Folks do tend to gloss over that there's been a lot of inhumanity throughout human history. Really, the 20th century is only remarkable insofar as there were a lot more people than before to suffer, and some of said inhumanity was inflicted en masse by new technology rather than on an individual level.

Weird thought just occurred to me. A big difference from previous times is the infant and childhood mortality rate. What if the big to-do isn't about bombs and gulags, but about the fact that there's no longer as steady a stream of innocent souls wafting upward from being cut off early in life? So that more and more people survive into adulthood and the percentage of souls being corrupted by the world is growing too large?

Oh, man. That's creepy and sad, Matt. But I can see what you mean.

It sort of reminds me of that movie, The Seventh Sign, with Demi Moore. Where the Guff was empty?

Oh, yeah. That's something to give you shivers.

My thought had been (after Samifer's speech) that where the 20th Century exceeded all others was in the damage, not just to ourselves, but to the planet. The technology-enhanced cruelties and horror. Sure, we've been ghastly to each other all over the place, and man's inhumanity to man is nothing new.

But the 20th Century basically production lined it.

I think the damage to the planet was key--Samifer called it the last thing God did or something to that effect, and made it clear the hairless apes were screwing it up.

Yeah, I got that impression, too -- he kept calling it this "beautiful thing".

Samifer

Ha! Excellent. JP was just fantastic in that scene, I thought.

Also, since my name is Jennifer, I can read it as a different portmanteau, and one that I find particularly appealing. I wonder why? No, I don't.

On rewatch, I think he overplayed the first couple lines, but once he got into the scene it was gorgeous.

I wonder why? No, I don't.

I can't imagine why!

I rewatched this morning.

Now I want the Watsonian explanation for both last week's dayenu and the kibbutz reference from this episode. (Neither of which I'd expect to hear out of the mouth of a midwestern boy from a generic culturally Christian background.)

Yeah, he could have said commune for kibbutz. That is weird.

I had no idea what the dayenu expression was, and I didn't understand what he was saying when he said, but that one is really sort of obscure for him.

Although it is a religious thing. And he and Sam do know something about religions, so.