The Lorax

I have a place in my heart for Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax". I have be to careful when I read it, because I am known to get very sad reading it. I was very skeptical of the movie adaptation and horrified at the car commercials that declared themselves "Truffula tree approved". Nonetheless, I allowed myself to be convinced to attend the movie with my wife and her best friend.

I was shocked, and I was amazed, and deeply moved by the sincerity and integrity this bright and immensely funny cartoon managed to maintain in its 88 minutes.

The show managed several very important things. First, it made you empathize for the tragic central figure "The Once-ler". It made the character sympathetic, while still making him responsible for the stories central tragedy. Second, it did not turn the Lorax into an active figure. Although the movie did add a certain amount of comic shenanigans for Danny Devito, but this was used to heighten the punch of tragic sequences by providing a certain amount of mood whiplash and giving the tearjerker moments some camouflage to hide behind. And third, it didn't tone down the message for public consumption- although it did provide a modest happy ending.

What surprised me was how angry the film felt. I could feel the film maker's outrage flaring behind the day glow landscape and outrageous characters and costumes. There was fire in this creation and I can honestly say that I didn't expect it.

This film has generated much outrage from the conservative quarter. And that to is a good sign. I like movie that cause conservatives to recoil in horror and scream propaganda and sacrilege. And when a children's movie that is so touching and powerful to get that reaction, I get a shiver- and a desire to buy tickets to this movie for all the small children that I know.

Occupy

The Occupy movement seems to have bubbled up like built up swamp gas and erupted in chaotic and ill timed blasts here and there to great shock, but little lasting effect. I have yet to be truly impressed by the Occupy movement. I sympathize with them, but they are too laden with drugs and ulterior motives from too many groups trying to use and manipulate them for me to side with them. 

That said, I do think that the Occupy movement is driven by a genuine populist revolutionary discontent. I do feel that this is a sign of the times so to speak. The people, especially the young people, are looking at the status quo and saying "No. This does not work. I will not support this thing any longer." And I think that this is a necessary thing. I do not think that this is a good thing or a bad thing, but necessary is not always good or bad.

When I read that we must send money and food aid to West Africa, because the rainy season does not allow for a long enough growing season to produce enough food to feed the population, I am struck by our stupidity. If the landbase cannot support the population, then any food relief will simply make the crisis worse next time. And this is the way. Grow until the system cracks from the strain, and then expand to new territory to use that new resource base to feed further growth.

This has worked for centuries and has allowed our elites to live very well. But we have run out of places to expand into. We are running out of resources to tap. The toxins produced by our lifestyle are piling up.

We can only live in defiance of biological law for so long until the court of Mother Nature renders judgement upon us. The mildly stupid Superhero 'the Tick' once noted that "Gravity is a harsh mistress."

Well, so is biology. The laws that govern population growth are the same for llamas and otters and ticks and liver flukes and humans, to paraphrase Daniel Quinn. We are not special, we are the same decaying matter as everything else, to paraphrase Chuck Palaniuck.

People like the Occupy movement are becoming, more or less, aware of the problems inherent in our system. It does work. It can't work. And whether we like it or not, sooner or later it is going to fail. Like West Africa, famine is inevitable. Because even if we stave disaster off this year, we are not living within biological limits, and eventually we must pay the Piper.