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Of Gods and Men

Posted by on Feb 26, 2011 in Otherhood | 6 Comments

Listen to an NPR story about the film.

Listen to an NPR story about the film.

6 Comments

  1. Integral Monastery
    February 26, 2011

    Ah, thank you so much for the recommendation, Nathan. I’ve just booked a ticket to see this on Monday.

    • Nathan Rosquist
      February 26, 2011

      I’m looking forward to seeing it; not sure when I’ll get the chance.

  2. Integral Monastery
    February 28, 2011

    What a remarkable film. Thank you yet again for recommending it here on the blog, otherwise I surely wouldn’t have become aware of it.

    If you’re interested, I wrote a little review/analysis of the movie here:

    http://www.integralmonastery.com/2011/02/of-gods-and-men.html

    Cheers!
    D

  3. Nathan Rosquist
    March 2, 2011

    Your review makes me want to see it even more. Hopefully it will find its way here soon. In the mean time, while we’re batting about film recommendations, I’m heading to this one this weekend: I Am.

  4. Integral Monastery
    March 2, 2011

    Sounds interesting, will check that one out as well eventually!

    “The basis of nature, is cooperation and democracy – it’s in our DNA.”

    Well… something about that sounds a bit off to me. From my human perspective, it seems the basis of nature is closer to that of an indifferent dictatorship, and the selfish and mindless survival instincts of genes. Only with relatively recent – evolutionarily speaking – organisms do we see a stronger focus on nurturing, and only in humans beings can we witness a spark or two of of genuine altruism. In my humble opinion, it’s not our animal DNA which causes us to care about others – mindful, selfless caring is a product of a long and painstaking process of cultural evolution.

    I mean, it’d be interesting to see the film maker and his interviewees in the middle of the Rwandian genocides of 1994. I wonder if they’d come back after that, jubilantly asserting that “egalitarianism, cooperation and democracy is in our DNA.”

    I guess what I’m trying to say is that watching the trailer, some of my “boomeritis” senses tingle a little bit, heh. Like, it’s a very beautiful and agreeable message, albeit a bit naïve-seeming. But I might be wrong. I’d love to hear your thoughts when you’ve seen it!

    Kindly,
    D

  5. Nathan Rosquist
    March 5, 2011

    Just saw the I Am documentary, and while it does have a distinct smell of spiritual materialism (for those unfamiliar: “mistakes spiritual seekers commit which turn the pursuit of spiritualism into an ego building and confusion creating endeavor”) and its generation-specific incarnation boomeritis (“the materialist takeover of the spiritual for the sake of narcissistic gratification.”) and suffers from the fallacy of seeking out the specific evidence that will support the claim it already wants to make, I can’t help but wish it well at the box office.

    What I can say in its favor is that it goes so far as to say “cooperation AND competition” are in our DNA, or that competition and violence aren’t the whole story. A more accurate take might have been to point out that life’s diversity will back up pretty much any claim you want to make about “what life is like”… but that’s not the stuff of movies that make money.

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