En tu idioma / In your own language

Eduardo del Buey
Foto: Archivo / La Jornada
La Jornada Maya

Lunes 27 de febrero, 2017

A contemporary exercise in nostalgia, this excellent film is evocative of the musicals of the nineteen thirties. Excellent music, outstanding dancing, a romantic movie to its fullest extent. The melding of contemporary pop and incredible jazz was literally music to my ears.

This film is vintage Hollywood – contemporary Hollywood and golden Hollywood. Boy and girl come to Los Angeles, strive to make it, almost don’t, then do.

Like the musicals that marked the nineteen thirties, this one brings good feelings at a challenging time in our history.

In the nineteen thirties, the Depression was in full gear, vicious nationalisms and populisms were taking power in many countries, and fear was a common denominator. In his inaugural address, Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said “we have nothing to fear but fear itself”. The clouds of war threatened, and radicalisms beckoned. Everything was the fault of “others”, and solutions were to be found in destroying these “others”.

Today fear is also preached from populist political pulpits.

Refugees from the Middle East threaten Europe’s social stability. While one might ask why they don’t go to Muslim countries, which in fact they did. Millions are in Jordan and Turkey.

But the fact is that millions are already in Europe and mass deportation would be a logistical and humanitarian nightmare. While Angela Merkel has welcomed them in Germany, other countries and, indeed, the extreme right in Europe, stand against allowing refugees in, arguing their countries will lose their national character and culture.

Immigration continues to be a hot topic in the United States, as we see the Government and the Courts currently locked in a struggle to see who prevails in controlling the inflow of refugees and citizens of a number of Muslim countries.

The European dream is being fractured.

BREXIT threatens to dilute the European Union, as does the rise of nationalist movements. In France, Marine Le Pen appears likely to win the first round of the presidential elections in May. In Holland and Austria, the extreme right continues to grow, and in Germany it is also mounting a challenge to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In the Philippines, a populist president threatens the rule of law by sanctioning the extra-judicial murder of criminals (and others caught in the crossfire). In North Korea, an extremist autocrat threatens Asian security, while in Latin America, Venezuela has been run to the ground by populist leaders espousing an unsustainable economic model. Finally, Arab states were overrun by the Arab Spring which resulted in greater extremism and the rapid increase in the number of refugees.

One may ask why extremists are on the rise. It may well be because Governments have not met the expectations of the people, and the gap between the one percent and the other ninety-nine has expanded. Many people feel disaffected and poorly represented, and seem ready to elect those who offer simple solutions to complex problems, even if some of these proposed solutions are divisive by their very nature.

La La Land is a start to making us feel good. It is a brilliantly written, choreographed, and acted work of cinema. It is an excellent model of how the human spirit can overcome challenges.

But simply feeling good will not rid us of fear.

Moderate political and social leaders must find the narrative that will counteract the ultra-nationalism of current radical leaders on both the right and the left. They must offer realistic solutions that provide an alternative to radical populist solutions.

An ambivalent ending is what the film offers, and is what we may face as a global society.

As the movie illustrates, it takes a lot of individual effort to move ahead and achieve goals. Success is not the result of facile words or easy slogans. It takes hard work, hard choices and, for nation states, real leadership with real policies aimed at creating real solutions.

Not “alternative facts” and the language of hatred.

[i]Mérida, Yucatán[/i]

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