In
a world where helpless civilians are constantly mutilated by poisonous gas,
people are bullied to the point of resorting to suicide, and children are being
ripped apart by bullets flying through their classrooms, it is easy for faith
in humanity to be cloaked in clouds of hopelessness and sorrow. However, even
in the darkest of times, light can be found. For instance, after tragedies
meant to disband people and destroy hope—like the plane hijackings of September
11th, 2001, the Parkland High School shooting, and the Boston
Marathon bombings—people did not give in to fear and let their hope be
destroyed. They decided instead to continue living their lives as normal and
band together to comfort each other, showing humanity’s natural inclination to
aid one another. What about the people who commit these acts of terror? While
it may be easy to conclude that they are naturally evil, bad people, this is
not the case. These “bad guys” are simply sick, broken people. Broken by what
exactly? The answer is simple, yet it is hidden in plain sight: civilization.
The minds and souls of people are constantly being contaminated by flawed
civilizations which function around unnecessary competition and determine your
worth according to how much physical stuff you have. The film Swept Away, directed by Lina Wertmuller,
focuses on the ways that civilization can destroy a person and shows what
happens when someone’s humanity becomes ill. Wings of Desire, directed by Wim Wenders, focuses on the contrary,
however, and shows not how civilization can destroy people but how little
efforts to restore humanity to its natural state can make a big difference. Swept Away and Wings of Desire convey that humanity is not broken in nature, but
instead is diseased by the unwritten behavioral constraints of society which
idolizes a “power to prevent” lifestyle and demands that material wealth and
socio-economic competition the supreme aim of life. This illness can be cured.
The
idea that humanity is naturally good is proven to us every day in our own
lives. For example, as I was sitting in Hofstra University’s Student Center, I
was reading an article about a school being shot up during a gun-protest
walkout and began to doubt my faith in humanity. How could humanity possibly be
naturally good if whenever people try to make a difference it is immediately
shot down? After convincing myself there is no hope for a cure, I packed up my
things and began to leave. As I was walking away, a random lady stopped me and
handed me a meal voucher, saying “Go get yourself a lunch; it’s free.” It was
at this moment that I realized I had been wrong for concluding humanity is evil
because everywhere there are people who naturally feel inclined to help each
other, even if they are strangers. Not only from this did I learn that humanity
must be naturally good, and it is just plagued by civilization, but I also
discovered that my mind had been transformed by society. My initial reaction to
this stranger doing the right thing was that I did not need a voucher because I
already had a dining plan of my own. However, before I could decline her offer,
I stopped myself, realizing that my mind had been taught to think in a
materialistic way; my immediate behavior was to ask myself, “Can this benefit
me?” By thinking in a selfish and materialistic way we as people not only
prevent ourselves from curing humanity but prohibit others as well by putting
them down for trying to help others.
The
concept that the flaws of civilization disease humanity is also often featured
in today’s music and cinematography. In modern music, such as Jon Bellion’s
song New York Soul (Part ii), we are
warned not to adhere to civilization’s unfair and destructive “power to
prevent” rules. Bellion delivers a message for all of the kids who are being
raised in psychologically and spiritually damaging societies: “Let me give the
kids just a little help/tell 'em money is not the key to wealth/cause if it can
stop the pain how the fuck did you explain the bunch of millionaires that
killed themselves” (Bellion). The flaws of civilization being expressed through
modern music culture is not a new thing and can even be traced as far back as
the band Pink Floyd, an English rock group which became active in 1965.
Throughout their album, The Wall, a discussion
of civilization’s brainwashing and ruining the minds and souls of people can be
found in many of their songs, including “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2” and “Comfortably Numb.” “Another
Brick in the Wall Part 2” is the
story of how civilization infects their pure and innocent minds; it even
features a chorus of schoolchildren shouting the lyrics: “We don’t need no
education/we don’t need no thought control/no dark sarcasm in the classroom/teacher
leave those kids alone” (Pink Floyd). “Comfortably Numb” has a similar message;
it is the story of a man who has already been destroyed by the behavioral
constraints of his society and explains that in his world “there is no pain,”
stating how he has become “comfortably numb” (Pink Floyd). This resonates with
the modern world because we have become desensitized. When Columbine High School
fell victim to a shooting, people felt tremendous pain whether they were
involved or not; however, with schools being shot up so often now, the victims
are viewed as “statistics” instead of living, breathing souls. With terrorist
attacks becoming a more prevalent reality, it is not uncommon for a person to
respond to the statement, “There was a shooting today,” with shallow questions
like: “Where?” or “How many people died?” Society itself has become comfortably
numb.
Lina
Wertmuller’s Swept Away focuses on a
communist, working-class man, Gennarino, who is constantly belittled by a
bourgeoise woman named Raffaella. Swept
Away was pretty comical in the beginning, but it quickly transformed into a
film so disturbing that it was nearly impossible to watch, and yet I could not
peel my eyes away from the screen for even a minute. When the two opposing characters
shipwreck on a deserted island, we are shown how sick and twisted Gennarino has
become due to his oppression in a “power to prevent” civilization. A “power to
prevent” society is the more traditionally taught idea in which competition
between individuals must be present, and individuals must repress themselves
and others in exchange for a healthy society; however, it has quite the
opposite effect. Typically, for a “power to prevent” civilization to function,
both the oppressed and the oppressors must be present. A “power to prevent”
lifestyle is based on the thesis that in order to succeed in society, one must
“step on the backs of others” to “climb the socio-economic ladder” and rise in
status. The theory embeds into the minds of the people a proposition that, in
order for one party to gain, another party must suffer. For instance,
throughout most of American history, America has based its civilization on an
oppressive “power to prevent” system of capitalism; specifically, in relation
to African Americans. Throughout all of American history, African Americans
have been systematically oppressed and “put down” by the white upper and middle
classes; slavery, sharecropping, poll taxes, literacy tests, black codes,
convict leasing, Jim Crow laws, and more have all been in effect with the sole
intention of keeping one class of people down in order for another to prevail. The
conservative “power to prevent” capitalism which America has run on for much of
its history would eventually lead to the Great Depression due to the formation
of monopolies and an insufficient flow of currency as a result of an oppressor-oppressed
based society.
In
the context of the film, most people would be distressed on an uninhabited
island; however, Gennarino sees the shipwreck as a blessing and uses it as an
opportunity to “get ahead” because in his new habitat the normal unwritten
constraints of society are turned upside-down. For once, Gennarino is at the
top of the social ladder. While from an outside perspective it is clear that
Gennarino and Raffaella’s chances of survival would increase greatly if they
joined together as equals, Gennarino has been worn down by civilization so much
that he is unable to rid his mind of the damaging oppression which he has dealt
with his entire life; instead of joining together, Gennarino would rather
inflict oppression on another person even after knowing how damaging it is. The
effects of civilization on Gennarino are first shown in the scene when
Raffaella says there must be some law against letting others go hungry and
Gennarino responds: “If there was such a law they could put all of the wealthy
people in the world in jail, but, since there isn’t, all you see in jail is the
poor” (Wertmuller 49:20). While less evident, Raffaella’s mind has also been
contaminated by the effects of societal competition. Rather than treating
Gennarino like her equal when they shipwreck, Raffaella still ignorantly hangs
on to her “power to prevent” ideology and treats him as a servant where the
unwritten rules of society do not pertain.
Not
long after showing how corrupted the two characters’ minds have become as a
result of their flawed civilization, Swept
Away features a sickening rape scene in which Gennarino first violently
abuses her and then makes Raffaella beg for him to have sex with her. When viewing
this scene for the first time, it was unbelievable. I even thought to myself, “This
is ridiculously unrealistic. No one would ever act this way to another human
being over as a result of their social status,” but if that were true, then
school shootings and rape would not be a real worldly issue. Lina Wertmuller, a
progressive feminist, was attacked for including these types of scenes and
titled a traitor to the cause; however, she was simply misunderstood. These
scenes were not included to belittle the value of women, but to show how deeply
our humanity can be deranged from living in these “power to prevent”
civilizations which do not only demand us to “act in a savage way to another
version of ourselves,” but require us to create status (Gordon). In the rape
scene, we are truly shown how deeply scarred Gennarino’s mind and soul are.
After every punch, he exclaims: “That’s for causing inflation and raising taxes
and hoarding your money in Swiss banks instead… and this is for the hospitals
where the poor people can’t get in… and that’s for raising the price of milk
and cheese” (Wertmuller 1:08:30). No human being would ever naturally beat and
rape another person, but after being constantly belittled and dehumanized in a
“power to prevent” civilization, Gennarino does so to establish dominance and
put his own ill mind at ease.
Whereas
Swept Away focuses on the many ways
that civilization causes humanity to fall ill, Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire focuses on how humanity
can be cured. Wings of Desire is the
story of two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, who watch over civilization and
eternally attempt to ease a diseased humanity. The film spends a considerable
amount of time presenting scenes in which the two angels aid distraught people
laced in the pain of enduring their broken souls. For instance, in the very
beginning of the film, there is a scene which takes place on a train full of
working-class people who struggle to earn enough money to survive. Wim Wenders
allows the audience to hear what is going through the minds of the train’s
passengers who are overcome by the problems created from their own artificial habitats.
The scene highlights this by showing one woman worrying: “How will I pay? With
my small pension?” (Wenders, 23: 30). Damiel finally settles on trying to
console a man who has lost everything in his life including his family,
friends, and his faith. The man thinks to himself: “You’re lost. It can go on
for a long time. Abandoned by parents. Betrayed by wife. Friend in another
town. Your children only recall your stutter. You could hit yourself as you
look in the mirror” (Wenders, 23:35). This man has become so hopeless that he
is willing to inflict physical pain on himself, a common action in modern civilization.
When Damiel sits next to the man and puts his arm around him, the man feels the
hope he had lost and thinks: “I’m still there. If I want it. If I only want it.
I can drag myself out again” (Wenders, 23:40). This scene symbolizes how
everyone in society goes through the same type of pain, and if people would
just care for one another, then suffering could be relieved, or at the very
least be greatly minimized. It does not take an angel to treat another with
kindness. In “power to prevent” civilizations people are told to mind their own
business and care for no one but themselves, and if someone does try and reach
out to another person, they are shamed. If this idea does not seem realistic
enough, try giving a smile to a stranger passing by in your own life; many will
look at you like you are insane.
Wim
Wenders makes sure to exaggerate how much “power to prevent” societies have
desensitized people in the scene where a man has been in a motorcycle accident
and is dying on the street. Even though a crowd of people is surrounding him,
no one even tries to help him. Although it is likely that none of the
bystanders could actually save the man, they could have at least tried to
comfort him so he did not die alone. Instead, they simply stared at the man
like he was a freak and watched the life fade from his eyes. It is only until
an angel comforts the man in his time of dying that someone else steps in to
help. Wenders makes a point to show that this is how sick humanity has become.
Even nowadays, while it is a much less intense scenario, if someone at a
grocery store very obviously could not reach something from the top shelf,
almost everyone would feel inclined to help them, but very few people would
actually do something. Meanwhile, most people would just brush it off with a
quick “not my problem.”
Perhaps
the most important scene in the film is when a man so broken by society decides
to commit suicide. This scene is absolutely pivotal because for the first time
even an angel cannot save an already-broken man. Every person in the film up to
this point could feel the divine presence of Damiel and Cassiel; however, this
man’s mind and soul were so deeply ruined that he could not even feel “hope’s”
head resting on his shoulder. When it is shown what the man is thinking before
he takes his own life, the audience can see how ill his mind is because he is
only able to ramble about nonsense: “It’s cold. My hands were always warm. A
good sign. It crackles underfoot. What time is it? The sun’s setting. Logical.
The west. Now I know where the west is” (Wenders 1:08:17). Wenders purposely waited a full hour to put this
scene in the film to show a reality of civilized existence. Although the
audience would think that the man would be saved because of one angel, they are
proven wrong. This is to show how often times people will see someone in
distress, whether it be in their own lives or on the internet and wait for some
other “angel” to come along and help solve the problem, rather than just
stepping up and doing it themselves. Perhaps if this man was cared about by
others or simply asked how he was doing prior to this event he could have been
saved. It is from this scene that the message of the entire film is clear, and
more importantly, Wim Wenders gives humanity the key to cure itself.
To
cure humanity, it will take more than two angels. Every single person must make
an effort to be an “angel,” which does not mean that people must sprout wings
and be touched by the hand of God, but instead they must simply give little
efforts to make life better for one another. To save a broken humanity,
civilization must abandon its “power to prevent” lifestyle in exchange for a
“power to join” lifestyle based on love and feeling: for one another, life, and
for humanity in its entirety. An example of a “power to join” lifestyle is
exhibited through the first time Damiel and Marion meet as human beings. Not
once does either of them mention the fact that Damiel is an angel and Marion is
a mere human being. Instead, they accept each for who they are and are able to
look past their major differences through the power of love. The first step to
curing an ill humanity is to recognize that it is not okay to ignore the fact
that our current “power to prevent” lifestyle is destroying the minds and souls
of human beings, and change will not happen by itself. It is up to everybody to
give a little bit of effort in their everyday lives to make a big change.
Works Cited
Jon
Bellion. “New York Soul (Part ii).” The Human Condition, 2014.
Pink
Floyd. “Comfortably Numb.” The Wall, Apr. 1979.
Pink
Floyd. “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2.” The Wall, Apr. 1979.
Wenders,
Wim, director. Wings of Desire. 1987.
Wertmuller,
Lena, director. Swept Away (1974). English
Dubbed. YouTube, YouTube, 19 Feb. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzAEF5g35uw.
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