On Tuesday I got the chance to attend a lecture at the London School of Economics. They have free public lectures for anyone who might be interested in those topics. This time it was Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. His thesis was that the new social networking technologies, such as facebook, have empowered people to cooperate and organize themselves without elaborate hierarchies and structures and unleash their collective power to make the change they want.

He started by recounting the examples of Chinese earthquake a few years back and the HSBC’s friendly scam to extract money from its student account holders. China would have gotten away with not reporting the level of destruction in the earthquake and the faulty construction that lead to all the casualties and HSBC would have gotten away with charging people for something that they initially stated they wouldn’t. Both were relying on the difficulty of organizing a collective action. In both cases people used social networking tools such as facebook , twitter and video sharing sites to immediately share information with the world and stop governments or organizations from controlling and manipulating them.

This wouldn’t be the first book highlighting the ability of new technologies belonging to the Web 2.0 wave to transform society and bring the “power of the people” to internet. Wikipedia, a great example of collaborative effort that has brought about and impossible amount of information in one place for reference and not only reference but highlighting all kinds of views regarding it. Facebook allowed people to network and share information and interests. Youtube allowed people to share videos and rate the most interesting up from the least. Digg, Reddit, Delicious allowed collaborative link sharing. They keywords being sharing, collaboration and then action.

History is full of examples where the power of people has transformed the circumstance to suit their wants and needs. If the people want it enough, they get it. All these examples in history have been revolutionary ones, the modern society can’t handle it anymore. So it has come up with a evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, version of power of people called, Democracy. The Web 2.0 wave represents the same, democratization of the web.

In all these discussion I have noticed that people get too carried away and create unrealistic expectations from technology and its ability to impact situation. At the end of the day, it is the will of the people that transforms not technology. Technology is just an enabler. Clay mentioned that initially he too got carried away and promoted these ideas with religious zeal but with time he better understood its potentials and limitations.

An interesting example came up during the presentation where the campaign group of President Obama setup a website and asked people to tell them what their priorities are for him to deliver. Guess what came up #1? Legalized marijuana! This demonstrates the fallibility of the crowd intelligence. To a great degree people do possess the power to decide what's right and what’s wrong but they are also prone to whims and weakness and can easily go into the ‘sheep’ mode of thinking. It also exposes the weakness of the system as an anonymous internet can be fooled and a ‘bunch of pot-heads can game the system’.

Still these technologies cannot be ignored in the modern world and they have proved themselves as highly transformative. Let’s see what future brings.

I attended two excellent movies.

Mishima: A life in four chapters (1985)

Directed by Paul Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. Produced by Francis Coppola and George Lucas about one of Japan's great 20th century writers, Yukio Mishima. Of course its a big deal and big responsibility that probably no one else can take up except for these guys. The movie is actually not new, its a 1985 production but probably shown as a classic.

It tells the story of his life and his struggle with life. The struggle to bring beauty and reality together. The struggle to bring words and actions together. To bring the pen and sword together. He expressed and appreciated beauty in words of poetry. While action represented the reality, which may have nothing to do with abstract concepts of beauty in words. He wanted to see these two come together in something. This he found in the ritual suicide committed by samurai's to save themselves from humiliation. It may not seem that relevant to everyone else but suicide is seen in a very different light in Japanese culture and Samurais the symbol of courage and conviction, commit it. This was not the point of the movie but his struggle found the ultimate unity of art, beauty and action in the act.

 Terribly Happy - Frygtelig lykkelig (2008)

This was a Danish movie later to be released commercially. A dark comedy. A crime and psychological thriller. Very much like the silent Fargo. But it tells the story in its own way. Set in a small town of few houses and small number of people. A police officer is moved from Copenhagen this terrible place as a punishment of acting irresponsibly. He finds this town to be quaint and boring. But as time passes, it turns out to be the worst place on earth for him. He was a decent man, though troubled by his marital issues and separation from his children. But this town slowly drags him into the quicksand of crime and passion. One after another, his guilt compels him to cover up his crimes only to find out later that the whole town is in it. Based on a Danish novel by the same name, it was a excellent thriller to end this season with. 

Even though I saw two other movies but only one deserves mention.

Man On Wire (2008)

A documentary detailing the attempt to walk across the two towers of World Trade Center. The only problem was that the WTC wasn't built yet and even if it was he wasn't allowed to do such a thing.

Phillipe Petit was high-wire walker in France. One day he saw an add in the newspaper that said that two towers will be built in New York that will be the tallest in the world. Immediately he found his purpose, he knew they were being built for him to walk across them. Only that the actual construction had just started and it will take a few years for it to complete.

When the construction reached a terminal stage and the top floors were soon to be completed, he along with a bunch of friends traveled to New York many times to plan how they were going to:

1. Get to the top floor

2. Put a high-wire across

3. Walk across that high-wire before getting arrested

They did all three and they way they did it is a story to be told.

Excellent films once again.

Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

Another documentary by the acclaimed director Error Morris, I saw one documentary of his before Fast, Cheap and Out of Control which I liked because of the way he directed it though the content was not interesting to me. I have yet to see the famous Fog of War. This documentary is about the acts of torture that occurred in the Abu Gharib prison in Iraq which later became a public issue.

When the acts were investigated many of them were labeled simply as "Standard Operating Procedures" as opposed to crime against humanity. Even though torture is prohibited through the Geneva Convention still some things are not considered torture and people are desensitized towards a particular act by labeling it in a non-violent way such as S.O.P. I found the testimony of Colonel Karpinksy to be most phony if not lies straightforward. What happened was tragic and reveals what people can be capable of. It is not about blaming one group or another, it is simply about leaving some shred of humanity in place and not ripping it all apart. I don't think the movie condones the acts in anyway but towards the end it does enter a neutral territory where it is difficult to asses if it condemns it altogether or not.

Cherry Blossoms: Hanami (2008)

This was one of the most beautiful films I saw at the festival. It was a German movie. About parents who have grown old and have only themselves look after and hold on to. About children who have grown up and need to be away from their parents and even a casual visit seems like a burden in their fast and busy lives. It is about the story of one such parent. What happens when the only support, the spouse, is about to die or passes away.

Rudi and Trudi are husband and wife, looking after each other and living in the same old country house they have lived all their lives while their children have all moved to different places. Two live in the big city of Berlin and one all the way in Tokyo. Trudi is very fond of the Japanese dance called Butoh, or the dance of the shadows. She always wanted to go Japan and see the Mt. Fuji. Rudi, on the other hand just likes to stick to his routine and come home to Trudi. Trudi is given the news by doctors that Rudi may not live long. So she quietly convinces Rudi to visit all the children. When they visit their children in Berlin, all of them find it a burden to take care of them and want to get back to lives as soon as possible. She wants to visit the youngest in Tokyo as well, Rudi resists. The pain of hiding the truth about Rudi's health is eating her from inside and finally she suddenly dies on him. What this means to Rudi and what it does to him and what really holds value in this short life is what it is about. Rudi finally visits Tokyo only to show Trudi everything she missed out.

One good, one bad.

Un conte de Noël - A Christmas Tale (2008)

Supposed to be a great movie about family and the love hate relationships that exists. But it was poorly put together moving back and forth between past and present, without linking them properly. It was like a kaleidoscope, where you see random patterns in the colorful pieces but there is no image in the end. The writer/director could have tried not drowning it into unnecessary philosophizing. A thing of beauty is more often than not, simple.

Låt den rätte komma in - Let The Right One In (2008)

"Do you want to go steady?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

"What if I am not a girl?"

Amazing version of a usual vampire tale. A scared little boy, beaten and humiliated by bullies in the school befriends a vampire girl without knowing. Finds friendship and to some degree love in her, even though we can't say if she was a "she". Her father has to hunt on her behalf to avoid exposing her to the world, but it has to come out some time. That is why they have to keep moving from place to place. This time they move into the next apartment to the boy's. A very different imagining of the vampire character, superbly executed.