Two Non-Holiday Movies To Ponder

Spoiler Alert: the two movies to be mentioned here are old. One is available on DVD while the other can be found on the free part of YouTube.

In this season of self-indulgence and self-congratulations; in this season of pursuing all that soothes and avoiding all that disturbs; and in this season when it is irritably cold outside, there is are two movies that will prepare us for the future rather than helps us escape from the present. Those two movies are 1984, and Brave New World.

How could those movies prepare us for the future? It is because the growing authoritarianism we see not only here but elsewhere as well, will eventually become a totalitarianism. And that will occur regardless of the political party represented by the occupant in the White House. And those two movies are about totalitarianism.

The movies 1984 and Brave New World have both similarities and differences. Besides depicting totalitarian regimes, both movies also show a departure from nature, which is an ever increasing trend we see today in our automatic and passionate embrace of each new product of technology as well as our growing tendency to avoid pain and discomfort. In each movie, conformity is seen as providing security and all other ties besides the society/state are portrayed as society's or state's dangerous competition and thus are equated with dissent.


Of course there are differences in the two world displayed by the movies. In the movie 1984, totalitarianism exists in a post-war dystopian world. In Brave New World, we have a utopian society. In the movie 1984, punishment is the chosen tool used to ensure conformity. In Brave New World, consumerism is. Thus in 1984, fear serves to motivate people to obey. In Brave New World, euphoria is. In the movie 1984, people live in a world of scarcity and thus what they can enjoy is rationed. In Brave New World, people live in abundance and overindulgence is the way of life. But there is a final difference between the two. The people portrayed in 1984 live in world where there is an eternal war. However, peace reigns between the different groups of people and the utopian society in the movie Brave New World.

And the problem we have is that different groups of us are subject to these differences we see in these movies. Those in the lower economic classes live in scarcity and the fear of prison is used to ensure that they keep in line while in the upper economic classes, the overindulgence rules the day and produces the necessary conformity. And while here the lower economic classes pay the costs of our continuous war against terrorism, the upper classes shielded by the bubble in which they live from such a war and thus even reap benefits of that war.

Of course there is much that we don't experience that was seen in those movies. And what we don't see yet is not lying on the horizon warning us of impending totalitarianism. But what does lie both on the horizon, and in front of us as well, is a growing authoritarianism, both active, as displayed by how our leaders lead, and passive, as seen in our loyalty to our sacred cow leaders, in society. Certainly the impending impeachment of President Trump shows these elements in those on both sides of the impeachment issue. Much of that authoritarianism comes via the growing tribalism that exists in each ideological side. But also, the growing complexity of our world, due to the ever increasing degree of interdependence, makes us long for the simplicity of following strong leaders. While our tribalism divides us, we are united by that search for a political savior though we differ on the identity and ideology of that savior.

And what is tragic here is that all of this slow flirtatious dance with totalitarianism has meant that we are leaving our current partner: democracy. For democracy demands that we share power rather than hoard it. Democracy demands that we all participate in leading rather than outsource that leadership so we can do other things. And Democracy can only promise us a world of complexity rather than a world of simplicity. In the meantime, we see that nature also demands that we share rather than hoard. And nature appears to be messy while our technology gives the appearance tidiness.

The question for us is will we decide to remain faithful and thus return to our current spouse and properly balance our dependence on technology with our need to protect nature; or will we proceed, with our eyes closed, to this unbrave new world, which in the end is merely a repeating of history.