Unknown white male

I saw this the other day at the ICA. An intriguing documentary. A man wakes up on the New York subway with no idea who he is, where he has come from or where he is going. The film follows his story as he works out who he is, and the reactions of his friends and family.
Since he's forgotten all the events of his life, he gets to see the sea again for the first time, fall in love again for the first time. He has to meet his own dad and his sisters, and watch old holiday videos without any of the memories attached. Being a photographer, he his friends film the whole thing, and it raises a whole load of questions about who we are and what makes us us - are we the sum of our experiences, or is there a fundamental personality that exists apart from our experiences?
If it's showing anywhere near you, do go and see it...

www.unknownwhitemale.co.uk

crimes against humanity

Some strong words here from E F Shumacher on economic priorities. It really resonates with me as a christian, though Shumacher is actually applying the principles of Buddhism to his economic theory. I don't think we've even begun to work out how to genuinely live as Christians in our current economic system. There are ways to live differently as real communities that we haven't explored at all.

“If greed were not the master of modern man - ably assited by envy - how could it be that the frenzy of economism does not abate as higher ‘standards of living’ are attained, and that it is precisely the richest societies which pursue their economic advantage with the greatest ruthlessness? How could we explain the almost universal refusal on the part of the rich societies to work towards the humanisation of work?
That soul destroying, meaningless, mechanical, monotonous, moronic work is an insult to human nature which must necessarily and inevitably produce either escapism or aggression, and that no amount of ‘bread and circuses’ can compensate for the damage done - these are facts which are neither denied nor acknowledged but are met with an unbreakable conspiracy of silence - because to deny them would be too obviously absurd and to acknowledge them would condemn the central preoccupation of modern society as a crime against humanity.”

E F Shumacher, Small is Beautiful: a study of economics as if people mattered, p24

easter

Here are a pair of short easter films that we developed at work this year. Take a look...

eternity

everything is complete, and there is no more time to keep

A brief exercise in comparative religion

If I were not already a Christian, I think I would subscribe to one of Kurt Vonnegut’s religions.
I quite like the teachings on Bokonon in ‘Cat’s Cradle’, whose principle rule is this: “Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.”

Even better however, is the religion introduced in ‘The Sirens of Titan’, the magnificently named Church of God of the Utterly Indifferent. Here is a prayer from said church, from the lips of the Reverend C Horner Redwine.
“O Lord Most High, Creator of the Cosmos, Spinner of Galaxies, Soul of Electromagneic Waves, Inhaler and Exhaler of Inconceivable Volumes of Vacuum, Spitter of Fire and Rock, Trifler with Millennia - what could we do for thee that thou couldst not do for thyself one octillion times better? Nothing. What could we do or say that could possibly interest thee? Nothing. Oh, Mankind, rejoice in the apathy of our creator, for it makes us free and truthful and dignified at last. No longer can a fool point to a ridiculous accident of good luck and say ‘Somebody up there likes me’. And no longer can a tyrant say ‘God wants this or that to hppen and anybody who doesn’t help this or that to happen is against God.’ O Lord Most High, what a glorious weapon is Thy Apathy, for we have unsheathed it, have thrust and slashed mightily with it, and the claptrap that has so often enslaved us or driven us into the madhouse lies slain!”