We often hear a famous person or a sage come to a remote and impoverished small village, and feel that the folk customs there are simple, unlike the prosperous world outside, which is full of degenerate human nature and poor guidance. So are the people of that isolated village really possessing extraordinary and noble qualities?
After watching Von Trier's movie "Dog Town", I think you should get the corresponding answer. A poor, secluded dog town, where residents live on in an unchanging routine. When Grace, a girl wanted by the police, broke into the dull life of Dogtown, the peace was broken and everything changed inadvertently. Initially, the residents were repulsive about the risk package that Grace would take to take in her. Grace, however, was taken in by gaining general recognition and acceptance through her work for each resident. But when the second wanted notice appears, the risk increases again, and the attitude of the residents begins to change, and Grace doubles down on her work to please them. Gradually, things started to become logical, people began to make more and more demands of her, and along with more and more dissatisfaction, the initial attitude of gratitude disappeared. Chuck even threatened to rape Grace with a whistleblower, and then more and more men naturally vented their sexual desires to Grace. The residents of the town began to enslave Grace. In the end, even Tom, who had been helping Grace for free, began to want to possess Grace, and his desperation for human nature led to the killing of Dogtown.
This kind of film depresses me, the subject matter is too heavy, but it leads to some thinking. I am reminded of an incident that happened in my hometown Ningbo in Mr. Wu Si's "The Law of Blood Rewards". In the late Qing Dynasty, farmers in Yin County proposed to the government to "pacify grain prices" and "restore the salt industry". In the end, the people made trouble and set fire to the yamen in Ningbo and Yinxian. In the end, the two requests were accepted by the government, and the farmers' demands were met. As the leading initiators and organizers, as the bearers of the peasants' sins, they were sacrificed by the peasants and sold to the government.
From this we can clearly see that the public is always a rational group that seeks benefits and avoids disadvantages. They have no permanent friends or enemies, only their own interests are eternal. When their interests are satisfied, as the original initiators, they lose the value of use, and of course they become the scapegoats for their excessive behavior and are sacrificed.
Also look at everything that happened in the movie "Dogtown". As the residents of Dogtown, they initially rejected Grace, who might bring danger, because her existence might harm their interests. But when she took the initiative to work for each resident, the residents felt that the reward was worth the risk they took. But with the re-emergence of the wanted notice, it seemed that the level of danger had increased, the attitude of the residents began to change again, and Grace began to pay higher wages and her labor volume began to double.
When everything slowly turned into an unspoken rule, the residents began to demand too much, and everyone began to instigate poor Grace, and even impose certain things on her, because as the masters of Grace's fate, they There is no equality between them. When Grace was about to flee, they were no longer willing to let her go as easily as they had at first, but instead imprisoned her. When the residents of Dogtown began to have power, they became more willing to put themselves in a better position, and Grace happened to be the object of their power.
As Tom, he was the only one who was willing to help Grace for free at first, but it wasn't that he was really free. The reward he hoped to get was Grace's love. Tom, on the other hand, is a weak idealist who simply understands the townspeople, and in the end all his advice to help Grace fails. When in the end Tom is still a member of Dogtown and dares not fight Dogtown for Grace. Even when he saw that all the men in Dogtown did not pay as much as he did but easily got Grace, the psychological imbalance made him eventually become a human degenerate like other members of Dogtown, and finally he chose to betray.
In the end, Grace found that the residents of Dogtown were not much different from her gangster father's violent gang. The difference was that the residents of Dogtown were cowardly and ugly. Complete what you want. So after a killing, a human elegy was written for the film.
So back to the question at the beginning of this article, why do people in poor and secluded villages appear simple and kind? This is because there is less communication with the outside world, coupled with poverty, there are not too many disputes in the pattern of interests, and the lack of Incentives make a small world calm and indifferent. This is not the nobility of human qualities there, and if there is an opportunity to introduce a great deal of benefit into a peaceful world, it is likely to spark a dramatic change, and the nobility will suddenly become fragile and crumble.
Sometimes I can't help but examine myself, whether I can really keep the principles, when the oppression of the general environment hits my face, the temptation of interests shines brightly. I couldn't help but sigh, everything was not as easy as I imagined.
Text: Between the eyebrows
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