So yesterday I got bored again and tried something I haven't done since I was a kid. I decided to make peanut butter cookies.
I grow tired of sitting at the computer or watching TV on a pretty regular basis. Before I rediscovered cooking I would just sit there anyway. Not anymore. I built this beautiful kitchen and I'm finally using it.
Again, there was nothing too exciting about last night's cooking other than the fact that I took most of them to work and they were the most popular item I've taken yet. Well, the most popular other than the cheesecake tarts from last week, but those are special treats that you just don't see all that often.
Enough about that. Before I went on the peanut butter track we went out to see a movie. We went to the 11:35 showing of Munich. After the movie Mrs. Ed and I were talking about what the movie was trying to say.
What I was most impressed by was that Spielberg was able to tell the story without effectively taking a side. While Spielberg himself has admitted that he looks at Israel with what amounts to a sympathetic eye, this movie didn't make me come away feeling this. Though the violence the movie focuses on begins with the 1972 kidnapping and subsequent deaths of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches, Spielberg's movie does not fail to acknowledge that this violence was only an extremely visible continuation of violence that has plagued the Holy Land, and by extension the world, for centuries. It seeks to explain the mentality behind both sides (and the rest of the world associated with both sides) and shows the duplicity common in politics and the soldiers that fight for the politicians. Both sides say that their goals may take 100 years to achieve while failing to see that so long as both are willing to take however long it takes to achieve these goals neither side will ever reach their goals. There is an endless supply of hatred on both sides, and no end in sight.
He manages to show the anguish that too often accompanies the pursuit of what some perceive as justice. Not only does the team exact vengeance, but they are subject to vengeance as well. Violence begets violence, and the cycle doesn't end. Through this cycle the perpetrators of the violence become paranoid, or dead, or both. Though they are pursuing an action that they sometimes feel is just and righteous, at other times they suffer doubts and fears and end up going at each others' throats at times and seeking vengeance outside their own mission.
What does the movie itself say about society? A lot. The most important message I took away from the movie is that seeking out vengeance against others for slights, or perceived slights, doesn't solve a thing. Revenge may be sweet, but it curdles fast on the tongue. When one person seeks revenge they merely motivate the one reacted against to seek their own revenge. Again, a vicious cycle.
Somewhere, sometime, someone is going to have to draw the line and stop.
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