Spoiler Alert: This blog post may contain clues to key plot points in the 2014 film Interstellar.
One of the cornerstones of progressive political thought is that experts should be put in charge of public policy, using “scientific” management and “evidence-based” policy analysis to determine and implement social policy. Few areas of policy have been more steeped in this perspective than science policy. But this idea may have taken a pop culture hit in Christopher Nolan’s new film Interstellar although it might be difficult to see at first.
At first blush, Interstellar seems like a conventional trope—the Earth is fast forwarding into environmental apocalypse, and it’s up to a few brave scientists and a NASA test pilot to find a new world for humans to colonize. The epic space opera includes a ton of great special effects, a tight script, and excellent acting by Matthew McConaughey (as former NASA test pilot Joseph Cooper), Anne Hathaway (as NASA scientist Amelia Brand), Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine (Dr. John Brand), John Lithgow, Matt Damon (Dr. Mann) among others.
But the story embedded in Interstellar may be more important for what it leaves out than what it includes. Rather than take the politically correct approach that puts humans at the center of the climate catastrophe (although overpopulation is given a nod, possibly for popular plausibility), the movie explores hope, perseverance, and human creativity. It’s in the area of human creativity where the Nolan’s screenplay establishes a clear but subtle critique of experts as the arbiters of the humanity’s future and an implicit argument for liberty as essential to innovation...
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