Book Review - Positive Humanism

Bo Bennett's Positive Humanism

I just finished reading Bo Bennett's new book - Positive Humanism: A Primer .  I enjoyed it. It's a short read - just 32 pages in pdf form and consists of several short essays - that take us through the basics of Positive Humanism.

This is an academically oriented book. It is meant to be a sequel to Gerard Larue's The Way of Positive Humanism . What is Positive Humanism?  Is the focus of Humanism on all that is positive - how to live life better and be a better person and flourish - and a downplaying of the - what we are against approach that a lot of the modern Humanist movement seems to find itself stuck in.

Now, for a Humanist, like me, some of this was a bit redundant, known and obvious. I wouldn't necessarily call his version of Humanism, Positive Humanism as something separate from what I know Humanism to be - but at the same time, I understand why it might be necessary given the current movement's penchant to focus on - rights of non-belief - as if that is the sum total of what we Humanists are concerned about.

Back to the book, For someone new to the concept of Humanism, or who is coming out of the self-help and success guru world, or who - like the author, spent time as an angry atheist and is trying to rid themselves of their "anger" – this is a really good book and a really needed book.

I kind of wish I had read his bio (which is at the back) first as it would have made the rest of the book – and how he approached the subject make more sense. But again, that may be because I'm well versed in the subject and so understanding WHY Bo wrote this book and his background would have helped me appreciate his approach better.  His background by the way is self help guru turned self help skeptic turned angry atheist, turned social psychologist PhD, turned advocate for Positive Humanism, as a way to combat the many "success" myths that permeate the self help word..

As for the specific content. I liked how he laid out the scientific case for rationalism and morality without religion.  I also liked how he dealt with the problem of free will. This may seem esoteric - but it does matter to the practice of Humanism because if we don't have free will (and the scientific jury is still out on that), then how can we choose to be good.  His answer is - it doesn't matter if we have free will or not. I love that. That's kind of how I approach it to.

 However, his conclusion on the topic of free will left me feeling a little icky.  His conclusion is about how we are part of the causal chain for others.  We can change others.  This bothered me a bit because my own Humanist practice is so inward looking. Yeah – I’m dedicated to making the world a better place. But intentionally trying to change someone – that makes me uncomfortable. It seems disrespectful. I think of Humanism as a personal practice. That is what works for me. I share it because I think others could be helped by it as well. But they are free to chose a different path. Intentionally trying to change other people who don’t want to be changed bothers me. I got what he was saying. It's a way to deal with the free will problem and not devolve into victim blaming by taking an optimistic and positive and compassionate approach to people who believe and behave differently – but it still smacked of privilege and ego.

All in all - it's a good addition to the written world of Humanism. Now – if I can just talk him into turning his Many Myths of Success presentation into an online course for Humanist Learning System.

Best Bollywood Moments

Hindi movies have their own language and way of telling a story and there are some necessary elements of every movie - like the - I just realized I was in love fantasy dance sequence.  Here is a list of my favorite moments so far.

• Best product placement:  You may be wondering why this is first. Well, all these movies have paid product placement.  Some of it is really over the top and I've come to love the over the top obviousness  and silliness of the placements. These must be done intentionally to lighten the mood, so, here are two movies that do it particularly well. 
• Chennai Express: where an expensive Nokia Lumina phone is actively and openly discussed as part of the dialogue so that we are given the price, where you can buy it and what sorts of features it has. It is also thrown from a moving train where it lands face up so you can see - it's still working and not broken! And yeah - that's actually a plot point. Torwards the end, during the get your ass kicked for love final battle (and yes, that's a thing), Shahrukh is bloodied and thrown to the ground and his undershirt is completely covered in blood except for one spot near the neck which for some reason has the label of a really expensive shirt maker. This is made all the funnier when he says - don't underestimate the power of the common man. As if a common man could afford that undershirt.
• Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage - this ass kicking for love is brought to you by Coca Cola. 

• Best title dance sequence: Dhoom 2 with Hrithik Roshan 

I also really love Bodyguard's title dance sequence. It's just Salman Khan pec pumping to the beat. And yes, it is supposed to be funny - this movie is a romantic comedy.

• Best – I just fell in love fantasy dance sequence. Perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of bollywood movies is the I just fell in love fantasy dance sequence. Westerners don't always understand why suddenly we are in Kashmir or Paris dancing. It's a fantasy. The character has just realized they are in love and then they have a fantasy of them and their beloved. What they fantasize tells you quite a bit about their character - so it's actually important to character development. To understand what's happening, you have to have some understanding of the movie that the character is imaginging themselves to be the hero or heroine of. One of the best plays on this is Darr De Disco from Om Shanti Om - where the character is a shallow actor who insist his character (who is deaf, mute and without arms and legs) should have a fantasy dance that is a disco number - the pain of disco - it's hysterical). Anyway - I have 3 fantasy dance sequences I love!
• 3 idiots - Kareena Kapoor starts seeing Aamir everywhere and has fantasies of being in a Yash Chopra wedding and of being the heroine in Sawaariya. Which basically means - she's a romantic looking for a love marriage. The song is called Zoobi Doobi
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• Rowdy Rathore  - Akshay Kumar - a) he's a beautiful dancer. But he's also playing a petty thief. His, I just realized I'm in love fantasy is that he is Amitabh Bachchan in any of his classic movies. So - he imagines himself to be a hero in a romance. When he hits the Amitabh dance move - he totally nails it. This is funny, provides great character development and is a wonderful homage to Amitabh all at the same time.
• Yeh Dillagi again, with Akshay - this is a remake of Sabrina - and the sequence where he realizes he's in love is wonderful - the dancing is great too. Remember, he's fantasizing all of this standing outside her house. It's a great homage to Dancing in the rain as well.

• Best dance in the rain – While we are in the rain - let's look at Sridevi from Mr. India. This pretty much sets the standard for the dancing in a wet sari dance sequences

• Best Song – Saawariya

• Best use of song for exposition? – Om Shanti Om - basically - they are using the music launch for a movie to expose a crime committed - so you get the entire recap of the movie so far in this sequence. It's pretty cool and a great song as well. 

• Best choreography with children? – Aamir Dhoom 3 - can't find a clip - but trust me - Aamir is great when he dances with kids. 

• Best cameo(s)  – Om Shanti Om - pretty much everyone famous in Bollywood at the time is in this - it's supposed to be an after party for an awards night.  Plus - my son loves this song.

• Best end credits – Makkhi - which is about a man who reincarnates as a fly seeking revenge. The best part of this is that the flies do lots of famous dance numbers and moves.

• Best – I can totally kick your ass sequence Rajnikanth in Chandramurkhi. It's what he's good at.

• Best ass kicking for love: Hrithik Roshan in Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage - I don't know if it's the angles he is filmed falling with blood flying in slow motion or what - but I thought this was really funny. 

• Best car crash - Dhoom 3 - it really was a thing of beauty - though the choreographed junkyard cars in Ra-One was good - but it's the only part of Ra-One worth seeing.