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I don't watch many movies because I dislike the entire idea of
giving away one's time to entertainment, but recently I went out
with some friends to see the movie
Gladiator.
Apparently the movie
was billed as a gore adventure film, which is probably good marketing
because from what I could tell few people in the theater were able to
understand the real message of the movie, which is especially amusing
given the underlying metaphor it employs.
The core of the story revolves around the idea of living with honor
and the belief in value. Value here, as in all places, has to do
with purpose and meaning, not material valuations or concern for
what the mob rates highly or poorly. Though mob tastes tend to
dominate when they are asserted, they are empty victories because they
mean nothing and contribute nothing, never doing more than blocking
meaning from being expressed, shared, and known.
The plot consists of a dying emperor who wishes, as the continuation of
his will, to wash away the corruption that has overtaken Rome. To do so
he needs an innocent and noble man who can uphold this vision. But as
we have all seen, the corrupt take shortcuts, and here too a corrupt man
steps in to cut off the efforts of the noble to restore society to
its once proud and meaningful state. After seizing power, the corrupt
emperor strives to entertain the mob with the method of bread and
circuses, meaning that the mob's interests are focused primarily
on food and entertainment. With awareness of this, the new emperor
attempts to gain the mob's favor by giving them 150 days of entertainment.
In one of the spectator events, the beginning ceremony even includes loaves
of bread being literally thrown into the frenzied audience.
Though most people thought they were watching an action film about
gladiators, the entire movie stood as a metaphor for the meaningless
of modern society as a result of the attack on noble values. This in
turn leaves society in the hands of the masses where mob values dominate.
Today there are no longer noble aspirations or the desire for value; most
people even prefer that which has no value so that they can avoid what
they consider the burden of meaning. Government has failed us, most
adults have given up on life and value, and people's fear keeps them
generally either hiding who they are or acting out in an endless chain
of reactivity and subjugation to the norms they have been trained to
obey that prevents their true personality from emerging.
Throughout the film there were allusions to the actors in our cultural
death. The man who "owned" the gladiators was asked about his beliefs
and values only to answer cynically that he was an entertainer. You
will get similar response from adults who work meaningless jobs to
justify their need to "earn a living" as an excuse for being corporate
whores who trade their energy and time for material reward and the
assurance of dissatisfaction. Justifications are almost exclusively
lies; when someone justifies they try to hang their disbelief in value
upon the hook of social expectations and mercy, but we need not be fooled.
Instead of 150 days of bread and circuses, today we have junk food and
television all year long to pacify people and take their mind off the
issue of life that matter. During the day, most people work silly
jobs creating capital but little or no positive social or spiritual value,
and then they come home seeking entertainment whether from television or
other people. Just as the movie portrayed the concern of the cultural fabric
coming apart, the same happened in western society over the last 50 years
as the ideas of goal and direction have been completely forgotten and
replaced with the desire for pleasant distraction.
As the emperor discovered, the mob is fickle and its base tastes revolve
around not honor but on who can best entertain it. Though the mob has
great size, its lack of ideology and honor also means that it lacks value
and the ability to achieve anything substantial. It is surely large, but
remains powerless in all meaningful ways. That idea is contrasted in the
movie by an army of men who believe in their leader because of his honor
and vision. Though their numbers are far smaller than the mass, their
unified values are able to achieve a positive result. No one in the mob
cares for anything
and none would risk their life or anything at all because they desire
only the safe path of nothingness. Aspiration is not in them - only the
noble dream and seek to make dreams come true, for dreams and value are
every time worth risking the whole of one's existence. If one is
victorious, he has won great value, or if he has lost, he at least
has the respect of those who understand that the pursuit of value was
worth dying for.
Life without honor and value, as symbolized by the mob and their approach,
is meaningless. Valiant struggle to preserve the value of nobility will
always be glorious because it continues to keep alive the possibility
of meaning in this world, against all of those who would so quickly forsake
it.
-Jesus
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