A decade has passed since I’ve last seen an award show, until this past year.

Some may say it’s not a big deal, you’re not missing much. Or that it’s just theater politics and self-serving. I know the critiques, I share some similar opinions. However that is not why I watch the Oscars or Golden Globes. I watch for the stories of the actors, how the production found the right casting, or the staggering acuity and precision of the crew and make up artists.

You see people, who can be considered great and talented, be humbled in seconds and fight for words in a massive room filled with their peers. When was the last time you had to receive an award, let alone a compliment, in a room filled with others you know? That is uncomfortable.

I love the award shows for the speeches. One of which pierced a hole into my armor, directly hitting where my inner artist hides during the day.

Jon M. Chu spoke with such passion about Wicked for the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award, speaking to what drives artistic community.

We need to make films that are a radical act of optimism when pessimism and cynicism rule the planet

But what if the most radical act of optimism relies on more than film? What if it’s books, music, improv theater?

What if optimism and radicalization came from art, particularly to the art of Humanity?

The Art of Humanity

Being human is bizarre. We are strange little creatures in a giant whirling, swirling universe careening into the dark, caught in a sensation of passing time, sharing an odd little globe with plants that lets us breathe and trillions of gut microbes that let us eat and breed.

We are ALL a little weird here. I’m weird, you’re weird, our moms are weird. What we can agree upon, is that studying ourselves and past behaviors can help inspire and inform us to make better decisions. Being curious about ourselves and what makes humans tick is vastly important to making change… and that is exactly what dominating bullies do not want.

Self-knowledge is key to managing your emotions to their sticks and stones; understanding the religious phrases they twist into their jargon cools the sting. Knowing philosophy allows you to recognize weak fallacies and bad-faith arguments. Psychology helps you recognize manipulative situations and allow you to walk away with your thoughts still somewhat coherent.

All of these are examples of chaos repellent. Optimism and radicalization come from the knowledge that there is an alternative to the oppressing regime that threatens to pulverize your news and social media. There are options that we can feasibly take in our lifetime to influence to a greater goal. It doesn’t even have to be a movie, but it needs to be something that jars you out of your general course, and into back into alertness.

Reading & Writing Are Fundamental… And Very Woke

What do the European Dark Age and dystopian genre have in common?

There is a significant lack of literacy in the general population, very limited (if not regimented) leisure time, and an oversaturation of white man fetishes. Why are there so many fancy white men in all these books? Even the interstellar dystopias can fixate on alabaster and clear color distinctions that mimic the “white man” fixation. It’s just… exhausting.

But what do these elites do? They relax. They have time. They are the ones who are able to devote time and resources, to reading.

There was a significant amount of time during the Dark Ages where the every-man got their stories from home and from the traveling morality troupes. The other form of morality was the sermons and Bible. That’s a whole rabbit hole of who learned to read (men), got to evangelize (men), hold office (ibid.), and more. Theater was the intercessor for the every man, woman and child. They spoke for others to understand that not all words need to kept in a pristine, locked space.

Literacy was kept behind doors, physical and metaphysical. When you review books like Hunger Games, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 medias are highly regulated. People who read are just as likely to be un-peopled, as they would say in NewSpeak. And that is because reading meant curiosity. Curiosity meant free-thinker, which meant radicalization. Readers were a silent class of rebels, just as sneaky as spies who could also write.

If information cannot be controlled, then what is the use of power over information? Or perhaps there is a new way to capitalize on the every person’s average attention, thus limiting and adjusting the information into the perfect algorithm? Huh… doesn’t that sound familiar?

Hi There Tech Bros, Don’t @ Me Back

Am I caught on the internet or the Ministry of Truth nowadays? Reading 1984 is giving me some serious doublethink that is probably going to hurt my head for a few days more. Then I’ll return to some fairy smut. But let’s be honest…

Optimism and radicalization are just as heavily inspired by the Romantacy sphere. Because what is more freeing and uplifting, than the fantasy of a relationship that can transend current realities? That can turn toxic combos into idealized masterpieces of human complexities?

No matter where you look, there will always be another portal into hope and passion, even in dark days. Do what you can to light your own way by finding the stories and art that are kindling to your light.

Ah, but aren’t there others with lights? Well that is exactly what I have for you next week. For hope can be a contagious thing, and this year I caught it.

Till then, find your kindling to your own path of optimism. Even if its built one brick at a time.