What I Learned From Watching WALL-E (and from working at Nature's Classroom).
Tonight I, for the very first time, you might be appalled - Jon certainly was, sat down and watched the film WALL-E. Jon's been pimping this Pixar piece for weeks now, telling me how wonderful and amazing it is and why I really needed to see it. So finally, after minimal begging, I agreed to watch it with him. He was very excited. He told me that this is the greatest movie ever -- one of his favorites, which include Home Alone and Dirty Work; he told me that its a great robot love story -- "the greatest love story ever told", he told me.
So then we sat down and watched the film, including the shorts. WALL-E, and I'm not just saying this, is fucking amazing.
But, while what he told me about it being this great love story is pretty much true.... robot love stories are kind of awesome - totally on par with vampire love stories..... it's also something greater than that, WALL-E. It's amazing; it's Neal Stephenson; it's Frank Herbert; it's Ursula K. LeGuin; it's Soylent Green; it's Philip Pullman; it's distopia; it's a story of hope; it's a story of caution; it's a story telling us that if we don't want our descendants to be genetically fucked, then as a global whole we sure as shit should do something about our bad habits.
All of the following were prevalent in this film: habitat destruction, pollution, population and over harvesting. Not so much on the invasive species so we can't actually discuss all of HIPPO, but we got most of it. In this film humans had destroyed much of the countryside - the world we got to see was bascially destroyed city. That destruction was mainly caused by pollution - litter - trash covering the surface of the earth. Since I've made the assumption that we had destroyed most of the undeveloped land, then it's pretty safe to assume that we'd also over harvested plants and animals for our own usage. And based of the sheer size of the ship that all these people were living on then there must have been an inflation in population. WALL-E is a tale of our society's self-destructive habits. Our modern obsessions and flagrant arrogance is, essentially, what is destroying the world as we know it. And this story about the love of two robots tells us that it shouldn't come to that. As amazing and adorable a story it is, we should never let it get to the point where machines are more human than we are. It was the robots, the machines in this tale that had emotions, compassion, felt loneliness and heartbreak and sadness; the machines banded together to right a grievous wrong. And it was the humans who were the drones. I don't know what they used to fuel the Axiom, but it was most definitely the machines that did all the work. The Captain wouldn't have known when to wake up if the computer didn't wake him up when he was needed.
Another point made by this film, that might be lost by most by the end of the film, but I have an excellent memory: the steps we are taking in order to save the world, slow down/reverse our already adverse affects on the earth - are not enough. They are a step in the right direction, to be sure, but they are not enough. By all means invest in solar panels, build the wind farm in Nantucket Sound, use Ethanol, develop hemp gasoline and plastic and styrofoam and houses and furniture and clothing and, and, and . . . . but it's not enough.
We need to remember to do some other things while we are at it. We need to recycle; we need to reduce; we need to reuse; we need to cut down on waste; we need to slow/stop global warming; reduce carbon emissions; plant more trees than we cut down; use only biodegradable products; develop more biodegradable products. There are so many things that we need to do as well as start using more forms of renewable energy.
Essentially, we need to be more human. Slowly we've been evolving into a heartless, uncaring people, in our modern world, and quite frankly our selfishness is what is doing terrible things to the earth. Don't get me wrong, I love riding in airplanes, television, the Internet, facial cleansers, makeup, being warm, electric lights and many other things that are contributing to the destruction of our planet, but I also love our planet and would like it to be around so that my great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren (or nieces and nephews if I don't procreate) don't have to spend their lives devoid of proper growth and hovering around the galaxy in an improbable Star Trek cruise ship.
There are so many things that we can do as individuals to get this process started. We can use reusable shopping bags when at the store or the market; we can get a latte instead of a regular hot coffee at Dunkin Donuts (the come in paper cups as opposed to styrofoam) - or drink Starbucks who are using post-consumer recycled fibers in their paper products, we can make our own coffee at home, we can buy fair trade and organic - when financially viable, we can turn off the lights and turn down the heat when we don't need to be using them, walk or ride a bike instead of driving everywhere -- use public transportation. We can do so many things. And we should do them because we are compassionate, loving, caring people (whoa IALAC!) and not be selfish, conceited, arrogant fucks. Seriously, people!
So then we sat down and watched the film, including the shorts. WALL-E, and I'm not just saying this, is fucking amazing.
But, while what he told me about it being this great love story is pretty much true.... robot love stories are kind of awesome - totally on par with vampire love stories..... it's also something greater than that, WALL-E. It's amazing; it's Neal Stephenson; it's Frank Herbert; it's Ursula K. LeGuin; it's Soylent Green; it's Philip Pullman; it's distopia; it's a story of hope; it's a story of caution; it's a story telling us that if we don't want our descendants to be genetically fucked, then as a global whole we sure as shit should do something about our bad habits.
All of the following were prevalent in this film: habitat destruction, pollution, population and over harvesting. Not so much on the invasive species so we can't actually discuss all of HIPPO, but we got most of it. In this film humans had destroyed much of the countryside - the world we got to see was bascially destroyed city. That destruction was mainly caused by pollution - litter - trash covering the surface of the earth. Since I've made the assumption that we had destroyed most of the undeveloped land, then it's pretty safe to assume that we'd also over harvested plants and animals for our own usage. And based of the sheer size of the ship that all these people were living on then there must have been an inflation in population. WALL-E is a tale of our society's self-destructive habits. Our modern obsessions and flagrant arrogance is, essentially, what is destroying the world as we know it. And this story about the love of two robots tells us that it shouldn't come to that. As amazing and adorable a story it is, we should never let it get to the point where machines are more human than we are. It was the robots, the machines in this tale that had emotions, compassion, felt loneliness and heartbreak and sadness; the machines banded together to right a grievous wrong. And it was the humans who were the drones. I don't know what they used to fuel the Axiom, but it was most definitely the machines that did all the work. The Captain wouldn't have known when to wake up if the computer didn't wake him up when he was needed.
Another point made by this film, that might be lost by most by the end of the film, but I have an excellent memory: the steps we are taking in order to save the world, slow down/reverse our already adverse affects on the earth - are not enough. They are a step in the right direction, to be sure, but they are not enough. By all means invest in solar panels, build the wind farm in Nantucket Sound, use Ethanol, develop hemp gasoline and plastic and styrofoam and houses and furniture and clothing and, and, and . . . . but it's not enough.
We need to remember to do some other things while we are at it. We need to recycle; we need to reduce; we need to reuse; we need to cut down on waste; we need to slow/stop global warming; reduce carbon emissions; plant more trees than we cut down; use only biodegradable products; develop more biodegradable products. There are so many things that we need to do as well as start using more forms of renewable energy.
Essentially, we need to be more human. Slowly we've been evolving into a heartless, uncaring people, in our modern world, and quite frankly our selfishness is what is doing terrible things to the earth. Don't get me wrong, I love riding in airplanes, television, the Internet, facial cleansers, makeup, being warm, electric lights and many other things that are contributing to the destruction of our planet, but I also love our planet and would like it to be around so that my great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren (or nieces and nephews if I don't procreate) don't have to spend their lives devoid of proper growth and hovering around the galaxy in an improbable Star Trek cruise ship.
There are so many things that we can do as individuals to get this process started. We can use reusable shopping bags when at the store or the market; we can get a latte instead of a regular hot coffee at Dunkin Donuts (the come in paper cups as opposed to styrofoam) - or drink Starbucks who are using post-consumer recycled fibers in their paper products, we can make our own coffee at home, we can buy fair trade and organic - when financially viable, we can turn off the lights and turn down the heat when we don't need to be using them, walk or ride a bike instead of driving everywhere -- use public transportation. We can do so many things. And we should do them because we are compassionate, loving, caring people (whoa IALAC!) and not be selfish, conceited, arrogant fucks. Seriously, people!