Excerpt:
"Shyamalan: I am an artist whose art form is making cinema for a group of people to watch together. That's what I do for a living. The exploitation of that is unending -- but that isn't [what] I do it for. That's not the artist that I am. Someone who makes TV shows is a different kind of artist. The experience of being in a room with 500 people [is different] -- you literally share points of view when you watch together.
I once wrote an article about the Nuremburg trial and how these were the worst Nazis in the Nazi organization. These people were animals. And their faces [were like] ice, except for the moment they showed a movie in the trial.
When the lights went down and they showed the footage of the bodies being pushed into the pits, their expressions changed and they became emotional. They were watching [the events on the screen] through the eyes of everyone in the theater. They were having a joint experience. They were all connected, and they saw the horror, saw [that their victims] were human beings. And they changed."
I used to be a libertarian until I had a revelatory moment about the power we all hold over each other. Through one particularly powerful lens, we are all socially constructed. How do you marry the individual freedom that allows us space to live up to our highest potential, and the responsibility packaged with the potent power over others that is our birthright?
Perhaps we come slowly and as individuals to the choice - the choice to love and be subject to each other.
From "War Crimes," The West Wing:
BARTLET: For other stuff, not for this. You can't just trod out Ephesians, which he blew, by the way, it has nothing with husbands and wives, it's all of us. Saint Paul begins the passage: "Be subject to one another out of reverence to Christ." [passionately] "Be subject to one another." In this day and age of 24-hour cable crap, devoted to feeding the voyeuristic gluttony of the American public, hooked on a bad soap opera that's passing itself off as important, don't you think you might be able to find some relevance in verse 21? How do end the cycle? Be subject to one another!
ABBEY: So... This is about you.
BARTLET: No, it's not about me! Well, yes, it is about me, but tomorrow
it'll be about somebody else. We'll watch Larry King and see who. [shouts]
All hacks, off the stage! Right now! That's a national security order.
ABBEY: I'm going to the Residence. I'm taking a bath; I'm turning on
Sinatra.
BARTLET: How does Mrs. Sinatra feel about that?
ABBEY: Peace be with you. [turns to leave]
C.J. comes outside behind Bartlet.
BARTLET: [sings] You make me egg foo yung...
C.J.: Good morning, Mr. President.
BARTLET: [turns to her, sings] You make me feel there are songs to be
sung...
ABBEY: [to C.J.] He's feisty. Please, don't ask him about church.
C.J.: [quietly] No, I won't. I'm sorry, Mr. President, Melissa Markey
died.
BARTLET: [smile fades away] Yeah, okay.