So, they have to be monsters

Posted on May 19, 2012 by

Il Grido (1957)

Humans, Hickling said, have a fundamental need to create and maintain a narrative for their lives in which the universe is not implacable and heartless, that terrible things do not happen at random, and that catastrophe can be avoided if you are vigilant and responsible.

“We are vulnerable, but we don’t want to be reminded of that. We want to believe that the world is understandable and controllable and unthreatening, that if we follow the rules, we’ll be okay. So, when this kind of thing happens to other people, we need to put them in a different category from us. We don’t want to resemble them, and the fact that we might is too terrifying to deal with. So, they have to be monsters.”

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Deep-rooted craving for obliteration

Posted on May 19, 2012 by

Time of the Wolf (2003)

“The panic attack was to the Noughties what cocaine was to the Nineties: it was the adrenalin rush of choice.

To my mind, the period’s key film-maker was not Lars von Trier or Michael Haneke, but Roland Emmerich, the Hollywood schlockmeister.

In two movies – The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 – he gave powerful voice to the public’s deep-rooted craving for obliteration.” (Toby Young)

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More heat waves are coming

Posted on May 17, 2012 by

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

“We know that more heat waves are coming. Every major report on global warming—including the recent White House study—warns that an increase in severe heat waves is likely. The only way to prevent another heat disaster is to address the isolation, poverty, and fear that are prevalent in so many American cities today. Until we do, natural forces that are out of our control will continue to be uncontrollably dangerous.” (Eric Klinenberg)

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Born into a planet already wrecked

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

Germany Year Zero (1948)

“Maybe a hundred years down the line, nobody will look back at climate change as the most important issue of the early 21st century, because the damage will have been done, and the idea that it might have been prevented will seem absurd. Maybe the idea that Mali and Burkina Faso were once inhabited countries rather than empty deserts will seem queer, and the immiseration of huge numbers of stateless refugees thronging against the borders of the rich northern countries will be taken for granted. The absence of the polar ice cap and the submersion of Venice will have been normalised; nobody will think of these as live issues, no one will spend their time reproaching their forefathers, there’ll be no moral dimension at all. We will have wrecked the planet, but our great-grandchildren won’t care much, because they’ll have been born into a planet already wrecked.”
The Economist (Dec. 12, 2011)

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