INSTRUCTOR'S NOTES
This is point to stop and evaluate the Crack-in-the-Earth:
Is this a Community?
What are the apparent Political Propensities of the Citizens?
What is the Social Contract ie the overall Collective Value System of this Community?
Which category of ideology would Crack-in-the-Earth fit into? Why?
What institutions or individuals perform the System Functions of Crack-in-the-Earth:
Articulation? Recruitment? Socialization?
What is the Gate? What defines the Gate? What institutions or individuals are part of the
Gate?
What institutions or individuals perform the Process Functions of Crack-in-the-Earth:
Aggregation? Policy-making? Adjudication?
What is the State? What defines the State? What institutions or individuals are part of
the State?
What institutions or individuals perform the Policy Functions of Crack-in-the-Earth:
Regulation? Extraction? Distribution?
What is the Bureaucracy? What defines the Bureaucracy? What institutions or individuals
are part of the Bureaucracy?
Is Crack-in-the-Earth a eufunctional system or a dysfunctional system according to Easton:
can it Adapt? Achieve? Maintain?
THE COLLECTIVE VALUE SYSTEM OF The Crack in the Earth
“In times past count I done the tell. But it weren't me who tumbled Walker, it was
Savannah; so it's only right she take the tell.” - First Tracker
1. IDEALIST
- ALTRUISM: benevolence and cooperation
the entire community pitches in to help bring the boat to shore
the Waiting Ones bring in Max and nurse him back to health
First Tracker says Savannah has the right to "do the tell" because she found
"Capt.
Walker"
the volunteers to go with Max to get the trekkers back (in fact, note the instance of
subtle peer pressure put on the lone hunter; no one orders him to go, they just
need a hunter so everyone looks at him and he goes because it's the right thing)
Savannah risks her life to save the others in the quicksand; Max risks his to save
her
2. MAJORITARIAN
-DEMOCRATIC AND PUBLIC DECISION-MAKING: with respect for the rights of the minority
does First Tracker appear to keep order through force or respect?
public meetings are called by ringing the gong to bring everyone to the discussion
there is raucous and inclusive argument/talking about questions and issues-
particularly the debate between Savannah and First Tracker about leaving
nobody forces Savannah's group to stay, they all leave voluntarily--as do the
individuals who volunteer to go with Max to get them back
3. UTILITARIAN
-PUBLIC WELFARE AND ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT
the Waiting ones tolerate and aid a physical cripple as well as an autistic individual
Radioman, although physically handicapped, holds a position of responsibility in
society: he holds and operates the "sonic"
(compare: the only two "dysfunctional" individuals in Bartertown are Master and
Blaster and they came together to form one superior warrior)
Sara's admonishment to Max and the others that there is an obligation to go save the
trekkers
the Waiting Ones all help each other up the stairs and onto the plane*
(compare: Bartertown where everyone pushes and shoves)
*This in particular is a terrific example of Rousseau's majoritarian, utilitarian,
idealist 'General Will' in action: no one has to tell anyone else what to do, everyone
just spontaneously does it in cooperative harmony.
4. PRAGMATIC
-GRADUAL AND PEACEFUL CHANGE
in the debate between Savannah and First Tracker concerning the merits of
trekking across the desert it never occurs to either of them to use force
Savannah: "this is not just one body's story but the story of us all, and you must
'member in order to pass the tell down to the birthed after."
gradual socialization: reeducation through recitation
5. PROGRESSIVE
- GOAL: UTOPIA
the Waiting Ones are waiting for Capt. Walker to return and take them home to
"Tomorrow-morrowland" and the "river of light"
with the ultimate goal of "gettin' the knowin' and the doin'"
but not primarily for material gain (they have all they could want) but
for the purposes of self-actualization, progress, to better themselves
NOTE: in the instant in which Max takes the rifle from First Tracker and shoots at
Savannah, then knocks her unconscious to keep her from going out into the desert, the
social contract has suddenly and radically changed for the Waiting Ones:
Max has become the LEVIATHAN--the divine ruler who walked out of the desert and returned
from the Great Leaving as promised in prophecy; the enforcer who "keeps Mr. Dead in
his pocket". His legitimacy is based in part on his perceived "divinity"
(he can fly, he came back from the desert, he "tests" them to see if they have
"marked and 'membered the tell", he magically fires the rifle) as well as his
apparent willingness to use deadly force and physical violence to establish order
Where once there was consensus and the 'General Will' in which every citizen was free to
pursue their own individual choices so long as that action did not interfere with the rest
of society, now Max, the LEVIATHAN, enforces what HE believes to be the public good
And remember, Max is doing this all "for their own good" ie Savannah and the
others are too stupid/naive/brainwashed to comprehend what is good and what is bad.
Who do the Waiting Ones give the responsibility to "save" Savannah and the
others: Max not First Tracker. Would First Tracker have gone if Max were not present?
but then again, Max is not violent in the pursuit of the "law of the jungle" but
benevolent, he does not kill either Savannah or First Tracker, his rivals, and even
carries the youngest volunteer on his back through the desert in spite of Max's threat
that everyone "holds his own"
This is a shift from a DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST society--almost pure communism--to an
AUTHORITARIAN SOCIALIST system along the lines set up by Marxism-Leninism and practiced by
Stalin and Mao. What similarities with those societies can be seen in this film?