Global Oneness
Posted: April 27th, 2009 | Author: John | Filed under: Good Advice | Tags: international, video | 7 Comments »Something about this Global Oneness video is so true but so meaningless. Where is the line between lofty truth and meaningless generalities and rhetoric? And why is it that some people hear truth and some people hear meaninglessness in the same message? The imagery in this video is stunning, and inspires some global tale of desperation, adventure, poverty with the contrast of big city opulence. But it also begs to be mocked, just a little bit. Or perhaps it’s just my conservative education that makes me laugh a little at these idealistic visions of “global oneness.” Instead of talking about global peace, let’s just deal with the concrete problems, one at a time, on a local level, helping real individuals.
Part of Slumdog Millionaire’s success was it’s vibrant portrayal of India’s slum culture. It found beauty in the trash. Did it romanticize it too much, or did it simply capture the childlike exuberance, despite the filth? It intimately brought us into another world, opening our eyes to the universality of human love (and brutality and selfishness). And it worked, because we knew our characters’ histories and childhood dreams. The central claim that I took from Slumdog was that beauty exists everywhere, for all people and that a loving providence prevails when/if we embrace selfless love.
But when a story becomes too archetypal it loses grounding in the gritty details that make it real and thus, universal. Something about this little video is too universal and lacks grounding in a clear argument.
My mom shared this with me via her blog.
I really like the way you phrase this statement: "…when a story becomes too archetypal it loses grounding in the gritty details that make it real and thus, universal." It says a lot about the dance of the storyteller.
I also agree that the Oneness video is readily mockable. The idea of somehow creating oneness "collectively" is a kind of logical barrier. Unity happens only when individuals come together in freedom and love. And we all must remember that this world will never be a utopia. Humans are inherently selfish and it is dangerous to begin placing faith in collectivism. Crowds are only as smart as their members, and often fall short of that. Individuals are most responsible (and charitable) when they are self-reliant, and accountable to their own consciences. Look at Europe: individuals have all but stopped giving to charity. Why? Because they have become complacent as their socialized governments have "taken on" those responsibilities.
But the question is really much bigger than politics and I don't mean to reduce it. There just seems to be too much comfort in the public idea of "coming together." John Lennon's "Imagine" comes to mind. He was a lyricist not a philosopher.
I didn't know that about Europe's lack of charity giving. Source? Lyrics are philosophy, whether they know it or not, and thusly, John Lennon was certainly a pop philosopher. Every word, action and thought reflects a worldview, and thus, is philosophy… literaly, the love of wisdom, ie. the search for truth. No? That's why there's no such thing as "just entertainment." It always instructs to some degree.
Thanks for posting the video and I enjoyed reading your thoughtful review of our project and your blog in general.
One quick item that I feel you may have missed is that the project isn't really focused on the concepts of global peace, sameness, collectiveness, utopia or any of the other typical superficial concepts that are usually associated with oneness.
Our short films and interviews focus on unique and concrete problems that individuals are facing within their own localized communities. When we talk about "oneness" we are really talking about "interconnectedness" and how the choices and challenges we all face in our local and diverse environments (micro) affect the macro system of the entire planet. I believe that whether we like it or not… the world is becoming an increasingly globalized and interdependent system and the health of this system relies on all of us to take on our personal and community challenges with an awareness that we bear great responsibility for each other, our diversities and our shared world.
Cheers,
Shawn
Visual Designer
Global Oneness Project
Shawn,
Thanks for your response. It's good to have you with us. I recently dived into another YouTube video about the Oneness project and found your scientific experiments especially fascinating. Keep an eye on that "arrow of causation."
~Jacob
It's your main video trailer that strikes me as too general to be meaningful. I checked out some of the other videos and you definitely have some good content about specific places and issues. My personal suggestion would be to capture more concrete examples of specific issues in the trailer. After all, that first video is the representation of your whole organization. Also, avoid lengthy interviews with less-than-articulate people. Also, I would keep Obama and Bush out of it as this can appear too partisan and polemic. I look forward to following your work. Thanks for taking time to comment on our little post.
Cheers,
John
I know I'm a few days late here, but John, I'd agree that the main trailer, by being about everything, is about nothing much at all.
A second critique would be that the film presents a strawman of Western / American / capitalist. Yes, there is violence, poverty, division. But are these things are necessarily the hallmarks of our society? The video clearly depicts a world in need of serious change, but I'm not sure it's the world in which I live.
Hey Aaron,
We live in a pretty insulated world… us grad students. Violence and poverty are not the hallmarks of our society. But there's a pretty wide range of brutal injustice, desperate poverty and ol' fashioned selfishness in this world. However, it's a fair criticism… why so much negative imagery? People have been preaching doomsday since the beginning. Let's focus on specific problems and not the great big problem of the existence of problems. This is a central, unsettling tendency… to try to create "world peace." It's just inconceivable. Call me jaded and cynical, but there will never be "world peace." But there is hope – remember, amidst the most abject poverty and lowly misfortune, there is still the possibility for simple human joy. That's inspiring. That makes a good story. The best things in life are free and often immaterial.