I can’t put my finger on exactly when it happened, but some point within the last decade or so, I have stopped enjoying horror movies—particularly those involving demonic possessions, zombies, and people being replaced or inhabited by aliens or replace by gelatinously cradled pod-beings. It’s not the fear of them. It’s the sadness of protagonists watching loved ones succumb, forever imprisoned in the deepest darkness of animated death, driven only by an insatiable appetite for more death, destruction of brains, changing once thoughtful and compassionate human beings into soulless monsters.
I expect if I were to take a college course in films studies, I would learn something about the origination of these themes—how they emerged from real life historical events, peoples’ experiences translated into fiction, art imitating life, or vice-versa.
My own observable experiences during our present season of political polarization recall moments in which I have felt that sadness, that sense of loss. Most recently, I’d encountered a social media share of egregiously and astonishingly—for lack of a more accurate description—mind-numbingly stupid content from an individual I know to be an otherwise educated, intelligent, and kind human being. The content was all hyperbole—an attempt to perpetuate a narrative using a statement expressed in the negative—about a thing that “never” happens. Most of us know that a negative cannot be proven, so this individual is either choosing to engage in idiocy or they assume the rest of us are idiots. The post left me wondering if my old friend was still in there, somewhere, and what happened to them.
This also brought to mind a well-circulated video clip of Donald J Trump stating, “I love the poorly educated.” Looking back on this, I don’t think that’s what he meant.
I interact with people of all educational backgrounds; those with vast opportunities for formal education, and those whose access was limited. (Full disclosure—I am no Rhodes scholar, and do not have a master’s degree or doctorate.) I can testify that some of the “poorly educated” I’ve associated with are the smartest people I know. They are committed to harnessing the lessons of their lived experiences, employing their allotted blessing of commons sense, while approaching life with humility and the courage to ask questions. They choose to be good stewards, cultivating wisdom and developing discernment skills to optimize their capacity to be responsible, civically engaged individuals.
I don’t think Trump likes those among “the poorly educated” who choose to engage their God-given intellect. I’m no certified math whiz, but I have observed that possession of educational credentials does not always equal intelligence. Formal education and intellectual prowess do not amount to a hill of beans if one elects to forfeit employing either or both for the sake of political expedience. So, what I feel I am witnessing is collective cerebral capacity being tossed out the window for the sake of following someone who appeals to flesh--to earthly appetites; the control of the “other” rather than control of oneself. Brains are being surrendered and eaten with unbridled voraciousness. Survival of the most ruthless and blood thirsty. Who needs a horror movie when we are living this nightmare?
Like any good horror movie though, those who do not allow fear to overtake them and can persevere, holding onto hope for the sun to come up—for the light to prevail—will, in the end, remain standing.
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