I Am

As a final conclusion to our class, I like to show the documentary I Am by Tom Shadyac.  The movie resonates with me because it addresses many aspects that our class addresses and it presents a paradigm for thinking about how to move forward in the world using the lessons from our sociology class.  And this is especially true if you felt like the inequalities that the class addressed make you pessimistic or are overwhelming.

Available on: 

Youtube 

Amazon Prime

Apple TV

Below are my movie notes about the most important parts of the movie and in parentheses are the parts of our class that relate to the movie.  I think this movie is a great inspirational way to sum up our class and apply to your life.  But, come back and revisit it, rewatch it and remind yourself of the lessons of our class. They will mean different things to you as you get older and more experienced.  This is true for all of the lessons of our class, so I hope you will stay one of my students and one of my teachers.  Peace and love to you,

This documentary was created by Tom Shadyac a writer/director of many Hollywood blockbuster films: Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, Liar Liar, The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams, Accepted, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.  After a serious injury, Shadyac asks, “What’s wrong with the world? And what can we do about it?”

“Humanity is going to require a new way of thinking if it is to survive” – Albert Einstein

Lynn McTaggart author of "The Field"

Science has recently begun to prove what ancient myth and religion have always espoused: There may be such a thing as a life force.

Lynne McTaggart, indefatigable investigative journalist, reveals a radical new biological paradigm -- that on our most fundamental level, the human mind and body are not distinct and separate from their environment but a packet of pulsating power constantly interacting with this vast energy sea.

The Field is a highly readable scientific detective story that offers a stunning picture of an interconnected universe and a new scientific theory that makes sense of supernatural phenomena.

 

David Suzuki author of "Sacred Balance" 

What are the real needs that must be satisfied to live rich, fulfilling lives? This is the question David Suzuki explores in this wide-ranging study. Suzuki begins by presenting the concept of people as creatures of the Earth who depend on its gifts of air, water, soil, and sun energy. He shows how people are genetically programmed for the company of other species, and suffer enormously when we fail to live in harmony with them. And he analyzes those deep spiritual needs, rooted in nature, that are also a crucial component of a loving world. Drawing on his own experiences and those of others who have put their beliefs into action, The Sacred Balance is a powerful, passionate book with concrete suggestions for creating an ecologically sustainable, satisfying, and fair future by rediscovering and addressing humanity’s basic needs.

Thom Hartmann author of "Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight"

"The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" details in three parts the damage being done to our biosphere, the reasons why our culture would inevitably do such damage, and how we can fix the problem.

Elizabet Sahtouris, Evolutionary biologist, author of Gaia's Dance

Dean Radin chief scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences

Chris Jordan, photographer.  Artworks for change.   I Pluribus Unum project.  Turning powerful stats into art Ted Talk.

Dacher Keltner, U of C Berkley,  Greater Good Science Center.

Noam Chomsky, 

Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

John Francis author of Planetwalk and website

Desmond Tutu, Nobel Prize Winner,  Peace Foundation

Coleman Barks, Rumi Translator, 

Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael, 

Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface

Part 1: What's Wrong With our World?

(The Social Construction of Science and Cultural Values)

Science is a story. It changes over time. Part of the story of science, since the Enlightenment, is that people are like machines; we are made from materials and we are mechanistic. We operate in the world under that assumption. We compartmentalize each other and our world this way.  

(Culture and American Values)

This way of thinking creates a separateness a competitiveness and a materialism that pervade Western society, especially the United States. 

“Be suspicious of what you want.” -Rumi

Native Americans noticed this way of thinking when Europeans first came to the Americas. They have a word called “wetico” which means a sort of cannibalism where one culture eats or destroys another culture’s way of life.

"One of the stories that we have been told is that we live in a reliable, well-behaved universe that operates predictably in actions independent of each other." 

We tell ourselves a truth and a lie.  The truth is that we need a small amount of physical things to make us happy: warmth, shelter, food, companionship.  The lie is that if that much stuff makes you happy then twice as much will make you twice as happy and ten times will make you ten times happier and so on... 

(Masculinity and Competition)

One myth that has been promoted that prevents us from realizing this interconnectedness is the belief that the essential nature of humans is to be competitive, instead of cooperative to dominate instead of subordinate, to seek kingdom over democracy. This is a myth promoted inaccurately by supporters of Darwin. Instead, the basis of nature is egalitarian, cooperative and democratic. 

What we now know is that we are more than the sum of all of our parts and we are connected to much more than ourselves. Each individual is connected to all other humans, not just in the United States, but in the world. And each human in the world is connected to all living things. And all living things are connected to the non-living.

(Socialization and the Nature-Nurture Dynamic)

Desmond Tutu, 

A solitary human is an impossibility.  We came into being because a community of people came together.  We depend utterly and completely on other human beings to be human.  The truth is that we are because we belong.

Darwin mentioned, “survival of the fittest” twice and “love” 95 times. Humans evolved to cooperate. Sympathy is the strongest human instinct. We have mirror neurons that help us have sympathy. Our vagus nerve helps us to elevate us to compassion. 

Vagus Nerve

Elevation by Jonathon Haidt

Thom Hartmann,

We are hard-wired for a compassionate response to the troubles of others.  It's in our DNA.  We are born to be egalitarian and democratic.  We are born to respect each other, to be a community, to be our brother's keeper.  We are hard-wired for a compassionate response to the trouble of others.  

St. Jude Children's Hospital

Part 2: How can we fix it?

(Social Class and Consumption)

Desmond Tutu,

Now and again when we have served others, we actually discover a deep contentment, an ecstacy that is absent from the opposite.

Nurture affects Nature

Heartmath Institute researching the connection between heart and brain.

Rollin McCraty

We function better in a state of love and compassion.  Positive states are good for you; they literally renew your physiology.  Anger makes us stupid. It inhibits our thinking. Our heart is our primary access point to our higher self. 

Rumi

“What was said to the rose to make it open was said here to me in my chest.”

Lynn McTaggart author of "The Field"

We are all connected to the same energy field.  We are not separate.  The field is the only reality.

Noetic Sciences 

Quantum Entanglement

"Spooky action from a distance"

Henry Stapp explanation  here.

Consciousness and physics

Einstein - Podolsky - Rosen Paradox aka "spooky action at a distance."

Coleman Barks

Sentience is a cause for rapture; just being here is a reason for celebration.  Grief is also a form of celebration.  The rose celebrates by falling to the ground and the clouds celebrate by weeping.

Francis of Assisi

It was easy to love God in all that was beautiful.  The lessons of deeper knowledge though, instructed me to embrace God in all things.

Elizabet Sahtouris

I was with the Dalai Lama and I asked him what is the most important meditation we can do?  He said, "Critical thinking followed by action."  Understand the world and figure out how your talents can make the world a better place.  Each of us must do something that makes our heart sing because no one will want to do it with us unless we are passionate and inspired.

Howard Zinn

Every word you utter to another human being has an effect, but you don't know it.  Change comes about because of a million tiny acts....You can't be neutral on a moving train.

Desmond Tutu

“There is only one way of eating an elephant; a piece at a time.  And so, you can’t do anything about global poverty, but we can do something about that guy over there. 

Because you see, remember, The sea is really only drops of water that have come together...

God says, "You know what? I don't have anybody else except you."

 

Resources Going Forward

Sociology for the MCAT

Sociology and Careers