You’re Fired — Democracy, Dystopia and the Cult of the CEO

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All rise for the corporate anthem—screenshot from Rollerball (1975)

In the year 2018, nations have bankrupted and disappeared, replaced by corporations.”

That’s the premise of the 1975 sci-fi film Rollerball, which follows one star employee’s awakening and rebellion against the regime embodied by a cynical leader of the global Energy Corp. Rollerball is about as 70s a dystopia as you will find, with James Caan roller-skating through a Howard Cosell remix of The Parallax View. But as the real 2018 comes into view, the movie proves weirdly prescient, as the United States morphs into a corporate state literally governed by CEOs.

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