Well, was it the best movie of 2005? If not, what was better? I have not seen every movie made during the year, but I saw a lot. I'm personally glad that it won the award, but I'd be interested in hearing some different opinions if they exist.
My main critique of this film is that it was not original enough. To me, the movie combines the style of Magnolia (intertwined storylines) with the message of American History X (Racial prejudice and baggage) to build the end result. So, although there was nothing I had never seen in this film, I still loved everything that I did see.
Although there were similarities which prevented Crash from being superb in its own right, there were enough differences to make it interesting and extremely powerful. A lot of movies that deal with race tend to lean towards the triumphant overcoming of these racial differences in a feel good, "Remember the Titans" sort of way. Crash acknowledged the differences and stereotypes in people, but didn't give people the easy way out. A few people commented that this left them feeling hopeless because we weren't given the answer in the end. I felt that this was the strongest part of the movie in the sense that they didn't give an incredibly difficult problem an over-simplified pallatable solution.
I want to thank everybody who came to Mind Over Media on Friday, it was great to see you all and I was encouraged by the discussion and interactions that went on. Thank you Jill for bringing the coffee, thank you Sprinkles for bringing the fudge oat bars, thank you mandy for bringing the snickerdoodle cookies, thank you benjie for providing the cherry covered cheesecake. So, what are some thoughts? Think with your fingers everybody, fingers on the keys and think. let's do it.
Are we in control of our reactions or do they happen automatically? Are they effected by our previous thoughts/experiences? Can we harness anger that is justified? Are we slaves to our emotions?
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12 comments:
When we discuss racism/racial prejudice, many factors need to be considered: history, sociology, philosophy, theology, etc. To focus simply on psychology/ personal experience will lead to an overly-simplified response.
I think one obstacle that we may face at M.O.M. and on the board is that we're predominantly white; therefore, whether we agree or not, our experiences and social statuses are similar. Thus we have a somewhat myopic perspective on the problem. Movies such as Crash can help us vicariously experience other sides of the issue, but we still interpret it from our context.
That's simply one obstacle that I noticed. I'm sure we will face others.
Our contexts and experiences shape who we are, and so the individual is not autonomously in control of his/her ideas or responses. Therefore, the answer to "Are we in control of our reactions or do they happen automatically?" is simultaneously yes and no. Yes we can evaluate our responses and make an effort to change those that are inappropriate, but we don't simply decide how to feel in every individual situation.
Those are my initial thoughts. I'm looking forward to more thoughts.
A final question that's been plaguing me since our discussion is this: should emotions be subject to the intellect? Why or why not?
While I agree that it would give us a much more well rounded perspective if we had more variety among us, I do not believe it will necessarily be our achilles heel. Most important in my opinion is that we acknowledge these obstacles (as well as the factors that need to be considered while discussing) and do our best to get through them. I don't want anybody to feel that we are so hindered in our understanding that it's not worth digging deeper.
You and I are white, therefore our contribution to the problem will be white. So understanding the "white" part of the problem could be a very useful tool in learning how to improve ourselves. Obviously it will not give us the most holistic view on the problem, or even our end, but it is where we must begin. And, I would argue that our perspective would have the same obstacle even if we were evenly mixed. We as white people will never fully understand the gravity and depth of the problem from the perspective of a different race. It's our human obstacle, not our white one.
Maybe you could expand on your last question a bit so I can know for sure what you're asking. You've pointed out that we CAN evaluate our emotions and change responses that are inappropriate. Are you questioning whether or not we should? Please elaborate a little.
If racism is power + prejudice, as we agree, then at least in America, racism is a white problem. When all participants in a discussion of injustice are from the oppressor class, I'd argue that the problem is significant.
I do agree, however, that we can choose to rebel against our class, and we need to dig deeper.
Yes, we can evaluate our emotions, but sometimes, shouldn't we question why we're feeling a certain way and then decide that the emotion was correct and change the way we think?
I think that recognizing the obstacle is part of discussing the problem of racism, so I agree, we can discuss it. I also agree that we shouldn't round up people of other races just to talk about racism, but recognize that the absence of any other races in our discussion may not be as innocuous as we'd like to think.
Buddy, I still would like you to elaborate more on your initial question that has been plaguing you since the M.O.M. discussion if you can. Maybe some examples might help make things clearer.
I am in agreement with both Buddy and Ryan as far as were the movie took us and the discussion on racism, Us discussing our issues with the topic helps us has a race understand where we stand and how "WE" can make a difference not nessesarily in the world, but in our minds and the minds of our children and their childrens and etc. The future is still awaiting it's time and we can help rebuild it in our own lives that's why i said at the M.O.M discussion that it starts with us as individuals then to others. it hard to get your point across sometimes when in the heat of discussion becuase that was an a high tension group after the movie. Wound up! LOL But I think we all were coming to the same conclusion exept for a few point of views. The emotional aspects of our discussion still lingures in my mind as well. We can control some situations like Buddy says but i think there are some situations were we instictively act out of fear,anger, or heroic that is a thoughtless act same as if someone is about to be hit by a truck you pull them out of the way without thinking or you let them get hit because you thought about the situation and what it might do to you or them. I strongly feel that we have these human traits because it's our imperfections that help us learn to be better people as a whole. And Mandy I'm confused toooooo... LOL Just kidding Alot of our history helps us either access a situation at hand or could make us fear it. Either way our past is our future in a way but that's what is cool. We can change it and most of us will for the better or worse but we can change it. We all search for justification in all emtional turns we take but is there really any right answer to our emotions who know's maybe God is the only answer to all questions but we just have to have faith in ourselves and belive that our acts our what we truley feel, not try to hold back and feel something that we think should be felt or that is politically correct. Murder is not right whether out of anger or sickness so remorse becomes your best friend when a good person becomes a victim of emotions. I'm not saying you can control those types but minor ones should just be what they are emotions. I hope this makes sense too. LOL Thanks for listening.
Sorry if my using the word "obstacle" was more troublesome than helpful. I don't mean that our being white means we can't talk about racism; I mean that it's something we need to talk about if we're going to talk about racism.
I agree with Smiles (can I call you Smiles?) that in some situations, we should act on our emotions rather than think a situation through, or at least before. I disagree that this is an imperfection.
God created us with both cognition and affect, and I haven't heard a convincing argument for preferring one over the other.
The situations that come to my mind (and directly relate to our topic) are Niziism, slavery, and eugenics. The atrocities against the Jews by Nazi Germany were not impulsive; they were perpetrated by rational people who had rationalized what they were doing. Slave owners may not have hated their slaves; they formulated rational arguments that justified what they did. Even in the US, perpetrators of eugenics (a perfectly rational system, perhaps second only to Calvinism) forcibly sterilized the mentally impaired, not because they hated them, but because they thought it was necessary.
Despite these rationalizations, I have to believe that at times, even people who agreed with Naziism, slavery, and eugenics felt pity when they saw suffering in the faces of those they were oppressing. I think that we would all agree that in these cases, the emotional responses are in line with the truth rather than the rational minds that nevertheless committed these atrocities.
These are no doubt extreme examples, but that doesn't mean they are uncommon or isolated.
Mandy,
Thanks for defining terms; it was helpful. You're right, when I talk about the mind/thoughts I mean reason/rationale. At least in my experience, beliefs are influenced as much by emotions as by logic/reason, if not more so, so I don't see thoughts and beliefs as the same thing.
I keep thinking of the scene in the Gospels when Jesus sees the moneylenders in the temple and drives them out with a whip. His actions seem based entirely upon an (appropriate) emotional response. Of course, in the case of Christ, his emotions and reason were probably more in line than most of ours, so the example may be limited in use. But Jesus does seem to be very guided by his emotions, at least as much as by his reason.
Buddy, I agree that Christ's response was guided by emotions. What I would also say is that emotion is a result of something. It's not something that exists entirely on its own, it's connected to other things within us. So tracing the emotion back, I believe that you will find a belief that is held that is exactly in line with that emotional response.
If are emotions are not backed up with these beliefs, then they are in and of themselves random and of no value to helping us understand ourselves better. I also agree that thoughts and beliefs are not the same thing.
So to your initial question about whether our emotions should be subject to our intellect... I would say no, intellect is not superior.
I would also tend to think that are intuitive emotions are different then are raw emotions, but I also think the intuitive shows are true nature and our raw can be displaced from who we are generally. Just because I get upset about something doesn't mean I'm a jackoff. Maybe I am for the moment, but it doesn't mean I am all the time. however, our thoughts or beliefs our a product of our upbringing or life experiences. I don't think Racism is a human emotion, I think that it is represented by FEAR. And fear can change a persons thoughts and beliefs in any given situation. Which is why I agree with all, that intellect can be placed in a different category. They are seperate because they don't work together. Logic and irrational thought are possibly different spectrums of the universe, and I think emotions can be closely placed near our irrational thoughts. But notice how our logical side always needs to convince our irrational side that we should or shouldn't feel a certain way or a certain logical friend tries to talk you out of your emotions. You could always tell if a person is logical or irrational just by talking and asking the right questions. When I used the word imperfections it meant the way the world looks at humans traits not the way God does. God built us all different for his mass puzzle piece so that eventually we all would be tied together by one force( which I think is LOVE) It least that's how I tend to look at it. If we want to make God laugh just tell him our plans. LOL That's all I have to say about that.
What's our response/responsibilty?
What do we do now?
Excellent question, of course that's what it's all about. How can we use what we learn from this kind of film and push ourselves to new levels?
First, a thorough searching of our thoughts and hearts is necessary in order to identify and root out problems in ourselves that need changing. If I watch a film about a bunch of people who have racial prejudice but then fail to conclude that I might be similar to them in some ways, I will miss out. Once we identify our weaknesses, what steps can be taken to improve?
In a broad sense, solutions to injustice are usually very complicated. Also, to eliminate injustice on a wider plain involves starting programs to "equal out" differences. As i see it, programs as such run counter to the mindset of most of the world, so they will only get you so far (if we naturally treated everyone fairly, we wouldn't need a program to force us to).
So, the place to start the more long lasting solutions is actually within each of us. We absolutely have to grow our understanding of these issues of injustice and do everything in our power to not fan the flame. This will mean something different for every person. But the bottom line is that we have to have the desire to understand and love people/cultures that our different from our own, or no real progress is made. Of course there will be genocide crisis' that need dealt with on a more global level. But the average human being needs a heart change more than a program in order to improve.
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