Character VS. Circumstance

“Somersault” is an Australian independent film that has won a dozen or more awards in Australia and in Cannes. I attended this film’s US premiere this week here in Los Angeles during the Australian Week festivities. Eveyone was touting it as a "fine example" of what the Australian government subsidized film industry can produce...It's a nice film, but come on! ...I was only mildly impressed....If this is the standard of great achievement for a country with such a distinguished history in film...then they need a reality check down under ..this film will do very little business in the U.S. and few people will see it. Encouraging new talent is great but the days of governments bending over backwards to finance the "auteur's" private passion has got to stop. This is the entertainment BUSINESS!

The film is a coming of age piece about a teenage girl who runs away from home and finds nothing but trouble with everyone she meets. Everyone has some kind of problem of their own that they dump on her, often in the most sexually vile and sick ways. She is constantly manipulated by men and is so fractured, confused and hopelessly lost, that she finds herself being taken advantage of at every turn. It is not until the true love of a mother enters the scene that she is able to find her way back home.

I couldn’t help thinking that the film is also a metaphor for life in general today. Everyone realizes that life is very different today than it was a few decades ago and you can no longer count on people like we once could. Why are people today so different? What has happened to us? I believe that the strength or lack of character is the only measure.

One thing is certain, we have an enormous range of choices in any given situation today and life has become more and more complex. In a world where we can go anywhere, get anything, do anything, change who we are and be whomever we want to be, there is conceivably no reason to depend on anyone. Many don’t and they are the ones to watch out for. In the end, many people simply are unable to cope. This is evidenced in our dependence on drugs of all kinds, broken families, rising lawsuits and even an entire country like the United States where the majority has decided to literally go it alone in the world. The Bush doctrine says that if your country does not conform to the American notion of democracy then you are a threat and we might attack you…unless you are China, Saudi Arabia and a few other rich states. Isn’t this a clear sign of a dysfunctional culture headed for disaster? It is much like others who allowed their beliefs and values to get out of whack like the Romans or the Easter Islanders who eventually starved to death after centuries of deforestation? But I digress….

Unfortunately, it is the kids growing up who have no way of processing the information or adapting to the kinds of pressures created by life at warp speed who are the first and most seriously effected. That’s why I believe it’s critical to nurture and protect children through the early years or they will be destined to spend the rest of their lives on the physiologists couch, getting into drugs, etc. as their lives unravel. It’s often said that we spend most of our lives trying to undo all of the screwed up things that our parents did to us. In fact, I believe that everyone has something to deal with. No one gets through clean anymore.

How we respond to any given circumstance then is determined entirely on the strength or weakness of character.

Everyday we play many different roles: child, parent, boss, leader, follower, etc. and with each interaction we get to choose how we behave. I figure that about half the people I meet fall into one or two categories. Either they are takers or givers, manipulators or negotiators, thieves or builders, misers or investors and so on. After decades of dealing with thousands of people all over the world, I now simply look at character before anything else. Will they do what they say they will do? Will they take the easy way out, the one that hurts others or will they do the right thing? Is their word worth anything? Is the follow-up to a conversation sincere or entirely one-sided? Do they operate from fear or are they filled with optimism? And you don’t have to wait for something big bad and ugly to happen to find out whom you are dealing with. It’s the little things that matter. Business men have been taking clients, suppliers etc. to the golf course for decades to find out if their potential partners are liars and cheats. Swindlers, shysters and con men are easily identified with a quick check of their personal behavior rather than their business dealings.

I also believe that people are basically good. Few babies are born evil. Genetics is obviously important but it’s the environment that we are born into and the influences around us that shapes and determines much of who we are. We naturally want to believe that people will do the right thing and we give them the benefit of the doubt…even when we know they have their own agenda. However, we have all seen how easily we can be seduced and charmed by well spoken, exciting salesmen who creates an air of fun wherever they go, but we also never see the truth of their lives behind the scenes when they fall apart and collapse into their bed of lies.

Now, more than ever, we must live with our eyes, ears and minds fully aware and open. Vigilant discrimination is paramount. We have to GET REAL and before anything else and first look closely at character then give people the benefit of the doubt.

SP