Back in 1977, a television program called Roots was broadcast over eight nights. Its final episode was watched by more than 100 million Americans. Roots was the first time many delved deeply (or at all) into the origins of slavery and the brutal journey from life and kidnappings in West Africa to bondage in America. This family saga, a mini-series adapted from author Alex Haley’s blockbuster book of the same name, ushered in an era when exploring one’s own roots became an obsession. Today it has become commonplace and has changed lives and families.
In 2015, a little show called Hamilton (based on Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton) opened on Broadway, introducing to stage-goers a vision of the nation’s founding the likes of which no one had ever seen. With the use of hip hop and rap and a cast comprised of people of color, composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda made it possible for millions of Americans to rethink America’s history and wonder anew about the men and women who made our country great. Not only did over eight million people see the theater show, many millions more have streamed it on Disney+.
Now comes a new production of Cabaret, the story of 1931 Berlin centered at a risqué nightclub where people in Weimar Germany felt the freedom to be themselves—before it all went so terribly wrong. The show opened in 1966, just two decades after the end of the Nazi holocaust and the deadly devastation of World War II, before being adapted for film by director Bob Fosse and Liza Minelli in 1972. This latest incarnation arrives on Broadway transplanted from London’s West End and stars Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne as Cabaret’s lurid and magnetic emcee (a role originated by Joel Grey).
Directed by Rebecca Frecknall, this re-envisioned masterpiece (now called Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club) walks audiences through the August Wilson Theater’s side doors, past baudy performers before the show begins, and into an immersive theater in the round. But it’s not the brilliant stagecraft that matters most—it’s how this story of love, desire and desperation pulls you into the reality of its diverse characters’ lives as they think they can avoid the madness of the Nazis and eventually must either flee for their lives or become one of them to survive.
I saw Cabaret a long time ago as a child, have seen the movie (many times), experienced the new show just before its London closing and saw a New York preview last night. It hasn’t lost any of its power or relevance—quite the contrary given the dangers facing our country now. I wish millions could see it, with the hope that this work of art could change some minds among those who are unconcerned or indifferent about America’s possible future.
So here’s this week’s question: Can a work of art change minds or even change society? Is there a work of art—a film, a television show, a book, a piece of theater—that profoundly changed your thinking?
As always, I look forward to reading your observations and insights and for this community to learn from each other. Please do be respectful. The comments section is free for everyone, so trolling will not be tolerated.
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*Photo: Eddie Redmayne as the emcee in the latest incarnation of Cabaret. Photo by Marc Brenner.
The series Handmaid's Tale is literally a foreshadowing of what the Republicans want for our country. So disturbing but maybe opened some people's eyes to the hellscape of a trump presidency.
My mom who was born in 1915 was uncomfortable with homosexuality. She was discreet but clearly uncomfortable until she saw Tom Hank's Philadelphia. She changed. From then on she showed remarkable empathy. So yes, a work of art can change minds and hearts.
I was lucky enough to see Picasso‘s Guernica in New York before it was returned to the Prado in Madrid. That was my introduction to the power of art to create lasting change
We have a special connection to Cabaret as my son-in-law spent 14 months on the national tour with Teri Hatcher and a terrific cast. Also as a child of Holocaust survivors, all forms of art that help people understand the horrors people face under madmen, fascist and silent complicit accomplices must always see the day of light.
One might say that society itself can't change without art. Art in its many forms is how a society talks to itself.
Today, consider not only high art forms like theater, photography, and mixed-media, but also popular culture, movies and music. They're all voices struggling to be part of the conversation. They're also why freedom of expression and thought is so vital.
Shindelar’s List (1993) is a movie that touched my soul. I already knew, from reading and discussions, a great deal about the horrors of the Holocaust. Man’s inhumanity had disturbed me from the time that I was a young child, in the 50s and 60s, and as a teen in the 1970s.
However, the depth and scope of the time period had never been as complete to me as the incredible story of Shindelar. It was visceral, and was impossible not to be deeply affected by it. My husband, son, and I sat through the entire film without speaking; our son was only 12 and just beginning to realize and understand the vagaries of humanity. We discussed the movie for weeks afterwards.
Here we are, 31 years later, watching an eerily similar situation taking place in the Middle East.
In 1978 there was a miniseries “The Holocaust” staring Meryl Streep and other prominent actors. I remember watching this show and feeling overwhelming sadness. I am a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, but at that stage in my life, I did not really know the story of survival that my elders had experienced.
In 1992 I was privileged to meet my Great Aunt Lili ( 1929-2011)who came from Australia to visit. I heard her horrific story of survival in Poland during the War and how she ended up in Australia instead of America. She was one of so many who were not allowed into America as a refugee, hence settling in Australia with her husband, Michael, my Grandfather’s brother.
Of course there have been many movies about the Holocaust since then, Schindler’s List being the most well known. But for me it was the miniseries that was a wake up call for me to understand my Jewish heritage.
So yes! Art can educate and change the minds of people willing to be open to learning. This is why The Arts are so important to society, especially young people.
I read Black Beauty as a child and I am only now becoming aware of what an important book it was in terms of animal welfare. This book set the foundation for me, probably millions of other people, to understand how humans cause so much animal suffering. Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty is much more than a simple children’s book.
I say this as a practicing artist and publisher in Los Angeles for over 40 years:
Works of art, far more than any singular work, evolve changes in minds and in society -- inevitably.
Some elaboration for your readers: The arts (visual, performing, etc.) are precisely where society is re-imagined for both the present and the future in aesthetic, not functional, terms. In a free society it serves as the physical, often public, manifestation of private imagination. This is not the project of singular individuals, but the collective manifestation of many thousands of creative people working as free of constraints ( although typically within self-imposed aesthetic constraints) as possible. Specific masterworks have their role, but today there is a more robust national and international creativity, both scale and quality, than ever before in human history. BUT -- this does not preclude a countervailing capacity for a backlash, equally inevitable, stemming from superstitions and fears that are groundless but real to many who view the arts through a lens of misinformation and close-mindedness. In fact, the greater our creative freedom and vitality the more imminent is that backlash. The irony of your question is that the millions of creatives (and so many other society builders) pose exactly no threat to anything except a closed mind. "They got the guns, but we got the numbers." Art is so much more enjoyable (and challenging!) than threatening and shooting people.
Just this last week I rewatched the docu-series JOHN ADAMS. It reminded me again the vast differences in will and opinion. Putting together a functioning government was not for the weak at heart. It was built on ferver, passion, and debauchery. IMO not only should * Civics classes* be re introduced to school curriculums but citizens should read/view material that give us a glimpse of our history. I know it may not be as funny ha-ha as a game or reality show but we need to continue to learn in this life as to become a better society. Historical pieces, documentaries all give us that path to that enrichment.
Back in 1977 or '78, there was another very profound miniseries called "Holocaust." This program was so incredibly realistic and horrifying that scenes from it haunt me to this day. At this moment in our nation's sad descent into ever-increasing antisemitism and undisguised Jew-hatred, I believe it would be very beneficial for ABC to run this series again. Sometimes reminders of horrors that once were and could be again are powerful deterrents.
The 1983 movie titled Testament opened my eyes to the issue of nuclear warheads. It is just another day in the small town of Hamlin until something disastrous happens. Suddenly, news breaks that a series of nuclear warheads has been dropped along the Eastern Seaboard and, more locally, in California. As people begin coping with the devastating aftermath of the attacks -- many suffer radiation poisoning -- the Wetherly family tries to survive. Led by mom Carol (Jane Alexander), the clan tries to support each other even as they take in other stranded survivors
I have seen Cabaret 2X and also the movie. It is very effective, especially at showing how white supremacy can be so appealing to those who are uncomfortable with diversity. I don’t think there will be many live performances in the rural towns in the mid-west and south. The governor of Louisiana just demanded that the LSU basketball team be on the floor and honor the flag for the national anthem ( they had been staying in the locker room to regroup before the game and avoid the possible controversy of the women protesting. This is a clear example of a powerful white man controlling the behavior of Black women, making sure they know their place. America is already well on its way.
Also, all the members of the Supreme Court who went to fancy Catholic prep schools declared in Holder vs. Shelby Country, and again in the suit that ended affirmative action in colleges, that racial discrimination no longer exists in America. The result has been new Jim Crow voting laws and fewer minorities going to college.
The MAGA folks, unlike the Nazis, do not want to exterminate anyone (except the Biden crime family). They just want to make sure that more power and money go to the very, very wealthy, and everyone else should work for them for low wages with no benefits. That’s what the people who won’t see the play will vote for.
Bertolt Brecht said “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” Art can change lives. It can uplift, inform, educate, make people think about things in a very different way. One film that is my very favourite is Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala. This film explores the contrast between one man profoundly rooted in nature and another man raised in the city with all that entails. A friendship develops between these two men with each educating the other. The other theme is aging and how one deals with all the complexity that involves.
Another film I loved is The Girl in the Cafe. This film explores the fact that leaders know there are solutions to fixing world problems but greed, and a lack of courage mean we never advance as we should. The film gave me hope that if people keep striving toward trying to change things for the better we can make progress. We cannot give up trying.
A work of art profoundly affected my conduct. It was the movie “Nebraska” starring Bruce Dern. In the movie Dern, an octogenarian in Montana, gets a mailing stating he won $1 mm but he must go to Nebraska to claim it. No one will drive him so like Johnny Appleseed he packs a bag and starts walking to Nebraska.
His adult son sees his Dad walking and agrees to drive him to Nebraska. During the ride Dern begins to show his son his inside and things about Dad the son never knew. Sitting in the theater I became overwrought with emotion, realizing that although I thought I knew my deceased father, I only knew him superficially and not deep inside. Right there I vowed that this would never happen to my son. Starting the next week we had breakfast at a NJ diner once a week, just to sit and talk with no agenda. I was confident that over this years this would be “my trip with my son to Nebraska”. I was right. We did this for several years and I know that he knows me deep inside and what makes me tick. I credit “Nebraska” for making this happen.
Absolutely Cabaret, and Schindler's List were remarkable.
Much more recently , two movies on similar lines of thoughts, both about WW2 and its afterwards are from German Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Never Look Away, ( 2018 ) loosely based on the life of Gerhard Richter the painter, a child in Germany during WW2, then as a young painter, escaping from eastern Germany before the wall in Berlin came up. Heartbreaking and of incredible beauty. And then opening in 2019, the beautiful beautiful movie by Terence Malick, A Hidden Life, telling the story of a farmer in a village Austria during the war and ending by resisting fighting on the side of the Nazis. Just incredibly soulful and beautiful.
It is sad because both were not seen by a majority of people when they opened, and yet so definitely relevant for today.
For another take on the current rise of facism, I recommend Paul Lynch's "Prophet Song." It is the 2023 Booker Prize winner set in Ireland but is a chilling look at what would happen here if the GOP gets to implement its 2025 Project. It is fast paced, emotionally hard to read, but equally hard to put down. The book draws you into the hatred, fear, and anxiety of that world. I hope this book is the closest I get to that horror.
I will always remember the movie that so greatly affected me. It was title "The Great White Hope" which told the real-life story of black boxer Jack Johnson.
As a child I read Fahrenheit 451, and it instilled in me a deep fear of oppressive societies. When I see what is going on today, I am terrified of the direction some people want to take our country.
"One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest" is my favorite movie and still as relevant today as ever. Not to mention some of the best character acting I've seen.....making a name synonymous with and used as description...i.e...( "I'm becoming Nurse Ratchet around here")
De-institutionalization, however, has not solved the increased problem of misunderstood and untreated mental illness so obvious in our society.
I don’t know Steve. Did “To Kill a Mockingbird” send Southern racism in to terminal decline? When Sandy Hook resulted in no substantive gun reform in this country, I concluded that a certain amount of evil has crystallized to the point where about 30% of our population may be irredeemable. I think, nevertheless, that art can change peoples hearts and minds, but only among those people who have a vestige of their humanity left in their souls. The rest are lost to the dustbin of history.
While he hasn’t been highly regarded by critics, reading Rod McKuen’s Listen to the Warm when I was in high school definitely influenced my decision to be a writer. I found it to be very accessible and enjoyable. At the opposite end of the spectrum The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes had a profound influence on my thinking post-college. 😎🐺
A wonderful discussion here. I’ve taken notes for my future viewing and reading. I believe in art in All its forms. It fosters understanding, allows catharsis and can be transformative on an individual and collective level.
I really dislike rap & hip hop. When a souped up car pulls beside me at a red light blasting it, I shut all windows. Better to see Jimmy Smith looking up from his organ, smiling or Nancy Wilson standing still by the mike singing with her beautiful voice. Days gone by. I do like pictures.Long ago I saw a famous one at Macy's I wanted but didn't have the extra $ to buy it. ( With today's prices, would seem like pennies.) I waited , hoping at some time it would go on sale. Even, ashamedly, tried to hide it. And one day, there is was, marked down. I grabbed it. It is the brown & white collie standing over a little fallen lost sheep in the snow, barking to bring help. You can take it as it appears, a dog doing its job, but I see the strong looking out for the weak, nurses endangering their own lives caring for the covid sick, allies crying out for help to save a struggling Ukraine, sane sensible people trying to save trump's sadly fallen followers, compassionate people worldwide trying to feed Gaza's starving helpless, Biden looking down at the deep swirling water in Baltimore that swallowed 6 humans , not animals.
I bought a Shetland sheep dog that looked just like the collie.
I read a fine home has a garden, book shelves & a piano. I would add to that, an inspiring picture that every time you pass it, you are reminded that the world still has good people who help those less fortunate.
Art has always been able to change minds as it becomes part of a culture. Technological advances in our time, especially in the visual arts, make it possible for those changes to occur faster and become more widespread. Mr. Beschloss cites "Roots" and a new version of "Cabaret" as support for his argument. These are very good examples. Commenters below cite others. We can read widely about slavery, but a visual presentation like that in "Roots" produces a visceral reaction in viewers that few works of literature can achieve.
The reference to "Cabaret" made me recall the first time I saw the film (I've never seen the show or read the book on which it was based). The scene I still find most striking is the visit to the wayside inn by (if I recall correctly) the Jewish couple Fritz and Natalia, where they hear a lovely, folk-like melody ("Tomorrow belongs to me"), being sung by a boy. As the scene progresses, the boy is shown to be wearing a Nazi armband, the music becomes gradually more threatening, the crowd joins in the singing, and all begin to make the Nazi salute. Fritz and Natalia make a hasty exit.
I found that scene so effective because it prefigures what we know what was going to happen to Germany and also makes us wonder what becomes of Fritz and Natalia in the storms that are to follow.
I have subsequently learned that the song, an original composition for the show, has been adopted by Neo-Nazi groups as an anthem. Does the scene prefigure what is to become of us? One could argue it already has -- to some of us at least.
The film "Five Broken Cameras" by Emad Burnat. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's a very important film about the occupation of Palestine, filmed by a Palestinian.
Sophie’s Choice, for sure. Schindler’s List; Cabaret; songs from John Prine; Dylan; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; the folk singers of the 60’s like Kingston Trio; Pete Seeger.
These and more HAVE ADDED dimensions to my thought processes- I’m now a white 72 yr old and it’s Still sad and disgusting how we treat one another. Some of the Most Moving memories of my childhood & teenage years were Watching On TV the racist sheriffs hose children my age, off there feet in American Streets, seeing Martin Luther King behind bars For Preaching What The Bible Actually Says, seeing him cut down viciously. I was working on a science project in our basement when I heard on the radio that Bobby Kennedy had just been. assassinated. Believe me, his JR is NOT half the man or leader his father & uncles were!!! He’s a dangerous clown like DJT-
Recently watching the deaths of SO MANY Young People again slain unjustly in our nation- Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, in my own state the deaths of Elijah McClain and Christian Glass.
Where is the outrage in lack of Coverage nationally (tv & internet) and where is the Accountability??
One thing that helped end 1) Vietnam & 2) Nixon’s reign of corruption WAS THE NIGHTLY COVERAGE OF ALL of it! There was no censorship of seeing & hearing the bombs and machine guns & slain bodies of civilians & soldiers on both sides. IT MATTERS. Accountability AND the Ability to SEE a story for more than 1 minute, or 1 day MATTERS. If we’re a courageous and honest society we Must Look AT OURSELVES and OUR FAILURES with steely determination to get and be better.
ART and truth in our story matters so much to every society! All of the above responses have made me remember “oh yes, that was impactful” in my life and my ability to empathize. Thank you all for helping my heart & mind remember.
Can a work of art change minds or even change society? James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses who brought the world via Dublin on a Ulyssian journey. This novel set In Dublin, (UNESCO City of Literature ) has contributed to this city to be a top tourist destination in Europe.
The novel, if anything else on a superficial level, helped a beer company (Guinness), attain international status and a family to be one of the richest in the world. I have enjoyed a pint in that very city.
Seriously, the novel in its day challenged societal taboos and was once banned in America for being sexually suggestive. The ban was lifted the same day USA prohibition ended. They had a Guinness.
Got cut off . . . I have been to Auschwitz’s and to the Holocaust Museum in D.C, and watched Schlindker’s List. We can NEVER FORGET ,unless, you don’t care.
I was fortunate to have had tickets last year to experience the fabulous production of Cabaret at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, San Diego. Even at that time the musical made me aware of the foreboding presence of fascism in our country. That reality has become even stronger in the past several months with the words coming out of Presidential candidate Trump’s mouth and the words and actions of many politicians and holocaust deniers. There are so many artistic venues available to us that tell the stories of the horrific and deadly battles that have been fought to keep Democracy alive and worth fighting for. We can view it in photographs, plays, movies, museums, paintings and in music. I have been to Auschwitz and to the
I have studied Ken Kesey’s signature work “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in all its forms and find it among one of the most brilliant pieces of 20th Century drama still to this day! It forever changed my view of how we regard mental health, mental health care, nursing and incarceration in general. The actors in the film version cemented their places in the annals of cinema history with their deeply insightful portrayals in the film. The book and the play always offer endless possibilities for the imagination to explore Kesey’s themes with even broader meaning. I never tire of this story. Whenever the film pops up on late night TV I watch it! When I was a kid I watched it every night for a week from across the street of a New Jersey drive-in when it was released in the 1970’s. It made me want to write scripts. I’m still writing in my 60’s.
Two books (well, written collections perhaps). Allow me to preface with the fact that I'm variously an atheist or agnostic raised and schooled as a fundamentalist Christian. To me, the story of Jesus Christ and the Bill of Rights are those two works of art. My understanding of each has not changed much in 40 years. My life experience has only affirmed my understanding. And for each, I understood that my teachers were not teaching their true meaning or distorting the clearly written text. For me, that was around age 12.
Everyone should read the Gospels, the actual story of Jesus. From your own understanding, allow yourself to cast judgment on those who claim to follow Jesus Christ. Christian and ”Follower of Jesus” are not the same thing. Jesus himself teaches this, and that is how I view the man - as a teacher. He is part of the reason why I became a teacher myself, and a scientist. Understanding His story allows one to see that many Christians today are not followers of Jesus, and this is important.
I cannot determine a person to not be a Christian. To me, that is impossible. If you claim to be one, you are one. But I can determine whether one is a follower of Jesus, and I believe other Americans should do the same.
Some Christians believe the Bill of Rights to be divinely inspired. I agree they are to the extent of being inspired by the teachings of Jesus in one respect alone - the separation of church and state. A follower should know that He had no taste for politics. He did not live on Earth for any of that; His kingdom existed in a sphere outside all these puny games of mankind.
What I'm suggesting is nothing less than a lens through which to view America and a framework for growth and understanding. The Establishment Clause is inspired by the teachings of Jesus Himself. What follows are our human rights in the structure of a democratic nation, pure human constructs. But it is critical to read and understand them as such, all of them. I find the Bill of Rights rather easy to understand, and encourage others to read and understand for yourselves.
Underground by Ralph Ellison. It opened my eyes to the plight of African Americans and how it influenced their art. The novel is an allusion to The Underground Man by Dostoevsky, with Ellison's hero essentially living the underground, by not leaving his home.
"Roots was the first time many delved deeply (or at all) into the origins of slavery and the brutal journey from life and kidnappings in West Africa to bondage in America. ": I expect the MAGA crowd today would object to Roots as "CRT".
I read the book, “Exodus” when I was 13. I am not Jewish. I had also read, “Diary of Anne Franke” before that. These two books affected me profoundly for life. They taught me about the evil people are capable of, using religion as an excuse for murdering 6 million people, even children. I have read that today many parents don’t want their children being taught this history in their children’s schools, so they fight with school boards, or put their kids in private “Christian” schools. Everyone MUST be taught what happened in NAZI Germany, or it will be repeated. Ex-President Trump kept a book about Hitler on his nightstand, according to Ivana Trump, his now dead wife.
The one book that truly impacted me was Mary Daly's Gyn/Ecology, an astounding expose of the harms of historical Patriarchy from the perspectives of Chinese foot binding, genital mutilations, and experimentations of female slaves by a physician from Johns Hopkins. Published in 1999, it exposes the marginalized, through patriarchy, most lesbian-feminists narratives and histories, while exposing the horrors of societal control over women-- and their bodies.
It erased the boundaries between myself and the millions upon millions of women across the globe who have beeb maimed by patriarchal dictates and mores.
It gave me hope for one thing: I would NOT comply. Fifty years later, it still resonates.
I don't know if this is a work of art. It's a documentary on Netflix called Turning Point: the Bomb and the Cold War. It starts off immediately showing the parallels of what is going on in Ukraine today. But it's a history lesson that begins with the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Americans need a history refresher.
Though above political boundary lines, I returned in memory to Sartre's play, recalling the caustic female whom Sartre in No Exit posits living with-- with no escape--as hell itself. It was Kari Lake who spurred the memory.
I was having this very discussion this morning over coffee with my husband. We'd been reading about the movie, "Zone of Interest." Can showing all shades of human response through story pierce the shield we construct around ourselves? I believe that art has a role to play in helping people to feel, to think, to be less or more comfortable with themselves and their way of lives. At its best, art is a mirror. Not all of us can stand to look.
As a child, I read books the way children are reading "screens" today. I went through shelves of thick books of fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm variety retold by Andrew Lang at the turn of the 20th century. It was 1952 without a hint of Walt Disney in the children's room of the library. The books were old and had funny paper with little black and white pen drawings. They were collected as The Pink Fairy Book, The Grey Fair Book, etc. I see now that Wikipedia says there were 12, each with a color in the name. That they were so old was part of their fearsomeness. If they were so old, they must be true fairy stories, stories no one alive had heard before. The one that haunted me for years was one in which children were stolen and taken to a castle on a hill where they were only fed the foods they didn't like. Obviously inspired by a nanny who was coping with a picky eater, but I took it as a warning never to let anyone know what I didn't like. I was very careful to keep my secrets, all of them, not just about not liking oatmeal. No one could know anything. Then I couldn't be snatched up and taken to the castle because they wouldn't know what to do to me.
Cabaret remains one of the most chilling works of art I have ever seen. When the clean cut, wholesome blonde youth sings in the beer garden, you can see it happening. I saw it in the early 80s, and my takeaway is that fascism/autocracy could happen anywhere—and that it would likely come in a “wholesome” package. How do you convince people that this fine young man has been co-opted by evil?? I would love to see this new production.
Art touches us in ways that speeches or op-eds can’t. It helps place our psyches in the perspective of the artist, often unwittingly. This allows our minds and ideas to expand and adapt to our changing world. When I taught, one project my high schoolers did was take a piece of music and create a visual, historical collage to go with it. I hoped it helped them. For me, I’m transported every time I hear certain pieces of music. Madama Butterfly… colonialism, Aida, slavery…. Etc
Times have changed, and shared culture-changing moments are not as mass media-driven as they once were. Sadly, we can’t even agree on what we witnessed any longer (see: Jan 6 tourists/hostages). 🤦♂️
Turns out that I discovered sometime in my 50s, that, even though I went to private schools, I was never really taught anything about history. This will sound very simplistic, but really my first 'awakening' to history was learning about the Korean War from the TV series M*A*S*H - even though I had seen the movie decades earlier, it hit me. I had never even realized that there was a difference between the Korean War and the Viet Nam 'war'. My dad was a WWII Army vet and my 2nd husband did 2 tours in the Navy in Viet Nam. Neither of them wanted to talk about it. But I now find that I have a great appreciation for movies that revolve around a war. I have a much better understanding about other cultures, history, power, conflict, humanity and inhumanity and more knowledge about how it all just fits together. Just to name a few memorable ones; Tora!Tora!Tora!, Deer Hunter, Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now, Bridge on the River Kwai, Last of the Mohicans, Platoon, and soo many more. Even these - quite 'artful' ones - South Pacific (1958), Gone with the Wind, and Dr. Zhivago.
I read every post here so far and probably have seen or know of at least 1/2 - all great! - but now I have a long list of others to check out - I have made a list. Thanks all and thanks Steven, this was a good exercise!
As much as I would like to think so I’m afraid the die-hard trumpers are pretty much dug in to stay. There are those who seem to be waking up a bit but whether or not Cabaret would break through the haze, is questionable. Humans have a self destructive streak that allows the belief that a bad thing won’t happen “to me”; that is the “special”gene that allows disbelief.
The series Handmaid's Tale is literally a foreshadowing of what the Republicans want for our country. So disturbing but maybe opened some people's eyes to the hellscape of a trump presidency.
My mom who was born in 1915 was uncomfortable with homosexuality. She was discreet but clearly uncomfortable until she saw Tom Hank's Philadelphia. She changed. From then on she showed remarkable empathy. So yes, a work of art can change minds and hearts.
Casablanca is probably my favorite movie.
Made in 1942 during WWII.
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart): “Don’t you sometimes wonder if it’s all worth it? I mean what you’re fighting for.”
Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid): “You might as well question why we breathe.”
I was lucky enough to see Picasso‘s Guernica in New York before it was returned to the Prado in Madrid. That was my introduction to the power of art to create lasting change
We have a special connection to Cabaret as my son-in-law spent 14 months on the national tour with Teri Hatcher and a terrific cast. Also as a child of Holocaust survivors, all forms of art that help people understand the horrors people face under madmen, fascist and silent complicit accomplices must always see the day of light.
One might say that society itself can't change without art. Art in its many forms is how a society talks to itself.
Today, consider not only high art forms like theater, photography, and mixed-media, but also popular culture, movies and music. They're all voices struggling to be part of the conversation. They're also why freedom of expression and thought is so vital.
Beautifully written, thank you.
Shindelar’s List (1993) is a movie that touched my soul. I already knew, from reading and discussions, a great deal about the horrors of the Holocaust. Man’s inhumanity had disturbed me from the time that I was a young child, in the 50s and 60s, and as a teen in the 1970s.
However, the depth and scope of the time period had never been as complete to me as the incredible story of Shindelar. It was visceral, and was impossible not to be deeply affected by it. My husband, son, and I sat through the entire film without speaking; our son was only 12 and just beginning to realize and understand the vagaries of humanity. We discussed the movie for weeks afterwards.
Here we are, 31 years later, watching an eerily similar situation taking place in the Middle East.
As a species, will we ever learn?
In 1978 there was a miniseries “The Holocaust” staring Meryl Streep and other prominent actors. I remember watching this show and feeling overwhelming sadness. I am a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, but at that stage in my life, I did not really know the story of survival that my elders had experienced.
In 1992 I was privileged to meet my Great Aunt Lili ( 1929-2011)who came from Australia to visit. I heard her horrific story of survival in Poland during the War and how she ended up in Australia instead of America. She was one of so many who were not allowed into America as a refugee, hence settling in Australia with her husband, Michael, my Grandfather’s brother.
Of course there have been many movies about the Holocaust since then, Schindler’s List being the most well known. But for me it was the miniseries that was a wake up call for me to understand my Jewish heritage.
So yes! Art can educate and change the minds of people willing to be open to learning. This is why The Arts are so important to society, especially young people.
I read Black Beauty as a child and I am only now becoming aware of what an important book it was in terms of animal welfare. This book set the foundation for me, probably millions of other people, to understand how humans cause so much animal suffering. Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty is much more than a simple children’s book.
I say this as a practicing artist and publisher in Los Angeles for over 40 years:
Works of art, far more than any singular work, evolve changes in minds and in society -- inevitably.
Some elaboration for your readers: The arts (visual, performing, etc.) are precisely where society is re-imagined for both the present and the future in aesthetic, not functional, terms. In a free society it serves as the physical, often public, manifestation of private imagination. This is not the project of singular individuals, but the collective manifestation of many thousands of creative people working as free of constraints ( although typically within self-imposed aesthetic constraints) as possible. Specific masterworks have their role, but today there is a more robust national and international creativity, both scale and quality, than ever before in human history. BUT -- this does not preclude a countervailing capacity for a backlash, equally inevitable, stemming from superstitions and fears that are groundless but real to many who view the arts through a lens of misinformation and close-mindedness. In fact, the greater our creative freedom and vitality the more imminent is that backlash. The irony of your question is that the millions of creatives (and so many other society builders) pose exactly no threat to anything except a closed mind. "They got the guns, but we got the numbers." Art is so much more enjoyable (and challenging!) than threatening and shooting people.
Music can. It's a universal language
The purpose of art is to enhance life.
Imagine the 60's without the music. You can't right?
That's why there is no music or appreciation for art in general among the far right.
It unites people and the far right only seeks to divide people.
Just this last week I rewatched the docu-series JOHN ADAMS. It reminded me again the vast differences in will and opinion. Putting together a functioning government was not for the weak at heart. It was built on ferver, passion, and debauchery. IMO not only should * Civics classes* be re introduced to school curriculums but citizens should read/view material that give us a glimpse of our history. I know it may not be as funny ha-ha as a game or reality show but we need to continue to learn in this life as to become a better society. Historical pieces, documentaries all give us that path to that enrichment.
Back in 1977 or '78, there was another very profound miniseries called "Holocaust." This program was so incredibly realistic and horrifying that scenes from it haunt me to this day. At this moment in our nation's sad descent into ever-increasing antisemitism and undisguised Jew-hatred, I believe it would be very beneficial for ABC to run this series again. Sometimes reminders of horrors that once were and could be again are powerful deterrents.
The 1983 movie titled Testament opened my eyes to the issue of nuclear warheads. It is just another day in the small town of Hamlin until something disastrous happens. Suddenly, news breaks that a series of nuclear warheads has been dropped along the Eastern Seaboard and, more locally, in California. As people begin coping with the devastating aftermath of the attacks -- many suffer radiation poisoning -- the Wetherly family tries to survive. Led by mom Carol (Jane Alexander), the clan tries to support each other even as they take in other stranded survivors
I have seen Cabaret 2X and also the movie. It is very effective, especially at showing how white supremacy can be so appealing to those who are uncomfortable with diversity. I don’t think there will be many live performances in the rural towns in the mid-west and south. The governor of Louisiana just demanded that the LSU basketball team be on the floor and honor the flag for the national anthem ( they had been staying in the locker room to regroup before the game and avoid the possible controversy of the women protesting. This is a clear example of a powerful white man controlling the behavior of Black women, making sure they know their place. America is already well on its way.
Also, all the members of the Supreme Court who went to fancy Catholic prep schools declared in Holder vs. Shelby Country, and again in the suit that ended affirmative action in colleges, that racial discrimination no longer exists in America. The result has been new Jim Crow voting laws and fewer minorities going to college.
The MAGA folks, unlike the Nazis, do not want to exterminate anyone (except the Biden crime family). They just want to make sure that more power and money go to the very, very wealthy, and everyone else should work for them for low wages with no benefits. That’s what the people who won’t see the play will vote for.
Bertolt Brecht said “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” Art can change lives. It can uplift, inform, educate, make people think about things in a very different way. One film that is my very favourite is Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala. This film explores the contrast between one man profoundly rooted in nature and another man raised in the city with all that entails. A friendship develops between these two men with each educating the other. The other theme is aging and how one deals with all the complexity that involves.
Another film I loved is The Girl in the Cafe. This film explores the fact that leaders know there are solutions to fixing world problems but greed, and a lack of courage mean we never advance as we should. The film gave me hope that if people keep striving toward trying to change things for the better we can make progress. We cannot give up trying.
A work of art profoundly affected my conduct. It was the movie “Nebraska” starring Bruce Dern. In the movie Dern, an octogenarian in Montana, gets a mailing stating he won $1 mm but he must go to Nebraska to claim it. No one will drive him so like Johnny Appleseed he packs a bag and starts walking to Nebraska.
His adult son sees his Dad walking and agrees to drive him to Nebraska. During the ride Dern begins to show his son his inside and things about Dad the son never knew. Sitting in the theater I became overwrought with emotion, realizing that although I thought I knew my deceased father, I only knew him superficially and not deep inside. Right there I vowed that this would never happen to my son. Starting the next week we had breakfast at a NJ diner once a week, just to sit and talk with no agenda. I was confident that over this years this would be “my trip with my son to Nebraska”. I was right. We did this for several years and I know that he knows me deep inside and what makes me tick. I credit “Nebraska” for making this happen.
Absolutely Cabaret, and Schindler's List were remarkable.
Much more recently , two movies on similar lines of thoughts, both about WW2 and its afterwards are from German Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Never Look Away, ( 2018 ) loosely based on the life of Gerhard Richter the painter, a child in Germany during WW2, then as a young painter, escaping from eastern Germany before the wall in Berlin came up. Heartbreaking and of incredible beauty. And then opening in 2019, the beautiful beautiful movie by Terence Malick, A Hidden Life, telling the story of a farmer in a village Austria during the war and ending by resisting fighting on the side of the Nazis. Just incredibly soulful and beautiful.
It is sad because both were not seen by a majority of people when they opened, and yet so definitely relevant for today.
For another take on the current rise of facism, I recommend Paul Lynch's "Prophet Song." It is the 2023 Booker Prize winner set in Ireland but is a chilling look at what would happen here if the GOP gets to implement its 2025 Project. It is fast paced, emotionally hard to read, but equally hard to put down. The book draws you into the hatred, fear, and anxiety of that world. I hope this book is the closest I get to that horror.
I will always remember the movie that so greatly affected me. It was title "The Great White Hope" which told the real-life story of black boxer Jack Johnson.
As a child I read Fahrenheit 451, and it instilled in me a deep fear of oppressive societies. When I see what is going on today, I am terrified of the direction some people want to take our country.
"One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest" is my favorite movie and still as relevant today as ever. Not to mention some of the best character acting I've seen.....making a name synonymous with and used as description...i.e...( "I'm becoming Nurse Ratchet around here")
De-institutionalization, however, has not solved the increased problem of misunderstood and untreated mental illness so obvious in our society.
Absolutely
The Beatles did. Just ask a Russian baby boomer that came of age in the Soviet Union.
I don’t know Steve. Did “To Kill a Mockingbird” send Southern racism in to terminal decline? When Sandy Hook resulted in no substantive gun reform in this country, I concluded that a certain amount of evil has crystallized to the point where about 30% of our population may be irredeemable. I think, nevertheless, that art can change peoples hearts and minds, but only among those people who have a vestige of their humanity left in their souls. The rest are lost to the dustbin of history.
While he hasn’t been highly regarded by critics, reading Rod McKuen’s Listen to the Warm when I was in high school definitely influenced my decision to be a writer. I found it to be very accessible and enjoyable. At the opposite end of the spectrum The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes had a profound influence on my thinking post-college. 😎🐺
A wonderful discussion here. I’ve taken notes for my future viewing and reading. I believe in art in All its forms. It fosters understanding, allows catharsis and can be transformative on an individual and collective level.
I really dislike rap & hip hop. When a souped up car pulls beside me at a red light blasting it, I shut all windows. Better to see Jimmy Smith looking up from his organ, smiling or Nancy Wilson standing still by the mike singing with her beautiful voice. Days gone by. I do like pictures.Long ago I saw a famous one at Macy's I wanted but didn't have the extra $ to buy it. ( With today's prices, would seem like pennies.) I waited , hoping at some time it would go on sale. Even, ashamedly, tried to hide it. And one day, there is was, marked down. I grabbed it. It is the brown & white collie standing over a little fallen lost sheep in the snow, barking to bring help. You can take it as it appears, a dog doing its job, but I see the strong looking out for the weak, nurses endangering their own lives caring for the covid sick, allies crying out for help to save a struggling Ukraine, sane sensible people trying to save trump's sadly fallen followers, compassionate people worldwide trying to feed Gaza's starving helpless, Biden looking down at the deep swirling water in Baltimore that swallowed 6 humans , not animals.
I bought a Shetland sheep dog that looked just like the collie.
I read a fine home has a garden, book shelves & a piano. I would add to that, an inspiring picture that every time you pass it, you are reminded that the world still has good people who help those less fortunate.
Art has always been able to change minds as it becomes part of a culture. Technological advances in our time, especially in the visual arts, make it possible for those changes to occur faster and become more widespread. Mr. Beschloss cites "Roots" and a new version of "Cabaret" as support for his argument. These are very good examples. Commenters below cite others. We can read widely about slavery, but a visual presentation like that in "Roots" produces a visceral reaction in viewers that few works of literature can achieve.
The reference to "Cabaret" made me recall the first time I saw the film (I've never seen the show or read the book on which it was based). The scene I still find most striking is the visit to the wayside inn by (if I recall correctly) the Jewish couple Fritz and Natalia, where they hear a lovely, folk-like melody ("Tomorrow belongs to me"), being sung by a boy. As the scene progresses, the boy is shown to be wearing a Nazi armband, the music becomes gradually more threatening, the crowd joins in the singing, and all begin to make the Nazi salute. Fritz and Natalia make a hasty exit.
I found that scene so effective because it prefigures what we know what was going to happen to Germany and also makes us wonder what becomes of Fritz and Natalia in the storms that are to follow.
I have subsequently learned that the song, an original composition for the show, has been adopted by Neo-Nazi groups as an anthem. Does the scene prefigure what is to become of us? One could argue it already has -- to some of us at least.
The film "Five Broken Cameras" by Emad Burnat. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's a very important film about the occupation of Palestine, filmed by a Palestinian.
Sophie’s Choice, for sure. Schindler’s List; Cabaret; songs from John Prine; Dylan; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; the folk singers of the 60’s like Kingston Trio; Pete Seeger.
These and more HAVE ADDED dimensions to my thought processes- I’m now a white 72 yr old and it’s Still sad and disgusting how we treat one another. Some of the Most Moving memories of my childhood & teenage years were Watching On TV the racist sheriffs hose children my age, off there feet in American Streets, seeing Martin Luther King behind bars For Preaching What The Bible Actually Says, seeing him cut down viciously. I was working on a science project in our basement when I heard on the radio that Bobby Kennedy had just been. assassinated. Believe me, his JR is NOT half the man or leader his father & uncles were!!! He’s a dangerous clown like DJT-
Recently watching the deaths of SO MANY Young People again slain unjustly in our nation- Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, in my own state the deaths of Elijah McClain and Christian Glass.
Where is the outrage in lack of Coverage nationally (tv & internet) and where is the Accountability??
One thing that helped end 1) Vietnam & 2) Nixon’s reign of corruption WAS THE NIGHTLY COVERAGE OF ALL of it! There was no censorship of seeing & hearing the bombs and machine guns & slain bodies of civilians & soldiers on both sides. IT MATTERS. Accountability AND the Ability to SEE a story for more than 1 minute, or 1 day MATTERS. If we’re a courageous and honest society we Must Look AT OURSELVES and OUR FAILURES with steely determination to get and be better.
ART and truth in our story matters so much to every society! All of the above responses have made me remember “oh yes, that was impactful” in my life and my ability to empathize. Thank you all for helping my heart & mind remember.
Can a work of art change minds or even change society? James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses who brought the world via Dublin on a Ulyssian journey. This novel set In Dublin, (UNESCO City of Literature ) has contributed to this city to be a top tourist destination in Europe.
The novel, if anything else on a superficial level, helped a beer company (Guinness), attain international status and a family to be one of the richest in the world. I have enjoyed a pint in that very city.
Seriously, the novel in its day challenged societal taboos and was once banned in America for being sexually suggestive. The ban was lifted the same day USA prohibition ended. They had a Guinness.
Got cut off . . . I have been to Auschwitz’s and to the Holocaust Museum in D.C, and watched Schlindker’s List. We can NEVER FORGET ,unless, you don’t care.
I was fortunate to have had tickets last year to experience the fabulous production of Cabaret at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, San Diego. Even at that time the musical made me aware of the foreboding presence of fascism in our country. That reality has become even stronger in the past several months with the words coming out of Presidential candidate Trump’s mouth and the words and actions of many politicians and holocaust deniers. There are so many artistic venues available to us that tell the stories of the horrific and deadly battles that have been fought to keep Democracy alive and worth fighting for. We can view it in photographs, plays, movies, museums, paintings and in music. I have been to Auschwitz and to the
I have studied Ken Kesey’s signature work “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in all its forms and find it among one of the most brilliant pieces of 20th Century drama still to this day! It forever changed my view of how we regard mental health, mental health care, nursing and incarceration in general. The actors in the film version cemented their places in the annals of cinema history with their deeply insightful portrayals in the film. The book and the play always offer endless possibilities for the imagination to explore Kesey’s themes with even broader meaning. I never tire of this story. Whenever the film pops up on late night TV I watch it! When I was a kid I watched it every night for a week from across the street of a New Jersey drive-in when it was released in the 1970’s. It made me want to write scripts. I’m still writing in my 60’s.
Two books (well, written collections perhaps). Allow me to preface with the fact that I'm variously an atheist or agnostic raised and schooled as a fundamentalist Christian. To me, the story of Jesus Christ and the Bill of Rights are those two works of art. My understanding of each has not changed much in 40 years. My life experience has only affirmed my understanding. And for each, I understood that my teachers were not teaching their true meaning or distorting the clearly written text. For me, that was around age 12.
Everyone should read the Gospels, the actual story of Jesus. From your own understanding, allow yourself to cast judgment on those who claim to follow Jesus Christ. Christian and ”Follower of Jesus” are not the same thing. Jesus himself teaches this, and that is how I view the man - as a teacher. He is part of the reason why I became a teacher myself, and a scientist. Understanding His story allows one to see that many Christians today are not followers of Jesus, and this is important.
I cannot determine a person to not be a Christian. To me, that is impossible. If you claim to be one, you are one. But I can determine whether one is a follower of Jesus, and I believe other Americans should do the same.
Some Christians believe the Bill of Rights to be divinely inspired. I agree they are to the extent of being inspired by the teachings of Jesus in one respect alone - the separation of church and state. A follower should know that He had no taste for politics. He did not live on Earth for any of that; His kingdom existed in a sphere outside all these puny games of mankind.
What I'm suggesting is nothing less than a lens through which to view America and a framework for growth and understanding. The Establishment Clause is inspired by the teachings of Jesus Himself. What follows are our human rights in the structure of a democratic nation, pure human constructs. But it is critical to read and understand them as such, all of them. I find the Bill of Rights rather easy to understand, and encourage others to read and understand for yourselves.
Underground by Ralph Ellison. It opened my eyes to the plight of African Americans and how it influenced their art. The novel is an allusion to The Underground Man by Dostoevsky, with Ellison's hero essentially living the underground, by not leaving his home.
Yes. Art will save our humanity.
"Roots was the first time many delved deeply (or at all) into the origins of slavery and the brutal journey from life and kidnappings in West Africa to bondage in America. ": I expect the MAGA crowd today would object to Roots as "CRT".
I read the book, “Exodus” when I was 13. I am not Jewish. I had also read, “Diary of Anne Franke” before that. These two books affected me profoundly for life. They taught me about the evil people are capable of, using religion as an excuse for murdering 6 million people, even children. I have read that today many parents don’t want their children being taught this history in their children’s schools, so they fight with school boards, or put their kids in private “Christian” schools. Everyone MUST be taught what happened in NAZI Germany, or it will be repeated. Ex-President Trump kept a book about Hitler on his nightstand, according to Ivana Trump, his now dead wife.
The one book that truly impacted me was Mary Daly's Gyn/Ecology, an astounding expose of the harms of historical Patriarchy from the perspectives of Chinese foot binding, genital mutilations, and experimentations of female slaves by a physician from Johns Hopkins. Published in 1999, it exposes the marginalized, through patriarchy, most lesbian-feminists narratives and histories, while exposing the horrors of societal control over women-- and their bodies.
It erased the boundaries between myself and the millions upon millions of women across the globe who have beeb maimed by patriarchal dictates and mores.
It gave me hope for one thing: I would NOT comply. Fifty years later, it still resonates.
I don't know if this is a work of art. It's a documentary on Netflix called Turning Point: the Bomb and the Cold War. It starts off immediately showing the parallels of what is going on in Ukraine today. But it's a history lesson that begins with the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Americans need a history refresher.
Though above political boundary lines, I returned in memory to Sartre's play, recalling the caustic female whom Sartre in No Exit posits living with-- with no escape--as hell itself. It was Kari Lake who spurred the memory.
I was having this very discussion this morning over coffee with my husband. We'd been reading about the movie, "Zone of Interest." Can showing all shades of human response through story pierce the shield we construct around ourselves? I believe that art has a role to play in helping people to feel, to think, to be less or more comfortable with themselves and their way of lives. At its best, art is a mirror. Not all of us can stand to look.
As a child, I read books the way children are reading "screens" today. I went through shelves of thick books of fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm variety retold by Andrew Lang at the turn of the 20th century. It was 1952 without a hint of Walt Disney in the children's room of the library. The books were old and had funny paper with little black and white pen drawings. They were collected as The Pink Fairy Book, The Grey Fair Book, etc. I see now that Wikipedia says there were 12, each with a color in the name. That they were so old was part of their fearsomeness. If they were so old, they must be true fairy stories, stories no one alive had heard before. The one that haunted me for years was one in which children were stolen and taken to a castle on a hill where they were only fed the foods they didn't like. Obviously inspired by a nanny who was coping with a picky eater, but I took it as a warning never to let anyone know what I didn't like. I was very careful to keep my secrets, all of them, not just about not liking oatmeal. No one could know anything. Then I couldn't be snatched up and taken to the castle because they wouldn't know what to do to me.
Cabaret remains one of the most chilling works of art I have ever seen. When the clean cut, wholesome blonde youth sings in the beer garden, you can see it happening. I saw it in the early 80s, and my takeaway is that fascism/autocracy could happen anywhere—and that it would likely come in a “wholesome” package. How do you convince people that this fine young man has been co-opted by evil?? I would love to see this new production.
Art touches us in ways that speeches or op-eds can’t. It helps place our psyches in the perspective of the artist, often unwittingly. This allows our minds and ideas to expand and adapt to our changing world. When I taught, one project my high schoolers did was take a piece of music and create a visual, historical collage to go with it. I hoped it helped them. For me, I’m transported every time I hear certain pieces of music. Madama Butterfly… colonialism, Aida, slavery…. Etc
Times have changed, and shared culture-changing moments are not as mass media-driven as they once were. Sadly, we can’t even agree on what we witnessed any longer (see: Jan 6 tourists/hostages). 🤦♂️
If only "we" stand strong.
Turns out that I discovered sometime in my 50s, that, even though I went to private schools, I was never really taught anything about history. This will sound very simplistic, but really my first 'awakening' to history was learning about the Korean War from the TV series M*A*S*H - even though I had seen the movie decades earlier, it hit me. I had never even realized that there was a difference between the Korean War and the Viet Nam 'war'. My dad was a WWII Army vet and my 2nd husband did 2 tours in the Navy in Viet Nam. Neither of them wanted to talk about it. But I now find that I have a great appreciation for movies that revolve around a war. I have a much better understanding about other cultures, history, power, conflict, humanity and inhumanity and more knowledge about how it all just fits together. Just to name a few memorable ones; Tora!Tora!Tora!, Deer Hunter, Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now, Bridge on the River Kwai, Last of the Mohicans, Platoon, and soo many more. Even these - quite 'artful' ones - South Pacific (1958), Gone with the Wind, and Dr. Zhivago.
I read every post here so far and probably have seen or know of at least 1/2 - all great! - but now I have a long list of others to check out - I have made a list. Thanks all and thanks Steven, this was a good exercise!
Guernica.
As much as I would like to think so I’m afraid the die-hard trumpers are pretty much dug in to stay. There are those who seem to be waking up a bit but whether or not Cabaret would break through the haze, is questionable. Humans have a self destructive streak that allows the belief that a bad thing won’t happen “to me”; that is the “special”gene that allows disbelief.