I Have a Dream in a pessimistic world

 

By: Montserrat Bueno Prado 11B

 

 

We live in a world that has been defined by the ghosts of the past. A civilization that is repressed by the constant reminder of the World Wars. Drowned by an endless pessimism, that makes us believe that if men were capable of killing thousands of people for no reason, then there is no hope for humanity. A negativity that constantly reminds us that one day we are all going to die, and that that day can perfectly be tomorrow. Everything is uncertain and nothing is permanent in our lives. The gray cloud of eminent death lures in our heads each minute of every day. We are just waiting to get the news of a new war. We are living recklessly because a future is not guaranteed to us. That is the world we are living in. A world that has ceased to believe in durable peace. That is the postmodern era. But what if it  didn´t have to be that way? 

 

Can you think of an instant when you ignored that cloud of darkness over your head? A moment when you believed in a bright future? A second when the shadows that hunt you disappeared? Well, I can. Those moments happen when I´m watching a movie.

 

Not the answer you expected?

 

Last Sunday, February 22nd, The 87th Oscars took place. A show honoring the best of the movie industry. In the opening ceremony Neil Patrick interpreted a song called “Moving Pictures”. In it he transmitted a very powerful message. Movies matter. 

 

In the lyrics he wondered “Why do we love them? Why do we care? When they're just moving pictures that aren't really there”, then he proceeded to answer his own question. We care because these stories of “Small town girls who change the world by challenging the norm” or the story that can “Take us over the rainbow, across the fields of our dreams. In the heat of the night to defeat and to fight evil schemes.” Those are the stories that “Inspired you to stand up and perform.” Those films that “May not be real life, but they'll show you what real life means.”

 

In the last couple of weeks I saw three movies that made me believe in a bright future again. “The Imitation Game”, “The Theory of Everything” and “Selma”. Three movies that were nominated at the Oscars and that even won in diverse categories. 

 

Why do these movies matter? In history class I read and analyzed Hitler´s speeches. Discourses full of hatred and obsessive ideas about power and control.  Words that made me shed tears, words that crushed all the ideals I had come to believe after studying the French Revolution. Equality? Fraternity? Liberty? In a world where the Holocaust happened, those three things can´t be true. But then I watched The Imitation Game, a movie that tells one of the best kept secrets of the Second World War, The Enigma Code. In few words, it is the story of Alan Turning, a brilliant man that had to struggle all his life because he was different. A man that lived in a society that considered homosexuality an illness and a crime (something he was). The story of a war hero that not only, in a way, ended war, but also was the predecessor of the computer. 

 

Then I watched The Theory of Everything, the story of one of the brightest minds of our era. Stephen Hawking, a man that was told that he wouldn´t reach his twentieth-third birthday. The same man that this year turned seventy three years old. A bright mind that changed the way we perceive the world. This movie shows you how life will always try to put obstacles in front of you, problems that might seem impossible to solve, but if you believe in yourself and you work hard enough, anything is possible. Because if a man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has lived fifty years more than what science thought possible, and in those fifty years revolutionized the world of science, then you can do anything. Nothing can stop you. 

 

The last movie I saw was Selma, the story of a very strong leader and his fight for black people´s rights. It is a film that tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr. The most memorable parts of the movie, for me, were the speeches. Listening to “I have a Dream”, I felt so inspired that I cried. This speech talks about freedom and equal rights. It is persuasive and powerful. It expresses the need of breaking the chains that enslaved his people. His story is so inspiring, because after two wars lead by negative leaders that only cared about power and control, here is a positive leader that always fought his cause with a nonviolent policy. While the leaders of the beginning of the century lead their followers to death, Martin Luther King lead them to freedom. 

 

Turning, Hawking and King, were extraordinarily ordinary. The difference between them and the rest of the world, were the decisions they made, and the purpose of their lives. They could have kept their intelligence hidden, they could have pretended they were normal and just fit in, they could have succumbed to the helplessness of illness, they could have complained in their houses about the unjust world they were living in. They could have kept all that to themselves, but they didn´t. They made a difference. They changed the world. And If they could, why can´t we? Everyone can challenge established laws, and make things happen. These men were real men, were real heroes, and we can become one of them too. 

 

For all the pessimists out there, that think that the idea of being a hero is delusional and just a waste of time, I encourage you to watch these movies, and to forget for two hours about the real world that oppresses you. Three films that certainly will make you rethink your negative thoughts. Movies that made me realize that even if the World Wars showed the worst and cruelest side of men, those wars were just one small part of history. The march to Montgomery lead by Martin Luther King showed the best in people, it demonstrated that if we come together, as brothers and sisters, we can make the world a better place. For every start of a war, there is also one ending. We have to believe in the impossible, for us to make it possible. And for every injustice there is someone out there willing to fight for freedom.