How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
SPECIAL EDITION: “NETWORK & The Powers That Be" – Part Three: “Sermon #2”
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Tuesday May 23, 2023
“This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome ***damn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people…”
– Howard Beale (Network)
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
Despite Beale’s dictate demanding his followers turn off their televisions; the ratings for the show continue to increase substantially. The surreal “variety news hour” now includes Sybil the Soothsayer, Miss Mata Hari as the “voice of the people,” a nightly Truth Departement, and the Mao Tse-Tung Hour based on a terrorist group including videos of their latest acts of insurrection; all satellites of the main star Howard Beale, the Mad Prophet of the Airways.
However, Beal’s zeal for revealing the “truth” about what was going on “behind the scenes” in corporate America was about to shake the foundations of his world. He was about to awaken a power that was greater than his; and even than the “powers that be.”
CONSIDERATION #84 – NETWORK & The Powers That Be: “Sermon #2”
In the “second sermon,” Beale is completely surrounded by the “illusions” he had previously condemned, in addition to a new kind of “rapture” that comes with them. He is now totally immersed in his identity as a prophet with a divine command to expose “the truth” about reality. However, the truth of this sermon is more than the “powers that be” had anticipated. This time the truth is about them; directly, professionally, and most importantly, empirically.
Live on television, Howard Beale was about to reveal the future dangers resulting from this undeniable truth. Real, tangible, objective dangers, not just theoretical or rational possibilities. In fact, this sermon is so dangerous it attracts the attention of a Power higher than “the powers that be.” Beale exposes not only the Network to “public truth,” but the “parent” corporation as well. Howard Beale was about to “meddle with the primal forces of nature,” which would eventually require a “just” retribution.
He begins by exposing the “truth” about television and how his Network is connected to that truth.
“An absolutely bare stage except for one stained glass window, suspended by wires high above stage left through which shoots an overpowering SHAFT of LIGHT as if emanating from heaven. Howard Beale, in an austere black suit with black tie shambles on from the wings, finds the SPOTLIGHT and stands there for a moment shielding his eyes from the blinding light. TUMULTUOUS APPLAUSE from the AUDIENCE.
HOWARD (erupts into a Savonarola-type tirade)
Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems – and woe is us if it ever falls in the hands of the wrong people. And that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this network is now in the hands of CC and A the Communications Corporation of America.
We've got a new Chairman of the Board, a man named Frank Hackett now sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome ***damned propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this tube? So, listen to me! Television is not the truth!
Television is a circus, a carnival, a travelling troupe of acrobats and story-tellers, singers and dancers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion-tamers and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business!
If you want truth, go to God, go to your guru, go to yourself because that's the only place you'll ever find any real truth! But, man, you're never going to get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear. We lie like hell! We deal in illusion, man! None of it's true!
But… we're all you know. You're beginning to believe this illusion we're spinning here. You're beginning to think the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs!
In God's name, you people are the real thing! We're the illusions!”
Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
He continues by exposing the “truth” about how the corporate game is played, his Network’s involvement in it, and the process of exactly how it has “destroyed their lives.”
HOWARD (ON TV)
“All right, listen to me! Listen carefully! This is your ***damn life I'm talking about today! In this country, when one company takes over another company, they simply buy up a controlling share of the stock. But first they have to file notice with the government. That's how C.C. and A. – the Communications Corporation of America -- bought up the company that owns this network. And now somebody's buying up C.C. and A! Some company named Western World Funding Corporation is buying up C.C. and A! They filed their notice this morning!
Well, just who the hell is Western World Funding Corporation? It's a consortium of banks and insurance companies who are not buying C.C. and A. for themselves but as agents for somebody else!”
“Well, who's this somebody else? They won't tell you! They won't tell you, they won't tell the Senate, they won't tell the SEC, the FCC, the Justice Department, they won't tell anybody! They say it's none of our business! The hell it ain't!”
Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
In 1976, one of the main “global powers” America was concerned about was Saudi-Arabia, who controlled oil, and therefore energy, at the time. To “update” the next part of the sermon substitute “China” for “Saudi-Arabia” and “Tech Corporations” for “Oil Corporations.” The point being that the “powers that be” in the world are large corporations willing to “sell us all out” to our enemies for money and profit. Here, Beale “reveals” the secret underpinnings behind the global “corporate system.”
HOWARD (ON TV)
“Well, I'll tell you who they're buying C.C. and A. for. They're buying it for the Saudi-Arabian Investment Corporation! They're buying it for the Arabs! – We know the Arabs control more than sixteen billion dollars in this country!... And that's only what we know about!
There's a hell of a lot more we don't know about because all those Arab petro-dollars are washed through Switzerland and Canada and the biggest banks in this country! For example, what we don't know about is this C.C.A. deal and all the other C.C.A. deals!”
(HACKETT winces)
“Right now, the Arabs have screwed us out of enough American dollars to come back and, with our own money, buy General Motors, IBM, ITT, A T and T, Dupont, U.S. Steel, and twenty other top American companies. Hell, they already own half of England.”
HOWARD (ON SCREEN)
“Now, listen to me, ***dammit! The Arabs are simply buying us! They're buying all our land, our whole economy, the press, the factories, financial institutions, the government! They're going to own us! A handful of agas, shahs and emirs who despise this country and everything it stands for – democracy, freedom, the right for me to get up on television and tell you about it – a couple of dozen medieval fanatics are going to own where you work, where you live, what you read, what you see, your cars, your bowling alleys, your mortgages, your schools, your churches, your libraries, your kids, your whole life! ”
Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
Perhaps if Beale had stopped here, the “powers that be” may have overlooked it because of the fantastic ratings. However, Beale continues, and commits the only unforgivable sin. He tries to physically stop the “powers that be” from controlling empirical realty; and succeeds!
HOWARD (ON SCREEN)
“And there's not a single law on the books to stop them! There's only one thing that can stop them – you! So I want you to get up now. I want you to get out of your chairs and go to the phone. Right now. I want you to go to your phone or get in your car and drive into the Western Union office in town. I want everybody listening to me to get up right now and send a telegram to the White House – By midnight tonight I want a million telegrams in the White House! I want them wading knee-deep in telegrams at the White House!
Get up! Right now! And send President Ford a telegram saying: ‘I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more!"‘ I don't want the banks selling my country to the Arabs! I want this C.C. and A. deal stopped now!
I want this C.C. and A. deal stopped now!
I want this C.C. and A. deal stopped now!”
Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
POSTSCRIPT
Howard Beale and his followers succeed in flooding the White House with telegrams and stopping the C.C. and A. deal. However, in doing so, they bring down the Wrath of God!
Next week, the “Power that Is” confronts “the prophet” with a sermon about how things “really” are and how they “really” work…”
Expand the Conversation by Upgrading to “Reality by a Thread!”
Excerpt from Tomorrow’s Untangling the Knots of Reality – Podcast #46: "Untangling Adam Smith & Capitalism" (Part 3– The Laws of Economics)
This Week on “The Thread”…
•Untangling the Knots of Reality Podcast: #46 "Untangling Adam Smith & Capitalism" Part 3 – The Laws of Economics (“The “Law of Supply and Demand” acts as an invisible hand that controls market distribution by affecting the price of goods and services at the consumer level. Prices, like markets, are not static and can change for a number of reasons. When prices do change it is often due to a change in the scarcity or abundance of a specific good or service; this is directly reflected in the law of supply and demand which on the one hand regulates supply, while on the other hand also regulating demand…” )
•Reality by a Thread Discussion Thread: “The Quantum Paradox: Part 2 – The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle” (“The essence of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is that it directly limits our ability to gain total knowledge regarding the truth of reality. We can never know the “complete” truth about How Things Work. This is not a matter of technology or understanding; it is an inherent aspect of the universe. More knowledge or discovery will not solve this problem...”)
•FREE PDF Download of Book IV: “The Cosmic Symphony – Overtones of String Theory” plus other Free Books, Discounts and Benefits.
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Book III – The Enigmatic Mystery
"Transcending the Duality of Science & Religion"
We are now beginning to understand that opposites, like waves and particles, are essentially two ways of looking at the same thing. That “thing” is the mystery. It is now becoming more and more apparent that the mystery science is seeking to understand is ultimately the same mystery religion is seeking to understand. This is the paradox we as human beings are currently facing. We are now at a point in our growth where we will likely transcend the mystery of dualism and embrace the unity of its source or fall back into the Dark Ages of Perception.
It is time to stop arguing about how to solve the mystery and enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to transcend it.
• What is the distinction between Knowledge, Understanding, and Meaning?
• What is the Scientific Explanation for Reality?
• What is the Theological Explanation for Reality?
• What are the current Unexplained Mysteries of Science?
• What are the Metaphysical Foundations for the Holy Trinity?
• What is the Atomic Trilogy?
• Is the Bible Fiction or Non-fiction?
• What exactly is the Big Bang?
• What are Theoretical Entities?
• Is there a distinction between God and Electrons?
• Is it possible to Transcend Dualism?