Joshua Noel and Evan Garcia dive into the swirling chaos of energy crises in the world of Pixar's "Monsters, Inc." and its sequel series "Monsters at Work." They kick things off by pondering whether the power of laughter can truly rival the traditional scare tactics used by the monsters to fuel their city. As they unpack the political undertones in these beloved films, they explore how the monsters' reliance on fear reflects real-world energy debates, drawing parallels to our own struggles with sustainable energy sources. With a mix of insightful commentary and light-hearted banter, Joshua and Evan navigate themes of fear, power, and the implications of transitioning to a laugh-driven economy. So, whether you’re a die-hard Pixar fan or just curious about the deeper meanings behind these animated classics, this episode promises to entertain and provoke thought about the energy crises we face both in Monstropolis and our own world.
Joshua Noel and Evan Garcia dive into the swirling chaos of energy crises in the world of Pixar's "Monsters, Inc." and its sequel series "Monsters at Work." They kick things off by pondering whether the power of laughter can truly rival the traditional scare tactics used by the monsters to fuel their city. As they unpack the political undertones in these beloved films, they explore how the monsters' reliance on fear reflects real-world energy debates, drawing parallels to our own struggles with sustainable energy sources. With a mix of insightful commentary and light-hearted banter, Joshua and Evan navigate themes of fear, power, and the implications of transitioning to a laugh-driven economy. So, whether you’re a die-hard Pixar fan or just curious about the deeper meanings behind these animated classics, this episode promises to entertain and provoke thought about the energy crises we face both in Monstropolis and our own world.
The discussion kicks off with Joshua and Evan diving into the interesting world of Monsters, Inc. and its sequel, Monsters at Work. They ponder whether laughter can truly rival the sheer power of screams, setting the tone for a deep dive into the energy crisis depicted in these films. As they explore the political undertones of these beloved Pixar classics, they highlight how the monsters' reliance on fear reflects real-world issues, such as energy dependence and the exploitation of resources. Joshua and Evan draw parallels between the monsters’ fear-driven energy system and contemporary energy crises, emphasizing the societal implications of relying on outdated methods rather than embracing innovation and change.
They also touch on the character dynamics, discussing the motivations behind key figures like Waternoose and Randall, and how their actions mirror real-world political figures who manipulate fear for personal gain. As the conversation progresses, Evan shares his nostalgic tie to Monsters, Inc., recounting the joy of watching it as a child and experiencing the thrill of its sequels. Joshua adds his perspective on the animation style and the evolution of the franchise, particularly focusing on how Monsters at Work addresses the ramifications of the previous films' energy crisis. They reflect on the transition from scare tactics to laughter, questioning the stability and sustainability of these energy sources while cleverly weaving humor into their analysis. The episode becomes a fascinating exploration of how animated films can serve as social commentary, illustrating the importance of addressing real-world issues through the lens of entertainment. In the final segment, Joshua and Evan discuss the broader implications of their analysis, considering how the lessons learned from Monsters, Inc. can apply to modern-day energy policies.
They challenge listeners to think critically about the narratives surrounding energy production and consumption, urging a move away from fear-based politics towards more sustainable and innovative solutions. By drawing on their insights from the films, they encourage a reevaluation of what it means to power a society, and they advocate for a future where laughter—and laughter-driven energy—triumphs over fear. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of politics, entertainment, and the urgent need for sustainable practices.
Takeaways:
The energy crisis in Monsters, Inc. revolves around a shift from scare power to laugh power, showcasing a clever commentary on real-world energy transitions.
Joshua and Evan highlight how the monsters' fear of humans mirrors modern society's fear of change and the unknown in energy production.
The podcast discusses the manipulation of fear in politics, drawing parallels between the monsters' exploitation of scream power and real-world political tactics.
The characters Mike, Sully, and Tyler reflect the struggle of adapting to new societal norms, reminiscent of how people resist shifts in energy sources today.
Evan notes the irony in how Monsters, Inc. uses fear to maintain the status quo, similar to how some politicians leverage fear to stifle progressive policies.
The conversation emphasizes the importance of exploring alternative energy sources, urging listeners to advocate for clean energy amidst fear-based narratives in politics.
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Can laugh power really be as powerful as screen power? That's right, guys. We're talking about your favorite political thriller today.
We're talking Monsters, Inc. Monsters at work on another episode of Cismic Ecology. Primarily political. We have a bunch of series we do over here, and this is one of my favorites.
We're gonna take a look at some of the political themes in our favorite fandoms. And two millennials who, at least at some point in our lives, lived in Florida and loved Disney. Yeah, yeah.
You better believe we're gonna get into this. I'm Joshua Noel here with the one and only Evan Garcia.
And Evan, instead of what we're geeking out on on these episodes, we ask everyone to start off by naming a bad actor in politics. Real, fictional, biblical, whatever. And then at the end, we're gonna identify a good actor in contrast.
So you wanna kick us off who's a bad act that you might want to mention?
Evan Garcia:
Let's go with. I'm going to go with. I think it was Nebby K. Nezzer from the VeggieTales bunny episode.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. Which over on one of my other podcasts, Be Living Water. I'm talking about both the Book of Daniel and Les Miserables.
So, you know, I'm gonna talk about Nebuchadnezzar a little bit. And since you mentioned him. And we're talking about bad actors in politics who.
I kind of want to pull someone from Les Miserables, but the problem is, like, political actors aren't. Aren't there as much. So what I'm gonna do is the French king during this time.
It was during Napoleon the Third, who actually, actually had Victor Hugo banned from France. And he tried to. He got elected democratically and then basically was like, wait a minute, Congress.
What if I'm dictator and just kind of finagled his way into power? And, yeah, terrible, terrible guy. So, yeah, my one I'm gonna name today is gonna be none only than Napoleon the Third.
So with that, we're gonna go ahead and move right through the rest of our intro. Like, I know what I'm doing, guys.
You can see on our screen, if you're on YouTube, we do have a T shirt specifically for the primarily political series. You got an ogre shaking hand mech suit over, you know, in front of a political building on the moon. Because why not? You know, it's a.
It's a fun design. It's kind of silly, but that's kind of why we do this.
We try to make politics or policies, whatever we want to look at like what are the actual policies, not just what side are you on and make a light of it because sometimes we just take this kind of stuff with the wrong kind of seriousness and we need to be able to have fun when we disagree about this stuff and not make it all, oh, I hate you. You know, so that's why we do this. Get the T shirt. Support what we're support our show. We appreciate it.
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If you want to see some of the other links in the description, you'll notice there is also one for a playlist to all of the primarily political episodes. So if you want to, if you like content like this and you're like, man, I just want to hear y' all talk about other random policies and fandoms.
Good news, there's a playlist. You can check it out. It's a lot of fun. So all that out of the way. Evan, what's your history with Monsters Inc.
Evan Garcia:
With Monsters Inc.
I saw it pretty much day one in the theater, the film, I remember through my cousin that was a big animation fan and he was telling me about this movie coming out with Hair, with a monster, with Hair. And it was like a big deal and I was like, cool. Probably like between or so. Oh no. I was a little bit older.
But then I remember going to the movie with him to watch it and I had no idea. And he, and he would nudge me just before the movie started and he goes, hey, are you excited for the Star wars trailer? I'm like, wait, what?
And there was a Star Wars Episode 2 trailer premiered before the movie and that was so cool. The whole crowd went crazy and it was so much fun. So. And then the movie was great and, and, and it's a classic in my household right now.
My 13 year old, she, she loves that film, that, that first film. And when she told me, when we found out that they were making the Monsters Land at Disney at here at Hollywood Studios.
She said, dad, this is gonna be my Star Wars Land. And I was like, oh, I love it, I love it. So yeah, so that's gonna be huge when that comes out. The sequel is really fun. They show. I loved what I saw.
I never finished it, but it was a fun show. And yeah, so that's my origin story with them.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. I do not remember the first time I saw this like at all.
I don't know if that's like how young I was or just because I've seen it so many times or cuz like, I don't know, limited space up here. It's kind of just always been around. So yeah, just kind of, you know, I was like 10. It's been around most of my life.
I will say, man, I do remember Monsters University wasn't huge on. I actually do like the show a lot. The Monsters at work.
I remember me and my wife, whenever it was airing, we would like sit down and we would like do the little noises with them, all the music with it. Because we love it so much. The music's iconic. This. Yeah. The fur, hair, whatever. This is the first time animation kind of like got that right.
This is why Pixar's known for its like highly stylized animation. Because of stuff like Monsters Inc. You know, Toy Story, Monsters Inc. Nemo. I think that's like Pixar's Big three.
That doesn't mean they're my favorite of Pixar, but like that's kind of what made Pixar known for what they are. Yeah. So like they're like the pillars, I guess. And it's just, it's awesome stuff. Monster University.
I think the reason I just didn't click for me, which is kind of like it was almost too playful. It just didn't feel relatable when it came out.
Monsters at work was very much like dealing with the ramifications what happened in Monsters Inc. Where it's like, okay, wait a minute.
Everyone's growing up in this infrastructure of we're going to learn to be Scarers because that's what gives power and that's what gives you a secure job. And now all of a sudden it doesn't. So you got Tyler showing up who's.
I like what the animation wise, I like what they did with the show because they don't have the budget to do what they do with Monsters Inc. So what did they do instead? They chose monsters that were easier to design. That way they didn't have to make the animation worse.
They could just have easier things to animate. So I like how they did that. The animation still wasn't quite as good as monster thing, but it was still like, oh, that was clever.
And just kind of seeing what he went through and the ramifications of, like, all of a sudden, there's different sources of power. And how does Monstropolis and the, you know, the citizens interact with that? Like, oh, well, we've always known fear, you know, scare power.
We don't know anything about laughter. What if it's not stable? What if it's, you know, and it's like, oh, wait a minute. These are actually real questions that people would ask.
You know, I'm like, that. It just makes sense. Like, I feel like it was just a. Oh, yeah, this makes a lot of sense that this is what would follow Monsters, Inc.
So I really like how they handled that. And that's kind of mostly what we talk about.
Also, of course, when Kingdom Hearts had Monstropolis and I got to run around in the factory and guardrail on, like, the rails with the doors, I'm like, you know, when you were a kid, for me, because I love video games, I remember seeing that as a child being like, man, that needs to be a ride or something. It is gonna be a ride. But before I got the ride, I got to do it in Kingdom Hearts. I just thought I was like, you know what?
I was like, I'll do it again. Kingdom Hearts 3 gets crapped on for a lot of things. Monsters, Inc. World is not one of those things. That was a great time.
Evan Garcia:
Nice. Yeah.
Joshua Noel:
So just isolating. Since we are here to talk politics, you know, here real serious men talking about political things.
What happens in Monstropolis that we find out during the first movie. There has become a power crisis.
Kids are less scared of monsters, you know, turns out parents are doing a good job showing nothing under your bed, nothing in the closet, whatever. And so the way that monsters get power, where they jump out, they scare. And they have canisters hooked up to these portal doors.
And when this kid screamed, it would fill up the canister with scream power. And they were able to use that almost like a big battery, right, to kind of fuel the city.
Now the kids are less scared either because they're distracted on their phones or because parents are doing a good job or they've seen TV and become desensitized. You know, there's all these different reasons they're not screaming as much. Ergo, less power is being collected. Crisis.
The Monsters have been convinced that humans are toxic. You can't touch anything of human touch you, you might die. Right. But some people seem to know differently.
So there seems to be kind of like a little conspiracy here of like some monsters know isn't really a thing.
And you find out one of the main antagonists, Randall, then the boss, the head honcho of Monsters Inc. Mr. Waternoose, both were in on this thing of they were gonna kidnap children, hook them up to a machine and extract scream out of them. That's how we're gonna get the energy.
Well, unfortunately, our main characters, Mike and Sully, if, you know, you know, if you don't watch monsters equal wrong with you. They find out because a kid escapes, the kid's in their care, they're trying to sneak it back in.
And they end up discovering when the kid laughs, it produces even more power, more energy than the scream ever did. So here you have a conspiracy to extract screams out of children. And then a new alternative shows up with Monsters Inc. With Mike and Sully.
So I think that kind of sets the stage for what the energy crisis is. What's going on with the power grid and like some of the stuff. Am I missing any of them in the main points? Evan?
Evan Garcia:
That there's just the portals and stuff like that, that they use the doors to get to the kids. And that's a. That's a key way where they. Where that's their job, Mike and Sully. So they. So there's a stake in it too. Like they.
There's some risk in there too for them to lose. To lose their jobs and stuff like that be because of this crisis.
But they don't take it as far as say Randall does and use pretty much a torture device to get the kids. So.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like this whole thing like really hits hard for adults. I feel like actually it's rough.
Evan Garcia:
My dad was like, I don't think I like this,.
Joshua Noel:
But it's like. And that is the genius of Monsters University. Existing is like, you really see?
Evan Garcia:
No.
Joshua Noel:
They spent their whole life studying to become the monsters that can scare children so they can collect screen power for energy.
And that's why I think Tyler was a really interesting character too, because he's like looking up to solely and he's like, I'm gonna be a good scare like him. And then all of a sud. And no, we don't do that anymore. What do you mean? I went to college.
I got college alone, you know, all this stuff so that I could learn to be a good Scare. That's not what we do anymore.
Evan Garcia:
I can't do comedy, man.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah, it's crazy stuff, but I don't know. It is interesting. When you see Worthyman. Sorry. When you see Waternoose and Randall, you're like. As a kid, you're like, wow, those are bad, bad guys.
And they even look like bad guys. And you're adult and you're like, oh, wait a minute. No. Power is important and your way of life is important.
And having a job and keeping the company open, and you're like, it's hard not to sympathize a little bit. Yeah, yeah, there's a problem for sure,.
Evan Garcia:
But they're just not coming at it at the right angle.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. So you have that set of issues with Monsters, Inc. And then Monsters at work is the other one that I thought was really interesting.
You have Fearco, which is another alternative company that's. We still do screams, basically. We're not gonna do that live stuff. It's unstable. We don't know what's going on with that. We're still gonna use here.
And they're kind of competing against Monsters, Inc. So you have Fear Co Competing with Monsters Incorporated, who's going to supply energy to the city.
That's when you get Johnny Worthyman who's like, oh, this is how we've always done it. We're going to do it just like that. And, you know, it very much sounds similar to people say today, like, wait a minute. What do you mean?
Electric cars or solar power or whatever. It's like, that's. That's not. We know. This is how my dad did it. My dad's dad. Wait a minute. Come on. On come, guys.
So there is a lot here I want to know. Evan, we touched on it. What do you think? Do you think the fear of humans, of, like, oh, humans are toxic?
Do you think that was, like, fabricated to help those who are profiting from the scream industry? Do you think it's, like a true conspiracy that way? Or do you think that was just something.
I'm reading too much into it and it's just a animation show cartoon.
Evan Garcia:
No, I think there was a big. I'll put my tinfoil hat on for sure. Yeah.
Joshua Noel:
We're the monster conspirators.
Evan Garcia:
Yeah. It seems like they. The people in charge, they did not. They did not do their homework.
They just saw one way of doing things and they were like, this is going to work for us, and I'm going to. I'm going to do. I'm going to do this as long as we can. And we need to keep this going. And what's the best way to do it is by fear.
And, and, and, and fear will keep the system going and it's going to keep the machine going. So, no, I think, I don't know if it's fabricated, but it was, it was definitely. Exploited is just the word that came to mind.
Joshua Noel:
But yeah, yeah, yeah, I, yeah, I'm thinking it's fabricated. I think it's made up. I think a lot of monsters truly don't know, obviously, but I think there are some who do know.
And we're using it to manipulate people so that you keep them afraid. They won't challenge what you're doing. They won't push back. And you can own the power industry. If you own the power, you own the people.
And it's interesting, they were using fear to kind of control the monsters in that way, if we're saying that theory is correct. Because the whole premise of what they were doing is scaring children. So it's kind of like layers there of like a little bit of like a metaphor.
And I'm like, that's kind of cool. So I'd like to think that's what they were doing because, like, it really works symbolically.
You're like, oh, they're not just using fear to scare children.
Evan Garcia:
And yeah, that's cool that you say that because that provides a different perspective. Maybe they were just completely bought in on it. Like, hey, they are scared of us.
So, so that's just how this works, you know, so they just never really try to question it. Yeah, yeah.
Joshua Noel:
r own times In America today,:
There's so much I love. I too want to say, like, I think a little bit of this.
We can see a similarity in how nuclear power has been treated in our, in real time with us humans. Because, you know, at one point it was a scary thing. We thought it was toxic, it was going to hurt people, so we kind of backed off on it.
And now that we've learned more, like, wait a minute, actually, nuclear energy is safer than most of the other energy we're using. Cleaner, more effective supplies, more power. But guess what? People are still scared of it.
And that's why we don't pursue nuclear energy even Though it's cleaner, more efficient, safer form of power. And then, you know, I think that too gets to Tyler and the monsters at work stuff because, like, it just so much makes sense.
Like at first watching the show, I'm like, wait a minute, why would people still want scare power? Then I'll go, no, I do get it. Because people are afraid of laugh power. They don't know. And it's. That's something we do in real life.
Evan Garcia:
And it's like when you live through something, it's different from when you read it in a book or in a history book. Like when you hear about the, the gas car.
Like you just assume that after Ford created that car and the, and the, the model T came off the line, everybody was using the car. That's not the case. You know, it's like things get, they take time to adopt to people's lives and stuff like that.
And, and you're right, facial show really portrayed that in a very humanistic and true to life way.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. You know, a little bit.
It reminds me of like, to me and I think a lot of people have experience when you're younger and you're reading the Bible and you're like in Exodus and stuff, and you're like, why do they keep not believing God? Like, he keeps doing stuff. It's been like 10 days, dude, chill.
And then like, the more you get older, the more you're like, oh, wait a minute, that's just me. This isn't funny anymore. That's real life. And it's me. I'm the one who's like, God's not gonna come through this. Oh, wait a minute.
Evan Garcia:
I'm the problem.
Joshua Noel:
It's me. Yeah.
Evan Garcia:
Yep.
Joshua Noel:
Love that. Good reference. So you're very aware. Listeners might not be aware, our annual theme on seismic ecology this year are the faces behind us. Right.
And I think we see a couple really good examples of this throughout the monsters world Monstropolis franchise. Yeah. Because if you think, well, I'm gonna do one one by one here. Water noose. I'm gonna start with Waternoose.
You know, this spider guy, he's had family upon family. His own Monsters Inc. He's got a huge legacy. He was not only the face behind Randall, you know, the little lizard, we're all like, oh, what a bad guy.
Extracting fear and screams. He was also who inspired Sully, our main, you know, Kitty. The main good guys inspired from the same guy who's telling Randall to go extract screams.
I, I thought that was really interesting. So, Evan, maybe Would you like to comment any on like, how can one guy inspire both someone like Randall and someone like solely?
Evan Garcia:
I mean it goes back to what you said. It's probably like had that it hits people differently, different times of their lives.
You know, I, Sully saw it as a inspiration probably around college time I think is how they mentioned it. And yeah, I think it does that in a different way.
And the Water Noose was probably not so heavy handed in his exploitation tactics, so he wasn't trying to expose it all all the time. So yeah, yeah.
Joshua Noel:
Well, now that I'm Lutheran, I could say, well, we're all saint and sinner, so there's that. And I truly like the more I think about the Monsters Inc. The original film. I don't think Waternoose set out to be an evil man. Right.
Like you could tell he is genuinely upset when Sully figures out what's happening, their conspiracy, him and Randall, what they're doing. Because he's like, now I have to get rid of Sully. And he really does seem to like Sully.
Like I think that Waternoose wanted to be a good guy, but he couldn't. He was so afraid. We're going back to fear the monsters. Being afraid. He was so afraid of losing his industry that his family owned for so long.
Losing his job, his livelihood, his family.
Evan Garcia:
Yeah.
Joshua Noel:
That he was like, yeah, like, I don't think he was all bad. I want to say that. Like, I think that's the main thing.
But I also think corporations, people who want money are going to support things that make them money. Yeah, Sully was making money. He was a good scarer. So yeah, he was like friendly with him. Like, hey man, you do it.
Randall had a plot, an evil plot that was gonna, what, make him money. So he's like, yeah, let's do it like a little bit. I think, you know, money, root of all evils kind of, kind of shows up there. Yeah.
Any other thoughts of that? I got a few other ones, but I want to see any thoughts with Waternoose.
Evan Garcia:
Yeah, it's the, it's the, like the faces behind them. It's like there's that. Do we know if, if Water News had kids? Because. Because I'm sure that it's affected him.
Joshua Noel:
According to the expanded Disney Wiki lore.
Evan Garcia:
Yeah.
Joshua Noel:
Water News III had a son named Waternoose the fourth.
Evan Garcia:
Okay, okay.
Joshua Noel:
Interesting. Yeah. I don't know. But anyway. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, that does make sense. You know, you have family also.
You don't want to be the One that ruined your family's legacy. Like, I just don't think he was all. Randall, however, just wanted someone to show him some form of approval.
He just wanted someone to think he was the best. He needed people to feel like he was better than everyone else.
So he figured out if he could make money for Water News, that Waternoose would approve of him. And I think that's just. I think his motivations were a lot more shallow than Waternoose itself.
Evan Garcia:
Yeah, right.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. So what's interesting here, though, so I mentioned Tyler Tusman. So he's the Monsters at work. He's the main character in that TV series. Right.
He went to college. He's like, I'm gonna be like, solely Sullivan. Cause he's like, you know, he grew up. He knows that's the top scarer of Monsters, Inc.
He was the top of his class in Monsters University. I was like, I'm to be like, this guy.
So he's going to Monsters University, gonna learn how to be a good Scarer, and then finds out that Sully turned Monsters, Inc. Over and now they're producing laugh power. And he's like, well, what did I go to college for? But he still looks up to Sully so much. He's gonna go to Monsters, Inc.
He's gonna try to find a way to work at this place where he can't be a Scare anymore because they don't do that. He struggles, and it's what makes the show funny. And you have kind of like the Office vibe thing that Evan mentioned, what I think is interesting.
So Soli is what makes Tyler Tusman Tyler. Right. Like, he wants to be a good Scare. Then he sees a solely change, like, okay, I'm gonna be like, this guy. This is a good guy.
I'm gonna model myself after him. And he's like, okay, I'm gonna go to Monsters, Inc. I'm gonna try to learn how to be a comedian now, I guess. Right?
Evan Garcia:
Yeah.
Joshua Noel:
I want to know, since we said Waternoose was one of the faces behind Solely, he kind of helped inspire Solely let. Solely have his confidence, all that. Solely who inspires Tyler Tusman. So, Evan, how would Tyler be different without Water Noose?
Evan Garcia:
Without Water Noose, yeah. We probably wouldn't get. We probably wouldn't get Sully in the same way. Probably, right?
Joshua Noel:
Yeah.
Evan Garcia:
I mean, we won't get him in his. In his, like, in his elevated status where. Where he's his employee the month, every month.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my thought process is kind of like, I think without Water Noose.
I can't quite put all the pieces together cleanly, but I feel like Solely ends up at Fearco instead of Monsters, Inc. And I think Monsters Inc. Whoever leads it. Without Water Noose, the power crisis is a real thing. And when your company is large enough, it either grows or dies. And Monsters, Inc.
Seems like it's such a large company, it has to grow. So I feel like Monsters, Inc. Probably would have died, and you would have only had Fear Co left.
Fearco, I think, probably would have survived just because it's a smaller business, more, you know, catering to specific people's needs kind of deal. Probably charging a little bit more in that way. Yeah. So it's probably easier to. To. To manage. So I. I don't think it ever gets away from Scares.
I don't think Solely ever meets the. The girl Boo. I don't think he ever meets Boo. He never finds out humans aren't scary. He never turns to comedian.
But I think he probably has a stable job at Fear Co and lives happily ever after. But Tyler would never hear about the great Sully, who's the greatest Scarer, who then turned Monsters, Inc. To laugh. Like, I don't know.
I don't think Tyler just couldn't be him at all without Water Noose. Sully's a different. A completely different character. And I think the version of Sully we get would not have inspired Tyler, you know?
Evan Garcia:
Sure.
Joshua Noel:
That's what I'm thinking. Yeah.
Evan Garcia:
Who knows? Maybe Tyler would have been the Akuma of the monster world.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. It's just crazy because, like, you do sit, and then that gets, like, Will's whole entangled thing.
But, like, you know, one person inspiring another person inspires someone else. And, like, at some point, you're like. You could track it, like, two, three people back.
And, like, you know, if my grandpa didn't exist, we wouldn't know each other. And it's like. It's so weird because you never met my grandpa, and yet our relationship kind of pieces on. Yeah.
These people, like, generations before us. Yeah. But, yeah, I find all that interesting.
You know, this is gonna be an incredibly long episode, but I do want to get to, like, how politicians in the real world do similar stuff here where they're using these kind of, like, fear tactics or they hide solutions to problems that might cut into their profits. Like, one I know is, like, cancer cures.
So many companies have just bought patents to cures for different cancers because why would they want you to have that? Then they couldn't sell you breast cancer awareness. Month stuff or whatever else.
So they just buy the patent so they can keep selling you products and medicines that might help but won't solve the issue. And there's no guarantee that these patents would work. But that kind of stuff happens a lot.
You also have gas companies buying patents for different kind of engines for cars, too. Happens all the time.
Evan Garcia:
I was thinking about that with the. Maybe just a couple years ago, Toyota, they showed off a engine kind of based on water, and I was like, let's see, let's see.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah, yeah. And we definitely see the fear stuff, too.
Like, I think certain administrations, such as the Trump administration and other administrations do the same. They want you to be scared of immigrants, because why?
If you really look into it, you'll see administrations like theirs are kind of belittled by this because the ones they're opposing. A lot of your Democratic administrations promote immigration. It turns out immigration is really good for the economy, actually.
It actually helps everybody grow. It provides, you know, unfortunate to a degree, but it provides cheaper labor in a lot of places.
That allows us to have products that are actually affordable. That allows the economy to exist.
Evan Garcia:
It's democratic in that way.
Joshua Noel:
And there's no way to straight oppose that. Like, there's not a good way for a politician to be like, oh, no, that's bad for you. You know what?
Why is more people being happy and me having cheaper stuff bad for me? They can't oppose it. So what do they do instead?
They make you scared of the people because then you're not actually thinking about the policies in the ramifications of it, just like in the monstropolis. What? We're not going to really be able to convince you that it's a bad idea to have cleaner, safer energy for the whole city.
So what are we gonna do instead? We're gonna make you scare them. What if it's unstable? What if the kids are actually dangerous?
We're gonna introduce some fears that you don't actually think about how this policy is very clearly actually better for everyone.
Evan Garcia:
Mm. Mm. And the. No, I. I was gonna make a. A comparison, but I don't think.
Joshua Noel:
No, go for it.
Evan Garcia:
I was thinking about something with the wall that Trump wanted to do, comparing it to the way they are, the way that they have, the. That the only way to get to the human world, to get the screams, are from those doors inside the company.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I think there's something there too, and, like, controlling the portals. You know, they don't call it portals, they just call it doors.
But like, it is a level of power. I actually thought it. The more you think about it, it's kind of Weird Monsters, Inc. It's just like. That's like Duke Energy.
Like, it's just a company, right?
Evan Garcia:
Yeah, exactly.
Joshua Noel:
But they seem to be the one that's in charge of banishing the Abominable Snowman and Bigfoot. It's like, wait a minute, why do they have that much power, actually?
Evan Garcia:
True.
Joshua Noel:
I mean, part of its money, part of it's they own the doors. If you own the border, you. You own the people, you know, and it's kind of like, oh, yeah, no, that's good stuff. Also terrifying stuff.
Little bit, yeah. So, Ellen, do you think it really matters what kind of energy we use?
Clearly, we know there's different cleaner energies, stuff that's more effective, whatever, but is there any ethical or moral responsibility, especially for Christians, to say, hey, I should probably care more about what kind of energy I'm using?
Evan Garcia:
That's the big question, isn't it? That's the question of, you know, do you walk the walk or do you just talk to talk? You know, it's like, where's the line of trying?
And there's, there's also the line of, of, Of a control. Like, sure, yes, yes, yes. I think it's unethical, but how far do you go to make someone else believe that it's unethical, too?
There's that tension there.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. And you don't see as much of this in Monstropolis because limited time. It's a children's movie.
But like, in our real world, too, like, we know that gas is ruining the planet. We also know that we're running out of natural gases. At some point, we're just not going to have any more to use.
We're going to have a real power crisis on Earth if we keep going the way we're going to. And part of, like, what makes it different for us, at least in America, I'm sure this is probably the case in several other countries.
The politicians are supported by money, basically just gonna shortchange all the political lingo. And the people with money are the people who own the gas companies, so they're paying all your bills.
Even Bernie Sanders, like so many of his sponsors, are people who own gas companies who have stock in this.
And then it's like, even if you get elected and you're like, I'm gonna be the clean energy guy, you're really gonna go up there and say, all you people who gave me money, we need your industries to die now? Probably not,.
Evan Garcia:
Because then that starts affecting everything else.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah, yeah. And you don't want the, the rich sponsors to turn on you and you can lose your political power by advocating for clean power.
And it's like, yeah, no one wants to do that, but realistically, we're, we are harming planet. I've seen studies that actually show that we're doing better than we had the last decade.
And a lot of politicians who care about clean energy feel like they shouldn't say that because if we tell people we're doing slightly better, they're gonna stop trying to do more. And I'm like, I don't think that's the case. I feel I have enough confidence in my fellow humans that we're like, oh, we're doing better.
Let's keep going. Let's do even more better. Slightly better really isn't enough to change anything. We need to be exponentially better.
So I do think it's important here. First commandment in the Bible is be fruitful, multiply and care for the earth. Like that part of the job, you know, like, it's the whole gig.
You know, I'm not a literalist or anything, but I'm also like, I do think that was probably included for a reason. And even without that stuff, I'm like, the limited time we have here.
You know, the existentialist in me is like, I want to see clean skies and animals running around again and I want to see the ocean stay clean so that generations from now, they can still see the beautiful things we've seen. And to me, one of the biggest wake up calls about energy. This was just personal.
After Covid, when you started going back places, the national parks were closed. And I remember the first time I went back to Cumberland Island. It's my favorite place to go camping.
This island has wild horses and turkeys and all kinds of crazy stuff, right? And usually the animals want to stay away from you. Like, you'll see them, but they're not going to like, be up in your business.
But when the fairy showed up, the horses started coming up to where the people were. They missed seeing the people. And I remember like on Instagram reels and I think some like TikTok, some stuff people were sharing.
I'm not on TikTok, but like, there was all this stuff of like the water being clean just because people weren't able to travel as much.
And it's like, man, just stopping for that short period of time really had all these images around the globe where I'm like, wow, the Earth is so much more beautiful when we're not destroying it with natural gases.
Evan Garcia:
Right. It's like when you lose power and then you. You go outside and you can finally see the stars, you know, it's like, oh, that's always been there.
It's kind of my fault that. That we can't see the stars right now, you know?
Joshua Noel:
Yeah, yeah. Light pollution sucks. Not because it's bad for the environment. I mean, you think it is, but, like, I'm just kind of like, man, I just.
I like seeing stars. I wish we just could turn more lights off so we could see the star.
Evan Garcia:
Yeah, for sure.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. But no, I definitely think it matters.
I think it's something that God seems to care about us caring for the planet, and there's not really any reasons not to have clean energy. I think that's the thing that gets me is, like, people like, oh, well, we've always done it this way.
Okay, if we could do better than what we've always done, let's do it. Who cares that we've always. Yeah, like, that's like you. That'd be like having an infant look up at you. Be like, why would I walk? I've always crawled.
Yeah, crawling is fine, I guess, but if you could walk and run, why wouldn't you do that?
Evan Garcia:
And when you see it in other kinds of sectors of businesses and stuff, like when we went from CDs to digital media to. To streaming, you know, it's like, sure, it's not the same, but we survived. You know, it's like we are. We are still doing.
We are still getting some great content and some great music, you know? Sure, we need to learn how to live with. You might need to adjust that. You need to plug your car in every day.
But hey, yeah, I don't think it's too much of an ask.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. And it's like, it's something that I know we can't all just suddenly change one day. Be like, I'm gonna stop using gas cars.
You know, not everybody can just afford to go stop and get an electric car. I cannot.
Evan Garcia:
Range anxiety is a thing, for sure.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah, yeah.
But I think it is important that we realize what certain politicians and stuff are doing where they're trying to use fear to keep us from seeing what advances we could be making as a society, then once we recognize that they're trying to distract us with these fear tactics and everything else, we can say, actually, I'm gonna vote for people who are standing up for this. I'm gonna write to my congressman and say, hey, actually, I don't want this agenda push. I would rather us try to pursue clean energy.
One thing you can do, especially if you live near the coast, wave energy is actually really, really powerful and awesome. And they have ways to actually put stuff in the ocean that's harnessing the power from waves. Clean energy, natural resource. It's awesome.
Evan Garcia:
Disney did it for a while.
Joshua Noel:
It's so cool. And in general, this is just my plug.
If you're going to sponsor things of different clean energies, you want to find a company to sponsor or write to your congressman. The way energy works, it's most efficient when you have multiple sources. I'm not saying we have to completely get rid of natural gases.
We could probably just use it minimally and be fine. But it's helpful if you don't just use solar power. You use solar and wind and wave because having multiple sources creates a more sustainable system.
And that's the kind of thing that I think we should be pursuing. We should be voting. We should be asking our congressmen about.
We should be asking our senators about whenever it comes to election season right in and be like, hey, what do you think about this? Because I think a lot of that's going to show you. Are they just trying to win your vote? Are they trying to fear tactics and manipulate you?
Or are they going to be real with you and say, hey, actually, yeah, this stuff is better. You're right. Let's do something about it.
Evan Garcia:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Joshua Noel:
All right. Evan, anything else to add about a power energy crisis? Monsters Inc. Monsters at work. Anything else?
Evan Garcia:
I think it's ironic that it was. That there was a power crisis and we're talking about the power grab, you know, so. Yeah, yeah, I think there's something there.
Joshua Noel:
A little bit of irony for us all. Maybe not good irony, but, you know, it's a. It's irony.
Evan Garcia:
Yeah. My shirt needs to be ironed.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah. All right, well, with that, let's go ahead and wrap this one up. At the beginning, we mentioned a bad political actor.
Now here at the end, we can mention a positive political actor. Real life, biblical fiction, whatever. Evan, who's a positive political actor that you would like to shout out for everybody.
Evan Garcia:
This one came to mind. And I think we see a similar example of the show Monsters at work. We see that tension of the shift to a new energy.
We see that in Star wars in the shift of. To a new republic.
And I think that my choice for the positive player in some politics will be Princess Leia in the sequel era and how she had to manage her perception and, and, and her fears. And she, she still did it in a way that, that was still kind of in the heart of the rebellious nature of what we needed to fight the Empire. So.
Joshua Noel:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like it.
Well, man, since I started off talking about a bad political actor in Victor Hugo's time and mention Les Miserables, I'm actually going to mention a character from Les Miserables, Javert, who everyone's like, wait a minute, that's the bad guy. That's the police officer. Val Jean Bond. Listen, hear me out.
Yes, he was a bad guy because he was so blinded by the law and what rigid structures, what he had to do. But I didn't say good guys. I said good political actor. What he was doing politically was here is my job. I want to uphold order. That is a good thing.
He just got lost in it and became a bad guy. So I'm gonna keep Javert as my good political actor because I think he was trying to do good and he was acting in good faith.
So yeah, I'm gonna keep him, Keep him up there.
Evan Garcia:
Solid, solid.
Joshua Noel:
I don't think he deserves the hate anyway. I do want to shout out one of our financial supporters, as always. Ethan, we mentioned you earlier. I'm going to mention you again, man. Love you.
Thank you. You so much for supporting our show. You rock, dude.
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