In this article, I write about how film can be an analogy for the good system. What the two have in common, what we can learn from movies and why film is important to transport the vision.
Film is not art
Film is not art. Film is a conglomeration of different art forms, which come together and form a new kind of, well, art.
Ok, film is art, or it can be art. It can also be a commercial or educational, like art. Ok, film is art. But it is very different from a book or a painting, where one artist creates all and has more or less one job.
In movies, you have writers, painters, photographers, actors, costume makers, editors, directors and many more who do their job to create an art piece.
All these people not only do their job, they create art that exists for itself. You can read the script, wear the costumes or listen to the music. This is what film makes so fascinating, at least for me. You have all these pieces that form the puzzle, and each of them is important.
The good system works the same. Everyone contributes to the system, everyone does their job, everyone creates a small system. In a good system, everyone is a creator, an artist.
Work together, do a good job
To make the system good, everyone needs to do a good job. In a good or even great movie, if you see the microphone in minute 17 for two frames, you can be assured there will be several YouTube videos talking about how bad the movie is because of this. And then they give it only 70% on rottentomatoes.com.
Naturally, the good system is not as harsh. You are allowed to make mistakes, you shall make mistakes because you and we all learn best from failures.
But these critics are of high value for the good system because it can only get better and develop if it is criticized. The harshest critics always come from the inside, and that is a good thing.
Who is the director of your life?
Although I think the analogy between movies and the good system is good. Otherwise, I wouldn’t write about it, probably. It is not perfect. For example, who is the director in our good system? The government, you could say. This is partly true because the government decides in which direction the good system develops. But the government is made of people who all do a part.
It also depends on how you define directing. There are tyrants who see themselves on top of the hierarchical order, and there are team-players who listen to the other artists and implement their ideas.
The government of our good system is surely the latter one because we make the decisions together and the government only works on our behalf.
That’s a good movie
Furthermore, we are all the directors of our little movie called life. Which come all together to a panopticon, and it conglomerates into one big movie.
One movie or life may be better than another, but who defines good? Some people love romantic movies, others horror movies, and some like even documentaries. Some are happy living in a quirky arthouse movie, others want a blockbuster with stardom and bling bling.
The variety of movie genres is nearly as broad as humans.
Under the influence
As humans, movies do not exist in an empty space. Often the end product is not what the writer has thought of. That’s because so many people are involved but also because of money, technology, and the access to it or the talent.
We have to make our movies aka lives in an environment that influences us. In good and bad ways. The good system has to take care, that it is as good as possible for everyone. That means you may not have big cars in your movie, but also you cannot make a documentary about starving children because there are none.
This is propaganda
Movies have another important role in our good system. Film helps people to envision things like the good system. You can show how life looks like in a system that exists to support every human being. You can do this in much more detail and much more engaging than in a simple blog.
This may be propaganda, which is per se not a bad thing. It is a tool to use to bring your vision to the people. If your vision is bad for people, propaganda is a dangerous weapon, if the vision is to make the best for humans, it is a great tool. Like a hammer. You can build houses to keep people warm and safe with it, or you can kill someone by smashing his head. As we have seen in many movies.
What a great segue back to our topic.
What can we learn from movies?
We can learn from movies, that film can be considered an analogy for the good system. Everyone is entitled to do his best to create something great. The good system supports you.
Every job is different and has another impact on the final product. But every detail counts and everyone is necessary to make something beautiful.
Furthermore, film helps us to inform people about the good system. It can make the vision come alive.
You are the director of your life, but you need help from many different artists to make it the best possible. Not everything may work out as you imagine, and you will make mistakes, but that’s ok because we are all humans and there are no rottentomates to rate us.
My name is Ian DeBay.
I am the founder of iandebay.com. I am a content creator, blogger, podcast, YouTuber. This is my blog where I talk about system change, sustainability and other fun stuff.
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