A Cinema-goer’s Guide to Freedom and Liberty

Cinemas everywhere have little hesitation in making movie-goers sit through 15-20 minutes of advertising before each movie. It struck me recently that the amount of eye-rolling one experiences in those 15-20 minutes is actually a pretty good index of a country’s freedom and liberty.

In India, one is made to stand and sing the national anthem before being shown government propaganda on nation-building, smoking, etc, followed by commercial ads and ending with some movie previews.

In Singapore, one is made to sit through 15 minutes of state propaganda on nation building, racial harmony, and defence jobs followed by 1-2 minutes of commercial ads (usually with a propaganda subtext, like StarHub’s Happy ads), and ending with one or two movie previews.

In Australia, there is only commercial ads and movie previews, lots of selling but no propaganda, similar to places like US, South Korea, and Hong Kong.


One thought on “A Cinema-goer’s Guide to Freedom and Liberty

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