Elysium

The great thing about science fiction is that it can provide us a new perspective on current conditions.  “District 9,” a film by Neil Blomkamp released in 2009, featured a group of alien refugees who land on earth and are segregated into ramshackle ghettoes.  That film was an allegory about apartheid; Mr. Blomkamp is South African.

“Elysium,” the second film by Mr. Blomkamp, is set roughly 150 years in the future.  Rich people have segregated themselves into the ultimate gated community, a satellite that orbits the earth.  It is filled with large suburban-style homes and features health care that can cure any illness.  

Meanwhile, back on a very polluted, over-crowded earth, the mass of people live in favela-like conditions, lacking decent jobs, and adequate medical care.  Some of them try to get into Elysium, but they are identified as aliens.  Those who aren’t shot out of the sky are immediately deported back to earth.

I don’t think I’ll spoil the movie if I tell you that the status of who is illegal and who is legal can be changed by deleting two letters on a computer program.  It is the equivalent of the Congress passing a bill changing the status of millions of Americans who are denied voting rights, food stamps, and basic human services because they are arbitrarily classified as “illegal.”

By the way, if you identify with the people on Elysium you voted for Mitt Romney.  If you identify with the people in L.A., you voted for Obama.