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Stoicism in Film: Changing Lanes

&NewLine;<p>True stoicism in film is somewhat rare&period; Many films put particular emphasis on emotion and its impact in our daily lives&period; However&comma; <em>Changing Lanes <&sol;em>&lpar;2002&rpar; is a film that very accurately portrays the struggle between emotion and rational thought from a Stoic perspective&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In this film&comma; we see characters take action based on passions and distress&comma; which in turn leads to more distress&period; By the end of the film&comma; the two central characters make rational decisions &lpar;free from emotion&rpar; and they are finally content&period; The plot broadly outlines the Stoic school of thought concerning emotion and rational thought&comma; or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;rational selection&comma;” by showing the consequences of the characters’ actions and the impact of those consequences on their overall happiness&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Stoics assert that a person can only live a truly happy life by being in tune with Nature through rational thought and action&period; Since this school of thought considers emotion to be the antithesis to rational thought&comma; and in turn the antithesis to happiness in life&comma; Stoics believe that a truly virtuous person does not allow outside forces to give rise to their emotions&period; The Stoic assertion that emotions&comma; or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;passions”&comma; are detrimental to living a happy life serves as the strongest argument in favor of rational selection&comma; because rationality allows for a life that is happier and more stable&comma; as can be seen in <em>Changing Lanes<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In the film <em>Changing Lanes<&sol;em>&comma; Samuel L&period; Jackson plays a man named Doyle Gipson&comma; a middle-aged recovering alcoholic who is trying to regain custody of his children&period; Ben Affleck plays a young&comma; successful attorney named Gavin Banek&period; Banek is in the middle of a court case in which he intends to prove that the foundation he started was illegally signed over to the law firm he currently works for by a dead man&period; The two men are on the way to their respective court cases when their cars crash into each other&period; Banek’s luxury car sustains minor damage&comma; while Gipson’s more modest car won’t start after the accident&period; Gipson insists that they &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;do the right thing” and file a police report and exchange insurance information&comma; while Banek attempts to give Gipson a blank check to bring the matter to a quick close&comma; so that he can make it to court on time&period; Gipson refuses the check&comma; at which time Banek leaves Gipson on the side of the road saying &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;better luck next time&period;” <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Later that day&comma; Gipson arrives late to court to find that the case was conducted without him&comma; and he is told that he did not regain custody of his children&period; Due to his absence&comma; he was unable to tell the judge that he had bought a house for his estranged wife and children&period; While Banek arrives on time for his court case&comma; he realizes that he left a crucial document at the scene of the accident&period; The judge tells him that he has until the end of the day to produce the document or the case will be dismissed&period; Gipson retrieved the document after Banek drove away&comma; and he wrestles with whether or not he should give it back&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Banek&comma; desperate to retrieve the document&comma; seeks the help of a computer hacker to erase Gipson’s credit&comma; thus disallowing him from buying the house for his family&period; Both men continue to commit increasingly vindictive and dangerous acts on one another&comma; until they both conclude that it must stop&period; They eventually apologize to one another&comma; and commit to living more virtuous lives&period; Gipson returns the file&comma; even though it is too late to do Banek much good&comma; and Banek offers to represent Gipson pro bono&comma; and explain everything that has happened to Gipson’s estranged wife&period; While he cannot win the court case&comma; Banek is able to use the returned document to force his boss to conduct business in a more ethical manner in the future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;Changing-Lanes1-1024x436&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Stoicism in Film&colon; Changing Lanes" class&equals;"wp-image-1955"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>Changing Lanes<&sol;em> &lpar;2002&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In the Stoic school of thought&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;passions” are undesirable because they lack reason&comma; which is the basis of rational selection&period; The Stoics define happiness as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;rational selection of the primary things according to Nature&period;” Essentially&comma; happiness comes from our ability to gravitate towards aspects of Nature that are inherently good or beneficial to our well-being&comma; and are also rational for us to choose&period; Passions tend to lead us toward objectives that are often detrimental to our happiness&comma; and are most often irrational&period; For example&comma; in <em>Changing Lanes&comma;<&sol;em> Banek decides to abandon Gipson on the side of the road&comma; and later Gipson decides not to give Banek the vital document that he needs for his court case&period; He does this out of contempt for Banek’s behavior&comma; thus allowing passions to rule his decisions&period; This in turn causes a firestorm of passive-aggressive conflict between the two men&period; Rather than discussing the issue rationally&comma; both men allow their passions to overwhelm them&comma; exacerbating the situation exponentially&period; This scenario is a perfect reflection of the legitimacy of the Stoic position on emotion&period; In real life situations&comma; people often allow outside forces to enflame emotional responses&comma; and they allow those passions to rule their thoughts and actions rather than a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;rational selection of things&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Stoics emphasize that happiness comes from a rational selection of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;things in Nature&period;” But what constitutes Nature&quest; The Stoics classify nature as our physical world&comma; which is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;identical with the fully rational creature which is God&comma; each part of it naturally constituted so that it seeks what is appropriate or suitable for it…&lbrack;therefore&rsqb; the Stoic doctrine of the natural attachment to what is appropriate provides a foundation in nature for an objective ordering of preferences&period;” This reasoning helps further validate rational selection over emotion&period; As human beings&comma; we are part of Nature&period; We can objectively see that Nature is a complex system of individuals gravitating toward things that are beneficial to their survival and happiness&period; For example&comma; a lizard living in the desert crawls under a rock to escape the heat of the sun&period; The shade of the rock serves as a beneficial thing that the lizard is gravitating toward&period; The leaves of plants grow toward their light source &lpar;most often the sun&rpar; because they gravitate toward that which provides nutrients and is beneficial to their survival&period; By our objective understanding of Nature&comma; emotion has no natural place in decision-making&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Two issues that could arguably hinder the legitimacy of the Stoic position are that of virtues and the impact of other people&comma; or outside forces&comma; on happiness&period; The Stoics classify virtues as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;prudence or wisdom&comma; justice&comma; courage and moderation&comma; and other related qualities” and that these virtues are &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;both necessary and sufficient for happiness&period;” Not only are these qualities rather broadly outlined&comma; it could be argued that they are capable of preventing happiness&period; In <em>Changing Lanes<&sol;em>&comma; Gipson momentarily decides to give back the document&comma; only to find out that Banek has wiped out his credit&comma; which makes him change his mind&period; He decided to act prudently only to have the selfishness of another person prevent his own happiness&period; His choice to act virtuously backfired&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Stoic position arguably provides little explanation for the impact of other people’s decisions on one’s own happiness&period; However&comma; this argument can be refuted by looking at the Stoic position on the necessity of other people&comma; regardless of their ability to be rational&period; They argue that it is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;not only other rational creatures that are appropriate to us&comma; but also the perfection of our own rational natures&period;” Using the same example from <em>Changing Lanes<&sol;em>&comma; it is not Banek’s actions that prevent Gipson from being happy&comma; but Gipson’s reaction to Banek’s actions that prevented his own happiness&period; Rather than practicing rational selection and reasoning with Banek&comma; Gipson allows anger to overpower him&comma; allowing the chaos to continue&period; Had Gipson been able to reject the negative emotions and act rationally&comma; he could have helped both Banek and himself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Without the application of rational selection&comma; human beings are consumed by emotion and cannot function with any sense of reason in their lives&period; Not only would this scenario be chaotic&comma; but it would also not allow a person to live a truly virtuous&comma; happy life&period; <em>Changing Lanes <&sol;em>justifies the idea that emotion is a negative factor in achieving happiness because the characters are never truly happy until they choose to practice rational selection and virtuous qualities like wisdom &lpar;recognizing their mistakes&rpar; and justice &lpar;attempting to repay one another for past grievances&rpar;&period; It is the ultimate example of stoicism in film&period; The Stoic position on emotion is valid because it promotes rational behavior and has real-life applications that reinforce the importance of Nature and virtues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Baltzly&comma; Dirk&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Stoicism&&num;8221&semi;&comma;&nbsp&semi;<em>The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy &lpar;Winter 2010 Edition&rpar;<&sol;em>&comma; Edward N&period; Zalta&nbsp&semi;&lpar;ed&period;&rpar;&comma; &lt&semi;<a aria-label&equals;"undefined &lpar;opens in a new tab&rpar;" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;plato&period;stanford&period;edu&sol;archives&sol;win2010&sol;entries&sol;stoicism&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">http&colon;&sol;&sol;plato&period;stanford&period;edu&sol;archives&sol;win2010&sol;entries&sol;stoicism&sol;<&sol;a>&gt&semi;&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to read more film essays like this one&comma; check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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