Wishing modern life was a little less like fakery of the movies
Moviemakers call it the suspension of disbelief, and getting us to do it is a primary skill of the best of them. They cajole or shock or entertain us into deciding that "we know better, but we're not going to care right now."
The chance to suspend disbelief is, in fact, one of the biggest reasons we go to the movies. To live in a world blacker and whiter than our messy gray-filled one. To imagine a macho man and a naive techno nerd can, with the help of an old-fashioned CB radio, save us from the bad guys, as in "Live Free or Die Hard." To imagine we can outrun tsunamis. Or defeat those invaders from outer space and smoke a celebratory cigar, as in "Independence Day." The cigar is verboten today, requiring as much suspension of disbelief as those smelly aliens Will Smith fought.
What I wonder, though, is when the suspension of disbelief became a requirement in real life, too. When did politicians and lawyers and those caught in compromising situations come to believe that they could utter drivel with the sincere expectation that we would fall for it?
Since people quit bursting into guffaws in order not to offend, I'm guessing. But laugh is what I did when reading yet another story about yet another court appearance by yet another participant in the 2005 Plato Township brawl that ended in the death of Nicholas Swanson.
Leif Johnson, 21, of Oak Bluff Drive in Burlington Township was in court last week - again - and was sentenced to 10 days in jail for violating his probation in connection with that brawl that killed his friend. Like many of those who escaped that fatal brawl with little but a slap on the wrist from Judge Grant Wegner, who apparently has little trouble suspending his disbelief, Johnson has been in close proximity to trouble ever since.
The brawl occurred in February 2005 and plea deals that included probation and specific requirements about behavior were accepted that June. Johnson violated his probation a mere three months later when he was arrested with alcohol and a tobacco pipe in Plato Township. His supervision was revoked and his probation was extended.
He was so appreciative of his third chance that in February of this year he was charged with misdemeanor criminal damage to property after driving around a woman's yard in his car. That case isn't yet concluded, but Wegner lobbed a 10-day jail sentence at Johnson for the probation violation, along with a warning to stay out of further trouble. As I said, Wegner could be the poster boy for the suspension of disbelief.
But the real topper, the guy who set me off in giggles was Johnson's attorney, John Franquelli, who said his client was not "a troublemaker."
One must wonder, then, just exactly how Franquelli would define "a troublemaker." Being associated with a fatal brawl doesn't do it. Underage drinking and drug use apparently isn't enough. Ripping up someone's lawn is no problem. And ignoring all those probation orders? Those were mere suggestions, I guess.
Right. Just like Barry Bonds' home run record is legitimate, Jessica Lynch was a hero and DARE reduces drug abuse.
But the first lesson of screenwriting, and life, for that matter, is that a movie character or a person's character is never defined by words, but by actions.
Meaning that if we quit listening to words we know are blather and simply focus on the actions, we could return to suspending our disbelief only while at the movies.