Monday, March 21, 2011

Freedom vs. Fate - The Theology of Hollywood

In this video blog, Fr. Barron discusses the opposition of divine freedom vs. divine fate, as expressed in the film The Adjustment Bureau.  Are we truly free, or are we hampered by predestination?  Or can both be true at the same time?

The Bad Theology of the Adjustment Bureau.

This is a nice quick example of the sort of Catholic thinking that I found so intriguing and refreshing when I first began to consider returning to the Church.  One of the most incredible things about Catholic thought is that it moves you past our dictatorship of relativism - past the world of opinions - and into a worldview where thoughts are measured against an objective standard.

When Hollywood makes a film like The Adjustment Bureau, they are doing more than providing us with entertainment.  Engaging as the film may be, it is yet another in a long list of works that demonstrate one consistent thing:  that Hollywood has no idea what it is talking about.  In other words, the men and women in Hollywood lack the philosophical and theological formation to consistently be able to say anything of worth.  Their love of human freedom may occasionally lead them to say something true or beautiful (as even a blind horse may find water), but on the whole they have little of worth to share with us.

Compare this film to the thought and heart found in Bella or The Human Experience, and you will gain a clearer understanding of what I am claiming.  Movies can be more than just movies.

Of course this is yet another type of thinking which is peculiar to the culture at large: that entertainment can be more than entertainment, and that entertainment should never sacrifice meaning.  It's really quite simple: the people who work in the entertainment business want you to buy their product.  They want you to see a movie and tell all your friends that it was "awesome" or "really sad" or "totally dope," or "it was worth seeing the hot chick in it" (why else do you think that Monica Belluci was dressed as she was in the Matrix sequels?  Because it curbed every man's potential critique of the terrible plot by resorting to our natural reaction to excessive cleavage.)

They want you to buy it because "it was hilarious," or because "it has good beats."  They certainly don't want you to sit around and discuss whether or nor the Matrix sequels betrayed their initial philosophical assumptions, whether Monica Belluci really is a good actress or not, or whether the "beats" in rap music are good or interesting when compared with just about anything else (they're not.)  They certainly don't want you to start expecting intellectual value in your media consumption, or anything which can ennoble or inspire your character.  (That takes more work to produce.)  They simply want for you to consume, and it's exactly what you've been trained to do.

Being Catholic has - in a sense - ruined popular culture for me, because most if it simply "doesn't do it for me anymore."  I can't "just watch it" or "just feel it" - my mind cannot be divorced from the process, and my soul has begun to give reactions to everything I encounter that I cannot ignore.  The simple truth is that we cannot live or consume media in a moral vacuum:  everything we watch, read, or listen to has a deep and abiding affect on us.  The difference is that some people realize it, while others don't want to realize it, while some have become so desensitized that they cannot (yet) realize it.

Aside from the media consumerist mentality, there is another sinister idea that you've been sold: that popular culture and Hollywood are the only places from which to get your entertainment.  This is as false as saying that Walmart is the only place where you can buy good steak.  There is an entire world - literally centuries worth - of works which were meant to bring you beauty, ennoble your character, and edify your mind.  In the end, the choice is simple: do I simply kill time (and myself) with questionable entertainment, or do I take my entertainment with a healthy helping of actual meaning?

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