The Gods Must Be Crazy

1828 Words8 Pages
Reaction Paper on: | The gods must be crazy | “The evil thing” | Beatriz Castro 10/29/2011 | “The Evil Thing” “Has materialism placed an ending to family values?” In my personal opinion I would agree to an extent that material things have pulled us away from family values. In the movie, “The gods must be crazy”, the author presents the cultural difference of a small tribe in Kalahari and the civilized world, such as America. At the beginning of the movie it shows how this tribe of so called Bushman, are isolated from everything and they learn of ways to survive in the desert. Among their tribe there is no jealousy, envy or anger. They tend to share everything and help each other; they have no boss or ruler. A bushman has not sense of ownership. It is highly interesting how they believe that the gods give them everything for a reason. Then the movie continues by explaining how civilized, such as you and I, live. Civilized man makes the environment adapt to them. Man created cities, roads, machines and a lot of other technology to make our world easier to live in. We, civilized man, have created a world of materialism; it is often reminded to us that the more money you have the more power you will obtain. We associate our happiness with how much we own. While both cultures have a good side, a non-materialistic culture like that of a Bushman, preserve the original family values. Xi a bushman of Kalahari finds an empty coke bottle, that was thrown out from a plane and it landed at his feet. Xi automatically believes it was a gift sent from the gods. He takes the bottle back to the tribe and they are all amazed with this rare item. Since they do not know what it is used for they immediately find various uses for it. It is clearly shown in the movie how an item they had no idea existed, such as the bottle, later became a necessity for everyone
Open Document