Now Hear This

"The Passion” shows Jesus suffering and facing death with fortitude. Any decent human being would feel pity for an innocent man who is tortured and killed. And each of us will face suffering in our lives. But suffering is the exception and the world is not a vale of tears. We should plan and expect to achieve our values and goals. We should know that we have the power to understand the world around us and to use our knowledge, strength and fortitude to create the things that allow us to live and flourish: houses and skyscrapers; airplanes and rockets; medicine; works of art and the like. The essential fact about human life - the fact on which a morality of life should be based - is not the inevitability of suffering but the possibility of achievement.

Gibson’s film shows the depths of depravity to which humans can sink, and prompts deep reflection. But only a moral code of personal responsibility, not original sin; self-interest, not self-sacrifice; and achievement, not suffering; can avoid the dangers of moral relativism and intolerance, and ensure both personal happiness and a free society."

Bold added for reasons that should be self explanatory.

From Edward Hudgins’ review of The Passion.

Via Shawn Klein at the Ayn Rand Meta-Blog.

Posted by on 03/07 at 01:25 PM

  1. Achievement and Suffering are both inevitable – aren’t they Mr. Venlet?

    Well, at least the suffering is inevitable.

    Posted by  on  03/08  at  09:50 AM

  2. I think that whether suffering and achievement are “inevtiable” is up to the individual, upon which circumstances act, and the individual’s daily choices, reactions, as circumstances occur, and as circumstances are created, via their individual choices.

    Posted by  on  03/08  at  10:25 AM

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