What The Truman Show Teaches Us About Politics

Kristof, let me ask you. Why do you think that Truman has never come close to discovering the true nature of his world until now? We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. It's as simple as that In the beginning of the truman show a star falls from the sky, well.. a light falls from the ceiling of a sky-high Set that encloses an artificial town built for the life of one man and the entertainment of the whole world the light says sirius nine canis major which refers to sirius

the Brightest [star] in the night sky This star which [homer] once called an evil portent bringing heat and fevers to suffering humanity. In the film the falling of Sirius is the first in a series of Ruptures in Truman's fake reality, a series that ends here with [an] actual rupture a breach in things as they are like an homer Peter Weir director of the Truman show envisions this door into real reality in darker terms than you might expect. All the symbols we usually associate with goodness an

d positivity are behind Truman. Bright blue skies sunbeams breaking through the clouds an expanse of sea of possibility. Reality, truth and authenticity on the other hand are relegated to a small single rectangle of shadow hardly the light at the end of the Tunnel that we normally associate with liberation all throughout the film freedom for Truman is linked tightly with trauma every peek behind the curtain is accompanied by Some form of pain whether it's the pain of seeing the image of a decea

sed loved one the pain of a true connection Abruptly cut short the pain of memory or simply the pain of uncertainty of not knowing what it is You're seeing that's of course a pain that we're all familiar with it's why for the most part we see only What we want to see. Truman has been privy to a lifetime full of hints Clues to the fact that his world is not as it seems Yes to incorporate those clues means to reconfigure the [entire] narrative of his existence and Rewrites like that just aren't fr

ee. They cost. They cost suffering. Peter Weir and writer Andrew Niccol were prophetic about so much from the vantage of 1998 the ubiquity of Reality television the rise of Mass Surveillance they keyed in perfectly to my parents generation of cold War Paranoia of being watched or bugged and my own generation of narcissism where it bugs us not to be watched That's a great joy of the truman show the allegories and layered readings, the heaviness of it all stands out vividly Even for a kid like I w

as when I saw it at age 10 It's not pedantic or preachy. It just asks so many damn questions that are impossible to ignore. [Truman] "what the hell are you talking about? Who are you talking to?" And actually I was watching it again recently And I was really struck by how easily the truman show can be read as an allegory for the present. Like Truman's town of C. Haven, our own world seems to be experiencing a similar series of ruptures, ruptures like the Great Recession 2008 the Arab Spring, lik

e the killings of Young Black men by police or our increasing awareness of them, like brexit the splitting of [the] uk from Europe and Most recently like the rise of the political outsider movements of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump I think American society at large is a lot like Truman Burbank Laboring like him for 30 plus years under a system that is finally showing itself to be ridiculous Society like Truman is trying to wake itself up while stumbling under the pain that surfaces from doing

so The Truman show is a massive operation with a crew and cast of thousands But for all the power that Christoph commands the show's success always Hinges on Truman himself. It can only work if Truman believes in it. [Chrtistoph] "He could leave at any time if he was absolutely determined to discover the truth There's no way we could prevent him" The powerful in our world hold things in place like Christoph holds Truman But we hold ourselves in place, too. If nothing else, It's clear that in 201

6 we are slowly waking up into a new political reality like in Truman's world the power relationships of our own have gained and consolidated strength by convincing us that They're normal like laws of nature by taking any breach and folding it [back] into the narrative They've kept all those like Truman who are perennial losers at they but ideologies don't last forever eventually They crumble under their own weight and the increasing refusal of people to believe it. [Truman] Thank you for your h

elp. [Policemen] You're welcome, Truman. the Truman Show shows us what waking up looks like. It stages in a really valuable way the struggles that come with it? It shows how the messaging of the dominant ideology is absorbed into media and into education It shows us how individual people even people we trust, good people, can become the mouthpieces of a rotten system Everybody is in on it I'd have to be a nun [too] and Most importantly of [all] the Truman show Imagines liberation, not as utopia

but as a world flawed like our own full of multiplicity and contradiction and people obsessed with TV [it's] a world gained only by struggle and pain, one that often looks like an evil portent in the moment It's not a sunburst in the clouds or an endless sea But a small shadowy door that leads off to a territory unmapped But invested hopefully with a greater Authenticity. [Truman] In case I don't see ya Good afternoon good evening, and good night There is a new Nerdwriter video every [Wednesday]

So if you go right there and click on that you'll subscribe to this channel get all the videos and that's what helps Me out the most the truman show blows my mind every time [I] watch it [I] saw it in the theaters when [I] was 10 in 1998 with my mom And it was one of the best movie experiences the formative movie experiences of my life So this was a blast to make thanks so much for watching again. [I'll] see you guys [next] Wednesday