Bio
Army Brat, grew up in Europe, moved to the KC area after my dad retired. Thought I wanted to be a lawyer and politician, but a pair of internships and special programs broke me of that desire -instead I wanted to be a professor. I succeeded, making me apparently brilliant and a masochist. I teach government at Eastern Kentucky State University, where I specialize (ie: research and teach as time allows) in local government organization. My core course is Public Policy and Program Evaluation.
I also play the tuba in my church's orchestra, review movies and videogames for friends and family on facebook, run the occasional pen-and-paper RPG, and write novels for my own enjoyment.
My name is Matthew Howell. I also respond to Matt in the Hatt, ironicly said "Doc"s, and Tobo (long story -it means "mole"). My pen name is to match with the rest of my presence on the Internet and descends from my enjoyment of the musical piece, my childhood wooden swords which I carved with my own pocket knife, and my college fencing hobby.
I lurked until I got my professors appointment. Now, I have skin in the game.
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Re: What does this movie say about modern marriage?
I have no insight on the movie. To the general point:
While it seems intuitive that such honest relationships should be better than relationships defined by roles, an honest relationship must go deeper than any form of "I gotta be me." An honest assessment of "me" has to recognize that I am not a good person. Every human is venal, avaricious, crude, and deceptive. Even if we aspire to an idealized form of ourselves, we must be wary of the ever-increasing likelihood that we shape the idealized form to justify our flaws, rather than to overcome our flaws.
Unless we are willing to descend into complete barbarism, we will always be hiding behind a role, even if that role is just "what I would look like if I were Ethan Hawke."
The important question, then, is which role we will fill. Hence the need for good role models -or what Aristotle called "the virtuous man," who can, by example, instruction, and habituation guide the rest of us in living a good life until we become the role -rather than the barbarism of letting the role become us.