Watching MASH

I think I’ve mentioned before that we brought along the complete DVD collection of MASH episodes to watch here. Last night we watched two of the most powerful so far — and eerily pertinent in the world we live in today. They are the last two episodes of season four.

"Deluge" moves back and forth between the horrible scenes of overwhelmed doctors struggling to patch together wounded patients and clips of television scenes from presumably back in the states. There is tv coverage of the "cat who plays ping pong" and the "dancing stars contest" interspersed with gruesome scenes of doctors running out of plasma and struggling to keep up with massive casualties. The stark contrast between the gaiety back home, and the carnage of war, was overwhelming.

"The Interview," which is the last episode of season four, is shot entirely in black and white. It's posed as a series of interviews with the various characters done by a newsperson coming to document the war. The thoughts shared are devastatingly authentic -- or at least feel that way! -- and left me in silence and tears by the episode's end. I can't help thinking that the hell faced by EVERYONE caught up in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely even worse than this fictionalized version of the Korean war, and that we are even less aware of what's going on in this obscene war than people were back then.

How do we end this? Impeach the president and vice-president? That might be a place to start. Massive demonstrations in the US? Vast prayer vigils? I don't know, and I think the "not knowing" is part of what makes it so easy to fall into apathy about Iraq, in particular. Christian communities ought to be in the forefront of stopping this war -- at least, if you listen to the major statements issued by most leaders of such communities -- but we're just as prone to apathy as others.

Part of what I've been thinking about while on sabbatical is the difference between sympathy and empathy, and the connection between empathy and action. I think the MASH episodes might help in some way, as windows into compassion, but they can just as easily be simply a mechanism for "feeling" and then letting go, a form of catharsis that leads nowhere. That's the paradox I need to understand!