Deck: The Golden Age of Hollywood
Benefits Card: The Star 18 Method Acting
Drawbacks Card: 4 of Spades Lost Horizon
Benefits: Method acting was a psychology-based acting discipline promulgated by the Russian theatre practitioner Stanislavski. It was elaborated and honed by American actors and came to replace the rather stilted and stale style of acting performed on stages from Hollywood to vaudeville. The Method allowed for a far deeper exploration of mood, temperament, and character type than its predecessor. As a result, the plays and films actors appeared in began to focus more on character, leading to a more realistic depiction of the human predicament; similarly, different types of people were represented, leading to a more realistic representation of humanity. The beneficial result as regards the question seems to be an expansion of knowledge in areas heretofore little illuminated, together with rich resources for creativity and many opportunities for its further exploration. Some of the positives are expressed by the words on the card itself: awake & sing!, a tree grows, and Pinky viz. "in the pink". In a sense, the Method accentuates and glorifies the individual, while retaining a tight network of support and interaction from the entire ensemble. Many Method actors from the 20s to the 50s were Fellow Travelers who were open to new and alternative ways of living and seeing life. As a result, a number of them were blacklisted during the McCarthyist Red Scare when HUAC and the Hollywood studios, representing societal conformity, condemned them for their independence.
Drawbacks: Lost Horizon begins with a civil war. The central characters escape it, only to be hijacked. They crash land in the Himilayas and seem hopelessly lost. These predicaments suggest the negative aspects of diversity - chaos, discord, and confusion. The group is saved and safely escorted to Shangri-La, an isolated community of harmony, comfort, and gratification. Everyone in Shangri-La is valued and accounted for. People here are so happy, they actually live longer than people in the outside world. Shangli-La represents the best aspects of a closed, tribal society, in which each person has a particular role and the community acts as a unit to care for everyone. Some members of the outside world resent the simplicity of Shangri-La and long to be back in the modern world. They are compulsive and irrational which eventually leads to their demise and the main character's loss of paradise. Again, this suggests the perils of plurality and the embarrassment of riches we call choice. At one point it is advanced that Shangri-La's one rule is Kindness, implying this and a compassionate morality are something secular western society lacks. But looked at with some perspective, this along with the fact Lost Horizon was panned in its day and only seen as a masterpiece in hindsight suggests that one of the drawbacks of diversity is the romantic idealization of a by-gone uniformity.
.