Dragon Tattoo Thinking?

Stellan Skarsgård "interviews" Daniel Craig

Did you ever see "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"? I did. I thought it was one of the best movies I've seen in a long while. It was one of those movies where you go to bed and you're still replaying scenes in your head. The plotting was methodical but timely, it was very well acted with incredibly interesting, well developed characters... and the story, WOW! Although extremely weird it was wholly believable (verisimilar as an old professor once said). Again, one of the best movies I've seen in years.

The reason I bring this up is there's a scene in which the killer interviews the protagonist just prior to chopping him up into little bits. He's asking why the victim willingly came into his house. He knew danger was afoot. He knew this man was likely a serial killer. He knew all this and the killer knew that he knew, but all he had to do was invite the guy in for a drink. The killer was incredulous. Why would he do it? But he relates that they all do it, so apparently the desire NOT to offend is stronger than the survival instinct. And back in the world of the real I think that's probably true, at least much of the time.

This very same behavioral phenomenon may indeed account for much of our politics. Apparently we would rather risk death than offend someone. This is the root of political correctness, of group-think, of the Orwellian corruption of the language so adroitly and astutely used by the left to control us. Rather than say Black Lives Matter is a racist organization we try to rationalize their violence. God forbid we be misunderstood and called racists ourselves. And this is just one example, I could think of a hundred more.

The point is we need to all say what we're thinking regardless of the consequences, at least with the things that matter. I refer specifically to politics. I've said some pretty outrageous things over the years and sometimes even been right. I've pissed people off and made tons of enemies. But whatever criticism one may direct my way, being reticent is not one of them. If you ask my opinion you're gonna get it. My belief is people and ideas and systems all need to be vetted. How else are we to know what is valid or not? If we are afraid then the unafraid will use that fear against us, with terrifying results. In the aforementioned film Martin understood this crack in our human defensive system, Mikael did not. He was lucky enough to live through the experience, but it's not real life, it's just a movie.