Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. Essays

Is “Finding Nemo” a parable of our time and a clue to 2004 and beyond?

The story of Finding Nemo seems simple on the surface: a very small fish getting lost in a very large ocean and being searched for and found by a paranoid father, Marlin, and a forgetful new friend, Dory. Moving into 2004, I feel like Marlin (a small fish in a gigantic ocean) and wish I was Dory and could forget all the bombarding data that is blasted over the television, radio, newspapers, etc. In a 1994 pronouncement, it was stated that information from the beginning of time to 1904 was the same in volume as that was generated from 1904 to 1994 (thanks to Bill Gates and others). It is estimated that information will double again by 2024. Therefore, since we cannot know everything and there is too much information to know anything (the problem discussed in Barry Schwartz’s new book: Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less), we become Dory of the 21^st century. Take for instance, the Medicare bill of 1700 pages. No senior citizen will read the whole thing. We, like Marlin in a big ocean, ask anyone we can find to make sense of it. AARP, who are supposed to help senior citizens, gives in to special drug company interests to get some plan in place for election year 2004. It is like wanting to build a museum in Waco while the State of Texas wants to built it in Austin therefore it is built halfway between the two cities (making no one happy). 

We live in a NOW time: information-wise, politic-wise and daily-living-wise. We look at (without too much examination) the moment and let the future take care of itself (such as, building a $500, 000,000, 000 federal deficit while still spending and cutting taxes which mostly benefits the rich or planning a war in Iraq with no plans for the peace). Some Americans are not Dory and cannot forget that Iraqi Freedom was begun because Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction”. The American administration was able to link 9/11 in the minds of Americans with Saddam Hussein (although he and the CIA say there is no connection) while at the same time using the two in every sound bite about the war in Iraq. Over 60% of Dory-Americans believe that there is a direct connection between Hussein and Al Queda. 

Yes, at times, I too wish that I could be Dory. When I was in college, I had a roommate who could read a book and bring up the exact page in his mind when exam time came about. He became a lawyer. I could remember visual images, like the brushstrokes on a Rembrandt painting, with just one walk through a museum, therefore I became an artist and museum director. Each of us, though, had to learn techniques to forget information so that we see the world cleanly without clutter in our minds. We do not want to be Marlin (listening to all the fish and creators of the ocean) although today I would be Dory to forget all the data about Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, Brittney Spears, Rosie O’Donnell and Kobie Bryant. Just tell me what the verdict is and how it was arrived at, but not the speculations and every detail leading to the trail.

It is interesting to hear that Detroit has laid off over 300 policemen because of financial problems and is now the “fattest city in the USA”. These are two facts that may mean nothing together. Actually, it is more interesting to know that other cities are hiring these same policemen because it costs $54,000-$80,000 to recruit and train new police to serve the public. It is interesting in the 2003 “fat city” results in Fitness Magazine to find out that Texas has the 2^nd  (Houston), 3^rd (Dallas) and 4^th (San Antonio) “fat” cities in America. Houston has done some calorie searching since it was first in 2002. From the Journal of the American Medical Association, fat is also news: from 1988-1994 55.9% of Americans were overweigh, 22.9% obese and 2.9 extremely obese, and from 1999-2000, 61.5% overweight, 30.5% obese and 4.7% extremely obese.

I find it interesting that the Terrengganu State in Malaysia, a Muslim-run government, banned non-Muslim women wearing mini-skirts in their drive against “indecency”. In fact, non-Muslim men and women are required to use separate checkouts at supermarkets. This government has learned that if you cannot keep out new ideas, slip comfortably into a Dory-past. Talk about Marlin’s paranoia!

My desk is piled high with “stuff” that I print from the internet. I have learned that my mind is not a file cabinet. Therefore, a piece of advice for 2004: be Marlin and search the great ocean of information and be Dory to forget what you do not have to know at that moment. Luckily for you as a reader, I did not get into the details of the Presidential Debates (which in the great ocean of information are not debates at all).