Sunday, September 19, 2010

Movie-"The man from Earth"

Hi friends!!


Today there is something extremely new on our blog. We have shared information traversing topics like finance, interview preparation, writing resumes etc. etc etc….

But today, I want to discuss about a movie that I saw recently. Its named as the man from Earth. It is directed by Richard Schenkman and was released in the year 2007

Some parts in the discussion could be found as profane to some religion, caste or belief. We aim at discussing the points put forth in the movie and owe no disrespect for any religion. We beg pardon if anything is found objectionable and request to bring in our notice so that we can act accordingly.

This Movie is about a professor who teaches History in the college and makes many friends like a psychologist, a Christian literal, an Anthropologist, an Archeologist and a student. The actor claims about being 14000yrs. Old and still has no signs of aging after being 35 yrs old. All the friends try to prove his point wrong by every logic possible but still are helpless infront of every answer he gives them. Among these conversations lie very interesting discussions which could gave us thoughts to ponder about.

This Movie takes us to the verge of breaking our psychological barriers that we guard through our scientific knowledge and experiences.

There is a point the actor makes in the movie in which he confesses that he is “The Jesus”. The people sitting there are astonished by this and find it profaning their religion and try to prove him wrong by verifying why was he called Jesus if he says his name is John. He tells that he spoke his name as John but due to various dialects and pronunciation differences it went ahead to be called as Jesus. He used the medication techniques he learnt from India to cure people which were treated as miracles and all the truth just snowballed into a massive false. The simple message he gave about love and affection among the people and to care for others turned into a religion that millions of people practice but over the time shadowed the very virtue he wanted to impart which was: To live in harmony with each other.

This, we can see is an irony, the good deeds he did to increase affection among the people turned into the religion which increases differences between the people.

It may not be what the religion speaks of but the very thought of being the most supreme religion gives all the holy wars that turn into brutal wars killing thousands innocent people which are then justified as the Divine order from God which atleast in perspective of the movie nowhere exists.

This story may be just an imagination of the Director, but still unfolds the very basics of human mind.
We just don’t let the things be as they are. No one just narrates what he/she feel, they either add things up or curtail things down and start a chain reaction of additions or alterations which completely transform the truth.

The actor in the movie confesses that he is Jesus but he has nothing to do with Old Testament, there is nothing holy in his immortalness, it’s just a metabolical miracle.

We can very well make out that he is talking about that old testament, the fallacies of which led to the death of Copernicus ( The Mathematician) In Old Testament it was written that the Earth is flat, when Copernicus advocated the fact that the Earth was spherical he was regarded as a person with unchristian thoughts and was hanged and the same was even tried with Galileo.

In the same way, the various characters in the movie disagree with the hero. It just shows us how we fear the fact that whatever we know and believe can be a myth and when all our beliefs and values just shatter like a castle of cards, we try to defend it inappropriately. The characters in the movie cried, spitted out abusive words and even try to kill the hero because he was shattering their very beliefs which they were growing ever since their birth.

I can remember that in Bible it is told to behave with others as we want them to behave with us. This is the simple message every religion, holy book tries to give us. This is what was imparted by all the religious and spiritual gurus/leaders. But along with the time the major part that is constructed/destructed by the intermediate priests and clergies have made the overall concept so complex which easily confuses the person and prevents him from having absolute belief on his religion and professes superstition and blind faith.

Please also see the below related post about "Knowns and Unknown"

Learning from my Business Ethics Session

The Knowns and Unknowns


As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
There are unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know
But there are also unknown knowns,
The ones we don't know
We know.

Among so many interesting topics discussed during the class sessions the one which I found most interesting and meaningful to me is “we don't know what we know”

Most of the time, when I was in sad mood I used to think in a very negative nod and always used to curse myself saying “I am a useless person, I don’t know anything”. But after the session in which we discussed about the topic “we don’t know what we know”, I turned back the pages of my life and found so many moments where I came to know that actually I was unaware of the immense potential present inside me.

One of the moments which I revisited was the incidence which took place in my school life. The incidence was like this - I went to the school with my friends for sports practice. After doing my Javelin throw’s practice, I was waiting for my friends, as they were practicing for long jump. While I was watching them practicing, one of my friend said to me – “why you are sitting here? You should also join us”. I replied to her that I don’t know how to do long jump. She said to me that you should first try it once and then you can improve upon it. “It doesn’t matter whether you jump good or bad we are just practicing here”. Hearing this I went in a queue and made an attempt for long jump. And surprisingly I jumped much better than all the others practicing there. Through this incidence I came to know that I was unaware of the fact that I know how to perform long jump. The simple attempt I gave for the long jump opened a box full of opportunity that which in turn gave me the chance to appear at the district level and win medals at the school level which at last resulted in me winning the school championship.

Like this incidence, there are many instances of which I haven’t thought of earlier but now I am able to weigh my potential. I came to know that each person is gifted with equal potential; the difference is that some are able to find it and others simply not.

From that session onwards, my thinking about myself has changed. Now, I know myself better. Thanks to sir, with the help of whom I got a life long lesson.