Blackfish - 2013

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Amazing story of Tilikum the killer whale who killed some killer whale trainers.

If you want to avoid a depressing story, you might skip this movie and know this: WE ARE STILL CAPTURING THINGS FOR THE SAKE OF OUR OWN PLEASURE AND ENTERTAINMENT (slavery?)

I saw on Facebook (so idk how reliable this info is) that India has made the captivation of Dolphins illegal because they are recognized on a level of intelligence that makes them similar to humans and therefore 'morally' wrong to enslave them...

After seeing this documentary, I'm feeling pretty shitty about the captivity of just about any living thing.. I feel kind of ignorant that I had to see a documentary before I thought about it that way - but I never thought hard about this sort of thing because I don't often go to zoo's or aquarium's, and when I did I kind of imagined that these animals were saved somehow by being at the zoo.

For example, maybe that monkey is in the zoo because he was going to die in the wild and someone helped him and now he can't go back to the wild just yet so he's at the zoo.. That sounds so naive reading it back, but I mean if everyone doesn't believe that, then how can you actually feel okay about going to zoo's and aquarium's and smiling in the faces of all those animals in captivity? Pausing to think about it........

I feel like a hypocrite because I buy bags of frozen hamburger patties and frozen chicken breasts from Ralph's on the regular, and I can imagine none of those animals had a good life either before they were slaughtered and packaged for me to eat at a cheap price.. Which brings me to another reason why I never thought too much about this subject of abusing animals - I can't stop that machine - I know people are protesting and making themselves heard about these topics, and I hope that all the noise they are making will eventually make this world a better place to live in, but it's seems like as long as we have the need to consume - someone or something will have to be exploited to make that work. I don't research into this stuff, but I would imagine even if we were all vegans, something would have to be mass exploited to fulfill that lifestyle, and especially for the masses that live in big cities.

I heard about a few things people are doing to try and sustain our current lifestyle - like a young kid who is trying to clean up our oceans - Maybe I can help in the meantime by trying to create entertainment that is more magical than seeing a killer whale jump out of the water with a trainer on his snout - put Seaworld out of business?

Anyways - If you want to laugh your face off and forget about how shitty your job is after you get home from work, I don't think I'd press play on this on Netflix.. but if you like to think and challenge yourself and your lifestyle - watching this powerful documentary, it might make you ask yourself some questions that you are afraid to ask yourself. Like - how do you feel about being a brainwashed slave to consumerism?

p.s. I heard a salesman say - we (people) will always be attracted to consuming because it is stable. You give someone money, you get a prize. Life is not stable - and one way to deal with that, feel comfort (like the temporary comfort you might find in drugs) is to consume. Don't be mad that your friend betrayed you, and don't worry about dealing with your feelings, just go to Target and buy some shit so you can forget about it all.