Tonight, as I do every two out of three Thursdays, I volunteered my time with Salt Lake Peer Court – a fantastic organization that helps troubled youth.
My main obligation is focused around making sure the four students I am in charge of do what they are supposed to be doing. During downtime, of course, we tend to chew the fat.
Well tonight was no different, aside from the conversation the night was just like any other. At one point we discussing movies and, more specifically, certain important movies. Somehow the discussion moved towards a discussion of Schindler’s List. I had made the comment that it was probably a little before these 16 and 17 year olds time but that they should watch it for its cultural value alone.
“What is it rated?” one of my kids stated. “An extremely hard R – there is nudity, but certainly not sexual, severe violence, I mean it was about the holocaust after all, and some language.” “Oh, I can’t watch it then. We are Mormon after all.”
Stunned, I replied that it is one of those movies that you should watch, if only for its historical importance and that, frankly being Mormon is not a very good excuse. The response I got back was equally disturbing - “well I can learn about the holocaust with out actually having to see images of it.” My reply of “you simply can’t learn about it without the images,” was the last word I got in before we had to move on to our next case.
But this got me thinking (and typing). There are certain things in life that require us to face the unpleasantness, and even evil, that humanity can and does exercise form time-to-time. Sometimes this requires us to break rules that we normally hold in high regard (not watching R rated movies for example) because the value we gain from experiencing something far outweighs any arbitrary rule. To not do something that is of high cultural value simply because “I’m Mormon” is just not good enough of an answer. Schindler’s List is not the same as Zach and Miri Make A Porno or 300, yet moral absolutes cause people to make decisions such as this.
To not see, or not allow a child, to see a piece of art simply because of a naughty bit is wrong. It breeds apathy and mental sloth. In cases such as this it is a moral imperative that we do show these things (age appropriate of course) if only because they are so impressionable. They must know that people are capable of bad things and that we must do what we can to prevent them. To use a turn of phrase – those who fail to understand history are doomed to repeat it.
Likewise we must make exceptions for the opposite side of humanity – art that expresses our beauty, intelligence, and humanity.
Art has always been an iffy thing, and there is always going to be room for debate as to what is and is not culturally important. But what I hope we can all agree on is that there are certain things – knowledge of the holocaust, the works of William Shakespeare, the Ku Klux Klan’s lynchings and the resulting atrocities surrounding the civil rights movement, and the beauty of Rodin’s The Kiss. All of these things must be part of a well-rounded person’s upbringing. Yes they might be unpleasant for the viewer, but they all speak volumes about humanity and they must be known.
But it is true that art causes freethinking, and freethinking can be a dangerous thing…
