I went with my family last night to see the movie “Inside-Out.” It was our weekend family fun activity. Overall I thought the movie was very good. A lot of animated emotions running around a young girl’s head, doing slapstick. Making all the mistakes you’d expect, and a few that might surprise you. It was basically Herman’s Head, for those of you who remember that show, with a modern twist. And that modern twist is a good part of the one real problem that I have with the movie.
The young girl in the movie, Riley, has essentially been controlled since birth by these emotions. Specifically: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust, with Joy taking the lead in most circumstances. It’s her job to keep Riley happy, and she takes her job very seriously. In the show Herman’s Head, the breakdown was a little different. There were four aspects controlling Herman’s responses: Lust, Sensitivity, Anxiety, and Intellect. The show was back in 1991, so if there was a single aspect of Herman’s personality running most of the show. I don’t recall. But even given that, the difference is notable.
In the more modern version, intellect is completely absent from the control center. There are core memories which are given credit for developing Riley’s personality. There are islands shown that are built on the importance of those memories. There is reference to a “train of thought” chugging away in the distance, though, what it does or why it’s there is never really addressed. When it comes to determining actions are responses, logic and reason are absent. Emotions run at all. For all the independent thought show, the emotions could just as easily be operating a chimpanzee, or a mouse, or a duck. Or a puppet. Maybe a puppet is most appropriate. Let’s face it: if you’re not going to think, than someone else’s really pulling the strings. The only real question is how they make you dance.
I understand that “Inside-Out” is just a movie, a fantasy for kids. From that standpoint, it’s a good movie. I have no problem with that. My problem is with the very real world attitude it reflects. The attitude that emotions are everything, that how we feel must determine how we act. The attitude that we have the right to inflict those emotions on those around us, regardless of cost or consequence. And the consequences are adding up.
Emotion doesn’t plan, doesn’t think, doesn’t take the long view. All of the priorities are immediate. Emotion does not delay gratification, and has little patience. Sustained high divorce rate, high illegitimacy, high abortion — all of these are responses, to some extent, of acting on a emotion. And, while all of us have some degree of empathy, emotion focuses largely on the self. Emotion does not care about the rights of others. So, if others lose their right to free speech, to act according to their conscience, to work or live, emotion finds a justification.
Emotion demands validation. The lawsuits regarding Christian businesses recently were not, as some insist, about combating discrimination. The people raising the suits approve of discrimination, and support it routinely for their own purposes. The lawsuits were about rage, rage against people that would not validate certain emotional choices. Because of that rage, those who would not bow had to be targeted, vilified, and destroyed if necessary as an example to others. And then on, to the next target.
In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes about a time when he reasoned as a child, and then had to grow and move beyond childish things. You can find the text in chapter thirteen of the first letter. That chapter is often referred to as “the love chapter” of the Bible, and I don’t think it was coincidence that placed the text there. I think it was very deliberate, because despite what many insist, love is not just emotion.
Love is a decision. Love is staying with a spouse through the bad times, trusting that the good times that once were can come again. Love is planning. Love is sticking with that job you hate to make ends meet while you look for something better, while you improve yourself. While you make an effort instead of waiting for something to be handed to you. Love is putting others first, like the child who is counting on you day in, day out, whether you “feel” like it not. Love does not just whisper sweet words on the honeymoon. Love says “‘Til death do us part,” and repeats it with the last breath.
Love is a commitment, the way God committed to loving you.
And because love is all of these things, and more, love lasts. The greatest civilizations of the past, the ones that built huge monuments and towers of stone, have all but vanished. That’s the way of earthly things. The strongest don’t last. How much more a society that gives ultimate weight to “feelings,” that come and go in minutes, that change based on the tone someone uses when saying “hello?”
I see parts of our society breaking down. I see it in Ferguson, in Charleston. I see it in those who riot and loot, and claim it is because they demand “justice.” I see it in the outsiders who are paid to go in and raise hatred and turmoil in places they don’t even live or work, and then move on. I see it in politicians who solve nothing, but strive constantly to get us to raise our hands against each other.
I still have faith that America can last, but not like this. The silent movie “Metropolis,” filmed in 1927 made the point that “the heart and the head need each other.” That’s still true today. It always has been. The question is can we embrace that truth in time, or will our entire nation find itself “inside-out?”
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