It is also rarer to find
happiness in a man surrounded by the miracles of technology, than among people
living in the desert of the jungle and who by the standards of our society
would be considered destitute and out of touch.
‑--Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian
adventurer
In the eighteenth century, Britain gave birth to the Industrial
Revolution and swept the world off its primitive feet. A wave of technology and
innovative ideas began to flow all throughout Europe and shortly thereafter in America.
Communities that were once rural and agrarian became industrial and urban. Over
time, the culmination of inventions gave rise to a by-product we call the
‘civilized’ world. In this tech-savvy society, man sees no need to concern
himself with the consequences of his creations or the footprint that he leaves
behind, proving that the manufactured world is the epitome of “ignorance is
bliss.” As humankind continues to progress towards technological expansion, it
becomes less human-centered, putting the welfare of man on the back burner. In
recent years, the masses have willingly paid this price in order to reap the
“benefits” of modern-day commodities. This vicious cycle continues to run so
long as our ‘stuff’ fulfills its purpose: making life easy while keeping us
content. But in a society that seems to have lost touch with the natural, how
do we know for certain that our happiness is true as opposed to distorted? And
if our emotions are false, how can we claim that the Western way of life is
superior to the lifestyles we have deemed primitive and savage?
Jamie Uys’ The Gods Must Be Crazy confronts us with these
inquiries from the get-go by presenting us with a lifestyle that is opposite to
our own. The film opens with a compilation of shots, introducing viewers to
Sub-Saharan African wildlife. The camera shifts from gazelles to lions and from
giraffes to elephants, all coexisting, to demonstrate that a certain degree of
harmony does exists somewhere: in nature. The tranquility that is evoked by the
scenic views is backed by an even more serene soundtrack, leaving viewers in
awe of Mother Nature’s majestic creations. This peaceful opener invites us as
the audience to let down our guards and embark on a blissful safari ride. As we
continue to make our way through the Kalahari, we come across a group of
“pretty, dainty, small, and graceful” (Uys, 00:01:17) people: the Bushmen.
While we observe the primitive beings, a third-party narrator cuts in to
enlighten us. In his Nat Geo Wild voice, the narrator says, “They must be the most contented people in the world. They have
no crime, no punishment, no violence, no laws, no police, judges, rulers, or
buses. They believe that the Gods put only good and useful things on the Earth
for them to use. In this world of theirs nothing is evil” (Uys, 00:02:42).
Taking note of the peace and overwhelming sense of joy that exists within this
community, viewers are left feeling slightly jealous of the Bushmen. This
insight is followed by a rundown of the tribe’s daily activities, to further
educate the audience on the “savage” way of life. The elders dig for roots and
tubers while the children gather berries. Some hunt for meat, while others
makeshift tools out of the resources surrounding them. At the end of the day,
they all come together to tell stories and play unorthodox games in order to
pass the time. The Bushmen live a simple lifestyle, meeting the conditions of
their gentle world.
While this existence may seem lackluster and archaic to
civilized man, it proves to be much more fulfilling and superior to the Western
way of life. As Uys demonstrates in the first half of the opening scene, the
Bushmen relish in their stress-free lives. They are not subservient to the
constraints of societal pressures nor the construct of time. Instead of
becoming a ‘snob-ciety,’ this group of people accepts what the natural
world offers them. Thus, their only real worry is to gather enough food to feed
their family. Since everyone, including the young and the elderly, pitches in,
this hearty task becomes a leisurely family activity. In Western society,
however, this task is overcomplicated and treated like a dire chore. Our
‘civilized’ world has proclaimed that man knows better than nature. So instead
of doing like the Bushmen, we have created a culture in which one must possess
stuff in order to survive. As a result, we put a tremendous amount of pressure
on ourselves to get a well-paying job so that we can partake in acts such as
purchasing genetically modified “food” or buying the latest iPhone. The
self-manufactured dismay does not stop here though. Not only have we created a
middleman to hinder us from fulfilling basic necessities such as alimenting
ourselves, but along the way we have also constructed stressors and anxieties
to warp our mental states. The Bushmen, on the other hand, have never been
exposed to the manufactured world, so their physical and emotional health are
better for it.
To further demonstrate the ways in which the norms of modern
society affect our well-being, Uys juxtaposes the calm primitive lifestyle of
indigenous peoples against the fast-paced world of technology. The audience is
transported 600 miles south of the Kalahari, where the script is flipped and
viewers are introduced to modern day civilization. The narration in this half
of the opening scene satirically emphasizes the impracticality of our
creations. In a condescending tone, the narrator says, “Civilized man refused
to adapt himself to his environment, instead he adapted his environment to suit
him. So, he built cities, roads, vehicles, machinery, and he put out power
lines to run these labor-saving devices. But somehow he didn’t know when to
stop. The more he improved his surroundings to make life easier, the more
complicated he made it” (Uys, 00:06:00). This narration serves as a wake-up
call for the audience. As Uys makes the point that we have created more
problems for ourselves by trying to evade the natural, viewers are prompted to
have an “aha” moment. It is here that we realize that there is a direct
relationship between our commodities and our troubles: the more stuff we have,
the more suffering we endure.
However, despite this fact, we cannot seem to stop making and
obtaining manufactured goods. This inability to halt the innovation of
unnecessary products is known as the Diderot Effect. It is brought about when
one grows to need a particular kind of material possession: “Obtaining new
stuff creates a spiral of consumption which leads one to acquire more new
things. As a result, we end up buying
and producing things that our previous selves never needed to feel happy or
fulfilled” (Clear, par. 7). The Gods Must Be Crazy
captures the essence of the Diderot Effect through a series of clips,
showcasing a few of civilized man’s many inventions. Viewers become overwhelmed
by the multitude of snippets---everything from speeding cars to skyscrapers and
assembly lines to computers---in a manner that causes viewers to feel as though
they are drowning in chaos. The splicing of these clips and the narrator’s tone
are deliberately combined to show us that our current lifestyle is absurd.
In “#FirstWorldProblems: Looking at THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY,”
Maggy Pollicino points out the faults of Western society. She declares our need
for material ‘stuff’ as the foremost problem in our modern society. “When a thing appears, or is invented for convenience, after a
couple of generations, people cannot fathom getting by without it… the
excessive use of ‘stuff’ has become the true first world problem” (Pollicino,
par. 3). However, in recent years this so-called “first world problem” is
quickly turning into an epidemic. A study conducted by the United Nations
Centre for Human Settlements estimates that by 2030 85% of the world’s
population will be living in developed countries (“Urbanization: Facts and
Figures,” par. 1). This means that in eleven years the vast majority of our
population will live in manufactured societies. This statistic alone is cause
for concern given our current state of affairs. Modern man is evidence that the
more material goods one has at their disposal, the more out of touch one becomes.
Our species is not yet emotionally intelligent enough to utilize technology
without letting it pollute our soul. Emotional
intelligence is described as the ability to be “more aware of our emotions and
what they are signaling to us” (Handel, par. 9), meaning that
emotions play a vital role in guiding our choices and decision-making.
Unfortunately for us, we tend to confuse the rush
of dopamine that we experience when using modern day technology with real joy.
Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that is associated with the brain’s pleasure
and reward system. This chemical brings about positive feelings based on
certain actions (Fader, par. 6). In our ‘civilized’ society, actions such as
tapping away on an app and or shopping online, have induced the release of dopamine.
On the flip side, not partaking in acts like these can lead to a significant
drop in one’s overall mood. In an article published by The New York Times, columnist
David Brooks wrote, “Tech
companies understand what causes dopamine surges in the brain and they lace
their products with ‘hijacking techniques’ that lure us in and create
compulsion loops” (par. 7). Evidently, we are not in control of our emotions;
our ‘stuff’ is. Lacking the sense of emotional intelligence needed to uncloak
false joy, we have allowed our society to get hooked on tech.
Uys subtly parallels this hijacking of emotions in The Gods
Must Be Crazy. After a pilot chucks an infamous Coca-Cola bottle out of his
plane, it lands in the wilderness of the Kalahari. Xi, a member of the Bushmen
tribe, comes across the glorious bottle as he makes his way back home.
Believing that the Gods had sent the bottle, Xi decides to take it to the
village with him. Being resourceful people, the Bushmen find many uses for the
bottle. One bushman uses the bottle to cure snakeskin while another plays music
on it. “Every day they’d discover a new use for the thing… it was the most
useful thing the Gods have ever given them, a real labor-saving device” (Uys,
00:09:56). All was well until man everyone suddenly needed it. Individuals began to take the bottle from each other and
fights broke out over this piece of glass. The once peaceful and content people
of the Kalahari were now violent beings, overcome with anger and jealousy. Just
like advanced technology promotes fake happiness in modern man, the Coca-Cola
bottle stirred up destructive sentiments in the Bushmen. Acknowledging this
fact, Xi takes it upon himself to get rid of the bottle. He journeys to the end
of the earth and throws the glass container away before it has the chance to
further damage his family’s well-being.
The relationship between humans and manufactured products is
toxic. Not only has our society come to depend on the artificial, but it has
become obsessed. As a result, our souls are becoming rotten. However, it is
important to note that technology itself is not evil. The ways in which we
interact our ‘stuff,’ on the other hand, is evil. We must seek to become as
filled with agency and emotional intelligence as Xi. In order to save our
society from destruction, the civilized must learn from the “savage.”
Works Cited
Brooks, David. “How Evil
Is Tech?” The New York Times, 20 Nov. 2017. Web.
Clear, James. “The Diderot Effect: Why We Want Things We Don’t Need
— And What to Do About It”. Web.
Fader, Sarah. “What Is
Dopamine And How Does It Affect The Brain And The Body?” BetterHelp, 2
Jan. 2019. Web.
Handel, Steven. “The 4
Fundamental Pillars of Emotional Intelligence.” The Emotion Machine, 1
Apr. 2013. Web.
Pollicino, Maggy. “#FirstWorldProblems: Looking at THE GODS MUST
BE CRAZY”. 14 Oct.
2017.
The Gods Must Be Crazy. Directed by Jamie Uys, performances by N!xau, Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, and Louw Verwey, 20th Century
Fox, 1984.
“Urbanization: Facts and Figures.” United Nations Centre for Human
Settlements (Habitat). 2001. Web.
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