Learning about the future

Chappie didn't quite work for me. Whilst the character of the robot was endearing, the timescale in which the whole story was meant to have happened seemed impractical. Yes I know, an AI robot could learn really quickly yada yada, but this stretched my credulity.

That said, the film does bowl along at a good pace with some edge of the seat tension. Oh yes, with reference to 'edge of the seat tension', I saw this film in 4DX: Cineworld MK's answer to the Feelies from Brave New World.

"Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Postman added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us."

So go and see the movie (even in 4DX) and be pleasured by an optmistic story set in a dystopian future... that will almost certainly have a sequel. Watch our for Chappiie!

The story attempts to place immoral behaviour in its context and while some behaviour (even quite extreme violence) is 'justified' by the limited life choices facing some of the characters, other acts are determined to be wrong given the wider options open and the underlying motives of avarice and a hunger for recognition from another character.

People will forgive and support the people they trust, like and believe in, for actions which in other circumstances would be scorned. And people will do this even when objective evidence is scant or non existent.

And (I know I have said this before), leadership pivots on trust. Without trust there is no leadership.

How do you continue to demonstrate to those who look to you for leadership, that they can trust you?

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This is the seventy eighth of my 2014/2015 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I began doing this (with an update at the end of 2014). Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.