Deepak Chopra: The Lesson of ”Syriana”

There isn’t a cheerful moment in the current movie “Syriana” and barely a smile. The smiles are generated by the prospect of oil money. To an American energy analyst played by Matt Damon, oil money is like “having an ATM in our front yard,” and no one else in the film rises to a significantly higher moral standard. Not the corrupt oil sheiks (except for one idealistic prince, who is later assassinated). Not the multinational oil companies or their lawyers, whose reaction to any motive other than greed is complete disdain backed up by untold wealth.

It would be difficult, if we take this film as being realistic, not to despair over our current situation. “Syriana” is about the insidious corruption that oil money engenders in everyone, whether Arab or American, who comes close to it. George Clooney, who plays a
CIA operative–meaning a killer when necessary–is the most conscientious character we meet, except for two enraged Arab brothers, whose arc is to begin as workers in an oil field and end up as suicide bombers. The twin themes of money and death make for a grim two hours.
I’ve gone into detail because clearly “Syriana” is a serious, intelligent film. But it’s also a hopeless one, and in that regard it has nothing to teach on the surface. If money corrupts absolutely, then we are all doomed since every life, good and bad, is involved in money one way or another. Wall Street has been motivated by greed since its founding, however, without turning into Murder, Inc., and that gives pause. Is there something positive here beyond the shibboleth that wealth is always immoral?

The lesson I took away from “Syriana” is that the oil market is another tentacle of all-embracing globalism. To demonize that fact is easy, but globalism confronts us with enormous openings. We are all enmeshed in the same tangled reality, and although this film uses scare tactics to awaken us to that truth, “Syriana” feels exactly right.

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