More Than One Lesson

I realized halfway through watching Inside Job, Charles Ferguson’s Oscar-winning documentary that I didn’t understand half of what I was hearing.  Despite the concise writing and editing of Chad Beck and Adam Bolt, the explanatory voiceover of Matt Damon and the supplemental motion graphics from Bigstar, I still don’t understand what CDOs are nor how they can be bought and sold, I still have no idea what makes subprime mortgages so destructive and overall, I largely still have an unclear picture on the multitude of factors that led to the $20 trillion global financial crisis of 2008.  Despite my unwilling ignorance, I understood enough of the horrific portrait Ferguson was painting to feel something I’ve rarely experienced while watching movies: rage.

[…]

Jim was born and raised a “Christian” in suburban New Jersey but didn’t lose the air quotes until he spent 4 years at Messiah College and was truly able to explore his faith.  It was there that his illusions of being the next Stephen King were shattered, but like a phoenix rising from the ashes, he then discovered a new passion: film.  Ever since then, Jim has fallen in love with Groundhog Day, the horror genre and the films of Martin Scorsese and is happy to know that there are some Christians out there who have actually watched The Last Temptation of Christ.

Did you guys hear that they killed Osama Bin Laden?  It’s kind of a big deal.  Like most Americans, I heard of what will undoubtedly go down as the story of the year on the Sunday night when it happened and subsequently spent the following Monday trying to derive the details from everything I could when I was supposed to be working.  But unlike most Americans, I wasn’t really sure how I should react to the death of another human being.

[…]