On Saturday I saw a very old movie that I haven’t seen before. The Gruaduate. You probably know it but in short: It’s the story of a young man who graduates from school and doesn’t yet know what to do with his life. At the same time his former teacher seduces him and he starts an affair with her.

I was expecting to watch a few minutes and then turn it off but it hooked me after about 10 minutes. It’s just very good and enjoyable.

It’s set in the late 60s, 1967 I think. And it’s the time where people start to think about new ways to live. To make a cut with the life of their parents and to try something new. It’s really nice to see the break performed in the end of the movie. And now, over 50 years later, we can of course look back to what happened later.

What’s interesting for me is that I believe many things have ever since improved a lot. But of course many people don’t feel that way. Those are the conservative voters and those are the fans of people like Jordan Peterson, a Youtube celebrity, teaching young men about conservative values. And it’s interesting to see how much people like Peterson are opposed. (Apparently Marvel Comics even created a villain based on him.)

It looks like the conflict from “The Graduate” is not over yet, after all. It goes on. But I can’t tell if these days it’s still the 20 year olds opposing the parents or not. It seems that many Jordan Peterson fans are older.

Or it might be just my bias, since I tend to see the people who are my age clearer.

I can’t really hear the younger folks, perhaps? - To clarify: This seems to be the major theme in the movie. People of different world views can’t communicate very well in this film. They often say “What?”. Actually there’s a lot of “What?” in The Graduate. This was the director’s way to show the divide of world views. The inability of people to comprehend what the other side is saying. (It climaxes very nicely on that theme but I don’t want to tell about the ending if you haven’t seen the movie yet.)

It’s like the 2020s, in many ways. Or like any year ever in human history. We have our world views, our filters, and unless we can at least learn to accept that other people have a completely different world view, the road ahead may get bumpier. But luckily, I think, we can and do learn to accept it.