Our discussion of catharsis in class brought us to an interesting point, how do we move beyond the grief of catharsis into relief. This principle of catharsis is well illustrated in “The 11th Hour.”
Catharsis is supposed to have an emotional, intellectual, and physical aspect. The emotional aspect of catharsis in “The 11th Hour” is satisfied by many of the emotional and self-interest appeals. For example, there was a quote from the UN of the over 100,000 environmental refugees that they expect in the coming years. This highlights the possibility of danger to one’s self, the human suffering, and the potential economic toll of the the environmental disasters.
The intellectual aspect of catharsis is satisfied by the appeals to authority and logic. For example, scientists from many different fields and politicians were called upon to narrate the film. This adds legitimacy and an intellectual aspect to the conclusions of the film. The many sequences of shocking and juxtaposed images also causes an intellectual paradigm shift, particularly in the way the we view ourselves in relation to the rest of the world.
Finally, the film’s catharsis has a physical aspect with its discussion of the health effects of environmental destruction. For example, the asthma in school children is shown to be a recent phenomenon cause by air pollution. Also, environmental problems are cited for causing childhood cancers, heavy metal poisonings, colon cancer, breast cancer, and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. This fear of physical harm is very personal to many of the intended audience.
“The 11th Hour” obviously has a strong intended catharsis designed to effect change through the viewer. But, in order to effect that change, relief from the catharsis must be brought, so that the audience doesn’t just wallow in grief and hopelessness. This relief from catharsis, I believe, must relieve the emotional, intellectual, and physical assaults of the argument in order to be complete. This can help to explain some of the rhetoric in “The 11th Hour.” For example, the scene depicting the release of the penguins was described in class as random, but hopeful. This though serves the specific purpose of relieving the emotional catharsis. The intellectual catharsis is relieved by showing that there are other paradigms under which we can operate that will keep the human race in balance with the Earth, as shown by the faith healers. Physical relief comes from the specific solutions that individuals can enact that were given in the film, such as recycling or voting with your dollars. This complete relief in “The 11th Hour” provides an example for the complex requirements of rhetoric in order to demonstrate catharsis.
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Adrienne, you brought up a great point and what came to mind as I was reading your post was that “The 11th Hour” was indeed a pragmatic film. As you stated, “For example, the asthma in school children is shown to be a recent phenomenon cause by air pollution. Also, environmental problems are cited for causing childhood cancers, heavy metal poisonings, colon cancer, breast cancer, and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. This fear of physical harm is very personal to many of the intended audience,” and this brings great attention to what people are doing to our environment. Pragmatism, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is define as, “a method of understanding facts and events in terms of cause and effect, and of inferring practical lessons or conclusions from this process”. By realizing what our environmental decisions were verses what they have caused, we see that more vehicles and factories that cause air pollution was a bad choice when the effect was harming people’s health and causing cancer. “The 11th Hour” brought to our attention that our decisions in the past and currently have not helped our environment and people but they have caused serious issues that are effecting our environment and citizens. We see the effects of our decisions and we can state without a doubt that our decisions were only a temporary way to satisfy but overall have been only reckless as a result. When viewing “The 11th Hour” we, as the audience, are taught a lesson by the results of our choices, but we are given hope that we can change our future.
ReplyDeleteLindsay, I think that its true that “The 11th Hour” is a good example of how we can pragmatically evaluate the cause and effects that we have on the environment. In addition, I think that the film sets up a pragmatic critique of the possible ways that we can fix our current situation. For example, the two possibilities, personal action and political action, were contrasted for their levels of effectiveness.
ReplyDeletePersonal action was described as having an important role. For example, recycling and individual patterns of consumption are important because they are representative of the larger paradigm that our society operates under. But, the fact is that if only one person takes these actions, not many people, the net effect will be minimal. So, while in an idealistic sense individual efforts matter, pragmatically they don’t.
On the other hand, political action in the form of policy changes would have a greater net effect. Although, currently, the political gridlock makes this difficult. But, because the products of the environmentally minded policies would have a greater effect, it is more pragmatic to focus on these aims.
These are another example of how pragmatism works in “The 11th Hour.” This example though is important because I think that it complicates the constructions of a younger audience, because it emphasizes the less easily accessible actions that they can take.