On thing that has been plaguing my mind for a few weeks now, healthily so, is the thought that inevitably we are a Faustian society.
We seem to constantly sell ourselves for the 'greater good', but I feel we're never sure what this greater good is.
I've been thinking like this, because I'm about to embark on a fascinating rehearsal process with my theatre company. Our challenge is Dr Faust. A man who, in our version, sells himself to Mephistopheles (a symbol of conglomerate greed) in order to find a cure for a disease that is destroying the world. It's almost like a version of 'I Am Legend', in that respect. At the beginning, a cure for cancer is found, and it's 100% effective. The only downfall is the huge side effect is a new monstrous virus that make humans into vampire-like-rabid-dog-humans. (That is in 'I Am Legend', so please don't sue me- I'm not steeling the idea from a Hollywood film. It's been the result of weeks of discussions and research, and it just so happens that it falls in the same way. At times. A little. A bit. Not much.)
We found it inevitable that this happens in our Faust.
It's a strong example of what we are like as humans. We constantly, on all levels of living, create a problem that we try and solve, but we always fall short of that mark, that solution, and so it escalates. That is indicative of world society, and I feel that's why everything is so problematic and complex- we have made it that way by fault of our own.
We have all been Faust. Perhaps even several times a day. We give something away in the hope that it will better us or something bigger than just us. But I don't think that 'better' should be seen in a good light all of the time, either.
We have a better living than those who prepare our convenience food, the £2 sandwiches we pick up and eat from a Sainsbury's garage. Our greed is the result of their sacrifice to earn £1 a day. Our pleasure is their poverty. That's wrong, isn't it?
This is, I suppose, in response to a BBC3 programme- 8 teenagers from a very Bourgeois background had to live and work as the workers did. It was very upsetting to see, we never think about that situation, but it's not like we don't know. We just become rather blasé about it all and pass off Asia and Africa as poor.
"Why do we need to know what's what? We know the place is poor...". That's the kind of response that floated around in the programme. One girl even said "I know we're here to look at this, but I'm not working in there that's horrid- they [the workers and locals] can if they want, that's their choice..."
Erm, pardon me love? Choice? They don't have one! And that's their sacrifice- they give up themselves, they sell themselves and their labour for a poor wage so that we can feel better about ourselves, and have a quick bite to eat the next time we're hungry after a mere 8 hours at work. These people work 10/12 hours a day 7 days a week. And we do not bat an eyelid. That's wrong. So very wrong.
All of that has come off the many problems we as humans have made ourselves- and there seems to be no want to resolve the issue, because we can live better off, which is our ultimate goal.
I realise these blogs are coming off as rather pessimistic, but this is what I think like. Almost constantly, and I feel if I do, I can find a solution. Very Faustian. But, that is our make up- to be inherently wrong and try and solve the problems we create.
And so with all that in mind, and more- that hasn't even scratched the surface, I feel the need to make Johann Faust. An example to all that we are just as Faustian as Faust. It's not like it's a new thing either- that story has existed since the Dark Ages, and that story must have come from somewhere too.
Hopefully the piece won't be another "explores what happens when..." piece. I would like it to be strongly suggestive rather than skirt around the situation by 'exploring'. I want it to point out to everyone that watches that we as Humans are inherently wrong- and that we need to stop making problems for ourselves, and one's we will never solve.
With all this whirling around in my head, and some of the casts' we created a mission statement- and one that I'm incredibly proud of.
"With Johann Faust we want to show society that through taking an ‘end justifies the means’ approach to solving problems, we are prepared to make sacrifices that ultimately cause more harm than good. The inherent greed within humanity results in the destruction of humanity, even when the intentions are good."
I know that I've only really just begun to talk of all this, but there's only so much I can type about it all, and it make sense!
Basically this blog tries to say that we are Faust more than we admit. I hope you agree, or not. Both are good. Because that invokes some kind of change. Change is good. Sometimes. If it's not, then something or someone will push for a change that is 'good'. But, morally, what is 'good'. See the inevitable problem we have created for ourselves?
Samuel
