Archive:
At the beginning of this whole Archive, I want to clarify that my intellectual identity is a persistent political economist. Movies were vital elements within my journey of founding and pursuing my own identity. They expended my vision. They inspired and encouraged me. In this archive, I’d like to introduce five movies that had the heaviest impacts on me and explain how they influenced me:
- The Stanford Prison Experiment, 2015, Directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez
- Schindler’s List, 1993, Directed by Steven Allan Spielberg
- The Pianist, 2002, Directed by Roman Polanski
- The Pursuit of Happyness, 2006, Directed by Gabriele Muccino
- Whiplash, 2014, Directed by Damien Sayre Chazelle
Part I: Confronting Human Nature
I wasn’t into Politics in the first place. In the past, I felt Politics were those boring 10-centimeters thick books, which I couldn’t fully understand. However, The Stanford Prison Experiment completely changed my views of Politics. It urged us to see how fragile human beings are to power and thus made me realize the necessity of justice and fairness in our law and political system.
The film, The Stanford Prison Experiment, was based on the real psychological experiment conducted at Stanford in 1971, which was designed to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power. 18 psychologically healthy volunteers were selected (in the film) and randomly divided into two groups, the guards and the prisoners.
Within the narrow space of simulated prison, the psychological states of both prisoners and guards changed in a drastic and inconceivable way over 6 days. In the beginning, both the guards and the prisoners were very chill about this experiment and felt it was just a role-playing game. However, as rules, the authority and the power dynamic were set. Guards’ mindsets started to change. They started to use their power to manipulate and penalize prisoners. After finding they were not penalized because of their awful behaviors, guards acted worse and started to humiliate prisoners in inhumane ways. One the other hand, after several failures of escapes and rebellions, prisoners began to lose their faith and real identities and act fearfully according to the degrading instructions of the guards.
From the experiment, I observed how unsupervised power could potentially twist humans’ senses of moral standards, and how the desire of maintaining power could lead to misbehaviors. I also felt how harmful mentally and physically it is to survive in a power system in which justice and fairness were not emphasized. The result of the experiment may seem far away from our lives, but it isn’t. School bullying, discriminatory treatment in the workplace, corrupted bureaucracy … All those listed scenarios are happening and impacting people’s lives. Those scenarios are real versions of the experiment because they shared similarities with the condition in the simulated prison: the power of the strong was not properly restricted and the rights of the weak were not sufficiently supported. I couldn’t imagine the suffering those individuals in those scenarios been through.
I suddenly realized the importance of Politics. I understood why politics puts such an emphasis on organizing a well-balanced and supervised power system. I felt the urgency of developing complete and fair laws as a political means to ensure people’s happiness.
(Corresponding Video Project for Part I(for USC student only): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fWH4e5eMaD1kBTIRHP2dmzCuhukgcmge/view?usp=sharing)
Part II: Learn the Lessons From “Blood”
The distribution of resources is the shared core of Politics and Economics. For a while, I was confused about how and why it was so vital. Revealing one of the darkest parts of human history, Schindler’s List and The Pianist taught me how awful ways of distributing resources could sabotage our society and affirmed my idea of being a political economist.
Resources in the society are not distributed automatically; they are rather allocated and mobilized based on the rules society set up: by using violence, by using social status, by using IQ competition, or by using money… Retrospecting the history of human beings, the most prevalent but also the darkest rule applied was the usage of violence. This rule was simple: you want something, you use violence to get it. States started countless wars to plunder the wealth and labor of others. The resources flowed from the weak to the strong, from those ones who need them to those who just desired more.
The two movies depicted the suffrage of Polish Jews during World War II from two different perspectives: a savvy German Businessman and a misfortune Jewish Pianist. They together fabricated a complete picture of the living conditions of Polish Jews during WWII. The cruelty, unfairness, and exploitation nature of the usage of violence as an allocation method perfectly educated me on how an awful rule of resource distribution could damage the well-being of tens of millions of people. Nazi Parties’ “Polices” would rob the Jews’ wealth and use Jews’ savings to live lavishly; they would even torture or kill Jewish people just for fun. The military power they had during the war gives them an illusion that they have the authority to conduct those evil behaviors. In contrast, Jews cannot fulfill their basic safety and physiological needs (food, water, warmth …). The emphasis on violence and the propaganda accompanied, during the war, blinded those Nazi party members’ eyes from seeing the reality in a humane way and caused this tragedy.
As I investigated deeper, I found the stories inside the two movies are just the tip of the iceberg. Much darker histories were hidden and unknown. I found similar events happen all around the world: Two and a half million people were killed during the Indian massacre, six million Jews were systematically murdered within the Holocaust of WW II, three hundred thousand Chinese was killed in Nanjing Massacre …
Time might dilute those pains, but those blood spilled are worth remembering. They are warning us to learn the importance of distributive justice and ethical methods for the allocation of resources. They are telling us our today’s happy lives are all based on well managed economic and political systems. The realization of this point urged me to further my study in political economics and investigate methods for allocating resources that can improve the well-being of society.
(Corresponding Video Project for Part II (for USC student only): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fWH4e5eMaD1kBTIRHP2dmzCuhukgcmge/view?usp=sharing)
Part III: Never Say Never
The process of pursuing my dream, being a Political Economist, was not smooth. Failures, embarrassments, pains … There were times that I thought I should just give up. During those struggling moments, it is was the spirits in The Pursuit of Happyness and Whiplash that pushed me to go forward.
Abandoned by his wife, failed in his investments, single father Chris Gardner’s life was as worst as one could imagine. However, even during those moments, he never gave up; he had the desire to be somebody, and he had the courage to fight against life. His words, “You got a dream, you got to protect it”, made me reflect. I thought to myself “Compared to Chris Gardner’s situation, my difficulties were like nothing. How can I just give up so easily? How can I be so inactive and cynical when so many opportunities are waiting for me?”
Even though being laughed at by his family and insulted by his teacher and teammates, Andrew Neiman never gave up his dream to be the greatest Jazz drummer. In order to prove himself and get closer to his dream, he swallowed all those hard feelings and tirelessly practiced day after day. While watching the movie I felt ashamed, because I realized that a dream is not a real dream until I use my life to guard and pursue it.
Chris and Andrews’ spirit of persistence moved me and their passion for dream kindled me. Whenever I recollected their stories, the energy was like injected into my mind. Gradually, they influenced me in the ways I investigate, the way I think, and the way I deal with difficulties. They became part of my inseparable identity.
(Corresponding Video Project for Part III (for USC student only): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB8L99hVv5M)
Bibliography:
Alvarez, K. P. (Director). (n.d.). The Stanford Prison Experiment [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Stanford-Prison-Experiment-Billy-Crudup/dp/B017O67TJ2
Chazelle, D. S. (Director). (n.d.). Whiplash [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn0sMRLrbp0
Muccino, G. (Director). (n.d.). The Pursuit of Happyness [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIZKoak6gp8
Polanski, R. (Director). (n.d.). The Pianist [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo_5Qy32wPg
Spielberg, S. A. (Director). (n.d.). Schindler’s List [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEY0dQAF4k4
