The Parable of the Director and the Soldiers Who Didn’t Die

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, is the Day of Infamy losing its fame?”

Josh spoke thus:

A movie director was recreating a battle scene.

“They’re not dying!” the movie director said to the assistant director.

“They’re not supposed to be dying,” the assistant director said.

“It’s a battle scene,” the movie director said, “People die in battle scenes.  I want them to die.”

“They die later,” the assistant director said, “This is the establish shot.”

“If we’re establishing anything, it’s that people are dying,” the movie director said, “I want people dying.”

“The two sides haven’t clashed yet,” the assistant director said.

“How many days have we been shooting?” the movie director asked.

“We’ve been shooting for three days,” the assistant director.

“And you’re telling me that in three days nobody’s died?” the movie director asked.

“Plenty of people will die in the next three days,” the assistant director said, “According to my spreadsheet, a few hundred will die.”

“The battle lasted six hours,” the movie director said, “And a couple of thousand people died. In three days, we’ve killed nobody, and in the next three days we’ll kill a few hundred.  Explain to me how that works.”

“Editing,” the assistant director said.

“So I kill a couple hundred people and the editors get to kill the other two thousand?” the movie director said, “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Editors are to movie battles what drones are to real battles,” the assistant director said, “Nobody uses real soldiers to kill soldiers anymore.”

“Lucky drones,” the movie director said.

“And lucky soldiers,” the assistant director said.

“And lucky GGI engineers,” the movie director said, “They get to kill and kill and kill.”

“And nobody dies,” the assistant director said, “Now that’s the way to fight a war.”

“That’s no way to fight a war,” the movie director said, “I want to kill somebody.  Come on, can’t I kill just one somebody?”

“Tomorrow,” the assistant director said.

“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,” the director said.