Six Degrees of Separation

In class this past week we watched this movie called Six Degrees of Separation. While we were not able to watch the entire movie, we got the point of the movie.

Six Degrees of Separation is based on the idea summarized by the character Ouisa Kitteridge, "I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it extremely comforting that we're so close. I also find it like Chinese water torture, that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection... I am bound, you are bound, to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people." The idea of Six Degrees actually connects to a lot of the ideas we have been reflecting on in English this year. The Singer Solution to World Poverty asked what are obligation to the world is. If we are all connected by a mere six degrees, then perhaps Singer is right in accusing us as murderers. As Singer asserts, we are culpable for the well-being of everyone on this planet. This theory of connectedness simply makes Singer's arguments more tangible.

Looking back on the post of my impression of the Singer Essay, I cannot say that I agreed with his position on world poverty. While the introduction to the Six Degrees theory does not quite change my opinion of his essay, it does increase my feeling of responsibility and possibly my consciousness about how much our actions affect one another. If we are all joined by six degrees, then we can no longer claim that we have no relation to the children Singer is pushing to save. Although most of us have never met any of the underprivileged children Singer attempts to save from poverty, we are associated by six degrees. I suppose the question of whether or not we are responsible for people we have never met before is still unanswered. However, maybe the six degrees theory shows that we are more connected than we all think.

Coincidentally, I also happened to watch the movie Babel this weekend. Besides the fact that it won all these awards and had Brad Pitt in it, it also demonstrated this idea of Six Degrees. Babel takes these four seemingly random families living in four different countries nonetheless and shows how they are all connected through a series of events. It is absolutely amazing how the actions of people on three different continents can convene at a moment in time. Although this is only a movie, it conveys a very real message of connectedness and similarity. The characters in this movie were not just joined by a rifle and a shooting, they were joined by their similar feelings of isolation. Everyone had their own issues and insecurities and every main character faced rejection during the span of the movie. Their separate lives all overlapped into the others and provided a window to the links in our lives.

One line that stuck out to me in Babel was a news reporter saying that "the American people finally have a happy ending". In Babel, every family experienced tragedy except for the Americans. Cate Blanchett's character does not die and her and Brad Pitt get to return home to their two safe children. This actually reminded me of the Poisonwood Bible. When the Price family no longer had wealth in Africa, the villagers could not comprehend the idea of a poor white person. The Congolese saw white people like they were invincible and nothing could harm them. In contrast to the happy ending in Babel, the Price family received their own anguish. While the movie conveys the sense that things always end up in favor of Americans, the Poisonwood Bible shows a more impartial sense of tragedy. I do not know which perspective is truer but it is interesting to see the views of these two stories.



"The imagination. It's there to sort out your nightmare, to show you the exit from the maze of your nightmare, to transform the nightmare into dreams, that become your bedrock. If we do not listen to that voice, it dies, it shrivels, it vanishes. The imagination is not our escape. On the contrary, the imagination is the place we are all trying to get to." Will Smith Six Degrees of Separation