"Outland" is a seriously under-appreciated movie. Strong post-Bond performance by Connery, solid story, and, as you point out, a story that's newly-relevant. All "space-faring civilizations" are not created equal, and I'm not so sure I want humanity's future to look like either movie.

This isn't actually a digression from bowser's root topic. In the gap was some thinking about how America's always been to some degree an oligarchy, and it's not really the case that a particular war made our character, but rather that the interests of oligarchs have given us a militant national character. Someday when I have the time, I want to research my hunch that no country has been involved in as many wars as America. The interests of our oligarchs require constant vigilance.

America hasn't had a functional democracy for quite some time, and it sure seems to me like the two "parties" represent two factions of Corporation World to implement an oligarchy-in-fact under cover of raucous democratic politics. Republicans represent the old-school faction, Koch and other energy interests, mining and other resource extraction, and heavy manufacturing. Democrats represent finance and technology, and I really think American politics can usefully be understood as the two factions jockeying for advantage.

And I have to be honest, as a grizzled old techie: High tech has contributed mightily to inequality as well. It's not that tech is inherently evil, but that in our system, capitalists control it and use it to build and consolidate their fortunes. The way we do the business of technology is one of the things killing the middle class. C.f. Uber and the whole evil "sharing economy".

Words fail me to describe my lack of excitement at the news that Hillary will run for President to cure inequality and save the middle class. Really? There she is, at the intersection of Wall Street and Tech Way...whose interests will Hillary really guard?

I'm not optimistic. I think we remain on track to live out Elysium some day.