The Girl with the Dragon-Sized Attitude

I recently watched the Millennium Series, that trilogy of films out of Sweden based on the novels by Stieg Larsson. I am always interested in why certain films or series are so popular with people, and these films gave me much food for thought.

You could quite accurately describe these films as being a case study in institutional fraud and corruption. The protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, is an adult who has been a ward of the state since she turned twelve. As she reaches adulthood she realizes that the system of institutions that exist in her world can do nothing for her, and in fact are anathema to her well-being. At this point, she takes matters into her own hands and navigates the system and the world with total self-responsibility. She is a force to be reckoned with, and she never looks to others for help, but instead looks inside for the strength she needs to live life on her own terms.

I would venture to guess that although we, as the audience, love to watch Lisbeth on the screen, very few of us could actually stand being in the same room with her for more than thirty seconds. Many of us are scared of our personal power, and meeting empowered people reminds us of this fear. In watching these and other films, we get the chance to side with the powerful without having to actually be powerful in our own lives.

If there has ever been a time when we needed to take the reins of our own lives into our own hands, it is now. More than ever we can see the systemic fraud that our geopolitical and economic world is based on, and we can either follow this system blindly over a cliff or help create a better world by refusing to go along with what we know in our hearts is not serving the greatest good.

The way forward for all of us, both individually and en masse, is to get in touch with our fundamental power and create the highest version of ourselves and humanity from this place.