04.28.09
Seven Pounds (Redemption at the Cost of One Life)
Writer Grant Nieporte and director Gabriele Muccino have stirred my hornets nest. We’ve been offered another wonderful tragedy in the package of excellent writing and art. The moral dilemma and the treatment of altruism is reminiscent of Gone Baby Gone.
Altruism is a universal theme. The popularity of this film is a testimony to this. Am I doing what is right or am I merely serving my own ego? Is there such a thing as a good deed or am I in fact putting others into my debt as a way to control, master, own, or use them to redeem myself? (Albert Camus)
Two important matters are addressed here:
1a) Are you a good person? (such as the conversation with Ezra Turner (Woody Harrelson), a blind meat salesman who plays the piano).
1b) Am I a good person? [such as the way in which Tim Thomas (Will Smith) wrestles with the guilt of causing a car accident by using his Blackberry, which claims the lives of seven people].
2) Can I redeem myself? (am I able to become a good person, or to at least have other people believe that I am a good person?) “In seven days, God created the world, and in seven seconds I shattered mine.” Read the rest of this entry »
04.19.09
My Responce to Senator Palpatine, Dawkins, or Harris
Part 2: My interpretation:
(Go here for Part 1)
If I were to connect what Senator Palpatine is saying to Anakin with what Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris are saying to today’s Christian Church, I would interpret it like this:
The narrow, dogmatic view of religion is both 1) limited because it considers only one half of the knowledge available and 2) holding you back from realizing your full potential, the potential to be immortal and rid the world of struggle.
The agenda of the new-atheist, those who are evangelistic and antagonistic about eradicating the world of religion (i.e. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and their disciples) is exactly the same thing. Read the rest of this entry »
04.18.09
Anakin Skywalker and Senator Palpatine On Knowledge and Power (and what it says about modernism)
Just before Anakin surrenders to the dark side (depicted in the video clip), a fascinating conversation takes place between he and Senator Palpatine. If you know anything about grace, modernism, and gnosticism, you too will find this fascinating: Read the rest of this entry »
Subdivision and Unity (an oversimplification of the stuff that use to spin my head)
There are a hundred thousand different ways to approach money, medicine, education, immigration, business and leisure, foreign policy, natural disasters, faith and morality, crime and tyrannical governments, yet we all end up doing the same things in the same ways; democratically.
This means that ultimately, it is popular mood about these matters that steer politics on these matters. What steers popular mood? Read the rest of this entry »
04.07.09
Short Shelf Life
It amazes me how quickly ideas expire. This post will expire before my bananas or a gallon of milk. Intellectual knowledge is old at the moment it is sold. In the case of the printed news, the many newspapers have been dubbed “wastepapers” overnight–many of them are bankrupt or currently going under. Our culture moves so fast that the news at 7 am is old by the evening news at 6:30 pm that very same day. It’s worse than technology or automobiles. I’m referring to ideas, inventions, conversations, movements, nationalities, currency, music and the arts, etc.–everything from talk show episodes to ways in which we catalog, access, and reference libraries of information. Read the rest of this entry »
