The Age of Stupid

So two days ago I went with ESS and another group to see the premier of The Age of Stupid. It really was a powerful movie with an intriguing lay out. In addition, the fact that it was live added to the effect because you were seeing it at the same time as thousands of people around the world. My favorite part of the movie were the speakers that they talked to live. This did not give a chance for editing, just raw footage. The interview with Ed Miliband was very hilarious and scary at the same time. Ed Miliband is the British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate change, and for the most part the answers he gave were all politician answers with no real substance. Fortunately the producer did not give him any slack and eventually backed him into a corner asking him why he only wanted to give the country and 50% chance, even though he said he wanted to give them the maximum chance. She also forced him to admit that the politicians were partly at fault. It was nice to see him squirm on live TV, however I fear that the audience fell on ears that already thought this.

Moving on to another concern of mine was the audience. At our theater, right next to a college where there should be hundreds of rowdy college kids waiting for a chance to protest something, it was barely filled an 8th of the way. The only people besides the pro-environment students that came with us were a handful of elder citizens. While it was nice to see them interested, it was not the key audience that I would have hoped for. Fortunately this was only one theater, but it was pitiful. To really reach America the information needs to be brought to the uninformed. The only people going to these movies are the ones that are already convinced. If clips could some how be injected into the super bowl or even American Idol, it would have a much more tangible effect then a bunch of environmental nuts crowding into a dark theater nodding a cheering about the reaffirmation of their beliefs.

Well it was fun blowing off a bit of steam, but now I've got to go study the Ramayana a bit more.