[lit-ideas] Re: Luther
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:53:13 -0500 (EST)
The one I saw was made in 2003 with Jonathan Fiennes. I saw parallels with
today's war in Iraq, even if not perfect parallels. Luther was basically an
insurgent to Emperor Charles; he fired up a huge following. His was a movement
that once it began became unstoppable. Also, in the history of the world,
Luther can be seen as an antihero, having inflicted on the world untold death
and suffering for centuries, as George Bush may have done in Iraq if it spills
over into the rest of the Middle East and from there to snowball who knows
where, especially if they invade Iran. The Iraqi insurgency is off to a start
no less powerful than was Luther's Reformation. Would it have been better to
have let the papacy sputter itself out in corruption; would it have been better
to leave Iraq alone, let it simmer along and rot from within as did the SU?
In some ways I think an analogy can also be drawn between the now impotent U.S.
and the Holy Roman Empire of Luther's day, i.e.. the corruption of 16th
century Rome and the corruption of the USA today with its economy based on
putting people to work digging holes and filling them back up again, otherwise
known as building state of the art WWII military equipment in 2007. Seriously,
how is that substantively different economically from selling indulgences? In
the most corrupt of ironies, soldiers amid the plenty of General Dynamic's
amphibious beach storming equipment (and bonuses thereon) are sent out to wage
war without armor and decent equipment.
-----Original Message-----
>From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Feb 18, 2007 6:22 PM
>To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Luther
>
>On 2/19/07, Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Saw the movie last night. I liked it. It was done by a Lutheran
>> organization so it probably was a bit prejudiced.
>
>If it was the same one I saw in the late 1950s, while I was growing up
>Lutheran in Virginia, I liked it, too. The scene where Luther
>confronts the emperor at the Diet of Wurms and sayd, "Here I stand, I
>can do no other," burned itself into my brain along with Patrick
>Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" (Colonial Williamsburg was
>just 20 minutes up the road).
>
>Undoubtedly one of the main reasons I find wingnuts who are willing to
>sacrifice habeas corpus and support pre-emptive wars for a wholly
>illusory safety (ask the folks in the Baghdad neigborhood who got two
>car bombs and 60 more dead just after the American patrol moved on
>down the street yesterday morning), shall we say straightforwardly,
>immoral and idiotic.
>
>John
>
>
>--
>John McCreery
>The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
>Tel. +81-45-314-9324
>http://www.wordworks.jp/
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