The Art of Seduction

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2003)

Seduction. It's such an interesting subject. Kierkegaard used to say that it is a necessary part of religious conversion. And Kuhn used to say that conversion is an essential part of every scientific revolution. Would the world go round without it?
I love Training Day precisely because it's such a visceral foray into the art of seduction; for example, when Jake, the trainee, is faced with a serious moral dilemma, Alonzo tells him that the game they're playing is chess, not checkers, and adds, with avuncular affection, that when he's able to match what's going on in his head with the `real world,' he'll feel better. Only after he knows how to play the game, Alonzo adds, after he has become `wise' to real world, can he change things for the better. But he must become part of the system, however corrupt, before he can change it. He must have some dirt on him before others can trust him. From a pragmatist perspective, this is reasonable. From a `strategic' perspective of a chess match, it's morally superior. `They build jails because of me,' Alonzo boasts.
And so, when the rookie makes his choice to challenge Alonzo's `official' construction of reality with that of his own, he's really challenging the entire system. In the eyes of his peers, he's an egoist, a `choir boy' who's better suited for a different line of work. He's a threat, not because he's ethically superior to his colleagues, but because he just doesn't understand the fundamental realities of the situation. `It's not what you know: it's what you can prove,' Alonzo says several times over to his protégé. Alonzo has the social and political capital to `prove' anything he likes.
The more times I see the video, the more I buy into Alonzo's perspective. And the more I wonder if he wasn't right after all. The game is chess, not checkers. Watch it again and see if you don't notice a subtle change in your attitude.