Assholes: A Theory - Light sociological doc runs into problems defining its orifice
By Liam Lacey
Rating: B-minus
Assholes: A Theory, the lightly sociological, somewhat silly, John Walker documentary is nominally about a social phenomenon – rudeness, norm-breaking and bad behavior. Most of us can read between the frames and see it’s really about the ghastly phenomenon of Donald Trump, and those who support him.
Nominally, the film takes its title and approach from a 2012 best-seller by philosophy professor Aaron James, who asserts that an “asshole” is a moral class of person whose “entrenched entitlement” makes him immune to others’ complaints. Walker interviews James, who first thought of the concept when someone cut him off while surfing, and who laments the contemporary “explosion of assholery.”
Monty Python’s John Cleese is an expert witness on assholery in Assholes: A Theory
Though James went on to write An Asshole Theory of Donald Trump, the film prefers to keep the Orange-Headed one as a kind of present absence.
That said, Walker spreads himself wide, focusing on many locales where homo anus flourishes: Fraternities, social media, the RCMP (there’s an interview with former officer, Sherry Lee Benson-Podolchuk on virulent sexism in the force), Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Cornell law professor, Robert Hockett, argues that without Wall Street assholes causing the 1929 stock market crash, Nazism would not have happened.
The subject of political assholery is dealt with in a long section on Italian leader, Silvio Berlusconi, who stands in for a long section about what happens when political leaders are assholes. This raises an obvious linguistic problem: What is asshole in Italian? Stronzo, perhaps, but that literally means “turd” which, let’s face it, is close, but no cigar.
Throughout this, Walker does a good deal of witness leading, managing to get his subjects to, say, refer to the titular orifice as often as possible. “It’s a great word to say: ‘What an asshole!” English and digital media professor, Aimee Morrison assures us. “Asshole – you can really lean into it, right?”
Monty Python alumnus John Cleese gets a good deal of screen-time, which is fine because he’s funny (“My mother was a kind of an asshole”). But historically, I believe his actual specialty is “twits.”
Getting closer to linguistic definition, we also hear from Geoffrey Nunberg, author of Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years. Nunberg’s book traces the popularity of the vulgarity, first widely used by GIs in the Second World War, and popularized by Norman Mailer’s novel, The Naked and the Dead. He has defined an asshole as someone who is “culpably obtuse,” which is somewhat different from James’ definition, which implies something more assertive.
In fact, the takeaway from Walker’s film may be that the word seems virtually synonymous with “people who are obnoxious.” A woman in a street interview declares: “I had an asshole fiancé. He didn’t appreciate me.” Otherwise, we hear from people like a former Twitter engineer about the culpable obtuseness of the bro culture of social media creators.
Law professor Robert Hockins, who has a special interest in financial sector assholes, ups the game dramatically by asserting that Nazism couldn’t have arisen without the carelessness of the people who brought about the Wall Street crash. We also have, as examples, the clinically bipolar rapper Kanye West, and the late drug-using Toronto mayor Rob Ford.
In an effort to stem the asshole tide, we have the investment company, Baird Capital, one of a number of companies that has a developed a “no asshole” policy. That sounds good in theory, but is also a potential discouragement to innovation, healthy opposition and any kind of radical individuality.
Ultimately, the “asshole” label is too elastic to be of much use, as well as being an uncivil expression in itself. In my experience, people who use the word “asshole” are often projecting -- and if there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s a projecting asshole.
In conclusion, I prefer the decorum and wit of the late Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who, in response to learning that Richard Nixon had called him as “that asshole Trudeau” responded: “I had been called worse things by better people.”
Assholes: A Theory. Directed by John Walker. Assholes: A Theory shows at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema, Friday through Dec. 3.