June 23, 2011

• The problem with movies

  Afghanistan 2011 June - From the Economist

  Does art imitate life, or life imitate art? 

  Conceptually, I think that art exerts an outsized influence on our ability to conceptualize things.  Our political dialogue is often reduced to themes and catchphrases that resonate with the masses, rather than the nuanced, complex relationships that actually occur.  "Global warming?  I don't believe it."  "We have to stop global warming!"  The nuanced version of the discussion requires an understanding of what the data shows and doesn't show, as well as balancing the issues of energy intensity in our production/labour in relationship to our current standards of living, the disparity in energy use and intensity across the planet, and the fact that most people are unruly and don't follow rules.  But that discussion doesn't work in sound bites... and frankly is beyond the interest of much of the electorate to judge by the quality of most inter-locution that I've seen.

  How often have you heard, "it's just like in that movie!"

  Movies capture some sliver of experience and rarefy them to an essence and put them on screen.  We remember the depiction of the feeling, enjoying its narrative power, feeling its resonance in our experience - or perhaps in our hoped for experiences.  Afghanistan's endgame doesn't make for a good movie.  Not the right ending, anyway.  I suspect that people would have preferred a version where operatives went in, took out Bin-Laden, and left into the sunset in helicopters.  The issues of ongoing regional instability, the political backlash abroad, the darker implications of the US's enjoyment of assassination... these left off screen.

  But the hard facts are that this isn't a movie.  Better examples are post-conquest lands during Roman occupation.  Setting up regional governments isn't easy - can be costly, and can take centuries.  We want the version that fits in a 90 minute movie block.  The birth and death of nations is not synonymous with the birth and death of a culture.  We can change a government, but changing the culture and character of a population is whole other thing.

  Whether we should or should not do such a thing is another question.  But my issue with the movie-centric view of the world is that we look too easily for "simple" articulations for things that are immeasurably more complex.

  Think it through, then decide.

  I wish government was easier.

  • 8:54 am
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