It would seem apropos to write this post on a milestone anniversary of the release of the film Koyaanistqatsi, but instead, it came to mind today, a Tuesday, 26 1/2 years later. This has been one of the most significant films of our time on the subject of life in a technological environment. Jacques Ellul’s thoughts figured heavily into director Godfrey Reggio’s vision of “life out of balance”. Ellul is also often on my mind – partly because his perspective is radical enough to be memorable: the city is doomed, so flee from it. Prophesy against it, but also pray for it, because though doomed, it has covered the entire earth, and swallowed much that was innocent. Though its dark heart (the prison, sharing some with Foucault’s thought on that) is irredeemable, there is yet something to be done – a meaningful mission into the technological simulacra that is not optional; we stay afloat or sink always deeper under its crushing pressure (these summary references are from The Meaning of the City).

Beyond Ellul, Reggio’s film explores the insanity of modernized life, the strange beauties within it, and the possible sources of fresh ideas in nature. A connection comes to mind again from Elaine Scarry’s On Beauty and Being Just (obviously, my favorite book of the summer). Somewhere in the neighborhood of page 29, Scarry makes the argument that beauty is so important for living well and with justice because beauty gives us the experience of being wrong and liking it. Natural beauty can do this same thing: cause us to realize that we’ve been profoundly wrong about life. When we stand in the wilderness of nature, we get to choose again whether we will be alive in person or by proxy – whether we will exist for the sake of our technology, or whether we will use it rightly in the service of others and the blessing of the earth. Koyaanistqatsi stands out to me so much because it brings me into contact with a different pace and horizon of life – the fast, the massive, the insane: these are all more so in this film, a hyper-reality of experience. But because of beauty, I desire this challenge instead of running from it in fear and escapism.

The whole movie has been posted to Youtube, but I don’t at all recommend watching it on any less than a large screen. Besides, product placement does not mix well with this film.