Maybe age is making me increasingly curmudgeonly but I seem to see and hear more things taken at face value that leave me absolutely dumbfounded. The one I read today was so ironic and illogical that it prompts a new series called Illogicality. It will appear when items strike me as asinine enough to be worth dismantling. Appropriately, the inaugural edition is about as incongruous as you can get.
Uproar from various camps surrounds Darren Aronofsky’s new film, Noah, opening in the U.S. this Friday. Glenn Beck was criticizing the movie before seeing it so the studio gave him an advanced screening over the weekend. Beck continued the bashing unabated on his radio show Monday. Now he calls it “pro-animal and anti-human, and I mean strongly anti-human.” Well, let’s look at the source to figure out if he’s right.
According to the account in the New International Version of the Bible, “So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people.'” Genesis 6:13 (emphasis added). But he also instructed Noah “to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.” Genesis 6:19 (emphasis added). Sounds about as pro-animal and anti-human to me as you can get.
You’d think Beck might know the story of Noah comes off that way because of the original author.
To bankrupt a fool, give him information.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes
So, Beck calls himself a “dirtbag” for criticizing a movie before he had seen it. He sees the movie and admits his mistake but he still doesn’t like the flick. Seems ok to me.
I have no problem with whether he likes the movie or not. My point is that is “anti-human” reasong is rather incongruous