Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Nostalgia and Philosophy
I loved Monster on the Campus (1958). They really knew how to make cars back then. The fins on one of the DeSotos are huge, bigger than the fins on the fish that is at the center of all the horror. The girls really knew how to dress, too. Joanna Moore, who later became the mother of Tatum O’Neal, wore knee-length dresses and high heels. She could also be seen wearing white gloves that buttoned at the wrists. The 1950s are really precious and quaint in retrospect, but dangerous too. Let’s not forget the H-bomb.
In many ways Monster on the Campus could serve as an analogue to much of my discussion. Scientists tinker with things they don’t understand, and the consequences are catastrophic. They subject a primordial fish to Gamma radiation in order to kill bacteria and keep the fish from spoiling. The radiation, however, causes the bacteria to mutate and turn anyone who comes in contact with it into a monster, at least temporarily.
Scientists routinely do a lot of things to the food we eat. That’s why much of it is known as "processed." They irradiate it, put hormones, antibiotics and chemicals in it. Many people don’t consider any of this to be dangerous or undesirable. Many people do. Now they are adding things to the food that have never been added before, and they don’t even want to label it so that we will know what we are buying. And if we want to buy organic food instead of what they are offering us, that’s OK for now, but eventually there won’t be a crop available that doesn’t contain genetically modified organisms, or that hasn’t been tinkered with by some scientist or CEO. These guys are like big kids with chemistry sets. I had chemistry sets as a child. Some of my experiments ended up on my bedroom ceiling. Well these guys are experimenting too. They don’t know the real consequences of all their tinkering. The problem is, they’re experimenting with the fragile web of life on Earth. And when their experiments go wrong, you have a little more than a bedroom ceiling to clean up.
There is a major discussion in Monster on the Campus about the future of humanity. The professor says, "Unless we learn to control the instincts we’ve inherited from our ape-like ancestors, the race is doomed." Of course he’s talking about war and aggression and The Bomb, but his statement applies to other things as well, and it is also pertinent to our discussion here. Besides being the most prolific, efficient destroyer in history, man is also the most prolific creator, an attribute which we also inherited from our ancestors. Our creations have run the gamut from good to bad to indifferent. This is also true of our scientific creations. Thing is, when a scientist creates something bad, whether by accident or on purpose, his creation can sometimes destroy all life on Earth. The results can be sudden, as with a nuclear holocaust or an escaped Doomsday virus; or they can be gradual, as with the AIDS epidemic or a global mad cow epidemic. We need to control our instinct to create just as we need to control our instinct to destroy. The key word here is "control." We need to control our inclination to rush headlong into things before we know the consequences. We need to be motivated more by discovery than by profit. We need to respect the Earth from which we came, and to which we all someday return.
All the horror and mayhem in Monster on the Campus was really accidental, caused by scientists who didn’t know what they were doing. It’s no crime to be ignorant, and it’s no crime to make mistakes. Ignorance should, however, make one more cautious. In the case of scientists, at least in films, and many times in real life, ignorance seems to make them more brash. When a scientist makes a mistake in a film, that’s entertainment, and often a lesson to the wise. When a scientist makes a mistake in real life, the effects can ripple through the world for generations.
One more thing about Monster on the Campus. (I guess you can tell I really liked this film.) The professor in the story undergoes a sort of Jekyll-Hyde transformation. While he is in his Mr. Hyde self, he murders and pillages. He doesn’t realize it is he who has done these things. He thinks he is a victim. When he does come to realize his guilt, he prays for the courage to destroy the monster that is within him. I thought that was very unusual. How many people today, in real life or in film, would destroy themselves because it was the right thing to do? OK, Bruce Willis in Armageddon did let himself be blown up at the end, didn’t he? But in a society where it’s every man for himself, I thought Bruce’s self-sacrifice was unusual too. In Monster on the Campus it was interesting to watch a man with a firm moral compass, even though I considered it to be a little misguided. But I can’t fault him too much. From our ancestors we inherited greed and we inherited altruism. The world would be a better place if we had a little more of the latter.
2001
In many ways Monster on the Campus could serve as an analogue to much of my discussion. Scientists tinker with things they don’t understand, and the consequences are catastrophic. They subject a primordial fish to Gamma radiation in order to kill bacteria and keep the fish from spoiling. The radiation, however, causes the bacteria to mutate and turn anyone who comes in contact with it into a monster, at least temporarily.
Scientists routinely do a lot of things to the food we eat. That’s why much of it is known as "processed." They irradiate it, put hormones, antibiotics and chemicals in it. Many people don’t consider any of this to be dangerous or undesirable. Many people do. Now they are adding things to the food that have never been added before, and they don’t even want to label it so that we will know what we are buying. And if we want to buy organic food instead of what they are offering us, that’s OK for now, but eventually there won’t be a crop available that doesn’t contain genetically modified organisms, or that hasn’t been tinkered with by some scientist or CEO. These guys are like big kids with chemistry sets. I had chemistry sets as a child. Some of my experiments ended up on my bedroom ceiling. Well these guys are experimenting too. They don’t know the real consequences of all their tinkering. The problem is, they’re experimenting with the fragile web of life on Earth. And when their experiments go wrong, you have a little more than a bedroom ceiling to clean up.
There is a major discussion in Monster on the Campus about the future of humanity. The professor says, "Unless we learn to control the instincts we’ve inherited from our ape-like ancestors, the race is doomed." Of course he’s talking about war and aggression and The Bomb, but his statement applies to other things as well, and it is also pertinent to our discussion here. Besides being the most prolific, efficient destroyer in history, man is also the most prolific creator, an attribute which we also inherited from our ancestors. Our creations have run the gamut from good to bad to indifferent. This is also true of our scientific creations. Thing is, when a scientist creates something bad, whether by accident or on purpose, his creation can sometimes destroy all life on Earth. The results can be sudden, as with a nuclear holocaust or an escaped Doomsday virus; or they can be gradual, as with the AIDS epidemic or a global mad cow epidemic. We need to control our instinct to create just as we need to control our instinct to destroy. The key word here is "control." We need to control our inclination to rush headlong into things before we know the consequences. We need to be motivated more by discovery than by profit. We need to respect the Earth from which we came, and to which we all someday return.
All the horror and mayhem in Monster on the Campus was really accidental, caused by scientists who didn’t know what they were doing. It’s no crime to be ignorant, and it’s no crime to make mistakes. Ignorance should, however, make one more cautious. In the case of scientists, at least in films, and many times in real life, ignorance seems to make them more brash. When a scientist makes a mistake in a film, that’s entertainment, and often a lesson to the wise. When a scientist makes a mistake in real life, the effects can ripple through the world for generations.
One more thing about Monster on the Campus. (I guess you can tell I really liked this film.) The professor in the story undergoes a sort of Jekyll-Hyde transformation. While he is in his Mr. Hyde self, he murders and pillages. He doesn’t realize it is he who has done these things. He thinks he is a victim. When he does come to realize his guilt, he prays for the courage to destroy the monster that is within him. I thought that was very unusual. How many people today, in real life or in film, would destroy themselves because it was the right thing to do? OK, Bruce Willis in Armageddon did let himself be blown up at the end, didn’t he? But in a society where it’s every man for himself, I thought Bruce’s self-sacrifice was unusual too. In Monster on the Campus it was interesting to watch a man with a firm moral compass, even though I considered it to be a little misguided. But I can’t fault him too much. From our ancestors we inherited greed and we inherited altruism. The world would be a better place if we had a little more of the latter.
2001
