Бесплатный фрагмент - Films and Levels — 2

Preface

Since December 2016, Amazon.com sells two my books (both in two versions — in Russian and in English). I will refer to them as the first book (in Russian and in English) and the second book (in Russian and in English). The third book is now in front of you.

By this, I close a long period of my life, which began February 18, 1989, when I phoned to my wife and dictated to her the first draft of my super-theory. It’s time to raise eyes and look around. What goes on around?

Donald Trump became president-elect. Saakashvili resigned from his post as governor of Odessa (Ukraine) and announced establishing of a new political party. After which he was blocked at all Ukrainian TV channels. Apart from TV-show of Savik Shuster, which, as far as I know, would not live long either.

The first book contains big chapter about politics, starring Trump, Saakashvili, and Putin. About Trump and Saakashvili I have said above. Now about Putin.

Putin and Putin’s propaganda machine is today the main threat to the all civilized world. This is a duty of every intelligent person today — to speak out against this machine, and to help to stop it.

But if it’s a war, if the war machine is against us — what can we contrapose to it? We need the latest and strongest methods of message analysis —

• of the information which is emitted, broadcasted, transferred, firstly, and

• of the information which is received, perceived, understood — secondly.

At the beginning of the second book, I have used this image: the certain broadcast could be received at a certain frequency, and your receiver should tune to that frequency.

Human communication also goes at certain frequencies = levels. I suggest that human communication uses 8 levels and I call them by numbers from 1 to 8. The first book describes this as a theoretical model. The second one illustrates all levels with situations from my favorite films.

The second leading motif of this book (and the series in general) is as follows.

Humanity needs one global framework du discuss serious things like values, love and war, family and childhood, and other serious things.

We need such meaningful framework that will filtrate good people in and bad people out. I mean a framework of values and meanings, not technical tools. And I would really like to create such a framework with my books. But the framework must be global — therefore it must work in English speaking world too.

Just as the good cities are built near origins of the drink water, and industrial enterprises — near cheap sources of energy, a platform for serious discussion of serious issues should be built -where?

Next to the global producer of meanings.

Today, the world’s best producer of global meanings is the American cinema. Analyzing the conflicts and problems embodied in American movies (since 1990), I discuss many important things.

Speakin in terms of my precvious books, it sets levels of communication — the sixth and the eighth level. Sixth — you have to know how to articulate your opinions and ideas and how to prove them. Eighth — you have to take into account the interests and opinions of as many potential interlocutors and opponents as possible.

Philosophy — from the time of Socrates — often pretended to be a free dialogue environment, but actually it was not. I believe that Socrates himself was fond of free dialogue, but in Plato’s Socratic dialogues, character named Socrates acts as a skilled manipulator. Attention! A manipulation and a free dialogue are incompatible.

As all we observe now, low culture of dialogue has led the Western world to the two shocking discoveries; neither Trump nor Brexit have not been predicted by sociologists. Why? Because one half of society persistently ignored the other half — and only when these unexpected votings happened, they recognize each other.

These two motives — fighting against evil and uniting with forces of good – through high-level (6–8) dialog — push me ahead, make me to publish one idea after another, to release one book after another.

This dialog is my last hope.

Ruling the world

The Accountant (2016)

Synopsis

Let me present the plot chronologically (not as it is given in the film).

The American officer is raising two sons — the senior (shown as a child of 10—12 years) and the junior (2—3 years younger). Senior one is autistic. He is fast at solving puzzles, but the minor setback drops him into hysterics, emotional storm.

The family has a choice — to send a senior one in the cozy world of special hostel or? Father refuses option with the hostel and decides to bring up his sons by himself. His wife does not stand up and leaves the family.

Father’s career moves him from city to city, from country to country, and the boys move with him. On every new place, father finds a master of martial arts who teaches the boys to fight.

When — in one of the new father’s job place in America, local teenagers begin to scoff at the boys, the father lets the brothers out of the car “to punish the offenders”. Judging by the conversations in the car, the offenders will get broken hands (wrists).

As one who has studied the issue personally, I do not believe that autistic boy, as we know him on the flashbacks, could grow into intellectual adult person like Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), as it is shown in the film.

But — suppose he could.

What is important for us?

First, Christian Wolff not only earns money as an accountant for mafia. He revenges the mafia persons who tortured and killed his good friend. (The feds actually left the friend without protection at the mercy of his former cronies.)

Second, Christian has time to inform feds, and makes them to take action. For example, in the case of a ship, which carried the Chinese illegals.

Third, Christian saves from killers his colleague Dana Cummings (actress Anna Kendrick). Along the way, he had to destroy a team of thugs and goes face-to-face with its leader. The leader happened to be his younger brother — Brax (actor Jon Bernthal).

Summary

Authors of the film believe that the world in general and America in particular, is controlled by maniacs — a good maniacs (Christian), unscrupulous maniacs (Brax) and strange maniacs (their father). In this film, a good maniac wins. Good?

Feds (FBI) sometimes help good maniacs. Sometimes they deceive common people. But they — on average — define nothing.

Christian, being autistic, must have very high levels 3 (the pursuit of goals) and level 6 (accurate calculation) very high. But his levels of 5 and 8 should be very low.

In the film, Christian instantly makes risky decisions (level 5) in difficult circumstances (fighting alone in the night against the gang), that seems to me quite impossible. I believe, that the martial arts are built on the “sense of the enemy” — that is, on the eighth level — and on “unpredictable actions” — that is, on the fifth level.

Strictly speaking, for the authors of the film, the psychological portrait of the hero is just a means to demonstrate the main thesis (which I personally do not agree) — that the world in general and America in particular are under controls of maniacs (see above)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

IMHO

I personally hate the saga of Harry Potter. Little boy is forced to suffer under pressure of wild countless humiliations for the sake of “pedagogical expediency.” Really, wizards could find something better, could not they?

The main problem for Harry is how to keep a simple human dignity — first among domestic humiliation, then among a fame in the world of wizards. Finally — under the pressure of large and small forces of evil. Save dignity, no matter what! Indeed, the key issue of British history for each individual Briton.

Harry — and all around him — is highly concerned about how to look good in the eyes of others — but not of all people (muggles do not count), but the only decent (magicians). That is, for everyone — including Harry — level 4 is of great importance.

Newt Scamander is absolutely not concerned how he looks. What he thinks about is the others — animals, humans, wizards, muggles — everyone. Level 8 is the main point.

Level 4 (follow the rules) is not so positive in eyes of authors — sometimes it covers a villainy (Mary Lou by Samantha Morton). This is a radical change of the author’s point of view. I like this new position of J.K.Rowling much more.

Tina’s (Katherine Waterston) striving to comply with the rules (4th level) is facing her deeper motives (levels 6 and 8).

Synopsis

Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arrives in New York and plans to go to Arizona for his zoo-magical affairs. But some circumstances are delaying him.

These circumstances involve a common man Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), two young attractive witches — sisters Tina and Queenie (Katherine Waterston and Alison Sudol), American Association of magician, and others.

Newt and Tina happily avoide the death penalty and expose the evil wizard Greendewald (Johnny Depp) pretending to be a good magician Percival Graves (Colin Farrell)

Summary

Especially disgusting are fanatics — like a fighter with the magic Mary Lou Barebone, which beats her adopted children.

Positively looking magician Percival Graves is not able to see in the boy Creedence his magical power — and this suppressed magic turns into a black tornado, carrying destruction all around.