Isn’t it obvious that homo sapiens are struggling to adjust to modern reality? I don’t know how this struggle compares to struggles of the past, but I do know that the struggle is more obvious now than it has been. Some of the notorious people of our species (perhaps many) have acted on the more animalistic drives inherent to humans in a way that is unbecoming. And in fact, this represents the primal forces in virtually all masculine energy. Forces that can become all-consuming even to the destruction of the self, directly or indirectly. Forces that appear normal – but upon the realization of the full human potential, appear in fact horrifying.
Watching Blue Jasmine, I noticed how Jasmine becomes the victim primarily of her husband’s extreme greed which causes her to suffer all sorts of traumatic setbacks until ultimately, she becomes insane. She also has herself to blame as she turns a blind eye to his ways. However, I feel her fault is minor (turning the other way) compared to her husband’s fatal flaw. She would not directly do the same things as her husband did, however her greed extended to the point where it enabled his. Perhaps having become a victim in such a way, she then pivots to become the offender when she attempts to trap her new boyfriend and fiancé – or perhaps she truly was this awful to begin with although I still see her as primarily the victim of her husband’s antics rather than his equal.
It was her husband’s greed and lust that was not only extreme, but represented the worst potential in Homo Sapiens. Greed and lust are the extreme versions of normal components of human nature that serve worthwhile purposes. When seeing Jasmine as the victim, we can see the negative consequences of such extreme character flaws personified. This nearly spreads to Chili and Jasmine’s sister where their relationship is almost destroyed by her flawed patterns. When looking at Jasmine’s fallout, we can see the sadness of the entire tragedy which is as extreme as the flawed character drives of the husband, and have to ask ourselves two questions.
Why do we continue to live in a society that encourages these natural elements of human nature to grow to dangerous levels that ultimately causes terrible sadness and destruction?
And how can we change it?
Even when acting on these elements does not result in tragedy, it takes away from acting on the positive and idealistic elements of human nature. Which brings up another question.
Is attempting to eradicate corrupting greed and lust a noble cause, or do they somehow provide some value to humans? In other words, are we right to assume they are inherently wrong, evil, or “lower” and that we are justified in attempting to design a better way?
This is a shallower version of a deeper question, which is why do “bad” things happen at all?
The only good thing to come out of a story like this is that it has been made into a movie so that humanity can see the folly of their ways in order to never allow something like this to happen ever again, and replacing its absence with positive and idealistic elements.
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