How Movies Show Us Who We Can Be
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- Опубліковано 17 тра 2024
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About this video essay:
An analysis of the philosophy of Levinas, the depiction of humanity through cinema, and the hidden meaning that can be found within it.
Chapters:
0:00 Levinas and the Face of the Other
1:23 Performing Humanity
4:13 The Weight of Guilt
6:40 The Nature of Our Conscience
8:32 Denying the Humanity of Others
10:20 Everyday Dehumanization
13:35 Facing True Humanity
15:54 A Kingdom of Conscience
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Further Reading:
Like Stories of Old - The Complete Reading List: kit.co/likestoriesofold/readi...
10 Books that changed my life: kit.co/likestoriesofold/10-bo...
10 More books that inspired my thinking: kit.co/likestoriesofold/10-mo...
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Music:
Slow Meadow - Crown of Amber Canopy
Dexter Britain - Dream Array
Jude Cosmo - Lunar Echo
Jo Blankenburg - Canopus
Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself: fm.pxf.io/c/3532571/1347628/1...
Additional Music:
We Dream of Eden - Sleeping Seeds
Included Media:
A Fantastic Woman; Amadeus; Avatar; Better Call Saul; Blue Valentine; Burning; Carol; Chernobyl; Children of Men; Crime and Punishment; Decision to Leave; Deepwater Horizon; Dunkirk; Fences; Fifty Fifty; Fleabag; Good Will Hunting; Hacksaw Ridge; Her; Ikiru; In Bruges; It's a Wonderful Life; Kingdom of Heaven; Knight of Cups; Lion; Louder Than Bombs; Love Actually; Manchester by the Sea; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl; Midsommar; Minari; Moonlight; Nightcrawler; Only the Brave; Paterson; Persona; Phantom Thread; Pig; Portrait of a Lady on Fire; Prisoners; Saving Private Ryan; Schindler's List; Sense8; Shame; Short Term 12; Station Eleven; Tar; The Elephant Man; The Farewell; The Great Beauty; The Great Dictator; The Greatest Showman; The Green Mile; The Grey; The Hobbit; The Killing Fields; The Passion of Joan of Arc; The Perks of Being a Wallflower; The Railway Man; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; The Thin Red Line; The Tree of Life; The Worst Person in the World; Thirteen Lives; To the Wonder; World Trade Center
![Write Your Life And Become A Better Storyteller - Mark W Travis [FULL INTERVIEW]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xFK5Ih3CPFc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Write Your Life And Become A Better Storyteller - Mark W Travis [FULL INTERVIEW]](/img/tr.png)
Happy holidays everyone!
If you want to support my work and get access to the LSOO Discord server, annotated videos and other fun extras, please consider donating to my Patreon page: www.patreon.com/LikeStoriesofOld Thanks!
Happy Holidays 🎄
LSOO... I honestly hope you never stop what you are doing here.
Your videos have, for me personally, been a respite from the chaos of my own mind for many years now.
Many of them have touched me in the deepest corners of my being...
This video ended and I found myself smiling. Being content with the person I am, with being human in fact.
The humility with which you engage a variety of topics and emotions is something rare.
Please don't stop doing what you do. I hope you keep doing it. I hope you enjoy it. I hope others are touched by your work the way I so often am.
Without going into too much detail;
I want you to know that it is very likely that I would not be alive if it weren't for a video you made 2 years ago.
Thank you. From the very depths of my soul I thank you sir.
Happy holidays, a good night and good luck to all : )
Em why do you think Germans use the word "Gestalt" as "the true appearance of other human beings"?? It just means"figure"...
Happy Holidays 💞
@@nostalji75 I didn't really mean that in the context of common speech, but more in the context of philosophical jargon, where (as I once learned) German and Dutch both use gestalt and gelaat respectively as a shorthand for, among other things, Levinas' typification of humanity, and which doesn't really have a direct translation in English that is used in that same way
Every single video of this guy makes me shed a tear in the true sense of what it means to be a human being 🥺❤️❤️
Everytime! I have a wife that struggles with depression and his video "you can't save the ones you love" broke me
Yeah sometimes I think he's trying to break us (this is not a criticism)
@@rjfink definitely not a critism! He really is an example of what online culture could be
Same
It's simply astounding. Never have I found such a channel.
This is the kind of deep, rich, textured content that really explores the potential of the internet. Yes, there's a lot of nonsense and I think that's perfectly okay, but it's nice that there are people exploring more substantive and impactful contributions.
Nonsense is always dependent on the ability of the person to make sense of it. =).
Feels like the creator of Like Stories of Old is studying so much film, poetry, philosophy and all the things that awe the humanity so that he will eventually direct a movie or write a story that will be as amazing as the videos he makes. An amazing mind!
It’s very rare for a person to be both literate and visionary. For some reason those traits tend to repel each other like oil and water. Though it is of course a prerequisite for what some might call creative genius. Luck and stubbornness, I think are mysterious third and fourth guests at the table of true artistic inspiration.
I had the same thought/feeling. I wish he would.
Thank you for showing us your face. I have no idea of the levels of anxiety that comes with producing something that is so intimate and wondering if it will resonate with a single person. I want to affirm you that each piece you produce, they are deeply felt. Thank you again.
I think in today’s culture, we needed reminding of THIS more then ever before. I work as a social worker and just coming into contact with my clients on a daily basis over the years has radically transformed my perception on what SHOULD be important. Everywhere I go, so many of my neighbors, co-workers, strangers in my community seemed to be detached from everything other than what is right in front of them. So many people busy at work propping up their digital ambassadors on social media and getting lost in the internet. So many people breaking off friendships of something very pity. Families going decades without speaking to each other over a political opinion. It’s truly heart breaking to see the loss of our humanity for one another. I pray that someday, we remind ourselves as a society to never let ourselves become what we’ve always feared by accident or design. My favorite quote from the film Call Me By Your Name said it best:
“We rip out SO much of ourselves to heal from things faster, that we go bankrupt by the age of 30. And have less and less to offer, each time we meet someone new. But to feel NOTHING, so as to not feel ANYTHING……what a waste”.
Seeing someone with deformations say that line... "I am not a monster. I am a human being" was moving. I've never had any physical abnormalities, but yet, I felt that. I felt the years of being tormented, alienated, and possibly betrayed by his fellow humans who feared something they did not understand - never caring to know what he's been through. I know it's all acting but it's also excellent, at that, because despite not being in his condition, I empathize.
For weeks I carried this anxiety while reading crime and punishment, a feeling of hopelessness. It was crippling. Only towards the end, when Raskolnikov felt a hope for absolution in repentance that I was at ease. This book was such an experience
Hope you find a moment for solace and hope!
This is the very best video you've made yet, and that's saying a lot. A perfect message for the holiday season, and to energize our hearts for the new year!
Agreed 🤝
It is and it is very beautiful.
Oh I cried. Please never stop making these videos. They are so needed in the world.
The university program I'm in (nursing) has robbed me of a lot for how far away its taken me from what I knew as my life beforehand. And, to a certain extent I'm able to alleviate the feelings of isolation and frustration that being so far away from everything I've known has caused by going to other movie channels on youtube. But this channel is where I go when I really need to rally the remaining hopes I have. I dont know if anyone on the platform produces content thats so raw and honest in what you discuss. I dont know. Its difficult to articulate from behind a keyboard but your channel has helped a lot with keeping me going and finding some good in the things that I do and in who I am. Cant thank you enough.
The medical field, the mortal frailty of our physical beings, and the burdens of care could make for a great topic.
I found this channel when I was in medical school, and listen to it over and over again now in residency. I feel like I know and understand everything you are trying to articulate with this comment. This video, all of it really, makes me feel less alone
With this video you made me remember many of the best moments I have experienced while watching a film. I've been going to therapy for some time to deal with emotional blockage, and this helped bring that hurt that seats deep inside one inch closer to the surface and oxigenate my feelings. Thanks for the effort and care you put in your videos.
11 months later, and I still can't watch this one without crying. I keep it as a permanent tab on my browser and just listen to it when I need perspective. Thank you for this gift.
Oh, boy, I don't get how you always manage to write and edit such wonderful videos, but I'm so thankful.
Damn man your work touches me so deep, thank you so much, you have no idea how appreciated it is. Your calm honest voice, your cadence, the images you choose, the themes. You make art, wonderful art so thank you so much again. I'm reading comments of pretty much the same thing I'm saying and that makes me happy so you know, one more heart, one more conscience has been moved today and I want you to know that because that's huge. So, hope you're well. Oh and just in case you haven't read The Brothers Karamazov, you would love it, that book makes me think of a lot of what you're touching on this video. Big hug and happy holidays, thank you again!
"Maybe the humanity of others should guide our everyday thoughts and actions"
👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏
It is so rare to find things like this that make me want to be a better person, remind me of my egotism and push me to think beyond myself
this guy goes beyond analysis. it´s more like a religious epiphany. A reminder what it means to be human
I am a human being. And one of the rare times in my life (well, actually why not more often?) happy to speak German ;-) - so I can understand "Gestalt" quite well. Weren't the origins of gestalt-therapy American? I associate a book called "Don't push the river"...so I have something to research now. As always I will have to watch your essay more than once to fully understand, rather to fully feel it. It made me cry already. It is one of those, that will touch me again and in a different way, when I watch it years later. Like "paradise built in hell". One of the deep ones. Thank you so much. And happy holidays to you, too!
When I see a video from you appear in my UA-cam recommendations, it's like an unexpected gift. I know going in that you will be asking deep, important questions and I know I will probably shed a tear or two. I honestly mean it when I say that I think your work is the absolute best I have seen on this platform. Thank you for what you do.
There hasn’t been one day in the past four years that I haven’t watched or listened to one of your videos. You are a very special person and I am very grateful for the value you provide to the universe. Thank you.
well, this unexpectedly brought me to tears from inside me.. i think for me, it’s realizing what the covid pandemic changed inside me as you described adeptly: “our body reacts by slowly disconnecting us from the outside.. even though we may still exist in this world physically, touching things don’t feel the same, colors don’t seem as bright, music feels distant.. though the sensation is often experienced as one of numbness, our body is screaming at us, imploring us to come back, to get back in touch.. every day you wake up there’ll be less of you..” THAT hit me as the best descriptor of my pandemic isolation as what it has done to me unexpectedly.. i’m currently trying to work through this, but it takes time - & a few unexpected, private breakdowns.. thank you for this: another wonderful video essay! have a good new year!
Since covid ive been feeling the same way
But i still have this faith and hope though
this is so raw and multi layered i cant even. this is all what it means to be human and so much more. seriously couldnt have worded it any better. one of my fav video essays ever
Very much enjoyed this video. I was involved in a workplace accident, where a fellow employee died in my arms as we were transporting him. To see his face change, and leave and to know nothing will be the same, there were no more moves left. Afterwards, when watching tv, movies, the violence of it all and the ease of it was disturbing for me- like it is so easy for humans to watch and create suffering, that it is so easy to hurt others violently and murder and just keep walking on as if it does not affect us- so much film portrays this now and it is such a lie and it is weak. It changes you forever, as one tries to make sense of senseless and meaningless violence, I was left with deep guilt of not having been able to prevent this. Hollywood is mostly dead inside I think.
I replayed it three times: the first, to understand. the second, to reflect upon it. the third, to find the movies of these scenes. Thank you for such a wonderful work. and please don't hesitate to share with us your favorite movies.
This is incredible. Just fantastic work. Your video on the Magician will always speak to me the most, but this one made me cry.
Your videos are always so thoughtful and moving, one of the most unique channels on UA-cam, thank you.
I feel this speaks to my very recent past, youtube once again, you are my therapist.
SUCH a great video. And let us include in this the people we haven't met yet, the ones living and growing in their mother's womb.
I've been thinking that i could never give up my hope and faith in humanity, for as many horrible things as we have done we also have done so many beautiful ones... It reminds me of this poem by Lana del Rey where she says something along the lines of
I still believe in humanity, strange as that seems in times like this, and not just because of the warmth that i found in your brown eyes but also because I believe in the good that's in me, that it's firm enough to plant a flag in, or a rosebud, or to birth a new life.
And I think when we recognize others and ourselves as complex and terrifying and beautiful and everything we can be, we really get to truly live.
This also made me think of that line in Les mis where they say that to love another person is to see the face of god.
The most underrated artist I've ever seen in my life dude this is amazing
I am moved. Thank you for reminding me of the deep sense of humanity that deserves value above all else. All the love
This video should get 7 billion views
Please never stop making videos. It makes us more human.
I have loved all of your video essays but this one really spoke to me on a deep spiritual level. I'm currently reworking a novel and this helped distill the theme in a way that has escaped me for several years without even realizing what it was that was absent. Thank you so much!
I live in Los Angeles and I see thousands of people a day. Sometimes I look at people on the streets and I remind myself that every single one of them has a unique and powerful story, but it's so easy for me to see these people as moving scenery and I feel bad about that.
Each time I watch a LSOO video I am deeply moved and uplifted. Such great messages so thoughtfully shared and visualized. Thank you!
This is one of the very few videos in youtube that has made, quite literally, cry...
Even for a small amount, it really impacted me in a way I cant explain.
Keep the good work man, you are blessed
I enjoy your videos but I really appreciate the “It’s a Wonderful Life” clips you added into your video. My favorite movie of all time as it’s so relatable to all of us. What it means to be alive and human and the impact he have on others no matter how small.
Thank you for all you do and happy holidays
A beautiful exploration of humanity in cinema. Truly remarkable. Glad that you put the sponsor at the end so it didn’t stop the magical flow of this video.
Videos of such quality are hard to find. Thank you for putting in the effort:)
Man. Reaching into my mind and my heart with this one. You must be a true lover of wisdom.
The ending of Schindlers List always sat with me, but I could never really put to words why it made me feel. Now I think I understand. Thank you.
Man, you had me welling up with tears. Again.
Merry Christmas.
This might be the best essay you've ever done.
I had tears in my eyes toward the end. Beautifully made.
Another outstanding video. You consistently create some of the most thought provoking and moving essays. Related to the connection between the psychological and the physiological, I would very much recommend "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. It completely changed my perspective.
Beautiful piece of work, masterfully written, edited and observed. The gentleness of delivery really helps bring us the audience to a place of quiet contemplation through well crafted philosophical observations of cinema and life. A poetic treatise that aids our understanding of our own and others’ humanity. Thank you for this.
Just another one that brought me to tears. Such a blessing to live in the same time as you do.
I hope our paths will cross one day,... We shake hands, I say thank you, and that's it.
Thanks, man.
You have no idea how many lives you’ve changed and are changing with your videos. A true genius. You are a gift to humanity!
for real, this guy is too good to be true
Supremely insightful, crisply edited, and beatifully voiced. I love this channel.
Absolutely beautiful as always :) !! Your videos are always some of the most insightful emotional and honest works of art I’ve ever seen and it feels like I learn something new about the world humanity and myself whenever I watch them. They help me become a better person and make better choices even if they’re hard and difficult to think about. Thank you for all that you do, you’re making a difference
What a deeply and wonderful episode 😢 This is, what internet should be made for.
LSOO again says it best ... Here i resonate w it, because its about what i find in every person i met in the helping situation, i too resonate within myself like others experiences of hurt, lonely, in pain, in guilt and shame, in regret, in loss, in remembrance of hell on earth/trauma.. i find in them my story unfolding, and showing me an opportunity for greater humanity, a sort of radical empathy. It stretches me, till like in the clip 'i too burst open in moments of tears, tears without explanation'. Like Tom asks us here , what if our journey here is to safeguard the humanity in others? I agree, it is.. for me, and yet to witness that humanity in another is to vicariously experience much of the deeply unhappy moments as well as the moments of transcendence .. which is , like a 'moment in heaven', a bit of bliss, Goenka's momentary rising above craving and aversion... sympathetic joy, a revelation, a peak experience, and entering Jung's grail castle, ... changes one and you perceive things differently, and staying connected to this practice of empathy changes lives
I discovered your channel this morning and I think I might spend most of my day watching your videos. Amazing work, thank you.
I love your content so deeply. Thank you for existing, my friend.
Your ability to touch at the very heart of these indescribable topics always leaves me in awe
Tom, You did it again. Nothing on the net touches me like your wonderful, thoughtful videos.
Thank you.
True! Any international movie is responsible for what it shows but it is not responsible for what individual understands from it. Example Hugo is profound and complex but comprehensible in many ways. Emily is beautiful movie too.
An excellent and thought provoking video, consistent with every video essay I have watched form you. Thank you.
Beautiful video once again.
I'm so glad you put scenes from Warrior in here. There are scenes in that movie which everybody should see, they totally got me off guard and pulled straight into the pain of the characters.
I’m happy that I can contribute a little to you by way of thanks for your continuously remarkable work. You’re a healer, sir. Thank you.
Thank you as always, you move me to tears. I wonder how you can manage to write such a compelling and emotionally resonating script with your captivating voice. your videos explores idea that i deeply resonate with and emotionally connect to. keep up the good work.
Whenever the discussion of humanity and conscience arises, I cannot help but think of the letter from "The Ox-Bow Incident". Henry Fonda delivers is as well as any can. A film I recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it.
A beautifully constructed essay & message/plea. ❤👍
I needed a good cry.
You, sir, are incredible. I'm overwhelmed beyond words. Thank you so much!
incredible, as always.
thank you for this.
I love your work. thank you so much for making these videos. a spiritual experience every time. and your editing and scene/explanation matches are perfect.
Also, animals.
If you truly look into the eyes of animals, and recognize their emotional capacity, their desire to live, their ability to suffer, their fear of death, and you allow your empathy to encompass non-human animals, then you will in turn be forced to reckon with your own justifications for exploiting their bodies. Much like Raskolnikov. It took me many years to come to terms with the lies I was telling myself, to become vegetarian, then vegan.
The immense suffering caused by the factory farming industry in the developed world relies on our collective willful objectification of non-human animals. We should not limit our empathy to only looking for “humanity” in the faces of others, but rather widen our circle of compassion beyond humans.
Thanks for another great video essay😊
The greatest of ideals. Excellently presented! I'm with you all the way.
Beautifully done. Thank you.
Your channel is not what I was looking for.
I will continue to watch your videos. Thank you for expressing your observations and putting them online.
Your best one yet, sir. Thank you.
There are really very few films that achieve this type of transcendence, at least in the spectacular commercial cinema and its explosive stars where generally only vampiric pedantry is present.
Once again, your work is incredible, full of truth and love, love for our people, our world, our kind. Thank you again for being alive, for what you share to us... You won't be forgotten.
Just a heads up - long comment here
The final chapter of this video reminds me of the 5-track album "Departure Songs" by We Lost The Sea. Each track is in memory of humanity shown in tragedy. The album was inspired by the devastating loss the band went through when their lead singer Chris Torpy took his own life. This is also why the album has none of the band members singing throughout and why the only vocals you hear are harmonizing choir singers, much like the chants of angels.
The first track tells the tale of Lawrance Oates, captain of the failed "Robert Falcon Scott Expedition" to the North Pole. After failing to be the first there, they turned back only for disaster to strike. All of the men were suffering from gangrene, starvation, and frostbite, with Captain Oates being the weakest. Against the protests of his fellow crew, he got up from his tent and nobly walked to his certain death to increase his crews chance of survival.
The second track commemorates the sacrifice of Valeri Bezpalov, Alexis Ananenko & Boris Baranov, who virtually entered a suicide pact to open the sluice gates at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Track three recognizes the last dive of professional diver David Shaw, who died successfully recovering the body of fellow diver, Deon Dryer, who died 10 years prior trying to break a record Shaw had set. They assumed the body lost due to the force of the current. However, Shaw spotted the body during initial diving runs. He decided to salvage Dean's body for his family, drowning in the process. Both of their bodies were recovered on the surface days later.
Tracks four and five tell the story of the Challenger disaster, which took the lives of 6 astronauts and a teacher. The fifth track, in particular, specifically aims to be a eulogy for all the people in the album, as well as Chris.
I felt like this wonderfully mirrored the Kingdom of Concience Like Stories of Old emphasizes in the final chapter. The album is fantastic, by the way, one of the best post-rock albums ever produced.
You have a beautiful talent my friend!
Thank you!
I love your videos! Intelligently written and beautifully edited. I would appreciate it so much if, in future videos, you were able to add the title of each movie in the corner of the clips you show. I find myself wanting to know what films these are (for the ones I haven't seen) and sometimes it is hard to figure out. Thanks for all you do!
i think you're my favorite youtuber
Extrordinary work. Really touched me and inriched my day.
I love these videos and that you include a list of films you used in the description as well as music and timestamps. But I'm wondering if you could also include the books and articles you use in the compilation - i.e. which Levinas to read to explore these ideas further?
You do some wonderful work my friend.
Amazing video. Thank you for creating this. Very emotional, informative and deep. Happy Holidays :)
Wonderful video. Made me me think a lot about how becoming cinema geek influenced my ability to feel empathetic to others, experience other humans as u named it, even tho im kind of a shut in person. Recently started dating a guy who is really not into watching movies and talking to others. Im slowly becoming aware of how ignorant he can be to the feels of others, that his guiding principle of life is that he will do anything to achieve what he wants even if it means other will struggle bc of his decisions. Or more like it doesn't even occur to him that others will struggle bc of him. He treats people that are not close to him exactly like objects.
There is so much good about him but also this huge difference in our views of other people makes me wonder if i will one day become just another stepping stone for him or i will gain the same views of other people as he has
This was beautiful, thank you
Beautiful. It is that light that shines when we see ourselves in the other, when we recognize that we are not really different, not really separated. That light is our humanity, our pure heart, our true essence, our true nature: what we really are. That recognition is powerful and potentially revolutionary if we keep reminding it. To live according to this is to let go of the limited ego we believe we are, and live from the heart, being guided by a profound wisdom we couldn't imagine we have. If there is hope for humanity, this recognition couldn't be lacking.
Thanks.
A Masterpiece of art. Thank you for this video.
These videos are gripping and so often very moving. Thank you very much for making them. I've struggled on and off over the last few years with fear and guilt and doubt, and these emotions can definitely make a strong physical as well as psychological impact. God continues to carry me through though, and He will be with me always.
Merry Christmas out there everybody ✝️🎄.
Absolutely beautiful work.
Such a beautiful piece of work, thank You very much
Am I the only one thinking that this might be this channel’s best video yet? Profound yet direct. Thank you for this. Thank you. ❤
This content is seriously unbelievable
So thoughtful and reflective. Thank you.
At the moment I have been on a Transformers binge. Not on the movies by Michael Bay, mind you, I'm talking about the original 1980's show that most refer to as "G1." That show has a special place in my heart, for it is with one episode, "Divide and Conquer," that changed the seven year old me completely and set me off onto my academic path into creative media. A fact that I spoke to both Optimus Prime and Megatron themselves, both Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, with pride one year after college at Toronto Fan Expo 2019, an experience that I will hold onto my heart forever.
However, as the years go by, I realized that leaping onto a creative plateau wasn't the only effect that Transformers had upon me. Only a year after I discovered Optimus Prime, I became an elder sibling to first a baby half-sister, then a baby half-brother a year later. Since then, I have observed the many issues that all of my parents had, some of which I disagreed with passionately. Even though they were far from bad parents, they did have some questionable moments and all that motivated me as I entered puberty to become another one of my sibling's "parent," teaching them to reject favoritism and promote greater understanding and empathy for the misfortunate. A lot of parents tend to punish their kids over minor, petty incidents such as standing out of turn or a single joint in adolescence. Makes me wonder how would those tough-love pussies react to actual atrocities such as racist or ableist bullying or intentional sexual harassment, maybe it's because a lot of them are just tyrannical bullies who don't want their kind to be held accountable. How does that relate to an 80's toyline, a Toy Line that has been beloved for almost four decades?
When Peter Cullen was auditioning for Optimus Prime, he took some helpful advice from his brother, Vietnam Veteran Larry Cullen who told him, "if you're going to play a hero, BE A REAL HERO, not one of those Hollywood types with the yelling and screaming and the BS, be strong enough to be gentle." That was the advice that not only got Peter the role, but created one of the most beloved characters of all time, a character immune to the tough guy ideals that plagued everything else, making Optimus Prime an empathic and sincere warrior, one whose grand proclamation was "Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings." Even before I became a big brother, that "Big Brother Energy" that Peter inscribed within his role almost certainly had an impact upon me, and in more ways than set me up for becoming the best big brother my two half-siblings could possibly have. To show them how to be more genuine and human than they would have been without their autistic big brother.
That said, I myself cannot claim to be immune to ego, spite, seeking violent vengeance against those same petty tyrants who had dehumanized autistic people such as myself, and at its worse an intense distaste of people who I feel are "lower than me," some of them unfortunately directed at petty ideals based on politics and class or most tragically with disabilities. Such mentality is more akin to the leader of the villainous Decepticons, the transforming gun Megatron, a villain who for me sits right in between the cartoon bullies of my childhood (including Diesel 10 of "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" and Major Chip Hazard of "Small Soldiers") and the more mature monsters I will endure onwards (including Jake Heke of "Once Were Warriors" and Captain Vidal of "Pan's Labyrinth"). Almost every G1 episode before 1986 had Megatron, the avatar of violent toxic masculinity, waging war against the Autobots, and especially Optimus Prime.
Some of my darker, violent feelings and instinct to end or do great harm upon those who I feel either dislike me, or sadly don't have the full strength to support me, are more in line with Megatron. The urge to beat down all the trolls and monsters of the world to become one so frightening that the scariest brute would wail like its victims upon my terrible fury and leave the innocents alone. Seemingly, this is a nice ideal until you find out Megatron's catchphrase, written on his box that very philosophy of frightening and beating all the other monsters to submission with three words: "Peace through Tyranny."
Throughout my adult life, I have also encountered countless people in positions of power or responsibilities who are disinterested in caring for the other, people outside my family who I look at and wonder if they actually have souls inside their bodies. People who are so dead inside or probably so privileged that the idea of doing the right thing doesn't matter to them except with 'exceptional cases' of great disaster. On paper taking a gun and shooting them right in between their heads to see if they have anything inside their numb skulls sounds like a good and decent idea, but that is something a violent and spiteful tyrant Megatron would absolutely do.
What would Optimus Prime do?
Your words say it exactly, "it would be unreasonable to ask that we act like this all the time. But YOU KNOW WHAT, MAYBE WE SHOULD. Maybe the true weight of humanity should overwhelm us, maybe it should hurt us to the point where it forces us to change our ways. Maybe the humanity of others should occupy our every thought and action, maybe it should be the guiding principle for every aspiration both as an individual and as a society."
THAT is something I have felt my whole life, and even when it hurt I still had no resentment for the sensitive nerve inside of me whose heart broke every time he heard a child crying, even before he gained two crying baby siblings; and more importantly THAT is the pure essence of Optimus Prime as a character. Right from his opening episodes, Optimus Prime made no hesitation to break away from fighting his big bad foe to rescue a puny human trapped beneath rubble, even if it cost him and the Autobots a victory.
As for the man, Peter Cullen, he said very little as I told him my life story with transformers, instead he took hold of both my hands and looked up at me with those same warm blue eyes that I have seen multiple eyes in pictures until I was finished in which he responded, "I'm glad." Seeing all that in person proved Peter Cullen himself to be a true King in the Kingdom of Conscience.
If any statement is to be made, apart from the obvious fact that Peter truly was and always will be Optimus in person, but more importantly:
WE ALL SHOULD BE MORE LIKE OPTIMUS PRIME AND ALLOW HUMANITY TO OVERWHELM US, TO MAKE THE BENEFIT OF THOSE IN DESPAIR AND MISFORTUNE WITHOUT HESITATION, LIKE A REAL HERO STRONG ENOUGH TO BE GENTLE TO THOSE WHO DON'T DESERVE VIOLENCE OR HARASSMENT.
Sorry for the long, long comment, I hope y'all enjoyed it.
Do you have like a tldr version or
Beautiful video. Excellent analysis. ❤️
Great work as always!
Hey! This is one of my favourite youtube channels, and I think you're doing incredibly important work. These videos help the human spirit. Very essential. Would you consider doing a video on Jinx from arcane, by the way? I relate to her in some ways, and I'd love to hear your analysis of her. I think it'd be very healing for me, and hopefully others too. ❤
I was once told that I am fake. That I was fake because I would do anything to be there for someone who is in pain. I told her that I’m always there for those in pain because I know what it feels like to not have anyone and that I don’t want anyone else to go through that hell.
Her argument was on how much of myself do I need to lop off until there’s nothing left for someone else; that one cannot pour from an empty glass. How could one expect to be present for another if they aren’t even present for themselves.
I suppose there must be a middle ground. I wake up everyday anyway not knowing who it is that I see in the mirror. I am alone in this life. Those I’ve taken care of are long gone from my life and I know not what is left. I don’t know what more to do. Maybe I need to fill that empty glass.
*Beautiful, just beautiful.*
One of the best videos advocating for humanism.
A tear 😢, a like👍 and a subscribe.
We're both human beings and humans being.
Any chance you are able to include a list of the movies used in your video as a credits in the description or something like that?