Friday, April 27, 2007

On Revolutions

A contrarian classmember made this argument this week. I didn't immediately recognize it; but the idea that there have been no military revolutions -- not the 6-foot yew longbow, not the Longbow helicopter, not the entire path from one to the other -- is of a piece with Kubrick's vision. In 2001, the entirety of human history is simply the evolution of technology, from a bone club to an interplanetary spacecraft. In all of human history -- which for Kubrick is identical to the history of war; the "dawn of man" is in a warlike act -- there have been no revolutionary changes.

The real revolution comes when we raise ourselves to universal consciousness, man.

Or something like that.

2 comments:

kyernel said...

What type of universal consciousness stuff are you on, man?

And did you notice how you could see the dude's eyes move about when they are still in the cave. Better technology today, man. It's the answer.

Anonymous said...

Yea, I saw the eyes - freaky!