jeudi 9 août 2012

Free Will



For billions of years everything on Earth has just been another atom of solar dust and billions of people believe they're free and possess some sort of free will... Oh well...

---------------

Comme je sentais une certaine lassitude relativement au dernier thème chez certains des habitués, j'ai voulu changer d'air et for whatever reason, the souvenir of this movie by Allen and the topic of free will coalesced within 3 tenth of a second in my mind.

But, in the above video I couldn't see the segment with the black man asking twice "What am I doin' here?" which of course is extremely funny and another indication re. determinism. So I looked up again for another video and I found the one with Allen fatalistically saying in relief: "At least he's Jewish".

It probably has to do with stream of consciousness and synchronicity but we're back to our last theme, that is Judaism...

The line by Allen is funny but actually, would we had found it so funny had he said "at least he's Muslim" or "at least he's Christian" or if a Muslim or Christian actor had pronounced their respective line? Well, honestly no, we would have found the joke very poor and in these times of P.C, disturbing and on the verge of being "racist".

Now, this is very interesting because Allen, candidly, both with his joke and in the situation he's in, gives another obvious illustration of what makes Judaism different of all other religions.

He just refers to the simple fact that the very basis of Judaism is genetics and biology which leads to the core of the issue and also the basics of philosophy that is the distinction between Nature and Culture.

Nature is a given order of things and a universal one at that, whereas Culture is a construction realised by every human group and all possible specific cultures identify each and every human group for what it has done out of its original natural environment.

For what I know, no civilisation has ever claimed it was different from any other for any other reason than its achievement in whatever fields of human activity. From that starting point, yes each civilisation has considered itself superior to the next one for its culture but not for some natural given superiority over anybody else.

L'essentialisme du Judaïsme remonte au-delà de la Culture et tient qu'il y a un antécédent naturel à l'existence du "peuple juif" dont l'identité perdure pour des raisons biologiques et génétiques avant toute chose. If that isn't the very definition of racism I ask the question: what is racism then?

Even slave holders, whether 2000 years ago in Greece or Egypt or in America during the XIXth century, didn't so much believe that their slaves were naturally and by reason of their genes different from them but "rather" that their culture was superior to that of their slaves. African slaves were even evangelised by their white owners who still - globally speaking - kept the separation between Nature and Culture more or less distinct. Isn' it Thomas Jefferson who didn't mind having children with his black slave?

Philosophy isn't mere pipe dreams and we're back again to Plato's allegory of the cave whose message is still more than ever alive and relevant. 

When hundreds of millions in the West have been exposed for half a century now to a one way propaganda showing the Jews as the very embodiment of Good per se and the victims of discrimination wherever they've been going, like the prisoners of the cave they're just absolutely incapable to recognise the other image which is shown to them and they return to the cave convinced someone tried to dupe them into believing in something different from the only image they've ever known.

They have eyes and they cannot see, even if it's up their nose like E.A Poe's letter.

The irony of all this is that the U.S which preaches the whole world against racism, which in itself may be laudable, is protecting and putting all its strength in the defence of the most racist country in the world whose existence is based on the vilest racist religious lunacies.

And the current mantra in the West is "against racism and anti-Semitism". When head is tail and black is white... Oh the fools... oh the slaves of the cave.

10 commentaires:

Flocon a dit…

Now, here is the version I remember watching in the theater where a coloured man asks... Well, see by yourself.

Why has this very short segment deleted from the other video???

Flocon a dit…

And also Woody says "At least he's (or is it she's ?) Jewish" in an ending I don't remember of; playing the mouth organ etc.

Ned Ludd a dit…

It's "he". I remember the film with the black sperm and the harmonica.

He also laughs at Christians with the erection workers singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

You're second version didn't have the end of the sentence, "We're going for seconds, a record!"

Or as Dr. Hook says, Sloppy Seconds. Freakin at the Freakers Ball

Ned Ludd a dit…

BTW, did you mean "Free Willy" the film? That can be a play on words, which I will explain if need be.

Anonyme a dit…

En fait j'ai bien entendu he's Jewish but since my mind was set on the receiver instead of the donnor, it didn't make sense so I thought that maybe it was she but it didn't make sense either.

(Là je dois faire une révision parce que le or/nor et either/neither je ne l'utilise jamais vu que je ne le "sens" pas)

Pour le jeu de mot "Free Willy" (the movie I guess with the killer whale), je n'y avais pas pensé mais c'est très élégant je trouve. Maybe did the director had the pun in mind.

In the realm of movie titles en/fr and vice versa, it may be understood as a mirror image of yesterday third kind/ third guy example.

--

Other than that, my second computer from which I posted some elements yesterday tells me today it can't access to the Internet. And also I can't access to the Blogger user's forum from my main computer, the Mismatch worm forbids any contact with Blogger.

There soon will be another murder in Paris 11th but I'm also seriously considering this.


Flocon

Flocon a dit…

If I'm not mistaken, there even is a third play on words included in the "Free Willy" title but as much as I'm sure the Brits instantly recognized it, I'm not so sure with Americans otherwise the movie may have experienced some trouble on the American market.

Anyway, there's much more in the video than I though there was when I posted it yesterday.

Je vais compléter le texte sous la vidéo asap.

Ned Ludd a dit…

Just guessing, but maybe Woody is referring to circumcision in the Jew quip. Maybe he's worried about getting stuck in the prepuce.

Flocon a dit…

Do you mean Bob the parachutist would experience some existential crisis at this very moment?

Do you really know what we're talkin' about Ned ;-)

Anyway, if we follow your line of interrogation, it reminds me of the title of this German movie/novel. Need I say more?

The English translation is inaccurate. Angst is not fear and the goalkeeper isn't afraid of the penalty but experiences anxiety at the moment when the penalty is kicked.

Ned Ludd a dit…

I probably don't what we're talking about, but it wouldn't be the first time.

Ned Ludd a dit…

Here is a little satire on interviewing beauty queen contestants.

Teaching Gravity