When Gattaca came out I must have been around 11 years old , I had never been specially keen on science fiction as a genre but this one particular time i was totally hooked. Although I was not mature enough to grasp all the meanings and social critiques and both Orwell and Ballard were at least 6 years ahead- to be bumped into for me - there was something very powerful about Gattaca that made me relate to it without necessarily having everything " figured out ".
It was the idea of being someone else, taking someone else´s identity in order to reach your dreams since they are unreachable in your own identity, becoming "Valid" for who you are and what you can do, but using someone else who is already "Valid" within the system to enable this possibility.
Around that time I dreaded the thought of puberty , all the unwanted changes and the lacking ones were hard to put up with so I´d fantasize I could be someone else to escape my own " fate ". Like Vincent, I was willing to do anything , just to have the chance and prove myself and others that I was just as "Valid" as anybody else - as valid as any other boy.
In "the not-so-distant future", liberal eugenics is common and DNA plays the primary role in determining social class. Vincent Freeman is conceived and born without the aid of this technology. He has a high probability of developing mental disorders and heart defect, and a projected life expectancy of 30.2 years. His parents initially placed their faith in natural birth and now regret it; Vincent's younger brother, Anton, is conceived with the aid of genetic selection and therefore surpasses Vincent in every physical aspect.
Vincent dreams of going to space but the constant genetic discrimination he faces makes it impossible for him to achieve his goals. He eventually comes in contact with Jerome, a genetically modified respected member of the Gattaca Elite who is now a cripple but nobody knows , so Vincent submits himself to an operation using the Ilizarov bone lenghtening technique to gain Jerome´s height and thus modifies his body in order to take his identity and fulfill his dreams.
In return, he takes care of a bitter Jerome who spends most of his time drinking alone and ironically displaying signs of behavior that do not match the idea of the " perfect " individual he is. Once in Gattaca Vincent meets Irene, who doesn´t have a " perfect genetical" background but somehow managed to get accepted into Gattaca, she falls for Vincent in the role of Jerome, although Vincent´s insecurities don´t allow him to be honest and keeps up the charade.
Gattaca is a good fictional yet very conceivable portrait of society nowadays, but I´d like to give it a little twist now... I believe we are experiencing an era of radical antipodes. What do I mean by this? simple, when we get " too much " of one side we abruptly switch to its oppossite, science has done a lot for us in the past decades. It´s surprising how many seem to forget that if there hadn´t been an industrial revolution in the first place most of the commodities we use today would simply not be avaible at all - and this includes our ability to actually afford getting "reflexive"... You´d def prioritize other things in your life over making sure you contribute to some " good cause " to make you feel like Mother Therese- in a sexier way- if your economical position is unstable or to put it mildly if you come from a FUCKED up country where simple survival is a whole task in itself.
Technology and science have given us a broader spectrum of choices and thats where I believe individual freedom lies, in the ability of choosing. Empowerment, Web 2.0 , Choices... Democracy hell yeah... aint that what it´s all about? But how democratic are our democracies today ?
Now you´ll sure get a bunch of groups such as Green Peace , Amnesty International, Fairtrade... telling you that in fact, there is a vibrating sucking hole in the system and that its all due to the " Big Corporations" that are keeping the cycles of mass exploitation and savage consumerism harming the poor.
" Big Corporations" I would think of Mærsk here , maybe Microsoft too?... Coca Cola... you name it , but whatever happened to... precisely Green Peace... Amnesty International etc etc ? oh - but is not the same ! you may think, they don´t take profits... they help people unlike Mærsk , Coca Cola etc.
Well, the worse slave owners were those who were kind to their slaves... in the words of Oscar Wilde, hence it is immoral to use private property in the name of charity and the whole idea of charity itself does not really contribute to fix the real problem. The actual problem is that many of these neglected countries - for example, Africa should enter the common market rather than depending on european aid.
Its a dead aid, you dont help someone by catching the fish for them... you help them by actually teaching them how to catch it - but ethnocentrism has acquired a new face , namely that of Cultural Capitalism - buying your way into heaven through "good deeds" which is actually mere commercialization of ideas. The worse part of this is the self righteousness that comes with it , Nietzsche was probably right when he said God was dead and that we in fact killed him ... but i wonder what he would say if he was alive today and took a look at his replacement...
ECOLOGY - and yes ecology has become the hottest thing in town , the cell phone made of recycled garbage, organic food, electricity powered cars... you name it! It all sounds so pretty indeed, one could even argue that it has become a religion. The patterns are there... something terrible is happening, we are killing the planet so we are responsible for it - sort of like The Fall , and now we are in seek of Salvation ... time to redeem ourselves. I do not intend to ignore that there are actual ecological problems, but the PROBLEM is that environmental hysteria mystifies reality rather than deals with it.
Ecology is the new opium for the masses. The unquestionable authority which has now acquired the role of a conservative ideology.Perhaps what we should do to confront the problem properly is not all this new age bullshit to break out of the " technological" but on the contrary, we need more alienation from our spontaneous nature, we should develop an abstract materialism , a mathematical universe where there are formulas, etc where the difficult thing is to find poetry and aesthetic dimentions... thats the true love of the world, every true lover knows that love is not idealization
.
Now going back to how democratic is democracy today? Well it seems to me that the more i go to the supermarket, the more I´m bombarded with organic food. I praise diversity overall, especially when i happen to have so many different moods... I can also get my "organic moods" every now and then however... will the rest of the food gradually disappear and be replaced by organic? (not to mention its usually more expensive) will my choices as a free consumer be reduced to only choosing between organic products?
I think thats where we are heading, but whats so wrong about that? organic is supposed to be " better" - Healthier... tastier even, some claim. Well I want to make that choice for myself- Thank you.
So this is where the antipodes stand - there is a romantic going-back to " nature ". This attitude does not only comprehends organic products but the ways we treat each other.
If my " higher values" and " lifestyle" don´t match yours... then I will be forced to judge you... in the comfort of politeness of course, But I´ll make sure you get the message. This also seems to be attached to a whole social set, like I said before... only in the possibilities of wealth , one can afford to get so damn reflexive and at times.. obnoxiously self righteous.
So the assumptions go as following... " you don´t have the same values I do for these topics = you are not like me = it must be your cultural background or any other unknown agent " everyone should be taken into account by their own circumstances, but this is a difficult task since tolerance itself actually means its total opposite. " I beg you to be tolerant of me not smoking" ( Dont come any closer invading my space) " I tolerate that the fat man occupies 95% of my bus seat yet I´d never consider having -someone like him- in my near circle".
Whatever happened to sharing for the sake of it? without looking on the back of the products every time to check the calories... carbohydrates... how healthy... unhealthy they might be?
Or just eating for the sake of it, the ritual itself of sharing something amusing and delicious - whether its organic or semi organic or whatever. ?
And dont get me wrong, Im an advocate of health myself. Been actually acquiring a lot of respect towards "lifestyles" I previously ridiculed in my ignorance, such as bodybuilding. Its def not for everyone and you really have to know what you have to eat to bulk up some muscles and some necessary fat too.
Eat healthy, train, run and now i even do kick-boxing twice a week. However, I could never dream of telling somebody else what - how they should lead their lives and present my ways as axiomatic facts using the planet as an excuse.
Save the Planet.... Hilariously enough, it should be... Save Ourselves... cause the Planet has been here for a fucking long time and we could simply vanish one day like the dinasours did. We will , in fact, vanish and other forms of life will take charge... I just hope they are somewhat smarter and less hypocritical.
To tie it all up - I guess i feel myself related to the " genetically manipulated apple" that so many try to avoid these days. I´m a human being, flesh and bones, but my phenotype clashes with my genotype - the interesting thing is, this actually happens a lot and many times we don´t even find out until a very late point in our lives.
However, I suppose the diabetic person still feels like he/she is the bearer of organs, blood, cells and feelings even though when their pancreas do not produce Insulin and they have to take it on a daily basis.
Am I or the "genetically manipulated apple" less valid in our own scale of worth ? ( food - individual ) ?
Am I not still capable to love , hate , take care of , kill , harm , protect , support, help, disappoint, others?
Am I not " good enough " just because i have no Testes ( and when I will they will only fulfill aesthetics and erotic sensation) ?
Am I a biological failure cause im unable to reproduce in "traditional ways" ?
Am I simply " Invalid" just because I´m going through a process of Self- Validation?
If you are hungry and there is nothing else to eat and you are about to fucking die... wouldn´t that apple feed you? ... wouldn´t your anus expell it from the walls of your rectum the same way?
OF fucking Course it would.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario