How Conan the Barbarian Saved My Week

I am a born optimist. 

Like many, I’ve had my runs of bad luck, but they’ve never shaken my faith in the virtues of progress. I know the wicked finally have to pay their due, and that truth eventually comes to light.

Yet, lately, I’ve wondered what’s happening to the world around me.

These past few months have felt like a roller coaster. I’ve experienced a broad spectrum of feelings and emotions, ranging from utter confidence, hope, and enthusiasm to deep doubt.

It culminated last week with all the noise around the outcome of the U.S. election.

I could elaborate on how this election saw the rise of new influence platforms and people like select podcasts or X-Musk. I could take comfort in the fact that there was no apparent denial of democracy.

But let me reassure you: I won’t add to the thousands of analyses that try to explain why Trump won and Kamala lost. 

I’ll stick to the facts: a majority of U.S. citizens have voted to elect a low-morality candidate who’s been brutally transparent about his priorities. Now, he and his allies have a clear mandate to go and execute their program.

In the aftermath of this U.S. election, I needed to step back from all the agitation and refresh my perspective.

So, I did what typically works best for me in similar situations. I watched one of these movies that left a mark on me when I was still in my teenage years.

This time, I chose “Conan The Barbarian,” the 1982 movie that launched Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood career. If you’re not familiar with it, this is the relatively straightforward story of a mighty warrior who seeks to avenge the genocide of his people and the murder of his parents at the hands of a snake cult.

I last watched it forty years ago! The movie hasn’t aged fantastically well, but it mesmerized me on many levels:

All Things Must Pass

The first lesson from Conan The Barbarian is that civilizations, empires, cults, and companies come and go, just like us mere humans.

Along these lines, no matter who’s at the helm, the U.S. is not the undisputed global hegemon it used to be. With China’s economic rise, Russia’s regional assertiveness, and Iran’s defiance, there’s now a shift towards a new multipolar world order. So long for the “Pax Americana”.

It’s not necessarily bad and offers the opportunity for a more balanced global system. But I’ll be more comfortable when Europe realizes it should join that global leadership dance and drastically reduces its dependencies vs other big powers.

Resilience and Adaptability Rule

Conan stood by his mother when she was decapitated. He lost his family, faced enslavement, and had all reasons to feel desperate and lack confidence in his future. Yet, Conan developed resilience and perseverance to keep moving forward.  He had to adapt to new environments to survive, and eventually, he got his revenge and prevailed.

Similarly, the constant stream of negative information from the media – social or not – keeps feeding our anxieties about the future. Such worries are not unfounded, but they are disproportionate to reality. 

Many setbacks are getting in the way, or we’re more aware of them than in the past. But think one moment about what our parents and ancestors had to endure: their resilience and adaptability have allowed them to overcome countless obstacles throughout history. We’re no exception; it’s in our DNA, so let’s use it to our advantage.

Critical Thinking Matters

One of the movie’s defining moments is when Conan finds the leader of the cult, Thulsa Doom, back. The wizard uses all his persuasion power to force Conan into submission, but Conan resists and decapitates the imposter.

Now, look at how technological advancements have transformed our lives. On the one hand, the digital revolution and AI are connecting the world, helping science progress, and making our lives safer in unprecedented ways. However, technology is also at the heart of misinformation and new forms of propaganda.

So, like Conan, who, through his trials, became a skilled warrior and leader, we must repeatedly train ourselves how not to fall for fake news. We should teach critical thinking early at school through collaborative learning, questioning techniques, and problem-based learning.