A movie and some thoughts
Across the Universe is the first movie I've seen in a long time where the characters consistently find that subverting the system is less productive than working within in. It doesnt glorify radicals, even during wartime, and kicks out a main character who's an illegal immigrant until he gets a visa. Has an appeal to it. Even if it was a musical set to Beatles songs that occasionally felt like Momma Mia meets Hair.
Funny to see a movie about the Vietnam era and realize that there are a lot of parallels to our life. It's not that all of Oberlin is stuck in the 60s, but in a way the circus community recreates the communities that formed during that time. The idealized parts, the peace and love that nobody thinks exist anymore at least still have a spark here. With a bit less of the drugs needed.
Funny also to think that back in the day, it was the psychologists with their new "insights" that drove a lot of the culture and now...it's the neuroscientists. I guess it's had a lot of impact that Becca said a third of the fire spinners at Wildfire have a neuro background and another quarter come from psych.
It's interesting to think of how much more difficult mobilizing our generation for anything will be. Forty years ago, nobody knew of an injustice like Vietnam and it touched everyone directly so real protests were possible. Now, Iraq is just one of many things that tangentially affect some of us -- we know too much to all care as deeply about one thing. Until it's really on our doorstep. Darfur, Iraq, climate change, declining civil rights, they're all just a little unreal. But we were all ready to be mobilized after 9-11, we just didn't have anybody smart enough to do it. Wonder what'll happen when something overcomes our data saturated, collective ADD, with someone smart enough to use our polarized mass.
Funny to see a movie about the Vietnam era and realize that there are a lot of parallels to our life. It's not that all of Oberlin is stuck in the 60s, but in a way the circus community recreates the communities that formed during that time. The idealized parts, the peace and love that nobody thinks exist anymore at least still have a spark here. With a bit less of the drugs needed.
Funny also to think that back in the day, it was the psychologists with their new "insights" that drove a lot of the culture and now...it's the neuroscientists. I guess it's had a lot of impact that Becca said a third of the fire spinners at Wildfire have a neuro background and another quarter come from psych.
It's interesting to think of how much more difficult mobilizing our generation for anything will be. Forty years ago, nobody knew of an injustice like Vietnam and it touched everyone directly so real protests were possible. Now, Iraq is just one of many things that tangentially affect some of us -- we know too much to all care as deeply about one thing. Until it's really on our doorstep. Darfur, Iraq, climate change, declining civil rights, they're all just a little unreal. But we were all ready to be mobilized after 9-11, we just didn't have anybody smart enough to do it. Wonder what'll happen when something overcomes our data saturated, collective ADD, with someone smart enough to use our polarized mass.