My friend Matthew Barlow did a series of video interviews recently with his friend Solomon, who holds degrees in Hebrew and Arabic Language, and is a committed Muslim. In this first video Solomon and Matthew talk a bit about the etymology of the words “Islam” and “Jihad.” I found the conversation to be extremely enlightening;…
Category
media
Aggression, Authority and Obedience: Stanley Milgram’s Theory of Obedience
“It is ironic that virtues of loyalty, discipline, and self-sacrifice that we value so highly in the individual are the very properties that create destructive organizational engines of war and bind men to malevolent systems of authority. The aftermath of the Holocaust and the events leading up to World War II, the world was stunned…
Right handed men don’t hold it with their left.
Vincent: What’s this? Dr. Lamar: New Policy, what’s the matter? Flight got you nervous. Vincent: Nope, there’s a problem Lamar… Dr. Lamar: …I still haven’t told you about my son have I. He’s a big fan of yours… Vincent: Just remember. I was as good as any, and better than most… Dr. Lamar: …He wants…
The futility of everything that comes to us from the media is…
The futility of everything that comes to us from the media is the inescapable consequence of the absolute inability of that particular stage to remain silent. Music, commercial breaks, news flashes, adverts, news broadcasts, movies, presenters—there is no alternative but to fill the screen; otherwise there would be an irremediable void…. That’s why the slightest…
What does a good artist do?
Good artists are people who can stick things together so that they stay stuck. They know how to gather things into formal arrangements that are intelligible, memorable, and lasting. Good forms confer health upon the things that they gather together. Farms, families, and communities are forms of art just as are poems, paintings, and symphonies….
Why I Don’t Like The Grammy Awards or Pop Music in General
In regard to how I feel about “award” shows, such as the audaciously generic Grammy Awards which took place last Sunday night, I defer to author Mark Twain: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” I’m not quite sure what it is about me that wants…
Quantum Physics Is Using The Wrong Language.
“In Benjamin Lee Whorf’s excellent book, Thought and Reality, that I strongly recommend, the Hopi language is analysed in fascinating details. For one thing, Hopi has no tenses as we know them, because the Hopi view of life doesn’t fraction time into units the way we do. Instead of minutes ticking away, picture the minutes…
Walter Benjamin’s Romantic Criticism
[Walter Benjamin’s]…idea is that criticism does not stand outside the work of art, but stands alongside, maybe even inside, the work of art, participating in the work in order to further express and tease out what the artist already put there. In this theory of criticism, we don’t need the critic to tell us what…
Changing Educational (and Theological) Paradigms
HT to Kester Brewin for turning me on to this little beauty from the RSA. It’s a talk from Sir Ken Robinson on changing educational paradigms but as Kester says “the applications to changing theological ones are there for the taking.” I especially love the part when he talks about divergent thinking vs. convergent thinking….
I don’t explain–I explore
“I don’t explain—I explore” –Marshall McLuhan It’s true. I’m still thinking about the LOST finale after almost a week. The more I reflect on it and the more I hear other people reflect on the story of LOST, the more I’m convinced of how much it can help people approach a better understanding of the…