Darko Bush and the Resolving Fear Love Triangle

Donnie Darko.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing this movie, then close this web page, hop in your car, drive down to the nearest Ebert owned movie rental facility and get it. Bring it back, watch it, and then read this post. Not that this post really has that much to do with the movie, but that movie is definitely more important than this post.

If you’re still reading now, then I’m going to assume that you:

• A – Have seen Donnie Darko
• B – Ignored me.

So, let’s continue.

Background/Refresher information for all… There’s a part during the middle (i.e. sometime between the beginning and the end) of the movie where the gym teacher is trying to convince the class that everything they do in life is related to fear or love. That every decision they make or action they take is one that is based on one of these two emotions. Donnie refuses to place his little pin on the line, bringing up the following excellent point:

“There are other things that need to be taken into account here. Like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can’t just lump everything into these two categories and then just deny everything else!”

Bingo.

Throughout the movie, you get the feeling that the gym teacher and the others who have fallen into the fear/love trap are actually living their lifes through fear. Constant fear because they just don’t understand life and can’t adapt to change.

This is what Bush’s problem is. He takes pride in being a “simple” guy that everyone can relate to. And he makes his decisions based on “simple” emotions that he feels. It may not always be the case, but that’s how he comes across to me. His mind has worked everything out in the most “simple” of ways.

“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

There you go, simple at it’s finest. But it really isn’t that simple is it?

Just the look in his eyes when he was talking about homeland security, the patriot act, the war on terror, and all that jazz during the second debate…. The look in his eyes portrayed to me that he was led by a sense of fear.

The fear that something else was going to happen.

This is the same sense of fear that has leaked out into the American public after 9/11. Why should we feel any different sitting next to a Muslim-American on a plane? We didn’t feel any different sitting next to skinny clean cut white guys after Timothy Mcveigh attacked the country. Why should we be concerned with duct-taping our windows shut to protect us against chemical weapon attacks. Are we really that much more vulnerable than we were the day before 9/10.

I mean imagine if Ashcroft came out on September 10th and told us that we should put Duct-Tape around our windows because it would protect us. Right, that’s going to go over well. But one event. One event changes everything for the public.

I call Bullshit.

Get over it. No, don’t forget about what happened. Yes, do go after the people that made it happen. No, don’t live in fear of it happening again. Yes, make an honest effort to try and understand the reason why it happened, the emotions that caused them to attack us. No, please don’t arrest me secret service.

Get over the fact that Bush happened to be the guy who was President during 9/11. Just because he was there doesn’t mean that he has the supreme ability to make the right decisions for the country.

Having resolve is one thing. Having the ability to evaluate and adapt according to new knowledge is completely different.

Bush is so resolute in his views that we will always be headed down a one way path with no crossroads while he is in charge.