The Road, is a movie based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy.
Like all movies, it reflects the times and the context of our current society. In this case, the collapse of capitalism as the dominant force in the U.S. and the world.
The current unregulated Global Capitalism, has little regard for the long term survival of the environment, and fights any and all attempts to deal with environmental destruction, including global warming — whatever gets in the way of short term profits, even if it means the death of millions and the biosphere itself. In the movie, the Catastrophe/Collapse, is presented as a kind of nuclear winter, (without the radioactivity). We can only speculate that this was from. McCarthy mentions in a interview with the Wall St. Journal, “The last time the caldera in Yellowstone blew, the entire North American continent was under about a foot of ash.”
It is told through the eyes of a middle class white family and reflects the narrow view of Mr. McCarthy as a while middle class male in current society. This family is apolitical and has few connections other than friends who are said to “have died” in the initial Catastrophe, which is not explained or examined in any detail. This is in keeping with the current period, when explanations of the current collapse are not examined or explained in any real depth by the mainstream media, whether liberal or conservative.
The family— a father, mother and their young son— are left to fend for themselves as one nuclear family, which quickly breaks down as the mother chooses to kill herself rather than “just survive”. The man, taking on the role of protector of his son, is armed only with two bullets, which he will use to kill his son and then himself, if they are cornered by the cannibal gangs that roam the land. These cannibals are depicted as bands of armed ‘good ole boys’. They, not being middle class like the protagonists, have become like the Donner party. They don’t not “carry the fire”, which is a code for being ‘civilized’, and therefore can and even must be killed by the protagonist.
Their situation is seen as a zero sum game —for anyone to live, someone must die. It is an extreme example of the fundamentals of capitalism, which also sees the world as zero sum game—for the rich to get richer, the poor must get poorer (or die)— in a kind of dog eat dog extreme competition for the remaining resources left.
It also harks back to the extreme individualism of frontier times, when every one was armed with six shooters (the father carries one) and whoever was most ruthless or had the most weapons won out.
The one black man in the film, only carries a knife, and is basically sentenced to death by hyperthermia (all of his clothes are taken at gunpoint) by the father, for theft. His son pleads for the man’s life, saying he was just hungry, but the father tells him that he must be ruthless, as they would have died without the blankets and food the man had taken. The father later relents, and leaves the black man’s clothes in a pile on the road and the son puts a single can of food on it. But we never find out if the man gets them back.
The father says that he “carries the fire”, but his actions speak louder than words. He does not try to reach out to the black man, who is clearly not a cannibal or murderer (even when he had the chance, he did not kill the boy) and offer to share with him. In times of crisis, everyone has something to offer, it may knowledge of how to better survive, where resources are, etc.
But in this bleak story, no one can be trusted, and therefore no one can become a friend or ally.
As a Native person, I know that tribal people shared with strangers who did not threaten them, and would rather starve together, rather than eat each other. This is represented in a book about a young Native boy and a white man, lost in the Artic wilderness. The boy would hunt and always share equally with the white man. But the white man hid food from the boy and eventually the boy died from starvation. The white man survived and did not feel shame for what he did.
The boy in the movie still retains his humanity, which says that all must share and help each other. The father, shaped by the ruthless ethos of capitalist society, sees all others as potential enemies trying to take from them. He only shows some sympathy for an older, almost blind white man, who they meet on the road. He shares a meal with the man, but he does not allow the old man to travel with them, despite his son’s wishes. He does not even allow his son to hold the old man’s hand.
In this movie, the only people organized and cooperating, are the cannibal gangs, who are mostly white and male. There are no scenes of people organized to help each other and other strangers, especially people of color. I could see Native people going back to tribal ways of sharing and helping those alone or weaker than themselves. That is part of our culture values, which hopefully have not been totally destroyed by assimilation to capitalist society. I could even see groups of white anarchist and Rainbow Family hippie types really “keeping the fire” in such times. But in this collapse scenario, it seems that people were not forewarned and therefore were not prepared or organized to prepare for collapse. Unlike the movie, there are groups trying to warn us and organize for the Collapse — the Transition Town movement, the World Social Forum, the Anti-Globalization movement, The Fourth World and many others in the U.S. and around the world.
Without these options, the movie’s protagonist is left with just a stubborn will to survive, based on his love for his son. It is a noble and caring passion, shown beautifully by Viggo Mortensen, as the father. But it ultimately futile and tragic, as the father dies at the end, with only his son to mourn him. His son, whose humanity is still mostly intact, gets to reach out to another man and his family, and we hope that they survive. But if what is told in the movie is true, that all the animals and most of the plants have died, then basically no human could survive in the long run.
This is the final bleak message — we will all die, miserable and basically alone— and only the love of nuclear families for each other, can possibly postpone this tragic end of humanity. As Cormac himself said in the Journal interview: “There’s no such thing as life without bloodshed,” … “The notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom.” To his mind, such thinking will only lead to a kind of communist totalitarianism. It is rooted in the Western Frontier mentality, which admires the manly, gun toting ‘freedom’ of the cowboy, who needs no one and trusts only his six shooter. We Native people know that mentality all too well and have lived under its consequences since the colonizing of Turtle Island. McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize for the book. Likewise Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, while sending more troops to Afghanistan. Same difference.
I would like to compare the movie to another tragic road movie, Fellini’s ‘La Strada”, (The Road, in Italian). In it, the protagonist, Zampano, a traveling ‘strong man’, buys a simple peasant girl, Gelsomina, from a poor family, as a helper. He abuses and ignores her, but she decides that her mission in life is to love him. He kills a man who is kind to her and eventually abandons her. Finally, after drinking heavilly in her home town, he goes looking for her and finds out that she has died. He too, ends up on a beach, crying uncontrollably, realizing too late that Gelsomina was the only person who ever loved him. La Strada has a tragic beauty, and excellent acting. So does The Road, but it’s message is ultimately reflective of the warlike death culture of capitalism ‘there is no alternative, so suck it up get used to it’.
Zampano represents the early ethos of pre-global capitalism, where one could buy and exploit another human being, using money and brute force.
He ends up alive, but alone, in a kind of living alcoholic death, with his “fire” extinguished by the sexism and individualism which thrived under the brutal culture of capitalism. Zampano’s individual world collapses in the beach sand, while the whole world collapses in The Road, leaving the boy (the “angel”) the only symbol of a small possible hope for the future.
The Road is reflective of McCarthy’s isolation from the many millions, who see the Catastrophe/Collapse coming, and are speaking out and organizing to “keep the Fire of humanity” from being extinguished by the dying system of Global Capitalism. They and I believe that “Another World is Possible”. We need movies that show a more hopeful scenario for humankind. One that helps us to see the power of people cooperating, not competing, as we reach out to larger circles of people, despite race, class, gender and sexual orientation. As Sitting Bull said, “Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children”. This, of course, would be futile, even foolish, for McCarthy.
Nevertheless, I want to begin a Salon in Tulsa, which we can dialog among the different ethnic groups in the city; where we can think together to organize and prepare for a new society, based on love for the Earth and all its inhabitants, cooperation and caring for all, not just our nuclear families, as capitalist society collapses around us. I would like to see if this can bring out leadership talents, that could be used to start a multi-cultural, multi-class newsletter for this area, and maybe even a movement. We need to keep the flame of hope, cooperation and caring alive, even as the dominant society tells us that it is hopeless or “There is no alternative”.
— “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed it is the only thing that
ever has.” ~ Margaret Meade ~
I would like to start in the New Year, January or February, 2010. You can email me at: quetzalhombre”at”gmail.com. Roberto Mendoza
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
— Anne Frank
—the modern world-system is in structural crisis, and we have entered an ‘age of transition’—a period of bifurcation and chaos… We need to stop assuming what the better (not the perfect) society will be like. We need to discuss it, outline it, experiment with alternative structures to realize it …
—Immanuel Wallerstein, New Revolts Against the System
—’Another World is Possible’, slogan of the World Social Forum.
After reading 
The Party’s Over, made it clear that Peak Oil is basically here and that there is no escape from rising fossil fuel price rises that will cause modern industrial society to collapse because it will run head on into Capitalism’s iron rule — Grow or Die.
Retributive Justice, arising out of old patterns of allowing only the State to mete out punishment and isolation, is used in a top down manner to create law and order, so that the State and Empire can continue their oppressive control of society for the benefit of wealthy elites. This Oligarchy uses the Criminal Justice System (Police and Courts), to repress dissent domestically. The Military (basically organized violence and legalized murder) uses Armed Force to conquer, colonize and confiscate the resources of weaker nations. Even so called Revolutionary Governments are still locked into this old paradigm, which eventually causes their people to no longer support them or believe in their ideology. The Soviet Union is a prime example of a Revolutionary Government that morphed into a undemocratic Empire, and eventually collapsed when enough people withdrew their energy and support from it. The same thing could happen here, especially if Obama is unable to extricate himself and his government from the control of the Oligarchy.
