Thanks for this Rob, it is, as is usual for you, excellent. I was particularly struck by your separation of moral injury from PTSD. On a daily basis, I work with military veterans many of whom claim PTSD and seek compensation from the VA for their injury. Some, in my non clinical evaluation, do not have PTSD it is more a sense of outrage at something and that more accurately falls in the area of moral injury.
We have made PTSD compensable and allowed it to become the explainer for behaviors beyond the norm so naturally there is more diagnoses. As one who suffered from PTSD before it was named I can say that you can get through it if you work at it but the moral injuries I suffered still haunt me. Thank you for adding that to our conversation.
Two very good books I've read are Achilles in Vietnam - Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character and Odysseus in America - Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming. Both books are by Jonathan Shay, M.D, Ph.D. If you click on the term "moral injury" in this piece, Jonathan Shay's definition of such is linked.
The spans of time back to Odysseus and back to Machiavelli are somewhat incomprehensible to us. Much like trying to judge the Founding Fathers by today's standards, trying to tell a several a thousand year old story within today's sensibilities is problematic. So the movie The Odyssey is perhaps best thought of as loosely based on the poem The Odyssey.
Your article reminds me once again of how humans are so adaptable -- We adapt to our times and do great things, and bads things, within our milieu. However, those who went before us and those who will come after us may not appreciate why we've done what we've done.
"Perhaps Nolan softened Odysseus not because he misunderstood the ancient character, but because he understood the modern audience."
I think you nailed it here. Would today's audiences have accepted it (remember, this is entertainment people pay to see, not something assigned to study in school) if it had run so contrary to contemporary moral ideals?
Gone with the Wind is the biggest-grossing movie of all time, adjusted for inflation, but nowadays it's doubtful the film would even get made, let alone make a cent on theatrical release, because today's audiences would find (and do find) the film to be morally repugnant.
I think he should have presented him as is. Would have been interesting to take a more graphic look at the ancient and appreciate the point we came to. But his approach seems to have done the opposite which is make me sympathize with the effective barbarism and the pagan moral code over the moral code he chose which comes off weak and depressed
It sounds as thought Nolan brings a layered and subtle moral structure to the script but the film is saturated in feminized ethics. We often misunderstand this term ("feminization') as relating to sex-based workplace discrimination or politically hot-button issues but it's actually a much deeper cultural shift, that relates to children's stories, socialization, and the deeper values that we all (to some extent) subscribe to and rarely question.
It is exciting to open a new email with Rob's article about an interesting topic, like this one, less explored in the media. The media, including the movie industry is aiming to a "living the dream" mindset, while the real world of our times proves the contrary.
In our times, the elites are reverting societies to the pagan B.C. world. The populations are gaslighted with euphemisms, so well reviewed by George Carlin. In parallel, the CEOs of many corporations, and each succeeding administration behave like Romans in their prime years of the aspiring empire.
The Romans coined well that ancient gaslighting in the saying: "Bread and circus." That was a clever way to bypass the "moral injury" for enslaving other populations. In that brutal environment, Christianity was offering the methods to heal, to a degree, the "moral injury" of the destitute slaves, the dehumanized middle-class, and the forgotten veterans. Therefore, the "moral injury" was replaced by the moral achievements of each individual after the moment of accepting the past deeds, as well as becoming a new person. During the last two centuries, that strength of the Christianity was greatly weakened by many denominations not being able to resist the offensive of the Atheism.
On the other hand, if the movie industry is continuing in this direction, "the Norseman," in the next decade or so, will be redone, as "The Ice Cream Norseman" where the Vikings will have a huge sense of remorse, and come back with boats full of ice cream for the English kids to see them like a bunch of Santa Claus elves... If this will be a box-office success the sequels will follow...
Thanks for this Rob, it is, as is usual for you, excellent. I was particularly struck by your separation of moral injury from PTSD. On a daily basis, I work with military veterans many of whom claim PTSD and seek compensation from the VA for their injury. Some, in my non clinical evaluation, do not have PTSD it is more a sense of outrage at something and that more accurately falls in the area of moral injury.
We have made PTSD compensable and allowed it to become the explainer for behaviors beyond the norm so naturally there is more diagnoses. As one who suffered from PTSD before it was named I can say that you can get through it if you work at it but the moral injuries I suffered still haunt me. Thank you for adding that to our conversation.
Two very good books I've read are Achilles in Vietnam - Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character and Odysseus in America - Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming. Both books are by Jonathan Shay, M.D, Ph.D. If you click on the term "moral injury" in this piece, Jonathan Shay's definition of such is linked.
thanks Lori
Great article!
The spans of time back to Odysseus and back to Machiavelli are somewhat incomprehensible to us. Much like trying to judge the Founding Fathers by today's standards, trying to tell a several a thousand year old story within today's sensibilities is problematic. So the movie The Odyssey is perhaps best thought of as loosely based on the poem The Odyssey.
Your article reminds me once again of how humans are so adaptable -- We adapt to our times and do great things, and bads things, within our milieu. However, those who went before us and those who will come after us may not appreciate why we've done what we've done.
"Perhaps Nolan softened Odysseus not because he misunderstood the ancient character, but because he understood the modern audience."
I think you nailed it here. Would today's audiences have accepted it (remember, this is entertainment people pay to see, not something assigned to study in school) if it had run so contrary to contemporary moral ideals?
Gone with the Wind is the biggest-grossing movie of all time, adjusted for inflation, but nowadays it's doubtful the film would even get made, let alone make a cent on theatrical release, because today's audiences would find (and do find) the film to be morally repugnant.
I think he should have presented him as is. Would have been interesting to take a more graphic look at the ancient and appreciate the point we came to. But his approach seems to have done the opposite which is make me sympathize with the effective barbarism and the pagan moral code over the moral code he chose which comes off weak and depressed
It sounds as thought Nolan brings a layered and subtle moral structure to the script but the film is saturated in feminized ethics. We often misunderstand this term ("feminization') as relating to sex-based workplace discrimination or politically hot-button issues but it's actually a much deeper cultural shift, that relates to children's stories, socialization, and the deeper values that we all (to some extent) subscribe to and rarely question.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/hollywood-is-addicted-to-feminism
Pretty good. There are a lot of opinions out there, so Nolan must have done something right.
It is exciting to open a new email with Rob's article about an interesting topic, like this one, less explored in the media. The media, including the movie industry is aiming to a "living the dream" mindset, while the real world of our times proves the contrary.
In our times, the elites are reverting societies to the pagan B.C. world. The populations are gaslighted with euphemisms, so well reviewed by George Carlin. In parallel, the CEOs of many corporations, and each succeeding administration behave like Romans in their prime years of the aspiring empire.
The Romans coined well that ancient gaslighting in the saying: "Bread and circus." That was a clever way to bypass the "moral injury" for enslaving other populations. In that brutal environment, Christianity was offering the methods to heal, to a degree, the "moral injury" of the destitute slaves, the dehumanized middle-class, and the forgotten veterans. Therefore, the "moral injury" was replaced by the moral achievements of each individual after the moment of accepting the past deeds, as well as becoming a new person. During the last two centuries, that strength of the Christianity was greatly weakened by many denominations not being able to resist the offensive of the Atheism.
On the other hand, if the movie industry is continuing in this direction, "the Norseman," in the next decade or so, will be redone, as "The Ice Cream Norseman" where the Vikings will have a huge sense of remorse, and come back with boats full of ice cream for the English kids to see them like a bunch of Santa Claus elves... If this will be a box-office success the sequels will follow...