Introduction
Mass culture is the contemporary location that both publicly give the idea that those pleasant feelings evolve in the enjoyment of racial difference. Cultural issues on sexuality have now been changed because media has made the issue open for everyone so that it is now fun to have the feelings and desires of the “other” brought to the fore, debunking the idea of the white supremacy. There is primitiveness in the desires about the “Other” that maintains the status quo. (Hooks).
Most films that have attempted to focus on positive topics have either dropped in sales or gone off the theaters in haste. It became evident therefore that viewers will watch if there is trouble. For the artist, fulfillment depends on how well he portrays reality and its effects. For the people who are bastions of morality and ethics and good moral sense, it is best that hope and love are portrayed instead of vengeance and hatred (Hooks).
The message that the exploration of the differences in race is at all pleasurable can be quite intriguing. But this means that desire encourages resistance and it is just as important that these issues be brought to fore (Hooks). It is this paper’s premise that the failure of generations of parents and other adults to attempt to understand and communicate with young people has lead to countless incidents of suffering throughout communities.
Main body
Often, several youth cliques with similar norms and values coalesce into larger. More loosely organized aggregations. Not only do cliques permit adolescents to express their values and try out new roles as they begin their quest to forge an identity apart from their families, but they also pave the way for the establishment of relationships. Many scoffed at the Source Foundation not long ago when they warned America that despite what the establishment (traditional American’s) thought, they (the hip-hop based community) had more influence over young people than traditional institutions such as churches, schools, and even families.
The challenge from the Source Foundation and what is deemed as “new school” youth inspired this journal. Exploring urban youth and youth culture and attempting to understand the minds and thoughts of our young people offer a window of opportunity for new changes. The failure of generations of parents and other adults to attempt to understand and communicate with young people has lead to countless incidents of suffering throughout communities.
Meanwhile, according to Louis Althusser, if a person does not do what he is supposed to do, because he believes that as such, but instead does the opposite or something contrary to his beliefs, then he is being inconsistent and even shows his sense of confusion. One, therefore, looks at the rituals that may have influenced these inconsistencies which are based on an ideology which makes individuals as subjects (Althusser).
In the light of this, the paper will look into two movies Fight Club and The Matrix and explore how each movie delves into the issue of other-directed people and what it does to individuality, agency and activism. This is because, as Dyer states, the person is directed in the totality of his role. He is an individual made up of different areas that combines to a unique individual. The movie “Fight Club” is contrary to the title that is adopts since it is not a street fight or a story of clubs that engages in fights. On the contrary, it is the story that delves into the inner psyche of a man who rebels against the consumer society.
It is some sort of a black comedy that adopts satire in its plot exploring the values of young people and the value system of advertising. Even the violence used had a purpose that was based on the feelings of the conflict between the generations. On the other hand, the movie ‘The Matrix’ delivered a strong message to movie viewers where they pondered about the realities of life and how much people have been inner-directed at first but found that as they go through life, they become other-directed.
In the movie, Thomas Anderson, also called Neo when he was a computer hacker, learned the reasons for the emptiness he was feeling, the reasons for what seemed to be a shallow existence was that he was living in the Matrix, a world created of artificial intelligence (AI). Mr. Anderson, as the sentinels or keepers of the matrix would call him, discovered the truth with the help of Morpheus, who believed that Anderson is the One who will save Zion. The movie centered on Neo’s journey to find the truth and realize his destiny. The first part of the movie dealt with the question “What is the Matrix?” This was a question that Anderson asked those who were recruiting him.
Through a long process of introduction into the new belief, Anderson or Neo discovered that the life he thought was real was programmed so as the AI beings can continuously enslave humans. As it turned out, because of man’s reliance on machines that led to the creation of artificially intelligent forms, the AI beings eventually took control. These beings used humans for their power source when the sun became unavailable because of a nuclear disaster that blocked out the sun’s penetration. This, in itself, is a social commentary for the people living today, where humans are becoming more and more dependent on computers and machines.
It is not farfetched that the continuous search for knowledge could eventually lead to the creation of AI, which scientists have been trying to create for a very long time now. Having built such beings, it would not be unimaginable that such beings would attempt to overthrow the humans that created them. The movie tells of the self-destructive nature of humans, and establishes the possibility that one day, human beings would be the cause of their own destruction. This is a film that uses one of the methods of stereotyping through iconography. The film used a kind of visual and aural symbols to denote reference to a Messiah, which Neo symbolized in the movie.
There are many names that are biblical in nature, such as Zion, the city where the rebels of the AI system live, the woman Trinity, and the ship Nebuchadnezzar. Neo symbolized the messiah in the movie as Morpheus thought him to be the One that will save the city of Zion. Neo also symbolized self-realization in humans, as he struggled to discover his true worth and power, being blinded by doubts imprinted in his mind through years of slavery under the AI beings.
As Hooks expounds, the commodification of the otherness has been so successful because it is given as something new in the movie making the viewers experience a new kind of genre that urges people not to accept things as they appear, but to search for truth and reality. The movie tackles questions that humans ask themselves every once in a while. Even if the movie did not provide all satisfactory answers to the inquiring minds, the questions about reality remain.
Both The Matrix and Fight Club portray violence in a different kind of way. Indeed, instead of looking into artistic integrity, these films create more problems than benefits for viewers. The more uniquely bizarre the problem, the better it is for the creators. Thus, these people who come and intend only to be entertained, absorb some part of the inner message that may not be ethical. And even though the stated goal of the film is to entertain and present only the realities of the situation, the amount of inaccurate information they give viewers about their problems is staggering. There are varied ways in which these films cause problems.
Essentially, these problems are the result of three broad categories of tactics such as providing bad advice and no resolutions for problems and reinforcing stereotypes rather than defusing them. In the end, it is important to note that people are responsible for their own actions. It is a given fact that filmmakers are responsible to the truth. It is a given fact that executives stress their responsibility to the bottom line. But it is also a given fact that when left unchecked, mixed messages are distorted beyond recognition that there arise unrealistic solutions which often result in problems for viewers.
Conclusion
In his book, “The Lonely Crowd,” David Riesman speaks of three kinds of characters in his book. The first character is one who is one is tradition-directed succumbing to the cultural demands to act in a way that is approved—one that is executed out of fear of being in the center of being shamed. The second one is inner-directed and in driven basically by parents. This person behaves according to this internal kind of influence and is often having feelings of guilt instead of shame, especially if his behavior changes to these values instilled in him/her by parents. The last one is other-directed and is what the author terms as “the lonely crowd.”
These other-directed individuals are governed primarily by their set of peers at any given moment. According to Riesman, these kinds of individuals have internal “radar” that senses and responds to their peers and establishes closeness among each other even if it appears superficial as they respond to other people. According to the author, this kind of category is where most Americans are categorized since these are the inner-directed individuals. The other-directed kind of individual is comfortable in any environment. He picks up cues from all people around him. They have a kind of thinking that conforms to the dictates of society and are afraid of being outside of what is dictated by tradition.
He gives the example of the stable population during the Middle Ages when there was little influence of industrialization on cultures, thus most people possess the tradition-directed character type. (Riesman). These people based their lives on the rules which were dictated mainly by power relations among the various age and sex groups and professions, which all remained constant for generations. Then, the period of technological progress came about and this happened during the Renaissance and the Reformation period where the people began to be self-reliant and to pursue goals by themselves based on the values of wealth and science, religion and beauty.
Consequently, materialism began to take over and society became less dynamic while the members became other-directed. People clamored to be a part of the mainstream, conforming to the expectations of the peer groups. Thus, the culture of the United States evolved more and more into a generation of other-directed individuals. Even if the author was just pointing out these delineations, people came to regard it and apply it in their own social context and thus, the book became a great read. Indeed, it can be implied that the behavior of other-directed individuals is governed mainly by who they are with at the present time.
Works Cited
Althusser, Louis. Ideology & Ideological States Apparatuses.
Hooks, Bell. Eating the Other: Desire and Resistances.
Riesman, David. The Lonely Crowd. Yale University Press. XI- 386.