n 1927, Fritz Lang's film "Metropolis" was released. This silent sci-fi classic is now widely regarded as one of the most important films ever made. Lang's cinematic masterpiece explores the dehumanizing aspects of technology, the pernicious effects of inequality, and the redemptive power of love. These themes are as relevant today as they were when Metropolis was released eighty-five years ago.

2. In 1927, Fritz Lang's film Metropolis was released. This silent sci-fi
classic is now widely regarded as one of the most important films
ever made. Lang's cinematic masterpiece explores the dehumanizing
aspects of technology, the pernicious effects of inequality, and the
redemptive power of love. These themes are as relevant today as
they were when Metropolis was released eighty-five years ago.

3. The first time I saw Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" I was mesmerized. I
had seen silent films before, but this one was particularly haunting
and dreamlike. I was quite young at the time, but I realized
something important was going on. The fate of a civilization was at
stake, but the arrogance of the elites and the ignorance of the
masses put the entire society at risk.

4. Today, I realize just how wise and timeless a film like "Metropolis"
is. Our own political and financial elites are all too ready to distract
the masses for short-term gain even if it means undermining the
social order in the long term. Inequality, the plague that nearly
destroyed the great city of Metropolis, has reached record levels in
real life. The events of 9/11 and the financial crisis of 2008, it seems
to me, are integrally related to the vast disparities of wealth that
exist today.

5. For instance, it is no accident that that the plans to destroy the Twin Towers - the
symbol of America's financial wealth - were hatched in Afghanistan, one of the
poorest countries in the world. Likewise, the financial crisis of 2008 was the virtually
inevitable consequence of the unsustainable relationship between an increasingly
enriched class of financial creditors and an increasingly overstretched class of
borrowers. In many ways, Lang's film anticipated these calamities and can do much
to explain them. I hope the essays that make up "The Lessons of Fritz Lang's
Metropolis" will be of interest to film buffs, students of political philosophy, and those
committed to social and economic justice.

6. Plato once said: There is no greater calamity, than a society
where “you have one half triumphing and the other half
plunged into grief.” I explore this and other topics in my short
e-book: “The Lesson’s of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis: From the
Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers To the Wall Street Crash.”
Available in the Amazon Kindle store.