Chapter 1: WE NEED TO BE LED
We need to be led
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Yes, this silent film is 100 years old. It is the oldest movie that I have seen till date. It a 3-hour long movie that drew a lot of flak because some of its historical contents, especially about Ku Klux Klan, is shown in a favourable light. It shows the most important single event that affected what would eventually transform into the biggest economy in the world one day - the Civil War and its aftermath.
It is an intense saga of brethren of a nation who are divided by their need to use slaves but are united by their Aryan roots.
The first half of the movie dwells into the nation engulfed in Civil War. Two families are torn apart as collateral damage of the war. Brothers are held as war criminals as they fight each other. The real drama starts after Abraham Lincoln is assassinated. His post-war plans are hijacked by carpetbaggers and profiteers. It is the time of Reconstruction after the war.
The black slaves, who, all these while quite contented with their simple servant lives, were suddenly told that they are free after the Civil War - that all men are equal and free. They need not slave in the fields but can enjoy life instead, dancing and boozing.
The majority of the South, the blacks, are happy with such an arrangement. They are coerced to vote for their people to Congress. Slowly the slaves become the masters.
They demand equal rights, like walking shoulder to shoulder with their masters. They create a mockery of the parliamentary system with their inexperience. A black militia group also comes afront to mete out justice. Even the jury is predominantly made up of former slaves. It appears as if the slaves are on a rampage to avenge years of oppression.
Many injustices happen. The whites feel intimidated. It appears that the slaves do not know how to handle their new found freedom.
So all legal avenues fail to provide justice, what to people do? They recoil into religion and race!
In rolls Ku Klux Klan as a reactionary group to combat the menace of the growing black militia. In the turn of events, the Southern whites also found their Northern whites helping to protect against the blacks through their common Aryan roots!
And everything is put back in place. The whites become the dominant force in the next election while the KKK ensures that the blacks do not vote!
Now you understand why this movie kicked up a lot of dirt after its release. Just like in India after the release of Aamir Khan’s PK, people in major towns in the USA rioted in 1915. The demonstrators were mainly coloured as the flick glorified KKK as saviours of the South. The blacks are portrayed as uncultured, uncouth and highly sexed scoundrels. As the censor board members were mainly white, nothing happened.
Real lessons from reel
Men are violent creatures. They regularly suppress their fellow kind for power and control.
The 1% percent of the population will always control the masses, and that is the status quo. The shift of power to the masses cannot sustain. There must be leaders and followers to ensure law and order. The race has not reached a level where it can function unaided. Sometimes people do not know how to handle absolute freedom. Freedom needs to be reined to maintain law and order. Perhaps, the brain that is bestowed upon us is a curse. The same cerebral activity that has taken our race to great heights may be the reason for its downfall. If brainless ants can live in harmony performing complex tasks, why can’t we?
This movie looks at Ku Klux Klan from another angle. It somehow tries to justify the existence of KKK to save a country from going to the dogs.