Noah, Suthep and the perils of blind faith

Noah, Suthep and the perils of blind faith

Dirty Songkran water splashed by impertinent teenagers is nothing compared to the Mother of All Liquid: the Biblical (and Koranic) flood unleashed by God to punish corrupt, sinful men. It’s up to Noah — who, like Suthep Thaugsuban, is the Chosen One on the greatest mission in his life — to save mankind, or only the righteous among mankind, from the aquatic calamity by building the Ark that would carry the good seeds of humanity into the cleaner, less evil world. Noah wasn’t democratically elected for such a daunting task, so why should our man in Lumpini, and for a task much less apocalyptic?

“None of your People will believe except those who have believed already!” reads the Koran. “So grieve no longer over their [evil] deed. But construct an Ark under Our eyes and Our inspiration.” It was also instructed that only Noah’s family, each pair of animals, and “Believers” would be allowed to board the history-making vessel.

From the Bible: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually … The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence … I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is one the earth shall die.”

For 40 days the rain fell and Noah’s Ark bobbed above the submerged mountain peaks. After that, a dove was dispatched and it returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak, signalling the renewal of life. Only the Believers lived. History continued — or it simply began.

It’s such a good story, so if you’re not playing Songkran with the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) this weekend in Lumpini Park, you can opt for a tale of good mankind-vs-wicked mankind in Daren Aronofsky’s Noah, a strange biblical blockbuster, and I’m sure Mr Suthep will have no problem identifying with the film's prophetic hero, who in this version goes slowly mad.

Round up the good people and put them in the Ark, and God’s epic chastisement will descend upon the Unbelievers outside who persist in their crooked ways. For sure. The Constitutional Court rulings are expected to do just that: a post-Songkran cleansing that would wash this filthy land clean so that history might continue — or it would simply begin.

This movie version of Noah takes a number of poetic licences to fill its 135 minutes. Scruffy Russell Crowe plays the vegetarian prophet in a Mad Max-like world populated by flesh-eating louses — Cain’s descendants — wallowing in sin, rage and lust. Noah receives a revelation about the diluvium, and fire-breathing stone angels turn up to help him build the Ark. The weird and interesting part comes when the deluge strikes, the ground spits inexorable water and Noah’s family is aboard the vessel: once adrift in the inundated world, Noah goes crazy, like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, because he’s convinced that God wants him to kill all humans, including his family, in order that the purgation of mortal sins would be complete. Out comes the dagger, and blind faith turns out to be the greatest corrupter of all.

This, of course, isn’t in either the Bible or the Koran. It’s not hard to see why the film was banned in many Muslim countries. But even in a water-splashing Buddhist land like ours, the interplay between faith and doubt — between divine instructions and human free will, between the power to define what’s “righteous” and the complex reality of earthly life — is the essence of spiritual dynamic as well as in the political theatre.

Blind faith has led to mass rallies of all colours, and those who express doubt are cast into the camp of infidels worthy of hate speech and punishment. Mr Suthep and the PDRC’s rhetoric of "good people" make him most resemble Russell Crowe, I mean the modern Noah, mandated to save the world overrun by greedy carnivores. Humanism? Not now, not when evil rules. Believing that he’s speaking directly to God, Noah assumes the sovereign power to decide the fate of us all.

Only that we’re no longer living in the pre-history biblical epoch. In the movie, it’s Emma Watson, playing Noah’s adopted daughter Ila, who talks sense into the disillusioned prophet. “God has chosen you for a reason,” she says. That reason is mercy, sympathy, humanity. She’s implying that while faith makes us strong, it’s doubt that makes us human.


Kong Rithdee is deputy Life editor, Bangkok Post.

Kong Rithdee

Bangkok Post columnist

Kong Rithdee is a Bangkok Post columnist. He has written about films for 18 years with the Bangkok Post and other publications, and is one of the most prominent writers on cinema in the region.

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