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What Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko" has taught me...


Richard Kelly’s 2001 cult-film Donnie Darko reminded me of one important lesson. When Darko is asked by a pesky gym teacher to make a moral choice during an empowerment exercise, he refuses to do so and says that one cannot simply divide the world into two categories – the black and the white. That is because the world is a much more complex place, and sometimes individuals are compelled to make morally ambiguous choices.
If the young across the world were to understand this one single message, we would at least be on our way to solving existing social problems rather than bickering among ourselves as to who is morally superior.  Left-wing vs Right-wing. Environmentalists vs Industrialists. Socialists vs Capitalists. Liberals vs Conservatives. Believers vs Doubters. A man who calls for a stop to immigration and advocates harsher penalties for criminals is immediately labelled a “Hitler”; a parent who believes in corporeal punishment in child-rearing is seen as a “monster”; a teacher who uses unorthodox methods is perceived as a non-conformist and a threat. The world suffers from the need to categorise and to label CLEARLY what it is dealing with. No greyness allowed.
And yet the world is as grey as the Valley of Ashes.
Environmentalists are not necessarily helping the world to heal itself. Industrialists are not always the unconscionable villains we would like to see them portrayed. The militant self-righteousness of left-wingers often has a Fascist whiff about it. The fervour of right-wingers sometimes does more good than harm, driving home issues society would rather sweep under the rug. The parent who spares the rod does not always produce a scar-free child. The parent who harshly disciplines his child does not always produce an emotionally compromised teen. Freedom is not always a good thing. Restriction is sometimes productive.
Bring on the grey, please...
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