Joy division

Alain de Botton, (pop) philosopher, writes about the cinema, happiness and other matters.

But the tragedian and film-maker can draw us close to an almost unbearable truth: that every folly or blindness of which a human being has been guilty in the course of history can be traced back to aspects of our own nature; that we bear within ourselves the whole of the human condition, in its worst and best aspects, so that we too might be capable of anything under the right, or rather the very wrong, circumstances. Once audiences have been brought close to this fact, they may willingly dismount from their high horses and feel their powers of sympathy and humility enhanced. They may accept how easily the happiness they are currently enjoying in their own lives could be shattered if certain of their more regrettable character traits were one day to come into contact with a situation that allowed these flaws an unlimited and catastrophic reign - leaving them no less shamed and wretched than the unfortunate characters we meet in Greek tragedy or elsewhere.

Worth a read.