1. The craziest manifestation of modern rationality: the nuclear threat under the US-Soviet competition for hegemony
The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the world nuclear war was about to start. One word of the world situation-chaos.
Kubrick used the movie to imagine the occurrence of a nuclear war that would destroy the world. And raised several questions: Where does nuclear technology come from? How did nuclear war break out? Where are the humans going?
Aside from specific technical issues and historical details, these issues can be combined into a major proposition of modern rational criticism. Being able to use movies in 1964 to think about these questions and give profound answers shows that Kubrick is not only a director, but also an important thinker of the 20th century. It may not be inferior to French theories such as the Frankfurt School and Foucault.
2. The objectification of modern instrumental rationality: the state, the military, science, and Dr. Qi Ai
Modernity originated from an optimistic belief: the courage to use one's own reason and believe in one's own reason. But the historical facts of the 20th century tell us: (1) Reason is not personal, but human; (2) Reason not only occurs in thinking activities, but also in practical activities; (3) Reason is not equal to freedom, equality, and The value of fraternity, the other side of rationality is a cage and a weapon; (4) To paraphrase Hegel’s words, rationality is not equal to intellect. It has history and dialectics and always denies itself. The cruel reality seems to indicate that modern reason can only be negated. Not sure. (5) Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" forgot: certainty itself is not equal to truth.
The objects of modern rationality are transformed into a series of systems, such as the country, army, government, weapons, technology... Among them, Dr. Qi Ai is perhaps the most typical symbol, and he can be regarded as the flesh of modern rationality. He obeys technical rationality, uses computers to select candidates who can enter the basement to avoid nuclear radiation (biopolitics), uses logic to demonstrate the feasibility of doomsday, and uses metal discs to query the half-life of cobalt. He revealed a cruel truth that most of the inventions that shaped our modern life came from wars (World War II, US-Soviet hegemony).
3. Sex and nuclear war: the actualization and contingency of rationality
Kubrick used a lot of sexual cues to argue against the theme of human irrationality and negation of reason.
General Ripper ordered the bombing of the Soviet Union because of his old age and impotence, thinking that his sexual abilities and body fluids (fluid) were harmed by the communist Soviet conspiracy-fluoridated water, in order to protect the purity of himself and his nation. (He called his semen the essence and spoke out the male-centrism of Western metaphysics in a naked way) The bombing of the Soviet Union was a way for him to compensate for his inability to get an erection and ejaculate, and it was an unconscious drive for him to regain his masculinity.
But rationality and irrationality are not binary opposites, and rationality itself is irrational. Modern reason is male-centered. The bomb’s phallic metaphor can illustrate this point: the crystallization of modern technology symbolizes the male sexual organs. (Skyscrapers are the erection of capitalism)
The other is a lot of accidental factors. People mean that their rational design can become a delicate system, but in fact, weather, timing, location...all affect the operation of alien systems, and it will get out of control. Sociology calls it the "unexpected effect", or "black box".
4. Is a new kind of modernity possible?
Although Kubrick satirized capitalism (protecting Coca-Cola’s private property is more important than contacting the president, this plot is simply a retelling of Marx’s civil society’s view of determining the country), he criticized the American spirit (after the captain received the mission to bomb the Soviet Union, Dai Putting on a cowboy hat, this is an exposure of the American Westward Movement as an invasion), but it also made a mockery of Soviet revisionism.
At this time, perhaps human civilization is indeed wandering on the edge of the cliff, "Dr. Strange Love" is really Kubrick's extremely desperate work.
Faced with this predicament, or choose Taoist philosophy, the sage and the wisdom are the only ones that are the only thieves. But historical materialism tells us that we are individuals with preconditions, and the achievements of past civilization are one of our preconditions. We cannot be individuals without preconditions. This will fall into fantasy. The fruits of modern civilization are forces formed by joint activities. Re-occupying these essential forces, rather than abandoning them, is the way out for liberation.
How to find a new kind of modernity is an epochal problem facing our generation of mankind by history. In this sense, watching Kubrick comes at the right time.
View more about Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb reviews
