Entertainment, comedy, music...they used to be, for the most part, about what they were titled. Created to make you laugh, evoke an emotion, take you someplace, help you escape. There were always outliers, people of talent hoping to convey a deeper idea...and members of the audience looking for that. But in the current climate in my country, and it seems most other places, these things are far more often than not serving one purpose- planting a flag.
They have become a means of declaring what tribe you are in, or determining what tribe someone else is in. "Tribe" in this case being your belief system...and more unfortunate and unintentionally nefarious than that, a measurement to reconcile for an unforgiving and un-adjustable complete match up of your belief system.
Does the maker of the entertainment hold fast to every single value you have? Or are they of an enemy tribe. Do the people entertained by it hold fast to the same?
Anyone able to take a step back and review history can see that such a person will never exist. Even the most dedicated apostles of any well defined religion, written down in black and white will not hold fast to the same interpretation. For some reason a large percentage of the population has forgotten this. And consider anyone with even a slight variation of their beliefs to be of an enemy tribe. They...we...have principals we hold dear, movements we believe in, principals we value. Those things are important. But are those things not a means to an end? the end being the ability for each and every one of us to be able to find joy?
In a often harsh and complicated world, isn't joy actually what we are all looking for? What we are all hoping for each other?
And isn't entertainment a vehicle for that?
We have run headlong into an era where it is not. Because we are not allowing it to. Every song, movie, tv show, comedy routine...is parsed and dissected for clues as to what deeper meaning it has about whatever we hold dear. Parsed and dissected for clues as to if it's maker is of our tribe or is the enemy. If the maker is of our tribe the entertainment gets a nod in the affirmative, if the maker is not he or she is lashed out at. In neither case is our guard dropped enough to simply be entertained...to find the simple joy in it.
You can see examples anywhere you look. I'll take my last blog as an example. It was about the Captain Marvel movie. A movie about a super hero who shoots lasers and flies...and fight space aliens. The culture I live in decided that movie needs to be a line in the sand. Should Captain Marvel be a woman, should that woman have some message of feminism, should she be viewed this way or that.
IT IS JUST A STUPID MOVIE.
Find some joy in it or ignore it.
I wrote a blog...foolishly thinking that I could take the notion of it being worth arguing about and extrapolate it further into arguing that it didn't have enough diversity. I don't care about this movie...I'm not going to go see it because it looks stupid...and that is my only reason for not going and my only thoughts on it, because I am a grown man and it is a movie about a woman who shoots lasers, flies, and fights aliens. The ten year old version of me would care slightly more than that. The ten year old version of me would be pissed that it is a different Captain Marvel than the one he read about. So I let myself connect with that ten year old version and have a little fun bitching...and give a little info on the history of the character. I should not have been surprised when it evoked arguing on some social media platforms and people assumed I had some larger statement to make.
I wasn't exactly surprised...but I was disappointed.
Not everything matters, or has a point beyond simply being entertaining...simply attempting to give some joy.
It's just a movie. A movie can be just a movie and a joke can be just a joke and a song can be just a song.
You can accept this and go back to finding joy in things, or you can go through life with your back arched and head on a swivel...but that seems like a miserable, stressful way to live....and I won't be joining you.
"I'll be right here, having fun as usual" John Miller - American Graffiti
because
"human Joy is Precious" Wye Oka - Holy, holy, holy
and if you are able to find joy in things, I guess we're part of the same tribe in a pretty profound way, these days.
