ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that point with The Gods Must Be Crazy. An analysis of this film will show not only that some of the same strategies are still used, but that the basic meaning that The Birth of a Nation constructed-that blacks are uncivilized-is operative within The Gods Must Be Crazy. Like The Birth of a Nation, The Gods Must Be Crazy will build its persuasive rhetoric for privilege and aggression on a strategy of naturalization. The image shows the surrounding oceans, and conveys a sense of the globe as round. The story will qualify that position by demonstrating that civilization is crazy and therefore, as the title states, so are the gods, but nonetheless the civilized world is the place of power. The rhetorical point that the comparison makes is that civilization is crazy, and that the cultural life of the Bushmen is far more pleasant and acceptable.
