Wilfred Owen wrote:

it is the poet's duty to warn.

He was correct. For over three thousand years, poets, bards, and playwrights have assumed that responsibility. In fact, it seems that all art is either directly concerned with, or indirectly informative of, social conditions prevalent during the time in which it is produced.
A brief review of some of our current cinematic and literary achievements may prove highly instructive in attempting to understand certain aspects of our society. I refer to such works as Eyes Wide Shut, by Stanley Kubric; The Game, David Fincher; The End of Violence, Wim Wenders; The Lost Highway, David Lynch; eXistenZ, David Cronenberg; The Cube, Vincenzo Natali; The Truman Show, Peter Weir; The Dead Zone and Needful Things written by Stephen King, the trilogy by British author Pat Barker including Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road; and many, many others.
Such works have an important place in our culture and social consciousness. When the public finally has answers to some fundamentally important questions, then the role of such works in our society will become clear.
Some of these questions include: What are predictive behavioral models, and how accurate are they? What is neural linguistic reprogramming? Who uses such technologies, how and why are they used? Can such technology be used to engage in forms of psychological torture, including mock execution? Perhaps most importantly, what are the consequences?

D. Winter
Burlington, Vermont
June 20, 2001