My 2005 work schedule has been brutal, with too few cultural breaks but DVDs. Catching movies on DVD puts me about six months behind showings, as was typical this weekend when I watched “The Edukators.” I give the the film high recommendation.
I immediately identified with the main characters, but not their captive, even though he and I are close in age. While I make quite a bit more money than the three protagonists, I can’t even relate to the lavish lifestyle of their antagonists. Like the three Edukators, I am highly critical of the truly wealthy, even though I would easily qualify, based on income, as a bourgeois. I live in a humble home (rented) and drive an old Volvo (dented and purchased quite used). My wife shops at thrift stores and we give more than 10 percent of yearly income to church, charity, people in need, or friends.
But my lifestyle is full of compromises and doesn’t match the pure idealism of “The Edukators” or its main characters, and the movie, which superbly spotlights the problem of young idealism turned to apathy or, worse, greed, indicts how I live. The indictment is greater for Boomers, which I stingingly call the “Lost Generation“.
I do squabble with the Edukators’ methods, because fear breads resentment and hatred.
What the “The Edukators” fails to address, or maybe I just missed it, was the possible future of the main characters. Would the young idealists one day lay down their placards, and, like the corrupt rich man, pick up swords instead? I hope not.
Two weeks ago, I posted the lyrics to one of my old songs, “Flower Child,” suggesting that it had failed the test of time. But, maybe, just maybe, in some places true idealism—belief in working for the good of all people—remains.