How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
SPECIAL EDITION: “NETWORK & The Powers That Be" – Part One: “The Voice”
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Tuesday May 9, 2023
“…no predictor of the future, not even Orwell, has ever been as right as Chayefsky was when he wrote ‘Network.’”
– Aaron Sorkin
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
Last night I watched the insightful 1976 film “Network” again and felt compelled to comment on it. Although about the impact and influence of television, power, and religion in a 1976 reality; with a few minor changes its relevance to our time becomes extremely noteworthy. Substitute the analogy of “television” with “social media,” and “ratings” for “clicks,” and the film becomes surprisingly relevant again. In addition, its deep insight into religion and how it is often used as a means for gaining power and control by the mere mortal “powers that be” in our empirical world, is certainly applicable today.
“This is not a depiction of ‘truth,’ just a unique and interesting glimpse into some of the possibilities related to it in regard to religion, power, and corruption.”
As we begin our considerations regarding the prophets of the past, it seems helpful to first consider a more modern manifestation of such a possible actuality. What might a “modern” prophet look like? This week we begin a four-part consideration into just such a possibility as portrayed in the film “Network.” This is not a depiction of “truth,” just a unique and interesting glimpse into some of the possibilities related to it in regard to religion, power, and corruption. A creative and rational attempt to explore the process from a number of unique and unusual perspectives.
The essence of its warning, or caution, is encapsulated within three key soliloquies, or dramatic “sermons.” This week we will set the stage for those three oratories.
CONSIDERATION #82 – NETWORK & The Powers That Be: “The Voice”
According to the narrator of the film it is the story of a news anchorman named Howard Beale, one of the “grand old men” and “mandarins” of television news. However, now, at age fifty-eight, his ratings are beginning to plummet. The “powers that be” at the news station have determined that it is time for Howard Beale to retire. However, Howard Beale has decided to go out with a bang; literally.
HOWARD (ON MONITOR)
“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like at this moment to announce that I will be retiring from this program in two weeks' time because of poor ratings – and since this show was the only thing I had going for me in my life, I have decided to kill myself –
I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to blow my brains out right on this program a week from today – so tune in next Tuesday. That'll give the public relations people a week to promote the show, and we ought to get a hell of a rating with that, a fifty share easy…”
– Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
Beale is fired by the “official brass” of the news station. But he convinces them to give him one more chance to publicly re-announce his retirement with some grace and dignity, out of respect for his long career and stature in the business. However, instead, he decides to “tell the truth;” live on national television.
“However, the ratings from the show are so high, that the ‘powers that be’ at the network decide to keep Beale on the air…”
Angry, over the betrayal, the official brass fire Beale immediately. However, the ratings from the show are so high, that the “powers that be” at the network decide to keep Beale on the air, changing the typical “newshour” into a type of “reality news variety show” with Beale as the “mad prophet” of the airways.
However, one night, Beale hears a “voice” and comes to believe that he really is a “prophet” who must give “witness” to the “truth.” This is how he explains it to his television audience.
HOWARD (ON MONITOR)
“Last night, I was awakened from a fitful sleep at shortly after two o'clock in the morning by a shrill, sibilant, faceless voice that was sitting in my rocking chair. I couldn't make it out at first in the dark bedroom. I said: ‘I'm sorry, you'll have to talk a little louder.’
And the Voice said to me: ‘I want you to tell the people the truth, not an easy thing to do; because the people don't want to know the truth.’
I said: ‘You're kidding. How the hell would I know what the truth is?’ I mean, you have to picture me sitting there on the foot of the bed talking to an empty rocking chair. I said to myself: ‘Howard, you are some kind of banjo-brain sitting here talking to an empty chair.’
But the Voice said to me: ‘Don't worry about the truth. I'll put the words in your mouth.’ And I said: ‘What is this, the burning bush? For God's sake, I'm not Moses.’
And the Voice said to me: ‘And I'm not God, what's that got to do with it –’”
– Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
At this point, the question regarding “truth,” or “reality,” is considered. The voice declares that there are two kinds of truth: ultimate absolute eternal truth and transient imperfect human truth; rational and empirical truth. The “voice” explains it is not attempting to communicate “absolute” eternal truth, only “empirical” human truth.
HOWARD (ON CONSOLE)
“And the Voice said to me: ‘We're not talking about eternal truth or absolute truth or ultimate truth! We're talking about impermanent, transient, human truth! I don't expect you people to be capable of truth! But, ***damit, you're at least capable of self-preservation! That's good enough! I want you to go out and tell the people to preserve themselves –’
And I said to the Voice: ‘Why me?’
And the Voice said: ‘Because you're on television, dummy! You have forty million Americans listening to you; after tonight's show, you could have fifty million. For Pete's sake, I don't expect you to walk the land in sackcloth and ashes preaching the Armageddon. You're on Teevee, man!’
So I thought about it for a moment… And then I said: ‘Okay…’”
– Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
Beale insists that he is not crazy; and there does appear to be some evidence that he is not. He clearly recognizes that he is talking to “no-one” in the chair and understands that the voice is not God. However, he has definitely undergone some type of “catharsis,” or perhaps a “nervous breakdown.” However, for Beale, it is an “epiphany!”
HOWARD (TO HIS BEST FRIEND MAX)
“‘This is not a psychotic episode. It is a cleansing moment of clarity. I am imbued, Max. I am imbued with some special spirit. It's not a religious feeling at all. It is a shocking eruption of great electrical energy: I feel vivid and flashing as if suddenly I had been plugged into some great cosmic electromagnetic field. I feel connected to all living things, to flowers, birds, to all the animals of the world and even to some great unseen living force, what I think the Hindus call prana.’
He stands rigidly erect, his eyes staring mindlessly out, his face revealing the anguish of so transcendental a state.
‘It is not a breakdown. I have never felt so orderly in my life! It is a shattering and beautiful sensation! It is the exalted flow of the space-time continuum, save that it is spaceless and timeless and of such loveliness!
I feel on the verge of some great ultimate truth.’”
– Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
Some believed Howard Beale had gone mad. Others believed Howard Beale was truly a prophet. His friends were worried he was having a nervous breakdown. However, “the powers that be” realized they had a unique opportunity on their hands. They would utilize Howard Beale’s newly found righteousness, or perhaps insanity, for “their own” purposes. Whatever it was, it was about to be exploited for ratings.
If we think of television as social media, and Howard Beale as a “social influencer,” and exchange the obsession for ratings with an obsession for “likes” or clicks; we essentially have a contemporary story. The deeper questions it considers are timeless.
POSTSCRIPT
The elephant in the room, for both Biblical and Movie prophets alike, is whether they are divinely inspired or psychotic. This is a subplot throughout the film. For most non-believers the answer is self-evident; “They’re crazy!” However, even believers must beware of “false prophets,” who Jesus warns, “come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
“…prophets are powerful influencers capable of creating immense turmoil; they are dangerous!”
According to Jesus, you know if a prophet is false by “their fruits.” Are they sincere in speaking the truth? And does that truth produce positive “life-affirming” results, or fruits? This is important because ultimately, prophets are powerful influencers capable of creating immense turmoil; they are dangerous! A false prophet is a danger to your soul; a true prophet is a danger to the status-quo. Therefore, like all “proclaimers of the truth” it is prudent to consider whether Howard Beale is a prophet, charlatan, or madman.
The description of Beale’s encounter with “the voice” is strikingly, and purposely I’m sure, similar to the experiences of Abraham and Moses as recorded in the Bible. We may find Beale’s reaction to the incident somewhat odd or unusual, however, Abraham and Moses also had interesting, and somewhat strange, reactions to their encounter with a “higher power” they called God. Paddy Chayefsky, the writer of Network, seems to have had a good sense of the Biblical prophets, and given the eventual accuracy of his script, perhaps the gift of prophecy as well!
“It is apparent that Howard Beale is a prophet in the true ‘Biblical’ sense of the word.”
Prophets in the Bible are not “soothsayers” or “fortune tellers,” they do not “predict” the future. Biblical prophets reveal the “truth” of God and the consequences for ignoring that “truth.” Prophets “warn” the people when they are operating outside of God’s empirical parameters and are in danger of disaster or catastrophe. It is apparent that Howard Beale is a prophet in the true “Biblical” sense of the word. Prophets are not really foretelling the “wrath of God” so much as declaring the “natural consequences” of reality. With this in mind, consider the following hypothetical analogy.
Imagine a small village in the middle of a tropical jungle 100 years ago. A strange roaring bird lands near the village. One of the villagers goes to find out what it is. Witnesses report that the villager was “taken away” by the bird which then flew to “heaven.” When it returned with the villager, he warns his village to move everything to a new location, or they will all be destroyed. The villagers, fearful of what they had just witnessed, move the village.
Weeks later the entire cliff next to the village collapses, covering what was once their village. They declare the villager, a “prophet,” who was taken into heaven by a great bird to communicate directly with God. So, what really happened?
“They declare the villager, a ‘prophet,’ who was taken into heaven by a great bird…”
Scientists from a local expedition noticed that the side of the mountain next to the village was collapsing. This could be seen from their plane when flying over it to their camp. One of the scientists is flown back to the village to warn them. He takes one of the villagers up in the plane and “shows him” the large crevice that will eventually break; causing the entire mountainside to collapse on to the village. The villager is returned, and he tells the village what he has learned.
The villager did not “predict” the future. He simply reported what he saw, and had been told, based on a “higher authority.” He basically explains the truth about a current situation that will “naturally” lead to a specific result, such as a landslide. Although this may appear as “supernatural” to the other villagers because of the “roaring bird” that took their friend into heaven to “reveal” the future, it is really much simpler.
“…from ‘his’ perspective he is simply sharing what has been ‘revealed’ to him by ‘others’ with the rest of the villagers…”
Consider that a concerned “other” shared information with a villager, information ordinarily not available to him, that would help save his village. However, sharing this “truth” with his fellow villagers made him a “prophet” in their eyes. Although, from “his” perspective he is simply sharing what has been “revealed” to him by others with the rest of the villagers who cannot understand his “personal” experience of having been taken in a plane and shown physical evidence from the sky. If the villagers had not moved, and been killed by the landslide, it would not have been because of God’s wrath; it would have been because of their own stubbornness and inability to believe and trust their fellow villager.
“…they simply make known the consequences of actions that are occurring in the present.”
Prophets do not predict the future; they simply make known the consequences of actions that are occurring in the present. Natural consequences and actions that others do not perceive. In this sense they share a “God-like” perspective of reality with others. Just as the villager shared a “scientific-like” perspective of reality with others. The villager is considered a “true” prophet by the village because the “fruits” of his “prediction” regarding the “truth” related to the catastrophe was accurate and life-affirming.
This is critical in understanding the concept of traditional Biblical prophets, prophecy, and the stories of Abraham, Moses, and Howard Beale.
Next week we continue this consideration of how prophets may be perceived by others and exploited by the “powers that be” with the first “modern prophecy” revealed by Howard Beale in Network…
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