One of my favorite films of all time continues to be Red Belt, released in 2008 and featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tim Allen.
This low key action-y suspense film has all the ingredients in it to deconstruct our post-post-modern predicaments.
To start with, it largely incorporates the framework and maxims of Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, a body art very similar to wrestling. As an example, a BJJ teacher will always point out that there is a really narrow area around a person where they can hit you with a punch, and if they are trying to punch you, then you probably shouldn't be standing 'there'.
There is always an escape
When BJJ practitioners 'roll', as they call what some would deem 'fighting', there are natural progressions developed between humans as they move from one position to another, and it generally looks a lot like rolling around.
When the teacher and main character Mike Terry repeats over and over 'you know the escape', 'there is always an escape', 'there is no situation you cannot escape from' he is espousing true principles of Brazilian JuJitsu.
Why does this sound so eerily like Yogi Bhajan's second sutra for the Aquarian Age?
There is a way through every block
It is interesting to me, because Yogi Bhajan's statement may be the truer one here. It is in fact where the conflict and resolution of this movie lie. While our main character Mike Terry was busy dodging, he let his good hearted but not so bright student get hit by the consequences.
While one part of me thinks that the weakest part of the movie is this level of human weakness, perhaps suicide is an important topic to discuss, as it is apparently on the rise around the world.
Turn to the side. Everything has a force. Embrace it or Deflect it, why Oppose it?
Why oppose it? I can think of a few reasons. As Yogi Bhajan said, to get through the block, and maybe the only way through the block, together with everyone else that depends on you, is to oppose something.
A righteous opposition. The way of the warrior.
This is a huge issue in the movie, Tim Allen even asks our main character, after not understanding much of what he does 'But you train people to fight?' - but Mike says, 'No,
I train people to prevail.
Perserverence. This was a principle we humans used to hold dear.
Perhaps this is why the suicide strikes me, it is the ultimate 'rage quit' and the opposite of prevalence. Obviously a person that would commit suicide wasn't ready for a black belt.
Our teacher continues on, affected by the leverage being applied to him, and accepts the role that has been set before him, with seemingly little choice. Until he discovers that the cake is a lie. Corruption is the system.
The game is rigged.
What is the right thing to do? What will the warrior do? How will he 'feed his family', as his wife asks nearer to the beginning of the film. As an ultimate betrayal, the entire system has been rigged against us since the beginning.
Sound familiar?
You know the escape
Its time to opt out of what we know will not serve us anymore and begin exploring what 'opting in' will look like. This is a process that must be done by each of us individually as well as collectively.
If, like Mike, yours is the path of the Warrior, it surely will not be the obvious fights in front of you, the fake divisions of meaningless legal semantics.
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mike Terry found the reason to fight (to speak the truth about a corrupt system) and became unbeatable. Are we up to the task? Can we find the right reasons to take decisive action?
This global show is largely put on in our collective consciousness. It doesn't take all that many of us to 'change the channel'.