Mongol

In the movie, Mongol, the rise to power of Temudjin revolves his love for Borte and his religious devotion.

Temudjin is presented as a combination of Moses, Joseph, and Joshua.

Sandra Hall reviews Mongol as well and finds:

Naturally enough, they're also out to humanise their hero, a job made easier by the decision to deal only with the story of his early life, when he was yet to become acquainted with the character-altering effects of absolute power. They keep it simple. Central to everything is his love for Borte (Khulan Chuluun), his lifelong companion - which, in itself, is enough to make him unique in a society where a man's wife is not nearly as valuable as his horse. He's a 12th-century SNAG in other words, so it hardly seems fair that the Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano (from Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi) makes him such a stolid personality.

Emphasis Mine

Ghenghis Khan a SNAG! I hate to see a Mongol Rambo, then!

Anyway, back to my religious interpretation of the movie.

Temudjin retraces part of Joseph's journey by being sold into slavery by his blood brother. Whilst in the Tangut prison, he is mocked but a Buddhist monk bargains with Temudjin for the survival of the local monastery. Temudjin agrees if Borte comes. This occurs at the cost of the monk's life.

Instead of the wife having Joseph thrown into prison, the wife releases Temudjin through bribery and threats. And the prophecy concerns the destruction of the Tangut kingdom.

The aspect of Moses' life is that Temudjin is now an escaped slave who was once a nobleman and who had killed one of the slave overseers. He takes his family back into Mongolia. There he goes up to the holy mountain to conceive of the Law for all Mongols (Yassa). The movie only presents three (3) laws.

1. Women and children are to be spared
2. All debts are to be paid
3. Never betray your Khan

Moses got an extra seven. But Temudjin became the Mongol Law Giver. No burning bush or golden calf, though.

In the role of Johusa, Temudjin united the tribes to conquer the Promised Land (Eurasia). Johusa was more modest in his ambitions.

In all cultures, there are the heroic individuals who undergo great trials and betrayals (Joseph), rebel against the existing order to create a new one based on law (Moses), and unite their people in a singular purpose (Joshua).

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Art, Marx, and Bill Henson

In the June 2008 edition of Annals Australasia, Robert Tilley discusses Art, Marx, and Bill Henson (p.27)

A Catholic conservative agrees with Karl Marx!

In a famous sentence Marx wrote, "All that is solid melts into the air, all that is holy is profaned..." Marx was talking about the effect of capitalism on traditional social mores and manners. Critics were saying that the Communists were set on destroying religion, family, and property. And so they were. Only, it was Marx's argument that the Communists didn't have to do anything to achieve this aim for capitalism was doing it for them.

Leaving aside the questions of property, it is clear that free-market ideology is very effective indeed in destroying religion and family. But it does so under the name of freedom and not of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Following the lead of earlier Christian socialists, Marx argued that capitalism is of the essence of liberalism and thus of the bourgeois state. It works to remove the substance from things like family and religion, replacing that substance with another value altogether: the value of a commodity that can be packaged, sold, consumed and, if we're suitably well-behaved, recycled.

Emphasis Mine

What Tilley overlooks here is that Capitalism is also very effective at destroying the private property of ordinary people. Witness the rising rates of home foreclosures here and in the USA and UK. Also the rising number of business bankrupcies as the capital of the middle is obliterated. The Communists are not this but the Capitalists.

Tilley is correct to point to commodification as the driving force of Capitalism. The production of commodities allows for profits and the accumulation of ever greater profits.

Tilley decries the intrusion of Capitalism into Art:

There may well be aesthetic merit in Henson's work but that is not really the point. Rather have aesthetics become the means to get to the point: the point being that all should be stripped of substance, made into a commodity, and be freely sold and consumed.

Tilley keeps to the standard Catholic position of critising both Capitalism and Communism without proposing any alternative. Although at times, I suspect that some pine for the High Middle Ages.

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From Marx to Morales: Indigenous socialism and the Latin Americanisation of Marxism

John Riddell describes the development of Communist theory From Marx to Morales: Indigenous socialism and the Latin Americanisation of Marxism.

Riddell contends that the retardation of Capitalist development in Latin America means that the peasants (along with the indigenous population) form the backbone of the revolutions there. This is akin to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.

The development of agricultural cooperatives leads to a degree of Communist consciousness, but it is still limited by being local to the land. The difficulty lies with jumping from organising a farm on a cooperative basis to that of a society.

This difficulty is based around the awareness of dependence upon others. Farmers can produce all that they need. They can be self-sufficient.

On the other hand, workers in a manufacturing plant are keenly aware that they usually cannot eat what they produce. They need to depend on others for their raw materials and sustenance.

Unfortunately, I should say that industrial workers should be aware. Since Capitalism in Western countries has worked flawlessly for the past 60 years, workers are lulled into believing that there will always be food in the supermarket as long as they have money.

When a crisis strikes, it is too late then to work how interdependent we all are in an advanced industrial society.

Marx was right to say that only the Poletariat can lead a Communist revolution because they are the only ones who are capable of appreciating the need for social cooperation for survival and who do the actual work.

The question remains of how to awaken this awareness? Even now as the economic crisis looms, we are still blissfully ignorant.

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Chloe Hooper: The Tall Man

In this week's edition of Big Issue, the cover story is about Chloe Hooper's latest book, The Tall Man.

There was also an interview on ABC Classic FM today with her and Margaret Throsby. (Has not been uploaded at time of posting.)

As reported by Sarah Stephens in Palm Island: Police terror follows death in custody:

At 11.20am on November 19, a 36-year-old Aboriginal man, Cameron Doomadgee, died in the police watch-house on Palm Island, 70km north of Townsville. An hour earlier he was very much alive, singing along the street. He was arrested for public drunkenness and locked up as a ‘‘public nuisance’‘.

...

Koch wrote in the Australian on November 29: ‘‘Two Aboriginal men who were in the cells at the time have given statements that they saw [Doomadgee] being punched and beaten by Chris Hurley, a senior sergeant.’‘

Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was acquitted of the charge of manslaughter in July 2007.

Hooper was unable to interview Hurley. But Hooper was interested because:

One intriguing aspect of the case is that Hurley, who had been working in 'frontier' communities like this one for several years, seemed to be a model of reconciliation: a man who had admitted to realising he was a racist and deliberately changing his ways. He was especially known for his work with Aboriginal children and his friendship with an Aboriginal activist, Murrandoo Yanner. (p.16)

However, Paul Benedek writes about Palm Island cop's violent history:

In evidence that was previously suppressed, but has now been allowed after a Supreme Court challenge, Palm Island residents are alleging detailing a history of violence by Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, the officer who arrested Mulrunji and claims he “fell” to his death.

Looks like the only way for Hurley to escape racism is to leave the Police Service. The culture of police racism is so great that someone of Hurley's inclination is dragged back into its maw even as he struggles against it.

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Rick Shenkman, American Stupidity

According to Rick Shenkman, American Stupidity may well threaten the existence of the USA.

How much ignorance can a country stand? There have to be terrible consequences when it reaches a certain level. But what level? And with what consequences, exactly? The answers to these questions are unknowable. But can we doubt that if we persist on the path we are on that we shall, one day, perhaps not too far into the distant future, find out the answers?

"Stupid Americans" used to be a cliche uttered by the villian in many a B-grade movie. This would spur the American hero to feats of derring-do that would astonish and overpower his adversaries.

Alas, such sentiments today would only elicit cries of Anti-Americanism! And the populace would relapse into blissful ignorance.

Today, the USA stands on the precipice of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. And yet, wilful ignorance is proudly displayed. What a pathetic end to a once-great nation. The greatest Capitalist country ever is about to collapse into a dark age of fear and ignorance without nary a fight.

Shenkman writes:

Five defining characteristics of stupidity, it seems to me, are readily apparent. First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who's in charge. Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events. Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts. Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually contradictory, or contrary to the country's long-term interests. Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.

Emphasis Mine

In response to my post about No Blood for Oil!, the suggestion was made to drill off the US coast. Forty years after the oil production peaked in the USA (1970), there is apparrently oil just waiting to be discovered off the coast of the USA! Enough to stop all oil imports! Hah!

The USA is going to have to adjust to a lower standard of living. How low? No one knows!

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Annoy a pilgrim, face a fine: police

If you Annoy a pilgrim, face a fine: police.

The Catholic Church in Australia is now full of wusses!

New South Wales Police are defending the introduction of new regulations that will allow people to be arrested and fined for causing annoyance during World Youth Day.

Under the laws, police can direct people to stop engaging in conduct that causes annoyance or inconvenience to the pilgrims.

The laws take effect from today until the end of the month.

Emphasis Mine

Catholics are being persecuted and killed in Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, Indonesia, and Palestine.

The previous pope survived persecution under the Nazis then the Communists.

For a religion that was persecuted from the very beginning, annoyance is now seen as an impediment to faith. What the hell is wrong with these Catholics?

So much for following the master to the end!

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