OCTOBER 30, 2020 – Wednesday evening I eschewed the news and watched a movie. (My wife worked away in her home office—in the light of a horror film called . . . BREAKING NEWS!) I scrolled through Netflix and settled on Destiny, a film in Arabic, directed by Youssef Chahine (winner of the Cannes 50th Anniversary Award (for lifetime achievement)), financed by the French, set in Andalusia, and shot in Lebanon and Syria. Roger Ebert said of the work, “It’s completely off the map for most American moviegoers, which is one of its charms.”
Ebert wasn’t kidding—the film revolves around the philosophy of Averroes, one of the greatest Islamic polymaths and philosophers of all time.
A few years ago, my wife and I and one of our sons and his now wife traveled to Córdoba, home of Averroes—and of his contemporary, Maimonides, one of the greatest Jewish polymaths and philosophers of all time. I was largely ignorant of those Twelfth Century Giants of the Mind, but during our brief sojourn in Andalusia, I gained enough knowledge of them to appreciate more fully the gaping chasms in my education. (Note: Córdoba was also the birthplace of the Roman writer and philosopher, Seneca the Younger.)
Destiny opens with a follower of Averroes being dragged behind a horse galloping to the center of a medieval town. There a large crowd is gathered to witness the final stage of the poor bloke’s torture: burning at the stake, surrounded by the collected writings of Averroes as added fuel. Over-seeing the horrific affair are Inquisitional Catholics. As the fire is lit, the victim screams out to his son to take his mother and flee to . . . Averroes.
As I watched the scene, lots of thoughts raced around the inside of my head.
The medalists:
FIRST PLACE: Damn the Inquisition! In preparation for our trip to Spain, I’d read up on the Inquisition until I was in deep despair. How could leaders and members of the “Faith of Jesus” commit such horrors in the name of their Lord and Savior? Why, at the Museum of the Inquisition in Seville, were remorse and indignation so muted?
SECOND PLACE: What is it about our species that we find gratification in the pain and suffering of our fellow creatures? This ugly reality alone could explain why alien visitors to planet earth flee the place, canceling their radio signals and all other traces as they scurry away.
THIRD PLACE: Despite our irrationality and abject cruelty, we produce gems such as Averroes and Maimonides; St. Thomas Aquinas—the Christian philosopher so closely identified with them; Aristotle—whose works Averroes studied so intensely; Seneca—whose timeless wisdom blossomed out of Córdoba a thousand years before Averroes and Maimonides; not to mention you! Humanity truly can be better than . . . humanity.
But that’s not all.
BREAKING NEWS: Until we evolve into beings that are only good, just, and beautiful, earth will remain . . . an “alien-free zone.”
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© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
