Recently we examined Eddington – a film showing the chaos that ensues when people live in their echo chambers of information and truth. The characters cannot relate with each other, which descends into a shitshow of slander and violence.

Released only a few months later, the film Bugonia similarly shows people radicalized around an unusual set of facts and beliefs, and then resorting to crazy behavior as a consequence.

Compared to Eddington, Bugonia is much more playful and abstract (think aliens as opposed to politics and racial justice.)

But the essential question we are left with is the same:

Why do so many of us view the world through distorted and strange windows?

It’s not that “strange windows” are new feature of human life. Paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories are as old as humanity.

But they seem especially rampant and mainstream nowadays.

What were once fringe ideas and dubious facts now dominate our attention and public discourse. These fringe ideas are persistent because the internet, social media, and millions of people are incentivized to perpetuate them, including top leaders in our society.

Art is often a mirror of society, and these two films show a similar reflection.

What Now?

So we have some sort of epistemic and tribalism problem.

What the hell do we do?

To have any hope and tackling this problem, we first need to call it out and understand it.

Perhaps art is the best way culture can start doing this. Followed by more science, articles, discussions, and finally, systemic change at the level of institutions and government.

This “new normal” is seemingly going to take some decades to get our arms around and fix.

But at least we’re starting seeing signs of recognition…

In the meantime, as individuals, keeping our own “windows” as clear as we can really matters. (obligatory link)

Discussion

This is posted to reddit for voting and discussion.

Bugonia: Distorted and Strange Windows
byu/JesseNof1 inSelfInvestigation