HT readers may be interested in my thoughts on Romantic individualism and technocracy in the new Avengers film, which is not “the movie for our time,” but is good enough for what it is:
Mild spoiler warning!
Rogers opposes Stark’s individualism not by overt appeal to God but by appeal to human relationships. We are made to live and work with one another, to solve – or at least cope with – our problems “together.” The solution to our problems lies not in machines and systems but in people wanting to be in right relationship with one another.
This is just as religious a claim as “there’s only one God, ma’am.” I am not sure it isn’t an even more religious claim. For it asserts that we are made not simply to be what we are and do what we want, but to overcome what we are and control what we want in order to achieve a fulfillment that lies outside ourselves.
Gratuitous tie-in: http://newsok.com/article/5420919
Thank you for the posting, and the insight.
It appears to me this idea (that covenantal “togetherness” will do more to save us than Romantic individualism) is at the heart of more than just this latest Avengers film. It is, perhaps, a theme.
[spoilers from here on out]
The second Captain America film is all about the destructive tyranny of technocracy; the power to pre-emptively identify and kill off any potential threat has fallen into the wrong hands. [It’s even argued that there are no “right hands” for such power.] The bad guys are stopped only through the collective sacrifice of many. (Including Steve Rogers’ willingness to die in the attempt to rescue his friend from their control.)
Guardians of the Galaxy centers on a misfit quintet; each was defined by traumatic pain and loss, and each responded to their loss by aggressively seeking their own interests without regard for others. The plot hinges on the five changing, and rather than running from trouble, they act to stop a madman from destroying a planet. In so doing, they fully expect to (a) fail and (b) die painfully. Still, they decide that it is better to die together while protecting innocent lives, than to flee in isolation.
Coincidence? Evidence of a particular worldview among the Marvel braintrust? Or, perhaps, in the interest of developing stories that will appeal to the broadest possible worldwide audience, they subconsciously gravitate towards stories with an underpinning of Truth?
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