We all live in Dogville?

[Javier]

Dogville is a movie about a girl (Nicole Kidman) who is running away from the mafia during the Great Depression . She ends up in a little town called Dogville, in the middle nowhere, in the deepest America , and Paul Bethany convinces the 12 dwellers to give her shelter and hide her from the mafia.

At first it looks like they are good people and want to help her out, risking themselves in order to do the right thing. So Nicole Kidman offers herself to retun the favour by working fo them, doing the odd job here and there for any one of them, watering the plants, reading for the blind guy, ironing, cleaning, etc.

But little by little the dwellers start getting used to that new scenario and they feel entitled to ask for more and more...and eventually they turn her into an slave.

They use and abuse her in every possible way, until the situation gets out of control, so they decided to call the mafia and tun her over.

Little mistake, the cappo happened to the be father of Nicole Kidman and orders to kill everybody in town when he finds what they did to his daughter.

I wonder until what point would this be a fair picture of human nature? How entitled and greedy we get and how we demand more and more, regardless of any ethical consideration?

[acousticeagle]

I have not seen this movie but what you've written about it has provoked my interest, Javier. So, not having seen the movie, I'm throwing in some thoughts here:

I think that people can put themselves in positions of being obligated and, in such a position, (as Kidman's character appears to be when she was grateful to the townspeople for hiding her), feelings of false guilt can rise along with the feelings of obligation. It's like the person cannot merely accept what has been freely offered, so they must 'pay' somehow for the gift given. Human nature, in these townspeople, took advantage of her weakness to obligation and then used it.

It's up to the individual to maintain their own freedom from coming under the controlling influences of others through emotions like fear, false guilt and false feelings of obligation. It sounds Kidman's character was made a doormat. If one individual proves vunerable though some sort of weakness, then there will be those who will see that and seek to take advantage.

The more we are foolish to give of ourselves outside of our own self-worth and caring for ourselves in the best way, the more we can leave ourselves open to the extortions of others;  the weaker individual made a target for bullies.