Towards a global perspective . . .

I saw the film “Men Who Stare at Goats” yesterday evening.    I really enjoyed he film, which harks back to a time that was hopeful and happy for some of us.    It was fun and well acted, with big stars making fun of the kind of aggressive parody of masculinity that the military models and idealizes in it’s training practices, and also of the new age practices that were popularized during the 70s, and which have since been commercialized and regimented in various social sciences.    It was silly.  And, it  is based on a true story, which shows that the world is bigger than it seems sometimes.

The film is based on true events during the 70s when the military had experimental units investigating the paranormal and new age trainings that proclaimed to enhance ordinary humans capacity to perform and to empower individuals in unique ways.   They really did want to produce ‘super soldiers’.   Read the rest of this entry »

Ted Wilcox, a fellow activist in Rochester, sent me an email from a friend, in the UK I think, with some references to materials on Palestine.  Of them film, To Shoot an Elephant, is extremely powerful.  The original link took me to a version of the film without subtitles, but the one linked to here has subtitles available in several languages, including English.  The film, recorded on site during the first couple of weeks of Cast Lead, is a little long and has some seriously disturbing scenes.     However, those of us who feel compelled to stand and witness the disaster the Western imperialist powers and Israel are visiting on the rest of the world in the name of civilization and anti-terrorism should watch it.

There is a sequence in the film, introduced as ‘The Hamdan Family’.   Something seemed familiar, but I didn’t get it Read the rest of this entry »

I just saw  “Waltz with Bashir”.   The film has been promoted as a deeply affecting portrayal of the effect of war on the soldiers.  Many people who see it would agree, I think, with that analysis.   People I know found the film beautiful, and very moving.  But, after watching Mosaic and Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Israel’s attack on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and, most recently, the Israeli assault on Gaza last winter,  I found the film didn’t really engage my emotions with it’s surreal imagery,  contextualized through reminiscences and intellectual conversations.  You can watch the film and feel sadness, whereas, when you see the reality, you feel sick.   

“Waltz with Bashir” focuses on  the young Israeli soldiers who participated in the Lebanese occupation, and were in Beirut at the time of the massacre of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps.   Read the rest of this entry »