I am a huge advocate of reason, reason relating to having a purpose. The problem/statement defines the medium for transmission. Popular film/the movie industry I find often reaches to pinpoint particularly strong... undercurrents manifesting in society, and sitting in a theatre the other day, I was filled with goosebumps and a pregnant feeling of some greater, throbbing issue as the trailers flicked by. Having been a recent college grad, I could tangibley feel the frustrations and misconceptions surfacing in the subject matter of this spring's movie line-up. "The Adjustment Bureau" are men in grey suits, making sure we all fall in line and keep with some greater "plan", pulling directly from The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, the idea of The Businessman that has evolved from the 50's, a society of business men trapped in social rules they cannot escape, and I have watched my peers walk out of school into a workforce expecting to be handed a suit and a job, to fall in line and pick up their 60,000 dollar job as they were led to believe that is what awaits them. Another trailer was of a lost creative soul being led into the life of a higher powered business man, only to find there is a debt he must pay for being given the means to advance so far. We are struggling with a social sense of helplessness, directly connected to loss of morale and vision.
What causes such a massive inferiority complex?
I've been noticing in the NYC Daily newspapers a pervasive influence that seems to have superceaded the purpose of governments and imposed a higher moral standard on other societies as well. Months ago Google pulled out of China, to protect activists from forced remission of the right of privacy. That is a huge moral statement made in full knowledge of the loss of money and relationships, to what may be the biggest market available... by an internet company. Not a political figure, not United Nations... but a voice of the technologically advanced generations who are beholden to no one but themselves. Yesterday I read a Google executive is directly involved, possibly through his own heritage (I'm not sure) in the civil protesting in Egypt... and I am stricken by the reach and effect of a group making a moral statement that spans continents, while our own political leaders are crucified for showing even the slightest sympathy to a cause or idea, hands tied by some bizarre stanglehold the public seems to have on government leaders. Wikileaks have made hackers worth noticing, as political activists and internet assasins, as they took down major credit card company websites, one after the other in outrage, that a man would be condemed for seeking truth from politcal leaders and simply taking it as his due when truth is not what he discovered. Again, an internet company comes to the floor, fighting this time the establishment in the US of A - Twitter takes our government to court over the incarceration of Julian Assange, fighting the good fight and redefining morality through the nation's own system of judgement.
According to the papers, I have also noted that there has been a large influx of young college educated Irish immigrants, a very different place then when they previously came streaming through our borders. Egypt's unrest is partially attributed to college educated joblessness and homelessness as well. I ripped a long article out of the NY Times about southern Europe's lack of professional opportunities and college grads moving into their 30's still living at home and working a plethora of unpaid "internships". Seeing "The Social Network" for the first time, and remembering how powerful a force Facebook was during the Obama election, how it reached the previously unreachable college population, it now is another key in expanding our frame of reference across time and space. Along with proof of its importance as just that - a social network - and Mark Zuckerburg's status as the youngest billionaire in the country, it seems that while the younger generations are unable to step into the realm of politics, they are more than sufficiently equipped to reach farther than the boundaries of this economy, and its sad status updates. The greater and deeper this alter reality in which we organize and communicate, the more we interface with other cultures, hurtling globalization into instant karma for the generations who still hold the reigns of this country, the generations who still hold and feel the dregs of racism and unliscenced hatred for change. So while they continue to stand for their lack of realistic beliefs based on rules that have become past-tense, we, the progressives, who claim neither liberal or conservative views, as both are a drain on our resources... we are issuing global directives, making proud statments of morality according to a truth based on simple human rights, and we are manifesting words and ideas and jobs out of the hopelessness that the masses choose to feel. Our society has become the landscape of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", a people that have expectations and needs, but not the craft or skills and the perserverance required to teach us those things, a people who "deserves" more than they create, and expect a president to come with a magic wand that makes everything instantly better than it was. As the older and younger generations are at cross purposes, we are split, staring each other down across the chess board and listening, waiting for the ticking of the timer to tell us it is our turn, that we are ready to try to clean up the messes of the older generations, that we have solid beliefs based on a new horizon whose dawn is breaking as we breath, as you read this, and there is no stopping it.
"King's Speech" takes us back to a time when this was required before, for youth to take the reigns, declare a new foundation for right and wrong, to mobilize the hearts and imaginations of a ready body of people. This profound movie looks at a slice of history and imbues it with a sharp, painful wit, sardonic and surprisingly sweet humor... and the kind of real emotional connection to a part of history that we could not feel in a classroom taught by teachers who are fulfilling deadlines. Sometimes humanizing the past, bringing it back to us through movies is what it takes to remind us that while we have fought these battles before... and while the frontiers are new, we still respond to the same things. There is no stopping the call to arms. Life is not a rise and a fall. It is a million different undulating emotions and truths that weave into the melody of living, it is the blood coursing through a million veins and years all at once to the sound of a heartbeat. No one is NOT apart of the pulse of civilization - We never stop moving through history.
Wake up. It's already here.
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