- May 19, 2011
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My wife and I went to watch it last night. It's good. I'll talk about my feelings about the film itself in the movie review thread.
The film has a lot to say about religion, faith, and the radicalisation of followers even in the face of undeniable evidence that their faith is misplaced. As usual for a Knives Out movie, right-wingers aren't going to like it. But it helped bring together a bunch of my beliefs into a more coherent picture that I can't say I like the look of very much, and largely those beliefs were/are why I was planning on getting politically active even though I'm thoroughly convinced that I am not the person to lead a movement to help humanity get out of the mess we're in.
'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords' talks about one war masking another more important war, the latter being the war of belief. IMO we're seeing that play out in the West in that we have a bunch of right-wing political bogeymen (e.g. immigrants are scary, the welfare system being a problem rather than a solution, the problem really is that poor people should stop being poor and rich people need to be able to do whatever they like) being successfully deployed to fuel the war of belief. The old political power structures are breaking down because of the usual reasons and that faith in them has been rightly compromised: Politicians generally lie, they promise what they can't deliver, and they crave power for power's own sake. However, people *need* faith in something, and many people choose faith in an authority figure (e.g. Donald Trump, God), even if deep down they know that this figure is offering them nothing new, because they need faith in something and they would rather believe an easy lie than the hard truth, and to make an enemy of something that seems easier to destroy even when it's nothing to do with the bigger issues. They would also prefer to believe that things cannot get better because that's what their idol is selling to them and that's the path of least resistance. The denial of hard truths (like capitalism and perpetual growth is bullshit, the free market as a good thing is bullshit, and that humanity's addiction to consumption is killing our environment), is easier because to properly confront those truths threatens all that makes us comfortable in the short term.
My wife says that it's better to target smaller, more achievable problems, but to me that's akin to finally getting around to scrubbing down the patio before the tsunami hits.
The film has a lot to say about religion, faith, and the radicalisation of followers even in the face of undeniable evidence that their faith is misplaced. As usual for a Knives Out movie, right-wingers aren't going to like it. But it helped bring together a bunch of my beliefs into a more coherent picture that I can't say I like the look of very much, and largely those beliefs were/are why I was planning on getting politically active even though I'm thoroughly convinced that I am not the person to lead a movement to help humanity get out of the mess we're in.
'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords' talks about one war masking another more important war, the latter being the war of belief. IMO we're seeing that play out in the West in that we have a bunch of right-wing political bogeymen (e.g. immigrants are scary, the welfare system being a problem rather than a solution, the problem really is that poor people should stop being poor and rich people need to be able to do whatever they like) being successfully deployed to fuel the war of belief. The old political power structures are breaking down because of the usual reasons and that faith in them has been rightly compromised: Politicians generally lie, they promise what they can't deliver, and they crave power for power's own sake. However, people *need* faith in something, and many people choose faith in an authority figure (e.g. Donald Trump, God), even if deep down they know that this figure is offering them nothing new, because they need faith in something and they would rather believe an easy lie than the hard truth, and to make an enemy of something that seems easier to destroy even when it's nothing to do with the bigger issues. They would also prefer to believe that things cannot get better because that's what their idol is selling to them and that's the path of least resistance. The denial of hard truths (like capitalism and perpetual growth is bullshit, the free market as a good thing is bullshit, and that humanity's addiction to consumption is killing our environment), is easier because to properly confront those truths threatens all that makes us comfortable in the short term.
My wife says that it's better to target smaller, more achievable problems, but to me that's akin to finally getting around to scrubbing down the patio before the tsunami hits.
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