Thursday, October 4, 2007

Zeitgeist Part One--Unbalanced

Last night I briefly touched on the experience following the viewing of "Zeitgeist." Literally translated, it means spirit of the age, singularly joining together the disjointed movie segments.

Tonight I want to BRIEFLY critique the scholarship of part one of Zeitgeist. My critique, the scholarship is nearly nonexistent. If you have watched the film, you may have noticed the convenient lack of any citations that may lead the viewer to the origin of the many factual statements made by the orator. How convenient.

But, digging past the emotional appeals, one notices a quotation by Gerald Massey. Massey was an UNEDUCATED, self taught Egyptologist. Massey was influenced and mentored by Alvin Kuhn, another self taught expert in the field of comparative religion. Alvin's writing are dismissed today as lunacy, and Massey is considered outside the realm of relevant scholarship. Massey's findings, which are exemplified in part one of Zeitgeist, are based off one relief (of millions) in Egypt.

Do the research for yourself. Nowhere, besides Massey's presupposed works, are there so many similarities between Jesus and Horus. But that isn't the problem. The problem is that an author of a film depended on only twon things to convince you, the viewer, of the legitamacy of his claims: 1) an obvious emotional appeal, and 2) the work of ONE obscure and uneducated author.

It makes me question part 2 and 3 of the film.

3 comments:

Lippard said...

Nate:

My estimate is that Zeitgeist is about 95% nonsense.

There are half-truths, misrepresentations, and fabrications from one end to the other, probably mostly there from uncritically borrowing from pseudoscholarship and conspiracy literature.

nate said...

Exactly!

I don't know much about government conspiracy theories...but I know a good deal about part one, and the scholarship was exactly what you call it..."pseudo scholarship."

So, that seems to say to me that such pseudoschalarship was used in parts 2 and 3.

Thanks for your comment!!!

Lippard said...

Nate: I finally got around to writing a longer critique of Zeitgeist, with links to other more detailed critiques. Enjoy.