Escapism

I watched "Eat, Pray, Love" (2010) on cable last evening as I prepared my supper. I am grateful to the producers of the film. They have provided more (unneeded) validation to me that the international bourgeoisie have grossly distorted ideas of ethics and morality.

In this film, Julia Roberts plays a middle-aged American who has set off on a healing tour of two continents after divorcing her husband, Billy Crudup. I have to say I know it was only a movie, but I think anyone who divorces Billy Crudup is missing something.  In the film, Julia's character eats in Rome, prays in India and finds love in Bali. Doesn't everybody?  

I believe Michele Bachmann could live this romance if she abandons fundamentalism and leaves her husband, the guy who is involved with the business of converting gay people into straight people. After all, this shallow spirituality of tourist ashrams and tourist mystics is consistent with the Disney civilization that Bachmann and her ilk advocate for America. Selfish materialism to finance international escapism.

A reader of this blog recently made a comment on a post which was succinctly stated: "Charity begins at home." While I prefer compassion to charity, I think the point applies to this vision of personal development, portrayed by the doe-eyed Ms. Roberts. In a world where people are struggling to survive and working like slaves for low wages in resorts, enlightenment doesn't come over fruity drinks in Bali. This film is not just escapism. It is a representation of how materialism and hedonism have infected the American psyche with a blindness to what it truly means to be a decent human being.