So what did you think of the Age of Stupid Film? We asked Julian Sykes, Senior Regeneration Officer from Opportunity Peterborough what he thought...

Thank you to PECT for putting on the film at the John Clare Theatre.

There were some interesting stories being told in the film. Personally I had more sympathy for those in the developing world understandably wanting to catch up with the west (even in a way the new Air Plane Company mogul in India), than the frustrated businessman (who the film said operated all over the world) trying to sell his wind farms and the mixed up hero from New Orleans that worked in the oil industry (notwithstanding they were making some good points).

I disagree with comments in the audience criticising the balance of the film and saying there was too much on the Third World. Yes, the First World has been the source for most of the problems up to now and primary responsibility for action should be with us, but I think the comments perhaps missed the point that this film is not just about or for Western Audiences (many people in this country just think it’s about us) as is demonstrated on the Age of Stupid website. Far too often the voices of many in the world are not heard and if we were to be concerned about balance I think it could be easily argued that there should have been more said from the developing world in the film.

As to the overall impression of the film, I think some of the bigger messages of the programme did misfire and I do think its dangerous becoming very political in such matters. It’s a lot about perception and it’s easy to undermine genuine cases if you are perceived to take sides. I note that the film’s director Franny Armstrong previously produced the documentary film, McLibel and further reading online does suggest to me she comes from prospective of being concerned about globalisation.

But whilst saying that I do feel ultimately the film makers message that the responsibility for action is in the hands of the few and the power of the people is relatively weak is spot on – its reality. We, me included (and sometimes despite my best endeavours), look after ourselves primarily. Is human nature to look after number one and our families first (law of the wild), and its difficult fight against those instincts for the greater long-term good. Furthermore we are always looking to better ourselves (essentially greed), we are often weak willed and can be easily influenced (why else do the big businesses spend so much on marketing products we often don’t need), and when it comes down to voting and using the little influence we have the research has shown its nearly always the economy and what’s in it for ourselves that is the driving force behind our decisions. The reality is we are mostly simple ‘stupid’ folk, just trying to get on with our lives, and if we look at each of those lives in isolation we could probably understand most of their decisions.

The message I got from the Age of Stupid is that we need to someone to save us and I suspect it will have to get a lot worse before real action is taken, and potentially too late. The film was trying to shock us and in some ways we need that, but as with other films and world news generally it does have a habit of raising our fear thresholds (another natural coping mechanism), and reason for in action. As the following graph illustrates I can see the problems of climate change having to impact on us all much more in the future before there is real acceptance of needing to take decisive action.

The difficulty is that we need a mechanism to bring about positive change to turn that curve into at least more of straight line. Market forces and consumerism has benefitted us massively, but in many ways its taken us to the problem we are facing and the reality is it’s the only movement that really spurs action in us. ‘Experiments’ with other forms of regimes have so many downsides (and in any case can be a discouragement for action) that I just don’t want to go there. As in many things it comes back conversely on the one side to the common good against the individual rights (which we understandably fight for), and on the other big government/business versus the powerless individual.

One could get very depressed about this, but we can just campaign for real change and hope it comes as soon as possible, and you can only campaign seriously if you are setting the right example – hence why I support Peterborough’s goal to become Environment Capital!!

Julian Sykes
Senior Regeneration Officer, Opportunity Peterborough

(These are Julian's personal views)