Escape Velocity

"Eager for self-justification, we throw ourselves in the direction of a propaganda that justifies us and this eliminates one of the sources of our anxiety. Propaganda dissolves contradictions and restores to man a unitary world in which the demands are in accord with the facts . . . For all these reasons contemporary man needs propaganda; he asks for it; in fact, he almost instigates it".

Jacques Ellul - Propaganda.

"In fact, Disney's robots are masterpieces of electronics; each devised by observing the expressions of a real actor, then producing models, then fabricating skeletons of absolute precision... authentic  computers in human form, dressed in 'skin' made by craftsmen, whose command of realism is incredible".

Umberto Eco - Journeys into hyperreality.

"I wish I was a Wild West Hero".

Electric Light Orchestra - Wild West Hero.


Saudi Arabia allowed the opening of the first cinema in the country for some 35 years this past week, inviting guests to enjoy the latest Hollywood action superhero blockbuster in plush and elegant surroundings as the first step to seeing the re-introduction of such entertainment to the country.

Although cinema has officially been banned by law there for decades, it has done nothing to quell people's well-nigh insatiable appetite for the pull of the fantasy market - shows available on mainstream entertainment platforms proving to be just as popular under the strict regime as they have been anywhere else in the world, so the ban itself proved as impotent as prohibition in America in the 1920's.

The hunger for such escapism says a great deal, not only about the Saudi's, but about all of us.

Jeff Dillenbeck wrote a wonderful little piece recently on the Mockingbird site, which explored his (and ours) delight and fascination with the silver screen. Cinema appears to be able to present us with all of life - its trials and passions, its glories and its angst, but he asks us a telling question... where is God in such adventures?
He alludes to a fascinating work by Josh Larsen, which seeks to show a relationship between movie-watching and prayer - how both are seeking to express something rough and often imperfect yet, at their best, something more honest about us and our needs and desires - no doubt part of the reason why fantasy is so enjoyed in countries where authority is rigid regarding what and how people must be.

In truth, we want to be enveloped into a drama that is far richer and rewarding than the often cold, harsh, detached brutality that the selfishness and spoiling harshness of our 'real' world permits (the key premise of Speilberg's new film, Ready Player One, highlights this), so escaping into places where all our dreams - from the most forbidden to the most genteel - can be expressed, safely and meaningfully, is something key to our nature.
People are longing for what is truly good to clothe their time here, but often the only place this can even be entertained is through entertainment - a few hours of escape from the arid, scorched thing that is just beyond the doorway.

It's no mistake that the Bible seeks to principally present truth as an epic story.
The true story of history is exactly the kind of drama we need. It is filled with the most satisfying events of love, life, death, played out on the largest canvas we can envisage - life itself - with a cast of hundreds of millions and a director who is concerned about the place of every single one of them, evidenced in the way He comes into the centre of the production as, genuinely, one of us.

I've often thrilled at moments in some of my favorite films where the story has truly echoed one of more of the key themes (fall and redemption) discovered in the Biblical story. In those moments, deep indeed calls to deep, and we find ourselves saying "yes!" from our innermost being, often perhaps accompanied with smiles and tears as we enjoy the 'rightness' of what has been said and done.

The pain of today often claws us, and we feel severed and crippled by our failings or the betrayal of the present, but escaping to somewhere else 'whispers' that we're meant for something more than just pain and suffering. Truth can make today bearable, for the greatest truth, in the greatest drama, is an empty tomb after the most violent death... Of angels saying "Why do seek the living among the dead?"

Freedom has come, and our dreams can be beautifully shaped by that liberty, leading us home.