[MD] Mindwalk

[Ham Priday]

Krimel, Marsha, Craig, and all --

Like others here, I took Krimmel's advice and watched this movie on the 
Internet.  I'm not a fan of Sam Waterson or Liv Ullmann, who play a would-be 
American presidential candidate (Jack Anderson) and a European physicist 
(Sonya Hoffman) on sabbatical.  But the film does offer some interesting 
perspectives on philosophy versus political policies.

For those who haven't reviewed it, the film is kind of a walking version of 
'Dinner with Andre'.  The above stars are joined by John Heard in the role 
of Tom, the politician's speechwriter.  All the conversation takes place in 
and around the medieval abbey on Mount St. Michel, France, and it includes 
some interesting dialogue--especially Ullmann's analogies to explain 
subatomic physics as a science of relationships rather than particles. 
Frankly, I think Krimel's poetic review (3:02 PM, 3/11) captures the essence 
of this conversation more succinctly than Capra's movie does.

For one thing, Liv as Sonya describes Descartes' concept of man as that of a 
"mechanical machine" (which is untrue), and credits Descartes rather than 
Aristotle for inventing the scientific method.  All three characters seem to 
feel that "the world needs a new vision", and that it's the politicians' 
(i.e, Government's) duty to provide it.  Sonya is disgruntled that her 
research on lasers was grabbed up by the military for warfare, instead of 
for the medical uses she had in mind. "Over 70% of the money for scientific 
research comes from the Pentagon," she whines.  "What's good for General 
Motors is not good for America," she says; "the obsessive pursuit of growth 
has to stop," which would seem inconsistent with her positive world vision. 
And there's far more talk about ecological values than human values (which I 
suspect was Capra's theme, along with the "interrelatedness of all things").

While the screenplay is a three-way philosophical discourse with three 
individuals of different backgrounds, I don't share Krimel's enthusiastic 
comment that it discusses "nearly everything that makes the MoQ one of my 
personal obsessions."  Perhaps Anderson's friend comes closest to Pirsig's 
metaphysics--if not the Tao--when he quotes a poem by the Chilean poet Pablo 
Neruda:
    "I walked around as you do, investigating
    the endless star, and in my net, during the night,
    I woke up naked, the only thing caught,
    a fish trapped inside the wind."
"Don't you feel that the only thing you ever catch is your own self back 
again?" Tom asks Sonya.

I'm not sure whether it was Krimel or Marsha who initially recommended this 
movie, but thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Regards,
Ham