CHANGE YOURSELF! _ 'the Age of Stupid' film review

Food Chain!

  The food chain is a series of living things which are linked to each other because each thing feeds on the one next to it in the series. And the combination of these food chains is called the food web. The animal species which takes the highest place in this food web is humans. We kill the animals to maintain our lives, and even more, we kill OURSELVES. All of us know this fact that we are committing suicide, but we do not try to stop it. The archivist living in 2055 leads us to this conclusion in the way of showing video clips. 

  I agree with the movie’s point that this terrible situation happened because of us. But the reason why I think we are the main cause of this situation is a bit different from the movie. The movie’s point was mainly focused on the idea of selfishness. Because we want better things for ourselves, we do not care about the other factors carefully. However, the reason I thought was because we are TOO certain with the fact that we are the highest creatures among those on the Earth. This ridiculous concept in our mind made us consider about ourselves unconsciously. On this account, I watched the following three clips in the movie interestingly. 

 

<I cut the video> 

  The first one was the story of a Nigerian girl, Layefa Malemi, who has a dream of being a doctor. She is living in harsh condition and she said the reason for it was the actions that the oil company, Shell, did to them. Shell installed an oil plant because there is a huge amount of oil buried under Nigeria. At first, Shell kept their promise to offer them health service and other aids. But later, it was neglected. Without health care service and pure, drinking water, many Nigerians had to suffer serious diseases and many of them died. What is worse is that because it is hard to transport the oil in Nigeria, some of the oil is just burned away without any usage. I thought this has happened because the Shell Company has the unconscious thought that they are staying above the poor Nigerians. Thus, they might think that it is okay for them to break their promise and get as much profit as possible. This non-sense idea has made people die, and will make people die. 

  The second one was the example of two children in Iraq, Jamila and Adnan. They had moved from Iraq to Jordan because of the war between Iraq and the USA. The USA invaded Iraq because it is the loads of the oil. Many people died and suffered because of the war. I thought this was also because the USA got the same idea as Shell. They would have thought that because they are stronger and they need oil for their developed industry, it would be fine to get the oil from a weaker country, Iraq.
 



This is the Picture :)

  The last clip that I watched with the biggest interest was about oil companies. The clip gave us many questions. Why do scientists think like that picture although it is getting serious? Why don’t we use alternative energy although they are available? Why did the electric cars get scrapped? Why did the US take off the solar panels from the White house? Why are we getting along with Australia who didn’t sign up for the climate treaty? Why are oil companies allowed to change government reports about global warming? It’s because the oil companies have strong power, the MONEY. The cash they made offer them the power to control the countries. And this power made them think they are controlling not only the countries, but us too. 

  These thoughts, the ideas that we are standing above others like in the food web, made the serious situations. Some people with power get all the things they want and the others, who don’t have power, suffer because of them. Although it is said that humans are in the highest level in the food web, we do not stand on each other. 

 

  In conclusion, the movie “the Age of Stupid” frankly shows the human nature trying to step on the others. However, if we keep acting like now, we will become as the archivist said. “We wouldn't be the first life-form to wipe itself out. Butwhat would be unique about us is that we did it knowingly.” We know we have problems which are serious, but we aren’t trying to change it. However, we should know (if there are people who don’t know, I want them to know through this movie), that if we do not change right now, we cannot change forever. 

  “Why didn't we save ourselves when we had the chance?” We have chance right now. So, CHANGE YOURSELF.