Unimpressive Journalism: NPR Science Friday "The Happening" (Shyamalan)
Science Friday Archives: The Happening
This is one of only two NPR programs I listen to regularly, and while I occasionally find it a little "soft on science" it is generally well produced and presented.
That's why the recent segment allowing Mr. Shyamalan to flog his new movie "The Happening" was surprisingly bad. Evidently Mr. Shyamalan believes we must stop expecting Science to save the day, embrace our ignorance, and find God in all his many and multifarious disasters.
From bees to storms, Mr. Shyamalan blithely rattled off some failings of modern Science (as he sees them) and then reminded Mr. Flatow that Einstein started out life as a non-believer, but was a wholly religious man toward the end of his life.
Unfortunately, Mr. Flatow only corrected his most baldly false assertion, but was unable or unwilling to engage him on his larger agenda. The anti-science pro-Jeebus lobbies are indeed poisoning the well, infiltrating public schools, and, of course, getting prime airtime to flog unreleased films on NPR's Science Friday.
I pray for America's brain.
Comments
This is not surprising considering the hold that fundamentalism has on this country at the moment. Fundamentalism always takes root during times of cultural change, and thus, since 2001, fear has been our steady companion with Mr. Bush and the news always telling us how afraid we should be (if not always what we should be afraid of), along with the "terrorist threat" monitor, that colored thing that always seems to remain on "high" (we all know it will never go down because that would be counterproductive to agenda passing for politicians). It is sad that M. Night Shyamalan has decided to jump on this particular religious/political bandwagon. I really thought he was smarter than this, but on the other hand, from an artistic point of view, artists tend to reflect societal trends, so perhaps he is more savvy than he understands at present. Religion is indeed running our lives, from the White House on down. We should take notice, and we should guard our civil liberties against this influx of religion, but it is good we educate ourselves about religion, world religions, and the interaction of religion with politics.
Regardless, I'm a big fan of the study of comparative religion in schools.
Of course, I'm an atheist!
Best Regards,
Richard