Learning from the LEGO Movie.
“Everything is awesome Everything is cool when you’re part of a team. Everything is awesome, when we’re living our dream.”**
I woke to discover the Lego Movie theme song had hijacked the normally blank spaces of my morning mind. Horrors. As pernicious as “It’s a Small World,” I cannot silence it, no matter how fiercely I reject the premise. Everything is decidedly NOT awesome right now. The jarring discord between that cheery refrain and the stark reality of this post-democratic dystopia pains me like cat claws on a chalkboard.
If you’re blissfully free of this not-so-awesome earworm, I urge you not to Google it. I do take comfort in knowing that creator Andy Samberg actually apologized for its creation:
“Yes, I do apologize for that. Especially to everyone out there with kids. That’s a hard row to hoe. But we didn’t write the hook, you know? We inherited it, and we just added some dumb raps.”***
I haven’t seen the LEGO Movie in exactly eleven eons–doesn’t 2014 sound that long ago now? So why, in these times of exalting the worst and jailing the rest of us, why is this saccharin song now my unwelcome earworm?
What do I even remember of that movie, anyway? The “Everything is Awesome” song was blasted on loudspeakers, as with workers toiled under the iron fist of an authoritarian President, Lord Business. But, news flash, shrieking “awesome” to the rafters doesn’t make it so, any more than, say, a certain king President assuring us that grocery prices have gone down when the price of eggs has doubled.
It’s 1984-style propaganda, akin to “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.” If you say it enough times, it must be true, which is basically the foundation of the current regime in the U.S.
Being a person who sees “signs” in fence posts, I drop everything to watch the movie. Let’s decode this earworm, maybe there’s more to it. And maybe it will finally leave me. Here’s what I glean.
Our hero, Emmet Brickowski, a smiling LEGO mini fig, is an agreeable fella who strictly adheres to the rules of his conformity-is-everything world aka Bricksburg. “Follow the rules or be put to sleep!” his TV warns.
Emmet’s hero’s journey begins when he veers from the daily playbook and discovers an odd-shaped brick, which turns out to be the Piece of Resistance, the artifact of an ancient prophecy. This gets him in a whole lotta trouble, inspiring 60 minutes of escapades perfectly suited for video game franchise marketing.
Fear not, because together with rebel WyldStyle and the creatives aka the Master Builders, (spoiler alert) Emmett help saves the LEGO-verse from President’s evil plan to freeze everything with superglue and end the world.
Well. A few things jumped out at me, did they for you? Let’s make a list.
- Authoritarian “Lord Business” bears a striking resemblance to a certain President who boasts of a business acumen that doesn’t match up to reality.
- Wielding a Piece of Resistance can get you in a lot of trouble, especially when it means defying a tyrannical ruler who insists that everything remain exactly as he dictates.
- Lord Business’ evil plan to freeze everything reminds me of frozen funds for cancer research and services for vets.
- Creativity and collaboration save the day. SO I PRAY.
The LEGO movie suddenly seems more of a blueprint for navigating the United States in the year 2025 than just another “kids’ movie.” Not that our kids couldn’t do a better job than some of our currently-elected officials. I am guessing that any person under the age of ten could tell the difference between a violent attack on the US Capitol and a sightseeing tour group.
Okay, I’m starting to get why this earworm might have been planted.
See, after I wrote Love Earth Now, people mistakenly confused me for a person with ANSWERS, like “what can I do about climate change”? Even reading that book for five minutes should have been a clear indication that I don’t. I’m still trying to figure out how to watch local channels on TV, now that it requires more than adjusting the rabbit ears.
And I get it. Figuring out what to do about something as unwieldy as the climate crisis feels as impossible as building the LEGO Eiffel Tower after the dog chewed up the instructions. For me, anyway.
Then I realized . . .there are a lot of people already doing something, they have a game plan and resources on the ground, so why start from scratch? That’s why in the new book, Madness on the Brink of Eco-Apocalypse, I showcased groups who already have a PLAN and TOOLS for making their corner of the world a better place. In other words, people who do a lot more than crying on their closet floors, unlike a certain author I know.
Let’s call them the Master Builders. I’ll let you decide who is Lord Business with an evil plan to freeze things like federal grant money and progressive notions of justice, free speech and the study of science.
I’m now interviewing reps from the Master Builders for a YouTube series called, “Saving OurSelves: Communities vs Eco-Apocalypse.” With every conversation, I’m reconnecting with something I thought I’d lost, as of November 5, 2024: HOPE. No matter the executive order du jour, I know these folks continue to show up for people, planet and critters, no matter what clown occupies the White House. These are my expert brickmasters, er, eco-heros.
Everything may not be, definitely is not, awesome right now. I am running on fumes because the cats have gutted a baby mouse in the week hours every night every this week, announcing each with a caterwauling worthy of an intact alley cat. Oh, and we may never vote in free and fair elections again, but hey, I know some awesome people doing awesome things and that is awesome.
Just know that if you hear me crooning, “EVERYTHING IS AWESOME,” it just might be snarky code for “meet me at the protest. And bring snacks. Always bring snacks.”
**Tegan and Sara. Everything Is Awesome. The LEGO Movie soundtrack, Warner Bros., 2014.
***Bentz, Adam. “Andy Samberg Apologizes for LEGO Movie Song Everything Is Awesome.”Screen Rant, 16 Apr. 2021
