The violators of cosmic harmony

I once watched this Bernardo  Bertolucci film called The Dreamers, which was something or other about three young adults—two French and one American—holed up in a spacious abode, largely untouched by a Paris which was exploding in riots, circa 1968.  The two French persons with apparently brother and sister twins, and they acted like they were still joined at the hip. They apparently viewed their life through a prism of movies, frequently referring to them as if they contained the all the worldly knowledge they required. The American, Mathew, is at first drawn into their world, but eventually he sees its vapidity and tries to persuade them out into the “real” world. 

Now, I admit that actress Eva Green often distracted me from the “message” of the film, but there was one scene that bears mentioning for the purposes of this post. Mathew has been invited to dine with the parents; the father is a well-known poet, and at some point he tries to impress Mathew with his philosophizing. While his son and daughter roll their eyes, Mathew seems distracted, and he is chided for not listening to the profound elucidations. Mathews admits as much, but explains himself by his fascination with a cigarette lighter. By some inexplicable coincidence, the dimensions of the lighter exactly coincides with the patterns on the table cloth. Mathew decides that this represents some “cosmic harmony” in the universe. He can’t explain why this is, but only that it is.

Alright, it’s mostly bullshit trying to provide “context” for a movie where the three principles spend half their time nekkid.  However, it at least provides a harmless moment or two of thought processing. Is there a cosmic harmony in the universe? Is everything ruled by unbreakable laws? Well, scientists do tell us that there is something called the Law of Gravity, and the Law of Relativity, and that the speed of light is a constant. However, our little orb seems to be ruled by other “laws” that seem to be beyond comprehension and control. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, plagues of locusts and just plagues generally seem to intrude on human existence whether we like it or not. There is seemingly no “law” governing these events, yet they all occur due to a certain inevitably; “nature” has its “ways” that the human race only vaguely comprehends. 

Humans, of course, look upon other varieties of living organisms and judge them “wild.” Yet the fact is that most, if not all, non-human life conducts its daily business in a fairly predictable, understandable way.  I am reminded of this passage from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass:

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and

self-contain'd,

I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of

owning things,

Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of

years ago,

Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

Unfortunately, that is not true of human beings themselves. Oh sure, we all have basic needs common to all humans, but the way we go about satisfying those needs can be viewed as the very definition of chaos in their differentiation. The same goes for human thought processes and the way they interact. There are, of course, laws that are meant to control this chaos and keep it within the bounds of what is referred to as “civilization,” but not always successfully. Lies, fabrication, denial, retribution, vengeance, are among the factors that contribute to this chaos, and are virtually unknown to “lower” forms of life. Perhaps it is we humans who more aptly deserve disdain as the violator of “cosmic harmony.” I wonder if we'll see this played out in another day or two.