The craze for games is the ruin of scholarship

This post is a continuation of an unfinished conversation I had this morning with Joe Pascone.  I want to talk about authority.  I mean, you all know that I have problems with authority or at least you should know.  I am not talking about that kind of authority though.  I am talking about authorities of information.

I think that one of the biggest problems that we have in our world is that certain institutions that have risen to prominence within my lifetime have eroded the concept of authority.  Cable news is a perfect example.  There was a time when there were only three places to receive tv news, and these sources had to appeal to a mass audience that expected some degree of objective reporting.  Today, there are many choices for news and a 24 hour news cycle which contributes to people being able to cherry pick their news (or rather commentary) and only hear information to which they are already predisposed.  This phenomenon occurs on a much larger scale when one considers the internet.

Don't get me wrong, no one loves the internet or cable news more than I do.  Here's the problem though, we are losing an appreciation for authentic information and with it an ability to think critically.  Look at it this way, there are people out there who believe that because Sarah Palin in on Fox News and is saying things that generally make sense to them that her comments are valid.  In the same way that Howard Dean's comments on MSNBC might be taken as facts.  Either way, these people are not being called upon to look at these issues and form theories or opinions.  They are not being called upon to be part of an educated electorate.  In this, in may ways accounts for so many of the problems we, as a nation have found ourselves in.

This needs no further explanation, you all are familiar with the problem I am discussing.  Here's my main concern, though.   Everyone now believes themselves to be an authority, and this is horrifying.  Because you watch a segment on Fox News or a Ted Talk or read a blog that does not make you an authority on anything.  In some cases, in may even make you LESS qualified to discuss the issue(s) at hand. 

I know, I know, you are thinking to yourself, "Self, Joe is coming off as particularly bourgeois in this post."  But, then you are missing my point which is not that all of this information is bad, but that it is meant to be a springboard to higher thinking.  If reading a review of a book online encourages you to suggest that book to your book club and then engage others in meaningful dialogue about said book, then the internet has helped you do something very significant in  improving your life and the lives of others. If you are a supporter of the president's heathcare law and want to understand why people are opposed to it, so you read some blogs that help you develop a balanced opinion, you have made yourself a better citizen.  In these ways and many more, these new ways that we connect with each other can do such immense good.

Here's the reality of the situation though, any and all good come from hard work.  That is the only way that one can better him/herself and the only way that one can establish authority is through hard work and dilligent study.  Reading Ann Coulter's blog or listening to a TED talk on subatomic particles  is not the same as having a degree in political science or physics.  The essential difference is that one took 4-10 years of study and the other took 17 minutes.  

Truth is not arrived at easily.  It is a lifelong pursuit, and it demands that we work hard to even come close.  To implant in our children the idea that knowledge is something found with the click of a mouse is to do them a horrible injustice.

Thoughts?

Which do you prefer, the ants or the wild geese?

The Fox Movie Channel which used to show classic studio films with archival content and retrospective commentary on the these films is now FXM.  Because it is now FXM they, of course, have made the innovative decision to show Independence Day during the first week of July (and also Dunston Checks In but that's off topic).  Anyway, upon revisiting this movie for a few moments (before turning to Turner Classic Movies which was showing Gone with the Wind) I found myself pondering the comparisons between it and the new film Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

Independence Day is a wretched film in almost every possible way.  It is full of trite dialogue, insincere sentiment and relies on fancy explosions to carry a sagging and cliche plot line.  Today, however, I am more concerned with the themes of the film.  I suppose that the date/title of the film are appropriate to the story because the movie seeks to explore what makes America great.  In the telling of the story, the filmmakers are making an argument for American exceptionalism.  After all, it is our ingenuity, our valor and our rugged masculinity that save the day while the other nations of the world seem to wait on our leadership.  The film carries with it a certain "red state" sensibility - we're #1 and nothing can take us down, not evil tyrannical aliens  or healthcare.  In the end, we'll all go home with our big biceps around our stripper girlfriends while smoking cigars. 

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World also explores the prospect of a doomed humanity.  In the film, an asteroid is on a track to collide with a planet and destroy all life.  As the film opens, we learn that a manned rocket was sent to destroy the asteroid but due to a mechanical issue, exploded and left the planet doomed.  Like Cloverfield before it, the movie takes the traditional disaster film and turns it upside down.  We've already lost and as such the story cannot be about the disaster.  In fact any news stories about the impending collision are cut short, providing us only snippets of information about the asteroid, even though the audience is, of course, intently interested in the information about humanity's impending doom.  In same manner of brilliance we see in Lost (see below), the film deftly shifts the focus then away from the world of the story and onto the people. The first third of the film focuses on the different reactions of people faced with their own imminent demise.  Some flee their unhappy marriages, some engage in promiscuous sex and drug use, some sob uncontrollably, some kill themselves, some engage in  good, old fashioned love-in's while others yearn for structure and continue to go to work each day.  These different reactions are touching and often hilarious (i.e. the brief traffic report on a newscast, "We're all fucked!"), but they are ultimately not the focus of the film. 

The movie is essentially about  Dodge (Steve Carell), a tightly-wound New Yorker who works as an insurance agent who embarks on a quest to spend his remaining days with his high school sweetheart.  He heads off on a road trip to find her with Penny (Keira Knightley), a flaky, unemployed Brit who is hoping to find a planet that can take her home to her family.  This, of course, is reminiscent of the sort of mis-mached buddy road picture that is as old as the movies themselves.  This, however, is something special.  Neither Dodge nor Penny find what they are seeking, although both do get closure.  Instead, as you might imagine, they fall in love with each other in a transition that is as subtle as it is beautiful. 

Two scenes in the film stick out in my mind.  In one, Dodge and Penny, find themselves on a beach, full of  people waiting to be baptized and celebrating.  The scene has no dialogue, but shows Dodge and Penny laughing, engaging and embracing their fellow humans as the end nears.  In the final scene of the film, the two protagonists embrace in bed. Dodge smiling and proclaiming that they had saved each other before the movie ends with a fade to white.

Here's my point.  In those two scenes in the last third of the movie, we see truly what makes humanity great and that is our ability to connect with each other.  The simple fact of the matter is that the world is full of tragedy, and there is nothing we can do to avoid it. What we can do is our best to accept what we must, compromise where we can, maintain our sense of humor and to most importantly connect with others.  This is where we find our salvation, in simply connecting with other souls who face the same tragedies we do.

This is how I would prefer to celebrate humanity.  Not in our imagine ability to vanquish tragedy, but in our ability to face it and conquer it in our spirits, together, with those with whom we have forged connections.  And perhaps, on this Independence Day, it is fitting to also remember how the Continental Congress, all those years ago, created the soul of a nation by coming together in the spirit of courage and compromise.


I prefer the wild geese.