First though, our regular (and recent) shout out to this podcast:
And for me the whole point about listening to a broad range of views and perspectives is that you will always learn something, whether you agree with someone else's proposition or not. It's remarkable how many new ideas just come along when you are open-minded, and how many things you never were focusing on, but that are important and well worth taking note of, nevertheless lie standing there outside one's usual circle of attention and 'vision.'
AND SO, ON TO OUR ARTICLE HERE...
The one thing Hollywood has specialized in, over many decades, is the presenting of visually attractive scenes, or a panorama, and then undermining the good feelings of that 'vision' with the injecting of a strong dystopian flavor, giving viewers an abject sense of human hopelessness and real spiritual poverty disguised, often, in an outer covering of 'the heroic.' Or, as in the case of say things like 'Eyes Wide Shut -,' the mysterious, the occult, magic, the dark.
 |
| Rachel and Deckard - Blade Runner (original movie). Camera angle is important... Both are 'replicants.' Not actual 'natural humans.' |
Now at some stage, maybe not to be addressed in this particular article now, it's necessary to look at what even is 'the spiritual.' It's very much more complicated than people, especially your run-of-the-mill religious people, know.
For someone whose direct family (both parents) had academic backgrounds in psychology at some level - it is almost second-nature that I quickly pick up on psychological techniques I see in movies and modern art and photography, about which there is a lot of academic literature available.
That is, there was, such literature widely available in the past, though now, these things are left on dusty 'rear stack' shelves.
The Tom Cruise 2013 movie 'Oblivion' is an excellent example.
The visuals in this movie are not just good, but they encapsulate a long tradition of sci-fi fantasy envisioning; about advanced futuristic human living: beautiful scenery, fewer people, really advanced technology.
And they have the romantic angle beautifully presented in there as well.
 |
| Vika - 'Oblivion,' the movie. Camera angle; also a 'clone' or manufactured humanoid. |
Now, whereas a lot of amateur commentators will typically say 'the presence of conflict as a theme, leads to the underlying drama' this is not at all what is going on. What is going on is the direct open repudiation of human hope, and the forceful depiction of despair.
There is not going to be 'resolution' after the 'drama.' There is going to be absolute loss, suffering, destruction, finality - and 'acceptance' (by you) of and then acknowledgement of personal oblivion. In the case of this particular movie, they were at least more up-front about it.
But they cover what they are doing with a wrapping of 'heroic sacrifice.'
Right so what's the message? You give up, you give everything, you die, and that will be heroic of you. Ta-daaaah. But it's poignant. (LOL).
Thank you, thanks for the twenty bucks, see ya, have a nice day. Don't forget to come back again with another twenty bucks later y'all.
Hollywood succeeds in one particular deceptive exercise: they let you believe for an hour and a half, that they have materialized the spiritual.
They don't stop there. They leave you with the propaganda idea that 'the spiritual' is all bad and it cannot provide any authentic material hope (IE meaning, nothing there for you in the long run).
I was having a conversation with one of our members here just this week, and I said to him the thing about 'free will' is that it is a sine curve which does not have symmetrical denominators.
The more ignorant you are, the greater is your actual 'free will;' and the less ignorant that you are, the less you have free will at all.
 |
| What is this, Noddy? I asked for a glowing night-light... This is nothing but a tourist magnet! |
And so to some extent the usual theory of most religions is false: because in fact there is no such thing as God-granted 'free will.' There is only a sliding scale of intellectual realities based on conscious sentient knowledge as opposed to the lack of it.
Sentient: able to perceive or feel things.
Conscious: aware and responding to one's surroundings, one's self, others.
Knowledge: facts, a practical understanding of something.
Now.
Now...
If I could 'show' you something, let you see - just like in a Hollywood movie - something that would make you feel incredibly good, uplifted, strong, positive, benefited, and therefore hopeful. What would be the implication of it?
