". . . ideology is the enemy of problem-solving"

From an interesting interview with Steven Soderbergh:

One thing I do know from making art is that ideology is the enemy of problem-solving. Nobody sits on a film set and says, “No, you can’t use green-screen VFX to solve that because I’m Catholic.” There’s no place for that, and that’s why I’ve stopped being embarrassed about being in the entertainment industry, because I’m surrounded by intelligent people who solve problems quickly and efficiently, primarily because issues of ideology don’t enter into the conversation.

Given the chance I'd ask Mr. Soderbergh this: So why are so many of your entertainment industry colleagues such jerks about natioinal politics?

Comments

[Jim H.]

Or put another way: "Mr. Soderbergh, then why are so many of your entertainment industry colleagues so ideological about national politics?" and maybe add, "yes, you should still be embarrassed about being in the entertainment industry"

[Eric Falkenstein]

I think he'd be surprised to find out that when people are solving practical problems that's generally the case.

Just as he thinks his colleagues do what's best, so do bankers, bakers, and teachers. Liberals, however, are certain that these areas need more rules from those who see the 'bigger picture' (except filmmaking, I guess).

[david foster]

Maybe because there is no feedback in politics, or at least the feedback loops are so long and noisy that cause and effect are hard to relate.

Do bad camerawork and it will be obvious to you when you review the video. Pick at bad screenplay and it may take longer to get the feedback: until the film comes out and the box office is a disaster.

But advocate bad national economic policies and things are very different. It may take years for the policies to create their malign effect...and even then, the will be other policies and other factors in play, and it will be easy to argue that it wasn't your particular bad policy idea that was the problem.

[Ted Craig]

Notice his choice of ideologies - Catholics. He doesn't balance that. This is a man who made a two-part epic film about Che Guevara. I'm guessing that to him, any beliefs on the left are "common sense," while the right is "ideology."

[jorod]

They are not intelligent, they are amoral.