#176 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday October 22)
Good morning!
I’m trying not to be too serious heading into the weekend. So let’s talk about movies and books!
MOVIES
Hacks. Not just quality comedy but a commentary of the baby boomer aging comedienne and her millennial new writer. The pace and the dialog are great. It’s an appreciation of both characters and yet an indictment of the character types and their generations. Really wonderful, funny, and smart.
Call My Agent. Wonderfully written characters at a French talent agency. A great sensitive, loving post card to an industry ridiculously obsessed with ego and image. I have newfound respect for my friends who had to deal with the crazy insecure, overly demanding, emotionally needy actors that they have to represent. Plus, you can practice your French while listening to the actors and reading the subtitles. Wonderful, humorous and, at times, touching.
Ted Lasso. I’ve said enough before. The perfect antidote to pandemic. The story of a second-tier American football coach hired to coach an English soccer team, with the purpose of failing, so as to humiliate the former owner. Team members distrust him and don’t respect him. The fans are abusive (including hilarious cheers of “wanker, wanker…”). He has a lot to learn but does so, with the help of the assistant coach who comes with him, an equipment manager who later becomes an assistant coach and others who reluctantly come to his aid. But slowly Lasso works his magic on the owner, management, the team (including a fading, yet popular, veteran), and the fans in an “aw shucks” innocence. Little by little they are under his spell. Yes, it can be corny, but with just enough of the wholesome humor that makes Jason Sudekis and the U.K. loveable, each in their own way… [NB: The first season is magic; the second is amusing but not nearly as good]
BOOKS
Good Without God, by Greg M. Epstein. Epstein is the humanist chaplain at Harvard University whose election by his fellow Chaplains as President of their group caused a bit of a stir, as related in this New Yorker article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/20/harvards-atheist-chaplain-controversy.
The subtitle of the book is “What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe.” We read this as part of the book club Ron Stern and I coordinate. I’m not sure Mr. Epstein is correct to suggest that the billion nonreligious people around the world actually believe in all of the same things. It’s quite a stretch to throw atheists, agnostics, deists, questioners, and those affirmatively combative about the predations of religion into the same crowd. That said, this is a brilliant book that seeks to encapsulate a theory of being, including rules and ethical standards derived not from a belief in God, but some universal “truths.”
Mr. Epstein’s goal is to find purpose, compassion and community without being tethered to a single religious dogma. He does an excellent job putting forth the case that one needn’t have a religion in order to have purpose and meaning. In particular, his “new” ten commandments from the position of a humanist is worth the reading in and of itself.
Where Mr. Epstein comes up short, in my opinion, is to fail to acknowledge the moderating influence religion can provide in society and the community-building and social justice organizational ability of religious organizations. I have a sense, further, that humanism can beget relativism that is untethered to the past and those who came before.
Have a great weekend,
Glenn
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