I don't care about the Oscars. I don't. And it's not sour grapes. I don't know if my indifference coalesced before I'd served on several award panels and saw up-close-and-personal how the sausage was made or if it happened because there were whole years of my adult life where I didn't see first-run films much less own a television or if it's just the fact that over the course of a life one loses interest in things whether it be Fashion Week, the novels of Jane Austen or bathing. Just don't know.
But, I am endlessly fascinated by by social psychology, group psychology, and the political science of cultural institutions and events. Here's what I think will happen -- either Steve McQueen will win Best Director and/or 12 Years A Slave will win Best Picture. Both deserve honor on merit alone, but to borrow from Mae West, merit has nothing to do with it. In this era where even a blind man can see that social inequality has broadened and hardened in this nation, why not make a grand and empty gesture to celebrate our American Redemption Story and Our Never-ending Struggle to Live Up to Our Ideals. With the added benefit that the film was an allegory set in the 19th century, and we are not like that now. Are we?
But, I am endlessly fascinated by by social psychology, group psychology, and the political science of cultural institutions and events. Here's what I think will happen -- either Steve McQueen will win Best Director and/or 12 Years A Slave will win Best Picture. Both deserve honor on merit alone, but to borrow from Mae West, merit has nothing to do with it. In this era where even a blind man can see that social inequality has broadened and hardened in this nation, why not make a grand and empty gesture to celebrate our American Redemption Story and Our Never-ending Struggle to Live Up to Our Ideals. With the added benefit that the film was an allegory set in the 19th century, and we are not like that now. Are we?
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