FROM THE DARK VILLAGE OF THE PAST TO THE DARK METROPOLES OF THE PRESENT

22.10.04


I want to talk for a dark village. It’s no other than the village presented by M. Night Shyamalan in his new film. Some of you might have seen it and some others don’t intend to go see it because they told you that this film has nothing to do with his other film, the ‘6th Sense’, neither in importance nor in plot. Right. If you expect to enjoy a thriller and nothing more, you are bound to be disappointed. It’s a film full of symbols and that’s what sets it apart, in my opinion.

People’s connection to the unknown and the way they handle fear, both their own and that of their fellow humans, is not something you can easily describe, even when you talk about a daily phenomenon. The strength contained in power can be grown by feelings like fear. Speaking of power, I don’t mean just the state being imposed on its citizens or the governmental decisions. I also mean the power exercized by the powerful on the weak or by the older on the younger, intending to protect them or even marginalize them. Remember the oppression exercized by the parents to their children in the name of excessive love. Remember the way that demagogues like Bush spread panic in order to legalize their torturing actions against every possible threat.

Threats can clearly cause the birth of fear, either as facts or as situations invented by humans. ‘I’m afraid, because I feel threatened by something that I don’t know but I am also choosing consciously not to be aware of it and this is why I’m still afraid of that something’. This sequence of facts derives from watching such a great film, like the ‘Dark Village’. If you want, I can take the whole thing further. Every prejudice is based on the same thinking system. That’s what happens with the social integration of people with a disability. ‘I’m cautious with people who have a disability because I know very few things about them and vice versa. I know very few things about people with a disability, because I was never willing to meet them and, consequently, I am still cautious with them. Likewise, I am stubborn in preserving the prejudice of previous centuries, according to which disability is determined as an illness, while it’s actually nothing but the outcome of incomplete or wrong application of an international social policy.’.

That’s how fear and ignorance are related. Watch the ‘Dark Village’ and you’ll figure out more.