Jamming to Green Day

It’s a gorgeous spring day — temps in the 70’s, sun shining everywhere, green bursting out all over — and driving to work this morning I had Green Day’s American Idiot cranked loud on the car stereo. It’s hard not to feel at least a little bit hopeful with that kind of music blaring out. I’m also still puzzling over a very provocative and interesting movie I saw last week, V for Vendetta. I really want people to see it, in part because I’m so eager to think out loud about it.

Even though I fear that the movie has an anarchic edge to it that's way more pessimistic about government than I want to be, it also accomplishes the amazing feat of inviting viewers to sympathize with its central character -- a terrorist. Given the world we inhabit right now in the US, that's something to remark upon. It also invites people to imagine collective resistance that arises spontaneously, sparked primarily by ideas. Given that I've staked my life on such notions, I can't help but find it hopeful. I'm not discounting the film's negative edge (or its complicated gender politics), but it resonated with me in some very interesting ways, and I want to argue about it with people.