Deep Community: Phenomenology's Disclosure of the Common Good

Abstract

There is something intriguing about the opening scene of tJle Walt Disney movie Lion King. It is not just tJlat the animals are all speaking and singingtJlOugh the fact that nearly every Disney movie and so many other shared stories and fables include animals who have the ability to communicate their thoughts with us must tell us something about the human psyche in general. It is, rather, what the animals are singing. Mufasa, tJle current lion king, has a new son named Simba, and all oftJle animals of the jungle and the plains are gathering so tJlat Simba can be introduced to them in a customarily regal way. The animals sing about the of life, and they fall to their knees when the new lion cub-the cub who will be king-is finally presented to them, held aloft on a rock precipice overlooking tJle kingdom. Now, Lion King has been accused of a lawyer's-list of political correctness violations. It is, supposedly, sexist because it focuses on the ofmale power-players; it is racist because the voices of the nasty characters are done by minorities; it is homophobic because the evil lion is drawn and voiced effeminately; and it is classist because it is, once again, a story of the comings and goings of royalty, in the upper bourgeoisie-as if nothing of interest could happen to a lowly member of the proletariat or to someone lower on the food chain; as if no one would care to see a movie entitled Lion Peasant or Slug King. Wheilier or not we agree wiili such criticisms, once voiced they inevitably affect our experience of the movie in retrospect. The point I wish to bring up, iliough, is not so much a criticism as it is a bit of confusion. I was confused during Lion King because I could not understand why all of tJlese animals were so happy iliat another lion had been born. After all, it won't be long until Simba is hunting, killing, and eating most of these creatures who are attending his presentation party wiili such joy. Some explanation is given a few minutes into the film when Mufasa is showing Simba around the jungle and explaining this of life of which everyone was singing earlier. He tells Simba that even tJlough tl1e lions eat the antelope, for instance, one day tl1e lions will die and their bodies will decay, which will fertilize the grass so that tl1e next generation of antelope will have sometl1ing to eat. Everybody helps everybody else in tl1e circle of life-it is a balanced community of cooperative eating and being eaten.