Sisella Bok author of Lying the
moral choice in public and private life, defines a lie as “an intentionally
deceptive message in the form of a statement”, but is lying always wrong? This movie relates to that question. In a world where no one has ever told a lie
Mark, a fat loser with a stubby nose, is the first person to ever tell
something that is not (there way of comprehending a lie). While
he is at the lowest moment of his life about to close out his bank account he
does something unheard of, the banking system is down so he decides to try and withdrawal
more money than he has in his account.
Since anything other than telling the truth is unheard of he is successful
in his attempt, and thus the first lie has been told. So in a “perfect world” without lying he is
able to do whatever he wants. This is an
interesting concept, and an even more interesting underlying way of thought can
be taken from this. The movie questions
Paley’s arguments that cause and effect show there must be a god because we are
here living. This movie argues the
opposite causally explanation, where there is no god in a perfect world until
what most would consider an evil act creates one. While trying to comfort his dying mother Mark
creates an afterlife which stirs the world into a frenzy of questions about
this afterlife, this leads him to create an all powerful man in the sky who is
responsible for everything good and bad that happens to people. He also creates heaven where everyone gets a
mansion and any type of ice cream they could think of. This however has the opposite effect that it
is supposed to on many people; they lose any meaning that they had in this life
because they will have eternal happiness once they die. So in a world without fake happiness or
respectable avoidance of rudeness people would rather wait for their mansion in
the sky then work toward improving their current situation. Why
should someone take care of themselves if that just prolongs the amount of time
till they are happy? This is the
opposite philosophy of Antisthenes, where the goal of life, not death, is happiness.
Erik's post makes me think about The Truman Show and The Invention of Lying. There seems to be a curious comparison—In "The Invention of Lying", the ability to lie creates free will; in Truman's case, moving away from a lie is his chance at free will. In Truman’s case, he wants to escape his “perfect mansion.”
ReplyDeleteI also think Erik makes a great point about how we can easily take for granted the time and the place we occupy because we think there is a perfect realm beyond. A lot of people see the environment movement as an effort to restore the damage we have done in placing our priorities somewhere beyond where we currently reside.
The clips we saw in class on Thursday explore the implications of what we do in this life. Do we survive death? Do we go to our perfect mansion? In the Others clip, not much changes after death. (Here comes a plot spoiler so quit reading if you want to enjoy a great movie) The family does not even know they have died—their environment changes slightly because they believe they see ghosts, but they are the ghosts. It’s a reversal of what we expect.
In the clip with Nicholas Cage –City of Angels--and the clip from Defending Your Life, people simply journey forward, like taking a trip. Life is School—we learn, we move on.
In the really odd and great clip Schenectady, NY, life is a stage, but the mundane is the focus as the director tries to recreate NY life in a warehouse with a stage; our stories play out, but there is nothing beyond those stories, nothing beyond this life. The movie is a lot like Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. It is a nice example of what we call existentialism (Sartre and Nietzsche are major philosophers of existentialism)…
Then there is Southpark : )..... Heaven represents our desires; Hell is hot and we don’t get what we want. Makes me think of Eastern philosophy—our desires create disharmony and the inability to live in the moment (we want that mansion!)
Thanks for a thought provoking post, Erik and thought provoking clips.
We will finish looking at your group clips and take a closer look at What Dreams May Come and Defending your Life next week.
This movie has a very interesting cynical take on the existence of God. It's like Eric said, "God" doesn't even exist in the eyes of the people until the "evil act" of lying gradually mandates the formulation of a man in the sky who knows everything, serves up all kinds of ice cream, etc. It's like, the very description of this godlike figure is just a series of coverups for a white lie that the main character told his mother. So, in a sense this guy has strewn together a religion without really realizing it. But if it makes people feel 'good', does it really matter if said religion is founded on a web of lies? In a world where a lie is undetectable, maybe it doesn't matter, because the truth (or "big T" as Dr. G calls it) really can be defined from a sum of our observations.
ReplyDeleteBut there is always gonna be that second guy that figures out how to lie. (can't remember if this happens in the movie or not) It's like that moment where the human condition shakes the foundations and screws us out of a permanent "ignorance is bliss" existence. Thematically we see this reoccurring in a lot of movies, e.g. Truman Show, Matrix, etc
Great post(s). Vinny's notion of life "unscrewing us from ignorant bliss" is definitely a big theme. I like to call it an ontological crsis--like one of Kuhn's big paradigm shifts.
DeleteI am thinking of Forest Gump who is simply able to be Forest Gump--no "crisis' even though he could make a whiny drama out of his condition if he was so inclined (no dad/ "special"/ mistreated by many /rejected by his "girlfriend" / lost his best friend Buba/
He seems to roll with everything and does not seem to be looking for any permanent Big Truth--he stays pretty much in the moment and his sense of self is a lot more fluid than the majority of the humans.
" Life is like a box of chocolates--you never know what you are going to get." Being able to acccept what ever comes in this life rather than striving to be special or unique or famous or a victim lets Forest do more than the average human being. It also keeps him from needing to lie to himself and others.
The first big debate in philosophy was the nature of the world--Is it fluid or fixed??? Is there a big truth out there? Is truth simply the fluid acceptance of each chocolate in the box?
Stuff happens to us all, but perhaps it is how respond that truly gives us free will. :)