10/13/2011 The Fashionable Answers

Yesterday I outlined a humorist attack on environmental worst-practices that would take the form of a short comedic film categorized as an “en-com”.  Collected together these short pieces would make up an Ecologue,

By calling this compilation an Ecologue, do I mean to call attention to Virgil’s Eclogue, or pastoral poems, that he wrote two thousand years ago?  Not really, although at the time he came up with his rustic conversations they reflected worries about future of the Roman Empire.  His shepherds consoling each other in alexandrines expressed doubts about the course of events.  Standing on a hillside making sure wolves didn’t descend upon their flock, these lyrical herders, far from the bustle of Rome, could relax and muse on the larger picture.  

I feel a similarity living in New Mexico at the present time.  Not caught hustling down a New York street, or trying to thread my way through L.A. traffic, I observe the world from a calmer setting.  In lieu of sheep I let students graze among the equipment at CNM’s studio and herd them down a digital pathway.  While I’m doing this, I muse upon the course of events in film clips, as opposed to alexandrines, and give them a coherent theme, viz., why do people in the face of extinction continue to ignore the obvious?

One of the fashionable answers, to paraphrase Neil Postman, is that we’re distracting ourselves to death.  I’m not sure this is necessarily the case, but if it is a contributory cause for our not seeing what’s in front of our face, then I think it would make an amusing en-com film.  There are schools of psychology that say we repress what we can’t handle, and I imagine extinction would qualify in this regard, so a frenzied need to be preoccupied by anything but the main thing threatening our lives would be ridiculous and true.

Another popular answer is that, since we can’t predict the future, what doesn’t immediately concern us shouldn’t concern us at all.  This is the penny wise, pound foolish notion imputed to a generation that cannot delay their gratification.  If this

live-for-today-because-tomorrow-we-might-be-dead ideal were the primary reason for people ignoring impending environmental catastrophe then no one would bother raising children, and from what I can see, the family, no matter how dysfunctional the unit, is still around.  Still, this aspect of being unable to restrain any immediate impulse has great comic potential as seen in “Animal House” when John Belushi stuffs himself with a hamburger before he reaches the end of the cafeteria line.

Currently I’ve noticed that one of the humorous themes sit coms like “Glee” and “Parks and Rec” are featuring is the person who recognizes a pessimistic outlook and embraces it with cynicism and anger.  The favorite character is essentially a libertarian nutcase who proudly is only out for number one.  Like some demented Ayan Rand hero, they actively promote selfishness to the point of where they would be unembarrassed being the last person standing on a planet smoldering in ruins.  This après moi, le deluge outlook is a good comic counterpoint to the humorless, overly earnest politically correct saint.  Given the state of our environment and the powerless desperation of people who resent anyone attributing blame in their direction, I don’t think it’s surprising that we’re seeing more and more of this type of scornful character.  But in the final analysis, no matter how unbearable the goody two shoes person playing opposite them acts, this sarcastic antagonist is someone no one would ever want to live with.