“Professor Norman Corbett:
Since when do we divorce the right answer from an honest one?” – a critique
The Flying Shingle
Monday, February 7 2011
Long ago, when I entered university, I expected to be presented with a view of the world which would somehow cast all of existence in a different light – to actually be enlightened, in the original meaning of the word. Of course, to my dismay, it turned out to be just a replay of high school, except that nobody gave a damn whether you studied or not.
I had a flash of recognition when I watched this film. The theology teacher, who somehow stumbled upon the methodology to truly enlighten his students, of course brought down on his head the wrath of the university. It has been centuries since the university was actually a place where a different way of seeing the world was actually on the curriculum. Theological studies, like all other “courses”, have become mere instruments of indoctrination, teaching students to cut the world up into categories and forcing them to disown their innate wisdom.
The protagonist of this film had discovered how to deprogram his students, leading them, through astonishment and insight, out of the cultural hypnotic trance and into tenure of their own minds. He showed them how to enter their own humanity. He gave them a taste of the experience of Self which is supposed to be the goal of all religion. He was an ecstatic; an artist of the mind.
His vision of Truth eventually attracted to his classroom the luminaries of the artistic tradition. How could the university, a mere factory of degrees understand that? So they took away his tenure, his right to teach, and have refused to tell anyone on what grounds they refuse to allow him to teach. He was wrong, in their view, because his method created “knowledge” which did not fit into the pattern of “received opinion”; could not be analysed, described, categorised, measured, or fit into any model of “information”.
This will always be how someone will be treated, who interferes with the current cultural belief system.
A great documentary - part of the gracious presentation of films generously organised by Tsiporah and Paul Grignon.
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