The schizophrenic society...

Das Lehrerzimmer (The Teacher's Lounge, German; 2023)
Director: Ilker Çatak

I feel lucky to have been born at the time I was born. If I were born to be a young adult at the present time, living in a 'so-called' developed nation, there is no absolute reason why I should not be a raving lunatic. The society is broken. Nobody respects anybody anymore. Power is too democratised. People with the most miniature brains are given on a silver platter the right to manage something they cannot handle - their rights. People think they know what they want, but they know diddly-squat. The individual is more important than the community. Personal liberty is more important than the common good of the community. Everyone demands the right to know about everything, but at the same time, there is a compulsion to protect information and privacy.

This schizophrenic environment of today makes eccentricity the default mode of people's response. For every move perceived as offensive by the other, the whole extent of legal jargon is employed. The long arm of the law is utilised for what will make everyone more miserable than they already are. The lawyers are the only ones who seem happy in the process, laughing all the way to the bank.

The society members immerse themselves in a pool of paranoia, low-esteeming and suspicious of their neighbours, and high-strung in a cesspool of siege mentality. 

The movie takes us to a German secondary school where somebody notices money goes missing in the teachers' lounge. The disciplinary teacher decides to run a spot check on students. A student of immigrant background is found to have a lot of money. The student's parents insist that the money was his allowance and accuse the school of racial profiling. Carla, a newbie class teacher of the student, decides to conduct her own investigations. 

She leaves her laptop camera on to record the possible thief. She thinks she possibly recorded a probable offender and confronts that person, Kuhn. Unfortunately, the accused denies everything and turns against her, accusing Carla of invading her colleagues' privacy. Carla reports the situation to her principal, who worsens the problem. She decides to report the case to the police. Kuhn is suspended. 

That soon develops into a living hell for Carla. Kuhn's son, who studies in Carla's class, demands to know what is happening? As investigations are ongoing, the school board decided to keep it under wraps. Soon, all the students' parents insisted on knowing what was happening. The student editorial board demands to know the whole truth. They publish truths and half-truths under the banner of freedom of expression. The school is in mayhem, doing everything except teachers' teaching and students' learning. 

In this modern generation, schools are doing everything except learning. They try to pinpoint scapegoats for all their failures and bring down others for making the level field lopsided, in their minds, of course. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

First world problem in the third world!

Credit: weknowmemes.com

Look around us! We are indeed living in a third world, ruled by leaders whose subjects are still caught in the feudal era, at least in their mindsets. Even though they enjoy the benefits of modernity, their subservience is reminiscent of the natives of the bygone era; not of the thinking and curious one reflective of years of education spent on them. Anyway, the learned ones have all left the roost. The ones left to occupy the vacuum are runaway employees, economic refugees, fly-by-night snake-oil salesmen and overstaying sojourners who had been legalised through umpteen amnesties that were carried out to smokescreen the authorities' incompetence, to create economic opportunities and to fish for potential voter bank.

Some of the ones who opted to stay behind or lost out in the chase to scoot off the country when the opportune was ripe are generally too patriotic for their own good or had missed the gravy train.

The other day, I heard an interesting conversation between a few millennials who were, at least from the impression that I had, feeling 'guilty' of being privileged for having the comforts of modernity. They think that they had to pay back to the society. One of them suggested working at a soup kitchen. She related her fulfilling moments serving the needy, reminiscing the glistening of moist eyes of the persons of a full stomach. Another narrated her experience teaching the homeless and the sheer bliss of educating the ignoramus and the joy opening the inner eye of knowledge.

Some of us, the baby boomers and Generation X, who had the privilege (or misfortunate) of growing up through the trying times when the country was jubilant of extricating itself from the colonial yoke, experienced the feelings of underprivileged first hand. We do not have to imagine the hunger pangs and being missed in a conversation or joke that is over our heads. We were there and would like to believe that we had passed that! There is no guilt feeling, and there is no need to 'payback'. We realise our good fortunes, lucky stars and good karma that we give back to society in our own ways.

First generation millennials with first world millennial problems

Master of None (Season 1-2; 2015-now)

At one look it may look like a satire of non-Caucasians trying to act and to fit in into contemporary American society. It is not. It starts with the story of four friends, Dev Shah (Aziz Ansari) as the first generation Indian American; Brian, son of a Taiwanese immigrant (Alan Yang); Arnold, a white friend who enjoys eating and Denise, a black lesbian lady and a childhood friend.

Unlike most American TV shows which put down the Indian actors as social misfits to find it difficult to blend with the American society, here Brian and Dev, being born, bred and educated in the American system, blending is not the issue. Their predicament is mostly the first world kind. Dev still goes around thinking that he is discriminated against for his ethnicity. The question is whether it is just his perception or is it just what the society wants. Being a part time advertisement actor, he goes on life working occasionally, still waiting for his big break.

He feels the bane of the millennials - too many choices to choose from! Unlike, his father who just followed the path that came his way- (Dev's father is a doctor who migrated from Chennai, worked hard, married the first girl that was arranged for him and found happiness), Dev is at wit's end trying to decide what to do in his life. He is thinking of a change in vocation, but what? He likes his girlfriend, Rachel, but is he committed to spent the whole of his life with her? He likes children but a weekend with his ex-girlfriend's kids stirs the doubt of his opinion about kids! In another episode, he discovers about growing old and the hardship one faces as they go into their twilight years.

An entertaining half-an-hour per episode sitcom which just went into its second season as Dev and Racheal go separate ways for a journey of self-discovery. Dev heads to Italia to learn pasta making and Rachael goes to Japan.

In the second season, the first episode, being done of his escapades in Italy, is shot in black and white, based on the classic 'Bicycle Thief'. Only this time, the thief runs away with his mobile phone. One of the controversial topics that he tries to cover is the issue of religion, fasting and consumption of pork. Dev and his family are Muslims and naturally, his parents want him to portray a nice image in front of their family friend. The episode ended amicably by a surah which is quoted as saying, 'for you is your religion, and for me is my religion'.

The later episodes in the second season are a reflection of the meaning of life, of sorts, and it takes on more serious subject matters, albeit in a lighthearted manner. The storytellers, in most cases are Ansari and Alan Yang, tackle plights of the minority, including LGBT, the minor religion practitioners, the hearing impaired and many more. The recurrent theme of this show is to show the superficiality of the modern society. It shows the extent that people who go to be politically correct and how much of the minority group would demand 'others' to show them respect. In their own way, they seek recognition in society. Affairs of the heart are depicted as meaningless as everyone seeks for that elusive perfect love. An entertaining show that makes you think. Life used to be so simple!