The party that was to be was cancelled – good news for this over- the- hill partier – so we watched another movie New Year’s Eve that was rated highly in spite of a horrible plot. Called “Snowpiercer,” the idea was that the world got together in 2014 to spread a chemical into the atmosphere that would reverse global warming. The chemical worked all too well, and the world froze to levels that would not sustain human life. Everyone died, except for those who were able to get aboard a train run by a billionaire eccentric whose choo-choo had all that was needed to sustain life indefinitely: some sort of atomic drive, a huge aquarium for fish, a hot house for plants, even a farm for chickens and cattle. Trouble was, only the elite would get the great benefits at the front of the train. At the rear were the huddled masses, who were fed disgusting protein bars made from insects, and whose children were exploited to maintain the innards of the train, at the expense over time of their lives. As Wilford, the genius eccentric, said of the arrangement, “everyone has their place on the train. There are those meant for the front, and those who must live in the back. It is the way of the world and must be accepted” (my paraphrase). A bleak view of humanity, indeed, and not inspiring for the New Year.
I kept at the TV for another hour, though, to see the ball drop (11:00 PM my time) in New York and to watch the festivities. Maybe it was just me, but the happiness seemed too forced, too brittle, as if people were frozen in place in the real world as well. The highlight was one drunken man who was handed a microphone, and managed to get past the censors with “This is fuckin’ great,” which would have caused a meltdown in 1960, but today…what the F…? Mariah Carey lost her lip-sync and the revelers seemed more interested in finding a bathroom and another drink than anything else. The little party horns tweeted, and that seemed to be that.
Slightly depressed, I went to bed, but a few days have brought me to think: what is this brittleness, this fakeness? Could it be linked somehow to that movie, “Snowpiercer” and its dark message? The message, that is, that human nature is dark – that left unrestrained, humans inevitably bring about their own misery?
At the end of the movie, apparently only two are left alive – a young female and an even younger male, who might, maybe, re-populate the Earth together. But we are still left with the question: why? If we are such miserable SOB’s, why keep on going?
I think that was what was troubling in the NYC celebration. When young people were asked what they hoped for the most for the upcoming year, the most coherent reply was “more partying.” Of course they were drunk, but the question remains: if life is only about partying for those at the head of the train, and about misery for those at the tail, what is there to live for? Even the well-off get sick and die – often from partying, but more often not. They – we – just die, after a life of ups and downs. As my now-deceased friend Bill put it, “Life sucks and then you die.” Pull out the party favors. Whoop-ee!
Bob Dylan, in “All Along the Watchtower” sang that he no longer believed that “life is but a joke.” But he could only leave us with our longing, not an explanation, not an answer. Those of us old enough to have witnessed both life being born and life ending know it is not a joke. There is something so great, so deep, so broad…but we cannot ever seem to put our finger on it. Some give up trying to and “party more.” Others fall into despair. Much of the despair comes from the recognition that life, indeed, does suck sometimes – and that human beings will act terribly as predictably as the sun rising. Deeper still, the despair comes from the not-knowing, from the elusiveness of the mystery. As a fool said to Mr. Natural, “Oh, the problem of duality!” Mr. Natural passed it off as self-involved pity, but again, gave no answer.
To the point, there is no answer – no cogent phrase or paragraph that can capture the mystery. Rather, what is required is a parallel worldview that leads one to an answer beyond conventional answers. Faith, as always, is at first required to accept that parallel worldview, with the belief that this will lead us on. But we do not want to be Mr. Natural’s fool. While the “fuckin’” got past the censors, if the reveler had said, “I am hoping the love of Christ grows in me,” or something of like nature (Allah, Buddha nature, God-wisdom), I believe it would have bothered the censors more. What a buzz-kill!
But it is what we need. We humans, who constantly separate ourselves from the front and back of the train, cannot do it alone. Faith, trust, hope and determination on a spiritual path is what we need. Maybe a buzz-kill, but never depressing to those who have found – as the Lakota put it – the “Good Red Road.” FK
I kept at the TV for another hour, though, to see the ball drop (11:00 PM my time) in New York and to watch the festivities. Maybe it was just me, but the happiness seemed too forced, too brittle, as if people were frozen in place in the real world as well. The highlight was one drunken man who was handed a microphone, and managed to get past the censors with “This is fuckin’ great,” which would have caused a meltdown in 1960, but today…what the F…? Mariah Carey lost her lip-sync and the revelers seemed more interested in finding a bathroom and another drink than anything else. The little party horns tweeted, and that seemed to be that.
Slightly depressed, I went to bed, but a few days have brought me to think: what is this brittleness, this fakeness? Could it be linked somehow to that movie, “Snowpiercer” and its dark message? The message, that is, that human nature is dark – that left unrestrained, humans inevitably bring about their own misery?
At the end of the movie, apparently only two are left alive – a young female and an even younger male, who might, maybe, re-populate the Earth together. But we are still left with the question: why? If we are such miserable SOB’s, why keep on going?
I think that was what was troubling in the NYC celebration. When young people were asked what they hoped for the most for the upcoming year, the most coherent reply was “more partying.” Of course they were drunk, but the question remains: if life is only about partying for those at the head of the train, and about misery for those at the tail, what is there to live for? Even the well-off get sick and die – often from partying, but more often not. They – we – just die, after a life of ups and downs. As my now-deceased friend Bill put it, “Life sucks and then you die.” Pull out the party favors. Whoop-ee!
Bob Dylan, in “All Along the Watchtower” sang that he no longer believed that “life is but a joke.” But he could only leave us with our longing, not an explanation, not an answer. Those of us old enough to have witnessed both life being born and life ending know it is not a joke. There is something so great, so deep, so broad…but we cannot ever seem to put our finger on it. Some give up trying to and “party more.” Others fall into despair. Much of the despair comes from the recognition that life, indeed, does suck sometimes – and that human beings will act terribly as predictably as the sun rising. Deeper still, the despair comes from the not-knowing, from the elusiveness of the mystery. As a fool said to Mr. Natural, “Oh, the problem of duality!” Mr. Natural passed it off as self-involved pity, but again, gave no answer.
To the point, there is no answer – no cogent phrase or paragraph that can capture the mystery. Rather, what is required is a parallel worldview that leads one to an answer beyond conventional answers. Faith, as always, is at first required to accept that parallel worldview, with the belief that this will lead us on. But we do not want to be Mr. Natural’s fool. While the “fuckin’” got past the censors, if the reveler had said, “I am hoping the love of Christ grows in me,” or something of like nature (Allah, Buddha nature, God-wisdom), I believe it would have bothered the censors more. What a buzz-kill!
But it is what we need. We humans, who constantly separate ourselves from the front and back of the train, cannot do it alone. Faith, trust, hope and determination on a spiritual path is what we need. Maybe a buzz-kill, but never depressing to those who have found – as the Lakota put it – the “Good Red Road.” FK
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