Honestly, I was really dejected after COP 26 (the last climate summit in Glasgow), while I was also becoming tired and discouraged trying to encourage people to pay attention to the climate crisis and engage basic actions.
Recently, the movie “Don’t Look Up” made a big splash. Unfortunately, most of the discussion around the movie has been about the merits of the film. Reviews have varied from laudatory to condemning. Liberals and green folks sum up their impressions with how artful and well-written the movie was. Nobody but one FB friend highlighted A CALL TO ACTION as a takeaway after watching it. This sad reality reenacts precisely what the movie parodies.
I posted about the movie at my own FB page after watching it (which I enjoyed and found both funny and disturbing) with a challenge to friends: GET INVOLVED IN CLIMTE ACTION THAT MATTERS. Only two out of dozens that responded to the post indicated an interest in getting involved, nothing definitive, just a curiosity. And that is also precisely the inaction and nonchalance the movie portrays; it’s been played out in real-time in peoples’ response to the movie since it was released. 🙄
And this is where we stand.
In other quarters, the GOP stands to take over both houses of congress (as well as more of our rights) this year and that equates to less climate action than what is already insufficient. The USA significantly influences to the rest of the world—many countries follow our lead or remain inactive to reduce emissions per our example—which is part of why Biden fought so hard to have a robust plan for the US going to Glasgow, which all but failed. So, the dominoes are in plain sight, as is the comet. All this means we citizens have to get more involved, more active, than the very little that most currently are (but please pretend I didn’t say that).
Spoiler Alert: movie contents divulged . . .
One thing I really liked about the movie is that it ends in total destruction. Happy endings of hope have seemed to just put people back to sleep. In our never-ending denial and escape from feeling a bit of healthy guilt or remorse, or going out of our way for the greater good without being paid, when we hear of action or see it, we imagine someone else will make the sacrifice. And yes, it is a sacrifice. But not that sacrifices are bad—that’s just another part of our responsibility denialism. Sacrifice derives from the same etymology as sacred, after all. We feel we shouldn’t have to give anything up, even if it means saving our lives. In the words of Robert Swan:
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
Media, especially social and film, have the strange effect of making reality seem fictional, that what we read or see here is not about anything real out in the world. And the more something is stated, the more it seems to go unnoticed—a dangerous paradox.
The white elephant in the Don’t Look Up movie theatre room is action, but if you name and promote action, paradoxically and absurdly, you’ve prevented most from grokking that they need to act. By stating it, you’ve made it invisible. This paradox and reverse psychology was also employed in the title of the film: by telling people not to look up, they just may (but I didn’t just say that). By not offering any climate action tips, the producers make the best possible pitch for getting people involved: they empower you and me to seek answers, so that we are proud of ourselves rather than resisting “being told what to do.” But I didn’t just that either.
Not naming action (by way of a quaint and polite encouragement at the end, for example) was also brilliant of the producers, in my opinion. They likely recognize the paradoxical screen-time entertainment effect I just mentioned, and that the reason for why **enough/most** people do not get involved in climate action is not answered or solved by encouraging them to. If you’re different, props.
Now, please, please pretend you read none of this here and that I didn’t speak of white elephants. And god forbid, don’t watch the movie if it furthers your trance of holding the virtual world entirely separate from reality. Oh, and if you want to learn two of the best ways to get involved in climate action, please email me. I don’t dare post it here, lest it become immediately invisible đź’ˇ
Warming regards, Jack
