Joss Whedon (creator of the incredible Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse) recently received the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism from the Harvard Humanist Society, and delivered an interesting address at Memorial Church at Harvard. Here’s a snippet of it, but the most interesting part is the last 20 odd seconds, in which this quotation is heard:
The enemy of humanism is not faith; the enemy of humanism is hate, is fear, is ignorance, is the darker part of man that is in every humanist, every person, in the world. That is the thing we have to fight. Faith is something we have to embrace. Faith in God is believing absolutely in something with no proof whatsoever. Faith in humanity means believing absolutely in something with a huge amount of proof to the contrary.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTY8-XPhTzQ&w=600]
I agree with some parts of Joss’ point. He considers the “dark part of man” to be the enemy of humanism. And every person has this dark part inside of them. I don’t disagree that there is evil inside all of us (we call it “sin” or peccator). What I am surprised (and a bit confused, to be honest) by is why he would still put his faith in humanism if the enemy of humanism is in every person, including every humanist?
I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but I am guessing that Joss means he would put his faith in the goodness, selflessness, creativity, beauty, intelligence, quest for knowledge that are also in every human being. I don’t disagree with him in believing that we are also these things. I just happen to believe that such good things come from God (James 1:17). So if I believe that the good that is in me comes from God, obviously I would put my faith in God, rather than the good that is in me. If one denied the existence of God but still believed in the validity of human goodness, then humanism is a good belief system to hold. But if it is true that the enemy of humanism is in every person and in every humanist, then aren’t humanists putting their faith in a battleground where the enemy still lurks?
I guess humanists would consider faith in humanity (in the battle ground) to be better than faith in what Joss calls the “sky bully”. There is a sense that belief in humanity – in all its complexity and messiness – is much more sophisticated and much more realistic. After all Joss calls humanity “a huge amount of proof”, and calls God the “sky bully looking down on us telling us what we’re supposed to do”. But I think our view is equally complex – look how many conversations we devote on just what it means to be simul iustus et peccator (simultaneously justified and sinful)! It’s not simplistic to have faith in God. It’s just as complex and complicated, if not even more so, because there’s an added variable – GOD. It’s not just us making sense of our messy lives; what does it mean for our lives to be messy and complicated when we believe in and follow a good, loving, merciful, formidable God? What does it mean for us to still have both good and bad inside of us when we also claim to believe that we have been forgiven of our sins, saved by Jesus and washed as white as snow? I personally think that’s a MUCH more interesting question for us to encounter and live out than a humanist approach!
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15 responses to “Joss Whedon on The True Enemy of Humanism”
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Education, Freedom, la, la, la. These are all Protestant Christian virtues that were birthed out of the Reformation. I am not saying the church has gotten it right (Especially in New England. God NO!). But, if it wasn’t for the message of Christianity could you imagine how oppressive this world would be. AH,Humanism at it height, just go to North Korea or Stalinist Russia that is where I want to live.
Joss’ take is never what you’d expect. I suppose that’s part of what makes his shows so fascinating. With the possible exception of Axl Rose (and Jarvis Cocker), I don’t think there’s any “celebrity” I’d rather get a meal with. Bonnie – see if you can set that up…
And thank you for bringing this to our attention! Great stuff, esp your analysis. I’m dying to hear your full thoughts on Dollhouse.
If a genie offers me one wish I will ask that Dave and I get to dine with Joss Whedon.
I think Joss’ shows demonstrate some very thoughtful and sophisticated explorations of what it means to be human. I especially appreciate the reality of good and evil in Joss’ shows. I think humanism is often equated with a kind of non-theistic, wishy washy unitarianism, but Joss’ perspectives appear contrary. Instead he really presents the issues and questions, with a lot of honesty, about what it means to be human and what it means to struggle with good and evil, free will, etc.
As for Dollhouse (don’t worry, no spoilers) – the obvious question is about free will. Not just the simplistic “free will is better” line though. When dolls get their imprints they are the perfect version of what they are meant to be – whether it be lover, spy, wife, negotiator, FBI agent, what have you. They are sentient beings, have feelings, memories, totally on-line (i.e., live), responsive to situational cues. In their roles they are better than well, normal people. But they aren’t purely functional – they aren’t robots. They have feelings, they are lived beings – except they do not choose their imprints. If they are so great, the question is – are the people who run the Dollhouse also Dolls? If Dolls are real people with imprints, then couldn’t Adele, Topher, even Boyd – all be Dolls? So far, the focus has been on how Echo, in her Doll state, is evolving, becoming more sophisticated. I think that’s one indicator of Joss’ humanism – even at our simplest form (i.e. only a body with a very simple mind state) we are still evolving, and what we will become is going to be a surprise, unpredictable, but always evolving, and that is what makes us human, and that is probably one of the things that humanists put their faith in.
Peoples, email me if you want to talk Dollhouse 🙂 bonniezahl-at-gmail-dot-com.
the last three episodes of dollhouse have been sooo good…
There is no health in us…save the grace of God which rains down on all of creation.If it didn’t rain down on the evil as well…well we would be in a heap of do do.It’s God’s grace raining down universally that “greases the wheels” so to speak.Keeps us from destroying ourselves.
Education in and of itself has never created any good.In the hands of “blessed” creatures it might be made manifest.My good intentions are very suspect.When good things happen it is very otherly in my opinion.
It’s been a while since I watched Dollhouse, I found it to be for me a desperate attempt to escape the realities/pain of life into a sexual superhuman as if that could that could deliver us from this body of death.God made us to need him,any attempt or allusion to avoid our “lot” in life is evil/idolatry.We are born with the “imprint” of God and an AIDs like virus that try as we like the antidote is beyond education and lies in faith in the only true salvation which is Jesus Christ
Interesting stuff, but I wonder… Education is always the modern clarion call, but it doesn’t usually count for the Mozart’s or Einstein’s amongst us. Weedon is an interesting character (I really enjoyed Firefly and Serenity), but you have to put him alongside the likes of writers like Ira Behr (the 4400) and Ronald D Moore (Galactica/Caprica) to give him his genre context, and those are two writers, from similar perspectives, who are asking very deep questions about the nature of the human condition and exploring the darkness that is ourselves, and, yes, the need for redemption because of that state, so perhaps Joss has more he needs to unpack there to really gain clarity regarding who and what we are.
> It’s just as complex and complicated, if not even more so, because there’s an added variable – GOD.
Even with education, isn’t the end result of humanism pitting the less-evil/more-good against the more-evil/less-good? So…something outside of humanity is necessary…an additional stable variable that isn’t conflicted in it’s own makeup?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5mK7dzyUkM
This is really interesting, it sheds a lot of light on his work and why it is shaped around found families and how they can bring the best out of humans.