It’s not folly to live in La La Land. We need sincerity

This last week I did the obligatory and watched La La Land. Nobody needs me to recount here what a brilliant addition to the pantheon of cinematic masterpieces it undoubtedly makes. What struck me was its complete lack of self-consciousness. It was self-aware, urbane, and clear-eyed; it knew that modern audiences of the last twenty years had shunned musical films; it knew that movie studios would not suffer the risk of producing them, but it took the chance anyway.

It felt as if Damien Chazelle would rather make a film that no-one liked, than not make the film about which he was passionate.I bring this up because I’ve been musing of late about our culture. Not in any rigorous or systematic sense, but rather as one considers a missed opportunity – fleetingly, in those quiet moments where the mind speaks softly to itself, whispering of worlds that might have been.

My thinking was spurred by the bitter elections of last year, and in particular those modern graveyards of morality and civilised discussion: social media.As anyone who has dipped a toe into the maelstrom of Twitter politics debates will know, they are cruel and uncompromising places.

It was self-aware, urbane, and clear-eyed

In this zero-sum world, an expression of an earnestly held opinion is interpreted as a declaration of war against all those who disagree. Broadly support the idea of a second referendum? You are shouted down as a traitor to your nation and a Trojan horse inside the walls of democracy.  Generally feel immigration is too high? You are labelled as ill-educated and racist.

Fearful of the hostility of the mob, most people avoid these encounters. I certainly do – it is a personal rule of mine to skirt away from any partisan commentary on social media platforms. I don’t want to risk revealing what I sincerely believe, in case it opens me up to criticism.

In this zero-sum world, an expression of an earnestly held opinion is interpreted as a declaration of war against all those who disagree

This in itself is not toxic – we all (quite rightly) despise that particular sort of person who incessantly inflicts their opinions on your news feed. They are the online equivalent of Roman gladiators, living for the spectacle of combat, desperate for the thrill of besting an opponent. Internet debates are a peculiar kind of blood sport.

Maybe as a result of everyone you’ll ever meet carrying with them a smartphone capable of high-quality recording; maybe as a result of imperceptible changes to our discourse- these attitudes are seeping into the real world.

Internet debates are a peculiar kind of blood sport

Worryingly often, declarations of sincerely held beliefs are subject to disproportionately antagonistic criticism – as though the oppositional fault-lines of politics are extending into every facet of society. From the relative aesthetic enjoyment of art, to the implications of scientific research, too often genuine expressions are shouted down.

Worse is the self-censorship which inevitably grows in such an adversarial climate. When every opinion is either totally right or totally wrong; when every debate is either definitively won or painfully lost, people will sensibly choose not to risk opening themselves up to criticism.

Worse is the self-censorship which inevitably grows in such an adversarial climate

So we stay quiet. Mute. We prudently keep our opinions to ourselves, rather than take the chance of alienating our friends, family, and colleagues by disagreeing with them. Such a jaded acceptance of the degeneration of our public discourse had troubled me. I feared that sincerity was destined to die off as we as a people became increasingly averse to criticism and steeped in irony.

Perhaps this is why the film spoke to me. That a movie conceived honestly, earnestly believed in could not only get made, but become an instant classic offers a ray of sunshine. We all should recognise the value of sincerity. It’s not folly to live in La La Land.