And this ideal or measure of value that opposes the evolution of civilization is usually called barbarism.
Perhaps the events of 9/11 show that the Anglo-American principle has not yet fully realized its rule, but, as Professor Lemmy said in "The Barbarian Invasion", not to mention World War II, even if compared to the genocide that also occurred in the Americas In other words, the 9/11 incident is really nothing. Although it is the same fresh life, this poor number of casualties will only disappear faster than the hatred for Hitler. However, it was under such a premise that director Denys Arcand made an effort that could not be ignored, an effort to retain or more precisely remember something.
The son of business success, Sebastian, is undoubtedly the spokesman for the civilized world. His monthly salary is higher than his father's annual salary, and more importantly than his wealth, he is well versed in the laws of money, and he can use his money to Get what he wants in exchange. In the first half of the "Barbarian Invasion" episode, we clearly see how he succeeded in doing what no one else could by following his principles (the principle of money): getting his father a high-class ward , to relieve the pain of heroin, high-tech medical means, and also to find a laptop for himself, etc., and even, he used money to buy the favor of his father's students, so that his father could gain comfort. It really looks like what one of my friends sighed after reading it: having money is good! Indeed, even in the face of Europe's arrogant Frenchman Sebastian's principles worked without exception, so he was unquestionably successful.
However, we must not forget that even though all his actions are operated according to the law of money, the purpose of all his actions is the opposite of the law of money - the warmth between people. It is true that the terminally ill Professor Lemmy is stubborn, and he is very pedantic when he pursues his principles of life, but his son is not stubborn at all. Filial piety to his father and bribes to the world go hand in hand. It shows that Sebastian has not abandoned his father's principles, but, according to the usual saying, he is more current-conscious, or to put it harshly: more realistic.
However, Sebastian didn't know this very well, and he might have refused to admit it intellectually. He felt that he had his own principles, of which his father knew nothing. In the film, he is on the phone all the time, although it is not a show, but he undoubtedly stretches his principle: efficiency is the inherent requirement of capital, and a phone call is a business of millions. In the ambulance, the father who had not much time looked at his son, and the son looked at his father with a subtle expression, but he never stopped talking on the phone, why should he stop? At the beginning of the film, the son does not see the reason for it. It can be seen from this that the quarrel between the son and his father when the laptop is lost can be imagined - the son originally used this high-tech method to let the father see his daughter in the distance, which is indeed a kind of take care of him, while his father has nothing to do with the theft of his laptop. This reminds me of another sentence from Mr. Wang. He said that when someone sees him using a cell phone, they will make fun of you and say that you are enjoying the fruits of modern civilization, but you still have to criticize modern civilization. The same is true in the play. Almost all the treatment of the father is piled up with the money of the son, but the father has to despise the money that brings him welfare. Isn't that funny?
This is really not funny. Once I was a guest at a friend's house and missed the last bus because it was too late because of the distance. If I insisted on going home, I would have to pay an exorbitant taxi fare that I cannot afford. So my friend joked: Do you know the benefits of money? If you are rich enough, you can come and go freely at any time, which shows that money is also a good thing for your friends (friends are your principle), so don't criticize it. Such a joke-like accusation has only seemingly irrefutable truth, but in fact it is not refuted. I answered him like this: Why do you say I should call a taxi home? For speed, only for speed, and speed means efficiency (because we all have to work more efficiently tomorrow). It can be seen that this is stipulated by the principle of capital. Do I have to pursue speed in order to meet my friends? Just let us see how the ancients did it. In those poems that have been passed down through the ages, it is not difficult to find that if Li Bai or someone else wants to visit his friends, he has been on the road three months ago. The feeling of missing, the anxiety of waiting, the anticipation of seeing you soon, etc. Then three months later, he arrived, but is his friend there? Sorry for the inconvenience of communication in ancient times, my friend happened to be out! So the poet left a message behind someone else's door (it was called Fengya at that time, there were no seven irregularities, and there was no need to pay a fine). There is another old man who is even more amazing. He suddenly turned around and left when he was about to arrive. If this is left at present, it is definitely not the result of high realm, but the result of high brain pressure, right?
Milan Kundera asks in "Slow": Why are the highways full of vehicles waiting for the opportunity to overtake like falcons spying on their prey? What are they in such a hurry to do? Where are all the idle heroes of the epic? And the Countess needs to design so many complicated flirting processes in order to have a romantic night, but modern people only know that they can't wait to shout: Come on! come to me! Straight to the point! ...
so let's admit it, it's usually the capital principle itself that forces me to follow the principles of capital, and it's only in matters of ultimate concern, such as medical care and education, that there is still a little bit of humanity left.
Back to the movie. Soon, when the son has not yet begun to agree with the father, the father first begins to look at the son. It is not surprising that a father is always concerned with his son, and his confrontation with his son stems from this concern and nothing else. Therefore, when a father feels his son's filial piety, it is not difficult for him to look up and see his son's superiority, which is no different from many fathers. Also in the ambulance, once Professor Lemmy asked Sebastian after he hung up his phone: What the hell are you doing? The son answered the father's question in an easy-to-understand way, and the father then asked: So you are very good at it? The son puffed out his chest and replied, "Enough is enough." The father laughed when he heard this. If you don’t think carefully about this simple father-son dialogue, you may really think that the father has compromised with the son, but in fact, on the contrary, it is the beginning of the son’s identification with the father. Because it was in the father's laughter that contained complex emotions such as relief, pride and understanding, the son felt a joy he had never had before, and the son's hesitant smile explained the quiet epiphany in his heart: the father's must be so It is important that the money accumulated by my struggles over the years has not brought such satisfaction (capital only requires itself to increase in value infinitely), but the reconciliation of the father has made the son himself inexplicably happy-he had previously It is true that it is not fully understood that one's own filial piety is not only altruistic (and thus contrary to the self-interest principle of capital), and is self-fulfilling (real human behavior).
So, the little episode near the end of the film is clear. Sebastian, who was sitting in front of the bonfire, just picked up the phone, but Natasha, the girl next to him, grabbed it and threw it into the fire. Sebastian was startled for a moment, then looked at Natasha's mischievous and happy face, and he smiled too. He didn't growl like he did when he lost his laptop: "There are dozens of big deals for me in there!" Instead, he just smiled and asked Natasha, "Do you think this is funny?" Two young men in front of a campfire Playful like a child, but it made my heart skip a beat while sitting in front of the screen.
If it were me, I would take this opportunity to grab the girl's shoulder, but our protagonist has none.
As the daughter of Professor Lemmy's good friend, Natasha is another key point in the play. Although it is not as large as the protagonist, it is equally important logically. Because she and Sebastian represent the two most typical attitudes of young people towards the alternation of principles: Sebastian is the one who tries to follow the new principles, and of course he is quite successful in this category (absolutely Not success as a person, but success as personified capital), many people also want to adhere to the principle of capital, but not so successful; and Natasha represents a type of passive escape, they do not have enough strength to Against the new principles, but also unable to integrate into them, so their approach is often marginalized. Marginalization is the pure negation of the principles themselves, without establishing any new principles, their souls have long been out of the world, and their bodies have to be constrained by the new principles (which no one can escape). , in the sense that Marx is most correct), they break the rules in every possible way, drug use, promiscuity, which are unquestionably suicidal and in no way fulfilling themselves (they are all potential or vulgar 9/11 makers), who may be more awake to those who don't know the rules, but in fact sooner or later they are completely numb because they are killing their own lives. These are two types, and most of us are swingers between these two types. When we get a raise or a promotion, we feel that we are enjoying the rules. When we are frustrated, we will inevitably give up. Of course, Finally, after the whining, we all went back to our places according to Marx's iron rule.
Now we know what petty bourgeoisie is. Petty bourgeoisie is in the capital principle, relying on the capital principle to establish itself, but because of the small share of capital (social power), it is often frustrated, and its own personality cannot be realized, resulting in a state of instability. The best time for their personalities and principles to be integrated is when the third rank is ascending. At that time, the stage of the world also belongs to them. When World War II ended and capital dominated the world, their good days were over. Therefore, the basic sentiment of petty bourgeoisie is nostalgia and sentimentality. In the dictionary, we can see that from aestheticism to romanticism, all petty bourgeois art styles are marked with the explanation of "decadence", which is somewhat deviated from our understanding. Isn't romanticism connected with ideals? ? Is aestheticism’s pursuit of pure beauty also decadent? The answer is: yes, it's all decadent. Not only because they are all reactionary in the face of the new principles of globalization, but more importantly: to say that they are decadent is not to affirm the principles of the present, but only to say that they are immersed in the imagination and emotions of the past that are divorced from real life Among them, whether it is positive or not, in contemporary times, only Marx is the most positive, so according to Sartre, it is "unsurpassable".
Let's go back to the movie. Natasha was almost a human waste, and when she came on stage with her neurotic eyes, I was literally seeing a beat generation remake. They are the pain nerves of the times. As I said, they all have neurotic eyes. But almost at the same time I noticed her beauty, I fell in love with her at the first glance, I believe she already knew what kind of person Sebastian she was facing, as contemporaries, they The mutual understanding between them may not require so many twists and turns. Sebastian said I commissioned you to buy heroin for my father, I don't understand this myself, you come. Natasha said: But you can't trust me because you can't trust a drug addict. Sebastian didn't really understand it at the time (he didn't seem so alert outside of the rules, his sense of smell was all on things like stock quotes, no wonder his father said he didn't know anything. ). In fact, Natasha has insight into Sebastian, because she does not follow the principle of capital, when a person jumps out of the law of utility, he will always see things more clearly; but at the same time, she is also aware of herself, her flesh is subject to physical constraints (drugs). She is often unable to act according to the laws of the mind she knows. So she said to old Lemmy: I can't do things according to the contract. Old Lemmy said to Natasha for a kind of subconscious redemption: You have to take care of me to the end, which means that I can't give up if I don't give up on you. But Natasha said I couldn't, I couldn't do it, she knew in her heart that her world was to deny all rules, whether it was money or favor.
Of course, her reconciliation with her mother at the end (that sad hug) still shows that old Lemmy was somewhat successful, but that success was limited because the director did not arrange for her and Sebastian to realize their love (the last The Kiss proved their unquestionable love). The reason has been announced long ago, Natasha said to Sebastian in the dizzy state of the drug overdose: You are a perfect man, but I was not good from the beginning. Sebastian is certainly not perfect, because the principles he is familiar with cannot realize his love with Natasha, or the culprit is not on him or the director, but because the era itself will not achieve that kind of love. The director's final arrangement was ingenious. He arranged for Natasha to inject the old Lemmy with drugs to end the painful residual life of the old man, and the old man arranged her ending in another way: the old man passed his son to sympathize with others. The happy apartment was handed over to Natasha. Natasha could spend the rest of her life in this room full of books on all sides, and it could be regarded as a little bit out of the shackles of material things. However, even though the old man could leave the apartment to Natasha through his son, he could not also leave his son to her through the apartment. You must know that old Lemmy said that the book in the room, Sebastian once I haven't read it either. So, in that struggling kiss, Natasha struggled to push Sebastian away, pushed him back to his fiancée who didn't believe in love for a long time, pushed back to the rule of money laws The world, even hiding behind the window, did not accept Sebastian's somewhat disappointed look back - that look has always accompanied him on the plane and flew to his original world, oh, let's sing! What a petty look back.
But is this the best way to love him? To keep him by his side with nothing, or to push him back to a world where he can have many but not her love, the capital law of the world? The director answered this question. Although this may not be the only answer allowed by the plot itself, or the best answer for a case, it is the most authentic answer and the most common answer in this era.
However, we must always remember that when we say that this answer is true and common, it does not mean that we agree with this answer, nor does it mean that we regard this answer as a good answer. In the same way, it does not mean that when we forget a little, cruelly and inhumanly, the victims of the concentration camps and the Twin Towers, while expressing deep sympathy for the ways of the so-called barbarians who are increasingly being left behind by our civilized world We are willing to go nostalgic and melancholy like innocent and helpless petty bourgeoisie. We are walking on the road of civilization, at one of the extremes of history. Even if we are not given more choices, we will never give up the freedom of choice from beginning to end, because that kind of freedom is truly human.
Old Lemmy hugs his son on his deathbed and he asks you know what I really want the most? Sebastian was ignorant as always, and the old man told him: I hope to have a grandson as good as you (the old man finally called Sebastian "Prince of Barbarians"). This time, Sebastian understood immediately. Good grandson like you, yes, that might mean the ideal of a savage that hasn't gone away and could last forever.
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