Why the hell shouldn't James Cameron be the guy to fix the Gulf disaster?
Maverick imagineer, creator of worlds, dogged pursuer of technical excellence, possessor of a massive ego -- he has what many of the scientists who worked on The Manhattan Project had. And instead of watching passively as his country is led to inevitable ruin by disaster-capitalist corporations, he is using his entrepreneurial/creative gifts to solve what the red-tape bound bureaucracy cannot.
And allowed to prevail, he just might succeed. The key is not his wealth, ego or access. It is his creativity.
It is that single element -- creativity -- which has been missing in America's business and political landscape, the reason why its students aren't faring as well as their international counterparts, why our media aims lower and lower, why we lag behind in math, science and language skills worldwide. The art is gone.
Funding for the arts in our schools has been decimated. And people wonder why our students are dropping out and graduation rates are falling? One might as well take yeast away from a baker and wonder why the bread doesn't rise.
The fact that arts and sports programs have been marginalized in public education demonstrates that the folks in charge were themselves perhaps somehow discouraged from exercising their own creative impulses when young. For these people, happiness is measured in cold profit, with no long-lasting application of the success they might have achieved had they access to creative expression.
The failure of No Child Left Behind is a glaring example, with students being taught merely to test well without any thought to life beyond their schools' receiving federal funding based on performance, and no practical application in the workplace and the competitive world they are entering. It is a program conceived and executed by people for whom art seems to have had little or no personal value.
And when profit undercuts the pulchritude, even the beautifully-designed gizmos which saturate our culture and induce mass drooling lose their potential to have a meaningful, long-lasting impact (*cough* iPhone *cough*). In fact, they are built to fail, a hallmark of the dead-end intellect.
Without art, all things take on a dull, disposable cast. The physicalization of learning through artistic expression is essential; experiential education makes for a deeper, more profound impact on individuals and society. And better scientists, teachers, economists, engineers, doctors, street sweepers, cooks... in other words, a better, more productive, more profitable citizenry.
So the question is, if James Cameron -- or people like him -- wants to help solve a major crisis which seems unmanageable by the current crop of artless experts, then who are a bunch of unimaginative dead-enders like BP to stand in his way?
Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheStevenWeber
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html
- Tom
Thankfully, the Obama Administration flatly said no to the idea of adding radiation, and the possibility of opening up even more spewing oil leaks, to an already catastrophic situation by nuking the area.
I have my issues with Obama's performance on some items, but it's at times like these I'm so glad he won the election.
It's not at all hard for me to believe, that a McCain Administration would have jumped on this ridiculous solution to the problem. Nuke, Baby, Nuke!
Creativity is the essence of life, just look at mother nature. The disaster-greed capitalists and their greed driven hearts are so damaged they now inflict their damage on all of us and our earth. Time to put creativity at the head of the table and let life have a chance to flourish again.
An excellent piece, Steven.
Has Michael Douglas logged in huge amounts of time, exploring the deep oceans at depths two and three times the depth of this oil leak?
Has Michael Douglas designed and built deep sea cameras, rovers and submersibles? I don't think so.
James Cameron has done all those things, and he assembled all of the very small group of people he knows who are experts on this activity, to offer their expertise in this disaster. Why in the world would you be against that?
According to your logic, the military would be much better suited to fixing the problem, because they have more submarines than anybody, have logged more undersea hours than anybody, and have destroyed or incapacitated more things than anybody. But yet, with their millions of people with all different training, they say they don't have the expertise for this. I find it difficultt to imagine that a film maker knows more than engineering firms, let alont the US Military.
Look, I obviously have no idea what goes on in BP's inner sanctums, and have as much technical savvy as a tin of anchovies, but thinking outside the box is what's needed on many levels as concerning the way our country conducts its multifarious businesses. I am not advocating a generation of Andre Serranos or Robert Mapplethorpes (although that is plainly the far right's fear---as insane as many other of their neuroses), only positing that the inclusion of such study is important in virtually every aspect of study and industry.
Now let me die in peace.
Mother??
My brother and I used to hear that all the time growing up.
He didn't just offer his own help. He assembled all of the very few experts in this field whom he knows personally, and whom he has worked with over the last 22 years, to offer their expertise and help.
I fail to see how that's a bad thing, and it can't be much worse than BP's so-called "experts" have made it thus far.
Predictably, many use it as a take off for their pet peeves--BP, government,
Socialism, etc., without addressing the lack of creativity in the current culture.
I posed this question several years ago when I suggested getting a team of
writers together, those who write spy thrillers, etc., to come up with a plan to
abduct Bin Laden, bring him to the US to stand trial instead of 'picking off' his
subordinates once every year using hundreds of thousands of troops.
Going to the military gets you military solutions--i.e., mass troop movements,
weapons galore, and a mindset in maneuvers, not to mention support personnel.
To me, such a task requires the creativity we have seen in the old television
reruns of Mission Impossible and the current crop of spy movies.
But......, again, predictably, "THAT'S TELEVISION! Not the real world!"!?!?
And where do people think THOSE ideas came from?
'The creative function has been distorted into the idea of aggression.'
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As the only one on Earth who thought that Avatar was a horrible movie, I'd prefer a talented man like James Cameron to focus on the re-writes of his various projects, instead of concerning about some sludge in the Ocean.
Both are equally inane.
Yeah, James Cameron would have any clue about what to do about the gulf spill. This is an engineering nightmare. Sorry, no special effects to fix this one.
"Typically, dominant left brain students will be more organized, they'll watch the clock, and they'll analyze information and process it sequentially. They are often cautious, and they follow rules and schedules. Left brain students are strong in math and science, and can answer questions quickly. Left brain students would make great Jeopardy contestants.
On the other hand, right-brain students are the dreamers. They can be very intelligent and very deep thinkers—so much so that they can get lost in their own little worlds. They make great students of the social sciences and the arts. They are more spontaneous than the cautious left-brainers, and they are likely to follow their own gut feelings."
So, when engineers and conservatives make fun of the teachers and artists and other liberal pinkos, it's really a left brain-right brain tension. More right brain people, less hubris from left brain people about blowout preventers and levees and Predator drones never failing?