Toynbee and Ikeda
“Another Way of Seeing Things”, is a short film based on an essay by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda – a TFF Associate for more than 20 years – in which, along with a friend and close colleague/collaborator Arnold Toynbee, he challenges media stereotyping and how this can give rise to prejudice and barriers between people of different nationalities and religions.
Toynbee – one of the greatest and most respected macro-historians ever – went to a conflict zone and gave an account different from the black-and-white media narrative of the time and was then forced from his academic position.
This was more than 100 years ago. That the media convey one-sided, politically correct views or outright lies is nothing new – perhaps what is new today is the uniformity, the intensity and the frequency with which it is done.
This is a beautiful and moving rendition of the thought-provoking story and of one man’s courage to go against the (main)stream.
As the editor of The Transnational, I find this story sadly contemporary. Think of how many see Turkey today and think of the coverage/cover-up in the reporting of the NATO-Russia conflict fought in Ukraine.
It seems tragic to me that we have learned so little, if at all. And that journalism as such has decayed rather than re-invented itself for the public service. I’ve said a few things about this here – my experience over almost 50 years with the media.
And there is a wonderful story about the meeting between Dr Ikeda and the TFF founders here.
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