May 14 2007
While Hiking …
It is getting too late … but want to keep the following thoughts:
I was listening to Diane Rhem while hiking up Mailbox Peak, heard couple stories that triggered the following thoughts:
1. What’s the difference between a documentary film maker and a propagandist? The story was about Leni Riefenstahl. NYKr also had a profilt/book review on her recently. Some people are still very upset and called her a criminal. But really, what was she? A propagandist or a film maker? Did she make up anything in Triumph of Will that did NOT happen in the summer of 1934 Nuremberg? As far as I can recall, it is a silent movie so there can’t be any misleading statement. Isn’t this all about interpretation (i.e. presentation of “reality”)? Knowledge is never only a collection of factual truth, but how they are related and organized. No documentary film maker is not a story-teller. The same can be said about a propagandist.
2. Turkey: the secular and the religous conflicts. I was just wondering: how can a paternalistic and authoritative institution as the military safeguarding secular democracy? Kemal Ataturk apparently didn’t trust either the efficacy of democracy or the nature of Turkish people, so he decided to use state violence as the final guarantee. This is kind of unique and strange, I suddenly realized. Nevertheless, living in an increasingly religious and moralistic America, the Turk’s faith in secularism is both refreshing and admirable.