By Jacqueline Loughney, Velocity Contributor
What do you think life would be like if your imagination had to follow concrete, step-by-step instructions? The Lego Movie explores this idea through a normal guy, Emmet Brickowski, who followed a strict manual to carry out everyday actions.
Emmet and his neighbors were told that life has one road, and it was already chosen for them. From brushing his teeth to developing his personality, he closely followed the instructions President Business provided for him and his other townsfolk.
The movie might be a work of creative fiction, but it’s still important to ask: How far are we from living this way in our own world?
The reality is closer than you would think.
Recent studies have shown that there has been a massive decline in creativity in people, especially children. School, work, and overstimulation from devices are major factors in this problem.
But the biggest factor is the removal of artistic and creative spaces from our school systems, spaces that are necessary to activate the frontopolar cortex and stimulate the area of the brain that boosts creativity.
In a time where AI is on the rise and world leaders are cracking down on the right to express one’s self, finding creativity is more important than ever.
Through The Lego Movie, we saw how powerful creativity can be when we were taken to a cave where head master builder Vitruvius is guarding the most dangerous weapon of all time; Krazy Glue, AKA the “Kragle.”
Lord Business blinds Vitruvious and obtains the weapon. Before President Business leaves, Vitruvius prophesies that there will be a person so special and extraordinary that they will find the piece of resistance otherwise known as a glue cap, place it back on the Krazy Glue and defeat Lord Business, who wants to use the weapon to force the lego-kin of his town to conform.
The Lego Movie is not just a lighthearted children’s film; it is a hilarious way of reflecting what is happening with the suppression of creativity in our real world today. People are less creative due to the lack of creative space, censorship is affecting the authenticity in our media, and mediocrity is something we are just accepting as a result.
Legos were originally invented in 1949 in Denmark. They started out as little bricks and then progressed into little kits with suggestions for what to make using the bricks available.
Although Legos were invented for the purpose of using our imaginations, most of the time people prefer to follow the instructions. Lego stores still sell basic boxes of bricks, but they are not as popular as the Millennium Falcon Lego kit with step-by-step instructions. We want shortcuts, but they come at the expense of engaging our creative muscles.
I think that some people assume that because they are not the best at creative activities, they should not participate in them at all. I love to watercolor paint, but I am nowhere near the best at it, so I think of it as a hobby. We tend to minimize the importance of creative pursuits, dismissing the arts such as watercolor painting, creative writing or acting as something “extra” — not a core part of our education.
During the first two years of college, students must focus on general education class requirements. Specifically at Moraine Valley, students must take two earth science-related classes. While I don’t consider studying science myself, before I ever think to call these courses a waste of time, I think about how many times I have used the information that I have learned in that class to write for my communications classes.
My favorite paper included information from those classes, which helped me realize that they are there to help us expand our intellectual horizons and see what other possibilities there are for us.
While it is true that many children in middle to high school choose not to go into the arts, that does not mean to take we should take these subjects out of the curriculum.
Right now, Moraine Valley’s student planning page lists few in-person creative classes that deal with painting, creative writing or poetry. Those subjects are cut down to a few online classes, and even then, the choices are heavily limited.
Even for students on the STEM path, being able to tap into the creative side of your brain is super important. The University of Central Florida wrote a report on the difference between STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math). The report concluded that students who had a background in some type of art had better problem-solving skills as well as ideas for new innovations.
Dr. David Teplica is a surgeon with a background in fine arts. He uses his creative talents from fine arts in plastic surgery. His insights in the arts allow him to research ways to correctly fit each individual because we are all unique and while something may work on one person, that does not mean it will work on everyone.
The loss in creativity is starting to show intentionality with censorship on the rise. Censorship is rapidly affecting our lives, but in a way that is so subtle we do not realize until it is right in front of us.
Slowly, Lord Business was able to take control over all aspects of his society; from food to voting machines, Lord Business had it all under his control. In the real world, dictators have worked to abolish poets, writers and artists before they achieved higher ground in their regime, because artists challenged authoritarianism.
In Nazi Germany, Hitler controlled how artists lived their lives and what art they created because Hitler knew that art could have a huge impact on the outcome of his regime, The New York Times writes.
The Stalinist government of 1930 executed all Ukrainian poets.
When Augusto Pinochet took power in Chile in 1973, muralists were arrested, tortured, and exiled.
The parallels to The Lego Movie are again clear: President Business chases all the master builders out of Bricksburg when he starts making his way to power. The master builders who do not escape are captured and brought to his “Think Tank” to come up with ideas for his plans of taking over the world.
It is increasingly evident that censorship and lack of creative spaces is the root cause of the lack of authenticity in our music, literature, and films. It’s beginning to arouse public outrage that big industries are afraid of the risk involved with producing something authentic.
Lack of creativity is also affecting the development of engineering, medicine and architecture. On the roads during the mid- to late-20th century, cars presented much more variety than the ones made now.
For example, the older Chevy Impala had a much more bold and refined design than the newer, minimalist approach to the same make and model of today. The colors on the older models were vibrant, vivid and popped out to the eyes, while today the colors are toned down for a more minimalistic, cheap approach.
Understanding the idea that everyone is unique, comes the less understood value that we all have our own paths to follow. Growing up I had always been better at composition-based subjects rather than math and science. My hobbies involved theatre, writing and reading, and my dream was to produce and act in movies. Going to high school, I kept this dream close to me, but then my environment started to shift my idea of a job.
My high school would always bring in guest speakers that were in STEM careers–aerospace engineers, doctors, therapists. Yet no lawyers, marketers or journalists were ever brought in. I was influenced to think that the only way to make money was to take part in a STEM-based career.
I would tell everyone who asked that I wanted to be a physical therapist, but I was always met with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I was working so hard towards a goal I did not even really want; I was just too embarrassed to share my actual dream.
When the day for me to walk the stage was approaching, I was sick in my bed watching TikTok when an anatomy pop quiz came across my For You page. The questions were along the lines of what type of joint is your knee? After getting every question right, I said to myself, I never want to see another joint ever again.
On the other hand, my boyfriend Ryan had always been better at math and science. He enjoyed puzzles and building exercises and liked to use his spare time to build Legos, play video games and watch sci-fi movies. Ever since he was six years old, he had known he wanted to be involved with the exploration of space and eventually decided he wanted to become an aerospace engineer.
With that realization he took it upon himself to practice complex math and science equations whenever he could to prepare himself for his future in the aerospace field. He absolutely flourished in our high school environment. Top notch math and science curriculums were provided as well as the reassurance that his dream is achievable.
I felt envious of him in a way. Our interests were completely different, but it upset me that his dream was more “attainable” than mine in the eyes of our environment.
I was still struggling with what I saw myself doing in my future, but my fundamental writing class at Moraine Valley really started to make me believe my dream could come true.
There are people in this world that like to follow the instructions to build a Lego house and there are people that can build anything with just Lego bricks provided. Both types of people are extremely important in our society.
In the movie, we realize that a little human boy named Ethan made up the story of Emmet and Bricksburg in his imagination. He saw his new creations out of his dads’ models as art. An interactive means to tell a story.
Ethan’s dad saw his perfectly structured Lego metropolis as art. Mirroring the character of President Business, he had followed the instructions of his set to a T, creating Bricksburg.
Ethan’s father liked following the instructions to get a realistic result. Ethan preferred using his imagination to make something new out of the old. Both had different interpretations of art and how they liked to use their Legos, but they were able to resolve their differences.
Without creativity, our world would look a lot like Bricksburg. We would be comfortable yet oblivious to our impending doom from creative suppression. The people of Bricksburg lived their everyday lives according to the directions, but once they were given the space to be creative, they created amazing gadgets to protect themselves and their community from the micromanager robots.
Fortunately, Emmet was able to persuade Lord Business that creativity is great and much more important than he thinks. The people of Bricksburg were lucky to have people like Emmet and the other master builders advocating for creativity.
Much like the master builders from The Lego Movie, we need more advocates on the side of creative freedom and individual expression–because creativity is rooted in everything we do. If we do not act now, we will be struck by the Kragle and glued to the ground with no choice in how we express ourselves.
Velocity 
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