Posted on 12/12/2001 9:27:09 AM PST by Starmaker
In the movie Awakenings, Robin Williams plays Malcolm Sayer, a doctor assigned to a New York psychiatric hospital. The story centers around his work with catatonic patients and his desire to find a treatment that will awaken them from their decades-long sleep. In particular, it focuses on his relationship with a patient named Leonard Lowe, played by Robert DeNiro.
Dr. Sayer discovers that although his patients seem to be trapped in a world of their own, they do respond to certain outside stimuli. The sound of their own names or the melody of a particular song invokes physical reactions that convinces the good doctor that there is hope for these people who have otherwise been brushed aside as being untreatable.
After much research, Dr. Sayer stumbles upon a highly experimental drug that is currently being used to treat Parkinson's patients. Given in large doses, it provides the trigger needed to awaken the trance-like Leonard. Spurred on by this promising new treatment, Dr. Sayer convinces the hospital administrator to allow the drug to be given to the other patients in the ward who are similarly afflicted.
Almost as if the dead were being resurrected, those who had been trapped in a living nightmare– unable to move, unable to speak– stir to life. They feel they have been given a second chance and want to live life to its fullest.
Unfortunately, their awakening turns out to be only temporary. The drug's effect begins to diminish, despite increases in dosage, and the patients eventually find themselves back where they were, trapped in a prison with no bars or guards but inescapable nonetheless.
I saw this movie recently when it was aired on late-night TV. The impact it had on me was just as powerful as it was the first time I saw it over ten years ago. No matter what Dr. Malcolm Sayer did, no matter how much he loved his patients, he could only succeed in igniting a brief spark of new life in those to whom he devoted so much of himself. In the end, he wonders if he should have just left them as he found them. "How kind is it to give life, only to take it away?" he asks.
Call me over-analytical, but I could not help but compare the catatonic existence of Dr. Sayer's patients to the self-absorbed lives we lead as Americans. I could not help but draw parallels between Awakenings and September 11.
Right now, America appears to be wide awake. Patriotism is at an all-time high. The symbol of freedom, the American flag, can be found adorning everything from clothing to cars. Red, white, and blue are the official colors of the holiday season, knocking the traditional red and green out of the Number One spot for the first time in over a century.
Businesses have perpetually pounded their patriotic pitch when running their radio, TV, and newspaper ads. "Hurry in, buy now, and help keep America rolling!" Special coins have been issued to commemorate the events of September 11. Typically "conservative" talk show hosts have abandoned their usual rant against the dangers of big government and now stand firmly behind the government in every decision it makes.
Democrat and Republican lawmakers can join hands together and sing "G-d Bless America" on the steps of a publicly financed building without so much as a peep out of the ACLU. The entire nation has found itself united against a common enemy. Without a doubt, the needle on our country's Patriot-o-Meter is well into the red.
But wait. This "awakening" only raises more questions.
Why did it take the deaths of thousands of Americans to ignite the fires of patriotism? Have we grown so detached from reality that only a complete and utter catastrophe is able to shake us from our apathetic slumber? Don't we realize that fires that flare up tend to die down just as quickly?
How can we unquestioningly unite behind a government that claims to be defending our freedom against a foreign enemy while at the same time passing legislation that has the potential of doing more damage than any terrorist bomb? Why is patriotism suddenly defined in terms of how fervently we support an undeclared war rather than in terms of how bravely we defend the Constitution?
The sad thing about it is that, like Dr. Sayer's patients, our "awakening" (if we are even truly awake at all) will not last. Once we have successfully eradicated the threat of terrorism– or at least when our government tells us it has been eradicated– we will slip back into our complacent, catatonic state, awaiting the next national tragedy to befall us.
For the same reason that it often takes a heart attack to make a fat man lose weight and start exercising.
That's the way people are.
How can we unquestioningly unite behind a government that claims to be defending our freedom against a foreign enemy while at the same time passing legislation that has the potential of doing more damage than any terrorist bomb?
Because that's not what the "government" is doing, no matter how much the chicken-littles say it.
Once we have successfully eradicated the threat of terrorism– or at least when our government tells us it has been eradicated– we will slip back into our complacent, catatonic state, awaiting the next national tragedy to befall us.
What "we" will be doing, unlike Shelton and all his paranoid friends, is resuming a normal life.
Paranoids don't have normal lives. Like cocked triggers, they're always at the ready to think somebody, somewhere is out to get them.
Oh, and if other Americans are enjoying themselves and going about their lives, they're "catatonic."
Sadly, we only partially awoke. The attack pulled at our heart strings and the nation began acting just for the purpose of doing something. And that's the worst possible scenario, action without thought. As patriotic as the Founders might have been, I believe they fully processed all possible responses before making one move.
And that's what's different today. The POTUS just suspends portions of the Constitution and the majority follows along because we have to 'get them'(although I'm still not fully sure who we have to get besides Bin Laden). And those that might question the masses are called anti-patriotic and traitor
I agree with that last item. Unfortunately that answer, for the author, means he might actually have to learn to do something useful.
We now have aviable at our beckoning call 24 hour a day dosages of war. Is it healthy? Does it damage or lessen the fear and perhaps produce eventual apathy after many exposures? Medical science says it can.
Do you anyone ever been treated for phobias? Let's say flying for example. Do you grab the person and drag them on the plane and say here you go? No they would freak and become enraged. Yet a very effective treatment goes like this. Small incremental dosages of approaching the fear over a period of time. It has a high success rate and is widely used.
So how could America become once more complacent of 9/11? By constant exposures of pictures you become detached and desensitized.
Let's go back to Awakenings again for another thought. Let's just say a person had been comatose since 1945. If you woke them up and showed them what we now call the news they would literally freak. A few hours exposure would likely produce some long term ill effects to that person. Yet most any American can and will when they hear WAR jump to the tube to see the carnage. Ten minutes after the air raids conclude go buy a pizza and calmly watch the movie on HBO or further news reports. Is 24 hour a day news really what America needs? When the horrors of Nam visited our living rooms five minutes a night the war meant fear at first. After a few years it became a yawn or just a passing curiosity.
America is getting Mega dosages of new found patriotism every where you turn especially in advertising. What will be tomorrow's new fad?
You list every geeky conspiracy of the 20th century in a previous post; it's no surprise you think "normal" is dysfunctional.
You've been a Bircher so long when you go to a football game you think the team in the huddle is talking about you.
Another example is that of abortion.....America isn't bothered with over a million babies a year being slaughtered because they don't see, er hear, the silent screams.
Were we all forced to, or bombarded by the media with pictures of unborn babies bodies cut up in pieces, or discarded in a pile of rubbish....abortion would go the way of the dodo bird.
It is the media's refusal to show the truth of abortion that has allowed over 40 million babies to be slaughtered before having a chance outside the womb.
But is the new found Patriotism real???
Or just another 'fad'????
redrock--Constitutional Terrorist
I have no doubt that there will be more attacks on us and when our schools, hospitals, churches and institutions are being gassed every one will scream save my but at any cost.
A one time or so shown to all event it would be quite effective. Shown often enough the dodo birds would be watching it while eating their meal and be completely undisturbed by the carnage.
Exactly.
What a steaming pile of HorseSh&t.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.