China Syndrome

Review 

 The China Syndrome cleverly uses the thriller genre to explore questions about government accountability, the role of media, and the ethics of whistleblowing. Subverting the typical thriller, the film provides a blistering critique of the relationship between regulatory bodies and agencies and the potential for corruption and cover-up, with the public being none the wiser. 

Behind the veneer of bellbottoms and disco, the 70s marked a period of transformative social upheaval. Defined by the discourse of the hysteric, the decade remains a tribute to the outright distrust of government and institutions. Social, technological, and political changes rocked the foundation of a romanticized America founded on Apple Pie and ‘liberty and justice for all.’ 

The struggle for civil rights continued into the 1970s. African Americans, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized groups fought for equality and justice. Key legislation, such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, was already in place, but the push for genuine social and economic equality persisted.

The Vietnam War was a significant catalyst for a new wave of activism. Widespread opposition to the war led to massive protests, particularly among the youth and student populations. The war’s unpopularity, combined with the draft and media coverage of its brutality, fueled dissent and grassroots organizing.

The Watergate scandal, which led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, eroded public trust in government. The revelations of corruption and abuse of power deepened cynicism and led to calls for greater transparency and accountability in government.

China Syndrome cleverly capitalized on the national mood by playing out collective fears on screen and grounding itself in a broader social context. With some context fleshed out, I want to focus on the protest scenes littered throughout the film. Considering the film was released in the post-Watergate era, the protest scenes reflected the growing public anxiety about nuclear energy and, more broadly, fears about government accountability. 

The scenes highlight the power of grassroots activism in effecting change. In a compelling scene, mothers held up pictures of their children to remind influential players of who is inheriting these systems, emphasizing the moral imperative to ensure public safety over corporate profit. Additionally, the protest scenes parallel the character arcs of the main characters. As Kimberly covers the protests, they deepen her understanding of the stakes involved and catalyze her to pursue the story more aggressively. Likewise, Jack realizes that the public’s anxiety reveals an undeniable truth about the plant’s safety shortfalls. 

Reaction 

The movie has left me with a pang of anxiety and frustration. Given that I spend a lot of time thinking about the ‘public good,’ watching the prioritization of financial gains over the safety and well-being of the community highlights a gross disregard for ethical responsibility. While the socially irresponsible behavior displayed on the screen is disturbing, it has me reflecting on public administrators’ role in bridging the gap between corporate operations and public safety. 

In particular, the film made me reflect on the protections in place for whistleblowers. Whistleblowers play a crucial role in maintaining the integrity and accountability of organizations, especially within organizations that rely heavily on technological innovation as their driving force. By bringing wrongdoing to light, whistleblowers ensure that organizations and their leaders are held accountable for their actions, promoting ethical behavior and preserving the public good. However, it is paramount that whistleblowers can report wrongdoing without fear. The film painted a grim picture of the apparent obstacles for whistleblowers in many organizations that rely on threats of intimidation and violence. While The Chinese Syndrome took creative license, it gave viewers a sense of the steep barriers for whistleblowers to overcome in the name of transparency. 

Interpretation 

By examining "The China Syndrome" through the lens of socio-technical theory, one can better understand the overlapping nature of human and technical systems. The film underscores the significance of balancing these elements to ensure safety, reliability, and ethical integrity in the face of unchecked innovation. 

The China Syndrome centers around a near-meltdown at the fictional Ventana nuclear power plant. The film underscores how technical systems and human interactions are deeply intertwined. While social and technical factors have laid out the blueprint for innovation, their integration can come at a cost. 

The nuclear power plant is depicted as a highly complex technical system with inherent risks. The film demonstrates how the plant’s sophisticated machinery and control systems require management and precise operation to prevent catastrophic failures. This complexity necessitates robust technical protocols and highly skilled operators.

The incident at the Ventana plant was initially triggered by a minor technical malfunction that escalated due to human error and inadequate response. Jack Godell, the plant's shift supervisor, discovers that critical safety checks and maintenance must be addressed. The film highlights how even minor lapses in technical and human procedures can lead to significant dangers in complex systems. “Environmental factors will influence the way the system behaves, and therefore, to resolve complex issues, the dynamics between psychological, economic, technical, cultural, and political aspects need to be understood” (Abbas & Michael, 2023). Given how technical these systems are, it is difficult to account for all of the external factors that can have unforeseen consequences. 

The socio-technical perspective emphasizes the role of organizational culture in shaping how technical systems are managed and how information flows within an organization. In particular, organizaitons must support and encourage knowledge sharing practices. “Specifically, creating an organizational climate characterized by top management support, open communication, stimulus to develop new ideas, and respond rapidly to new opportunities is likely to encourage both management and employees to socialize and interact frequently with each other thus driving knowledge sharing intentions” (Lin & Lee, 2005). 

In The China Syndrome, the plant’s organizational culture is characterized by secrecy, profit-driven motives, and a disregard for safety, which directly impact the technical operations. The plant’s executives are shown prioritizing financial concerns over safety. This culture of profit over safety leads to the suppression of critical information and the intimidation of employees who raise concerns. Socio-technical theory suggests that such a toxic organizational culture can exacerbate technical vulnerabilities and increase the likelihood of catastrophic failures.

Jack Godell’s decision to become a whistleblower reflects the socio-technical principle that human agency and ethical considerations are crucial in managing technical systems. “We can locate the distribution of morally significant agency in a given socio-technical arrangement in such a way as to affect appropriate change” (Introna, 2007). His moral courage in exposing the plant’s safety violations underscores the importance of fostering an organizational culture that values transparency and accountability.

References 

Abbas, R. & Michael, K. (2023) Socio-Technical Theory: A review. In S. Papagiannidis (Ed), TheoryHub Book. Available at https://open.ncl.ac.uk / ISBN:9781739604400

Introna, L. D. (2007, May). Towards a post-human intra-actional account of socio-technical agency (and morality). In Proceedings of the Moral agency and technical artefacts scientific workshop (NIAS, Hague, 10-12 May 2007, 2007),[insert City of Publication],[insert 2007 of Publication].

Lin, H. F., & Lee, G. G. (2006). Effects of socio‐technical factors on organizational intention to encourage knowledge sharing. Management decision, 44(1), 74-88.

The Lorax - A very Serious Film Review

 Intro 

Under the guise of a singing fish and trees that resemble cotton balls, the Lorax is an environmental story. Or rather, it is a cautionary tale about overconsumption and industry. A classic in Suesse’s canon, the Lorax explores the damages that can ensue when the environment is used to turn a profit. Additionally, Suess gives readers a mirror to reflect on their wasteful practices and the fallout that can happen downstream. While the Lorax feels as relevant as ever, it also ties nicely in systems theory and can be used to explore its limits. This review examines how the Lorax can be used to explore aspects of systems theory and what lessons can be learned. 

Review

The Lorax remains a classic for many reasons. With wildfires already underway in Canada, mass bleaching events devastating coral populations, and inescapable heat, it feels like we live in our own personal Thneedville. The Lorax may have been a siren call for unchecked consumption, but 53 years later, the consequences of our collective inaction are stark. While Suess outlines an allegory about industry, the film is littered with moments that make his message clear. I want to highlight the film's imagery to underscore the devastation of environmental destruction. The film cleverly creates a dichotomy between the landscape across time as human greed takes root. The barren landscape is awash in a dark color palette, while a sea of dead trees is the only reminder that it once was a harbor for life. The destroyed forest dominates the screen after the Once-ler's devastating run. 

In contrast, the imagined world of the Lorax is vivid, bright, and teeming with life. Truffula trees more closely resemble tufts of cotton candy, and the animals are plentiful. The forest stands alone outside human interference, representing the ideal state of nature untouched by exploitation and industrialization. The imagery used to contrast landscapes serves as a powerful visual reminder of what is at stake in the fight against environmental degradation and the importance of protecting and restoring natural ecosystems for the well-being of all living things.

Reaction

The Lorax is a powerful film that is a great tool to teach children about environmental stewardship, collaboration, and empathy. For me, the film brought up feelings of sadness as its teachings feel it has fallen on deaf ears. Growing up in the Bozeman area, the calls for conservation and intentional stewardship of the natural world have always been top of mind. Given Yellowstone is practically in our backyard, it is not lost on locals the importance of stewarding natural spaces for generations to come. However, it is increasingly hard to ignore the surefire signs of a changing climate that threaten to upend entire ecosystems. Threats from wildfires, droughts, and the rapid loss of habitat for wildlife have become as consistent as the calls for rain. 

Given the book was written in 1971, it is hard to square that calls for climate action have not protected our landscapes from all of the impacts of climate change. While the needle is shifting, the American obsession with consumption remains steadfast. Even as the climate emergency gains new heights, this film portrays what is at stake if we continue on a path of destruction.

Interpretation 

The Lorax is rife with parallels to systems theory that makes for an interesting lens to unpack its moving parts. Open systems rely on feedback to maintain equilibrium and adapt to changes; feedback is crucial for identifying problems early and taking corrective actions. “Negative feedback is deviation-reducing feedback, which can be found in a thermostat. A decrease in temperature below a certain threshold kicks in the heating, so that a relatively stable temperature is maintained. Positive feedback occurs in so-called ‘self-exciting’ or ‘runaway’ systems when, for example, one person’s rude behavior leads another person to respond even more rudely and the whole thing escalates until the arrival of the police acts as a negative feedback” (Montuori, 2011).  

The Lorax explores the dangers of climate catastrophes that ride on the back of positive feedback systems, illustrating how specific actions can create self-reinforcing cycles that lead to significant environmental and social consequences. A line of dialogue that highlights this exact cycle stuck out like a sore thumb. “The more smog in the sky the more peole will buy”. O’Hare explains that as air pollution worsens, more people are willing to pay for bottled air. As demand increases, production follows, causing more pollution and pushing demand. O’Hare primarily focuses on maximizing short-term profits without considering the long-term environmental impact.

Additionally, the initial action of cutting trees became a positive feedback cycle that ran away with itself quickly. The Once-ler cut down Truffula Trees to produce Thneeds, which increased Demand for Thneeds: As Thneeds became popular, demand increased. The Once-ler responded by expanding his operations and cutting down more Truffula Trees to meet the growing demand. To keep up with production, the Once-ler built more factories and hired more workers. This expansion led to an even faster rate of deforestation. The more trees the Once-ler cut down, the more the forest experienced severe fallout. This degradation, however, did not initially slow down production; instead, it led to an ever-increasing rate of resource extraction until all of the trees were cut. 

Climate feedback loops are all around us; look no further than the water vapor feedback loop, “As heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide are added to the atmosphere, earth’s surface and atmosphere warm up. Warmer air holds more water vapor. But water vapor also traps heat, so the extra water vapor in the air amplifies the initial warming” (Lashoff, 2018). Feedback loops have become a dangerous measuring stick for the impacts of climate change. 

Concerningly,  people often don't fully grasp the concept of nonlinearity or how feedback loops change over time. This lack of understanding is problematic, as it can lead to inadvertently crossing tipping points, even when they are aware of the thresholds. For instance, in simulated fisheries, participants often expand their fleets beyond sustainable levels, pushing the system past its tipping point. This reduces fish stocks, further lowering recruitment and eventually causing the fishery to collapse. This overshooting of the tipping point occurs in experiments, even when the Tragedy of the Commons issue is resolved by assigning perfect property rights (Sterman, 2011). 

Given that many people fail to grasp the gravity of the dangers of feedback loops, the  ‘Lorax’ points out why they are worth paying attention to. Given the Once-Ler and the townspeople alike were heavily focused on the short-term gains and economic benefits of buying and selling thneeds, the long-term consequences of their lack of foresight were overshadowed. In addition, the environment is a complex system with many interacting and nested parts. The complexity can make it challenging for individuals to foresee how their actions might lead to significant and irreversible changes. All of this made the townspeople ignore their cumulative impact on the forest until the entire system had reached a tipping point. 

AI-generated graph exploring positive feedback systems and resulting degradation 

Conclusion

The Lorax is a testament to the imperative of environmental stewardship in the face of unchecked consumerism. Its messaging is as timely and poignant as ever. Using system theory as a lens of analysis has given more profound insight into the complex interactions between human activity and the natural world. System theory is a valuable tool that highlights the dynamic feedback loops that help drive the narrative of the ‘Lorax.’ Viewing the film through this lens reminds us of our collective responsibility to act as better caretakers of the environment and to strive for a balance that supports both human prosperity and ecological integrity.

References

                            Lashof, D. (2018). Why Positive Climate Feedbacks Are So Bad. Www.wri.org. https://www.wri.org/insights/why-positive-climate-feedbacks-are-so-bad

Montuori, A. (2011). Systems approach. Encyclopedia of creativity, 2, 414-21.

                            Sterman, J. D. (2011). Communicating climate change risks in a skeptical world. Climatic Change, 108, 811-826.