I had to step away from character construction to tackle a subject that continues to resonate with me. Here is my thesis: People on average are more willing to manipulate facts to reshape reality than they are willing to admit that they were wrong. There is not a universal measure of when and how people will dig in, but everyone I have ever encountered will dig in about something. The rare ones will dig in about everything as if the mere reflection of wrongness in their mirrored selves will distort their image to an unacceptable degree.
I came to this conversation not by personal interaction but instead by listening to Chris Simms speak out and express his belief that Sam Darnold is the best QB of the draft. He dismissed the others and made special emphasis to dismiss Lamar Jackson (while completely ignoring the existence of the #1 pick by not so much as mentioning his name –though he’s profiled him as a better QB than Darnold only days earlier). When I hear contradictory information it is my base reaction to think: Man, you just are not willing to be wrong. Moreover, you are not willing to admit that wrongness. I think a failure to do so is a failure to grow. We grow from failure. We harden from success. We decide what we did is all we ever have to do in order to continue being successful. This is, of course, unrealistic.
We need to get dirty to understand clean. We need to fail to understand what it takes to be successful. Unfortunately this feels like less and less of a substantial thing. I’ve watched the people around me (and even myself) grow so unwilling to fail that they’ll call anything success. It is worse when you think about politics. Here’s the thing: Failure teaches us understanding and appreciation in a way that nothing else does. It also happens to everyone eventually, but nowadays we try to shelter ourselves from seeing it. Failure is no Gorgon. We shouldn’t pretend it is.
Some Thoughts:
- Looked up Hands Across America after watching Us and it made me recognize the depth of what Jordan Peele is trying to accomplish in terms of creating a thematic message. Dude is on point–perhaps too on point for the audience he is attracting. Most people apparently did not get it and that is the curse of Shymalan right there. Don’t get cursed! Don’t dumb down your shit either though. I guess just hope the audience starts to step up?