average life

Well, it seems as though it has been a week of anarchy – aside from the fact that I’ve skipped several classes. Our teacher offered extra credit to screen The Weather Underground at the Ferg last night. The filmmaker (Bill Siegel) was there to do a Q&A session afterwards. Well, one thing the film did do was help me realize a bit more of the climate of the 70’s. I didn’t realize the extent of the violence from the anti-war side of things. There were serveral times that I closed my eyes and waited out the images because of their gorey-ness, but I don’t completely fault the filmmaker – I can see why he included it. There was this weird orgy scene that was really quite unessesary – I had to keep my eyes closed for a couple of minutes. I contemplated leaving, but I decided I really wanted to be at the Q&A with this guy. After the first 20 minutes or so, the images were toned down considerably.

My initial reaction as far as the Weathermen themselves go was, “why in the world did they think this would actually work?” I admit that I have the luxury of hindsight, but geez, you actually thought you would win public support by bombing the public? One member commented that one of the reasons they didn’t get the support they needed was that Americans were conditioned to thing that violence that is unsanctioned by the government is either criminal or mentally ill. Yah think??? I don’t think all violence by the government is valid, but…it just boggles my mind. At least they did have a pang of conscience when some of their own guys blew themselves up and decided not to hurt “innocent civilians.” This wasn’t, however, one of their considerations.

Extremism is never right. Whether it be right wing or left wing. After seeing this, I don’t thing political views are a line from right to left, but more a circle with extremism on one side. You can approach it from the right or from the left, but the two are almost indistinguishable.

On to the Q&A. I have to admit that I didn’t expect much and I wasn’t disappointed. His answers were five minutes of non-answers. One thing I did admire about the Weathermen. They were unabashed in their views and spoke clearly. Siegel did not. We might as well have been reading a press release.

That is one gripe I have with artists – at least modern day artists. They view themselves as ones who raise questions, but provide no answers. They believe that there are no right and wrong answers. That’s fine if you want to believe that, but right and wrong aside there are answers. The Weathermen were wrong, but they had answers.

Siegel said his audience had two audiences, the older ones and the younger ones. I posed the question in the Q&A of what message he thought either audience would get from the film. He turned the question back to me and asked what I got from the film. I said I thought the youth today (there had been previous discussion about modern youth and apathy, yadda yadda) knew how to work the system more and that groups like the Weathermen were really just “kicking against the pricks.” He didn’t comment too much, but one lady brought up the interesting point of at that time, it wasn’t as easy to work the system as it is now, which is probably true.

I don’t know. I just can’t believe the older people who were in the audience who verbally expressed nostalgia for the 70’s activism and the “glamour” of the Weathermen. What the…? They were left-wing versions of Timothy McVeigh. One woman talked about feeling nostalgia for the peaceful demonstrations and how they didn’t agree with the Weathermen, they considered themselves a part of them. I can understand that, but still.

One of my reactions coming out was relief for not having lived in the 70’s with the Vietnam War and protests and occasional bombings and violence, but then I thought about my lifetime: Columbine, school bomb-threats, 9/11, Gulf War I & II. I gave this observation to a classmate and her response was “Well, all that is different.” She couldn’t give a why, though. Neither can I.

I also watched The Newton Boys. It was just okay.