Marita Prandoni has a passion for exploring different cultures and worldviews. She draws inspiration from her family, tutoring extraordinary youth, meeting unexpected heroes and from the stunning natural beauty of her home turf in and around Santa Fe, NM.
| ‘The Age of Stupid’: An Environmental Film Aimed at the Third Kind of Horse |
| Thursday, 12 January 2012 | Marita Prandoni | Blog Entry |
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For the first kind of horse, you need only whisper in its ear whatever you want the horse to learn. The second kind requires that you pull on the reins to teach it to go where you want. For the third, you need to show the whip to incite it to move. With the fourth and fnal kind of horse, you must actually use the whip. This is analogous to the type of person who usually requires a tragic loss in his or her life in order to change course. The Age of Stupid is a film by Franny Armstrong and Lizzie Gillett. It weaves together six documentary stories (shot in seven countries) using drama, archival footage and animation. According to The Guardian, “Team Stupid” went to great lengths (including braving kidnap threats in Nigeria) to produce this low-budget, low-carbon-generating film. The protagonist—played by British actor and Academy Award nominee, Pete Postlethwaite—is a fictional archivist in the year 2055 looking back at the current-day complacency of humanity in the face of global warming. The tone of this movie is intended to show the whip—for folks who learn like the third kind of horse. The movie exposes the current brutal realities of people in poorer countries already suffering from the effects of global warming. Many of us are so insulated from the consequences of our lifestyles that it just doesn’t register. I hope that this film will inspire moviegoers out of their seats and into the streets. The film shows the Right Honorable John Prescott, Member of Parliament, on his way to Brussels to discuss the 2009 Copenhagen climate negotiations. “The reality is rich countries have got to carry the burden—rather than poorer countries,” he says. So it begs the question: Will The Age of Stupid reach the stupids who richly profit from the highest greenhouse-gas-polluting activities—executives from carbon-intensive industries and those who benefit the most from its largesse? And will world leaders have the courage to rein them in? My personal hope is that the movie will speak to the hearts of all viewers—including those of us who feel overwhelmed just earning enough to survive. We need to exercise collective consumer power and creativity to become better citizens, rather than mindless consumers—who are, after all, the lifeblood of big polluters. It’s not just in future generations’ interest, but also our own. The Age of Stupid is being touted as the sequel to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, although Leonardo diCaprio’s The 11th Hour also also has claimed that distinction. The flaw in both these movies is that a lecture of woes only sings to the choir—the first kind of horse. It takes artful storytelling to entice a significant audience. In the movie, the archivist challenges us: “The question I’ve been asking is, why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance? Is the answer because, on some level, we weren’t sure we were worth saving?” Let’s hope that when humanity is shown the whip by seeing this film, it’s enough to spur us to dramatic action. Because the scientific consensus is: if we fail to act now (that is, we turn out to be the fourth kind of horse), we’ll be experiencing nature’s whip all too soon. Help the Earth, Spread the Word: Share this article with family and friends by clicking on the "Email This" or "Share This" links below right. Then see TODAY'S TOP STORIES. Comments
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According to my Buddhist friend, the Buddha said that people learn the things they really need to learn in four different ways, similar to four types of horses.
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It's an overused term but this really is a must-see film. Save some carbon and get it from your local library or stream it!