey about crooked popes, power-hungry kings, and the like. (Let’s not talk about the Magna Carta from 1215, which stated the King of England is not above the law.)

It seems a lot of records have already been "misplaced" under the Trump administration, as Karen Greenberg notes for TomDispatch. Here’s a paradox, readers: Will historians look back on this time as the Age of the Great Forgetting? Instead of being “woke,” will this be the age of the great sleep?

Rollerball, with its emphasis on violent sports, hedonism, and corporate rule, where centuries of history get misplaced with a shrug, seems to have been more than prescient. Who knew in 1975, a half-century ago, that the NFL would become so huge, so dominant, so closely aligned with corporate and military imperatives? Who knew that corporations would become “citizens” with free-speech rights that are only limited by the amounts of money at their disposal? Who knew that America would become the number one exporter of energy again, embracing fossil fuels with gusto even as global warming accelerates?

James Caan’s character in Rollerball, Jonathan E., is willing to fight hard for answers that his corporate overlords wish to keep secret. He literally wants to do his own research! But that is a privilege he is not allowed to exercise. So he revolts in the only way open to him—through the game. Through Rollerball.

Interestingly, in 1975 critics didn’t think highly of Rollerball. Not everyone likes violent movies centered on macho sports, of course. But that’s not what Rollerball is about. It’s about a society controlled by corporate entities through bread and circuses. A society where information is tightly restricted, where people are encouraged to look the other way, to not think too hard, to accept passively the decisions of “The Executive Directorate” in the name of comfort and convenience. Nations are obsolete—authoritarian oligarchs control everything.

The oligarchs sell this as utopia; Jonathan E. is not so sure. He wants to learn some history so he can get a sense of how this all came to pass, and whether humans can do better. He senses there’s more to freedom than visits to Disney and shopping. And you might say he learns the lesson of Orwell from 1984: Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

Goodbye, 13th century!