How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
SPECIAL EDITION: “NETWORK & The Powers That Be" – Part Four: “Sermon Three”
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Tuesday May 30, 2023
“You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone!”
– Arthur Jensen (Network)
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
In the third, and “final sermon” from Network, the “Power that Is” directly confronts “the prophet.” The voice is no longer “faceless.” Confronted with what Beale believes to be the objective, tangible, manifestation of “the voice,” he succumbs to its new disheartening demands related to a new bleak reality. However, in doing so, the prophet loses his “inspiration.”
ENTANGLEMENT #85 – NETWORK & The Powers That Be: “Sermon Three”
In this scene, the “true” ruler of the corporate universe, Arthur Jensen, the “sun of his own little galaxy,” proclaims that it is too late. Too late for the individual; they have already given up their souls to the new corporate “system.” Here, in no “uncertain” terms, Jensen explains the rules of His new reality to Howard Beale. The “truth” related to the consequences of this understanding, are devastating.
“The overwhelming cathedral of a conference room… When last seen, it was in pitch darkness, but now the enormous curtains are up, and an almost celestial light pours in through the huge windows… The double semi-circular bank of seats are all empty, and the general effect is one of hushed vastness –
JENSEN
Valhalla, Mr. Beale, please sit down –
He leads Howard down the steps to the floor level, himself ascends again to the small stage and the podium. Howard sits in one of the 200 odd seats. Jensen pushes a button, and the enormous drapes slowly fall, slicing away layers of light until the vast room is utterly dark. Then, the little pinspots at each of the desks, including the one behind which Howard is seated, pop on, creating a miniature Milky Way effect. A shaft of white LIGHT shoots out from the rear of the room, spotting Jensen on the podium, a sun of its own little galaxy. Behind him, the shadowed white of the lecture screen. Jensen suddenly wheels to his audience of one and roars out:
JENSEN
You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it, is that clear?!”
– Arthur Jensen: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
There is no doubt who is in control of this universe. Beale remains riveted as Jensen explains how things work in “today’s reality.”
JENSEN
“You think you have merely stopped a business deal – that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is no West!
There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars! Reichmarks, rubles, rin, pounds and shekels! It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet!
That is the natural order of things today! That is the atomic, subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?”
– Arthur Jensen: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
At this point the “Power that Is” puts “the prophet” in “his place.” He will no longer listen to any voice other than Arthur Jensen’s. Arthur Jensen is now God.
“You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT and T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.
What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state – Karl Marx? They pull out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories and minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale.
The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale! It has been since man crawled out of the slime, and our children, Mr. Beale, will live to see that perfect world in which there is no war and famine, oppression and brutality – one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale.
HOWARD (humble whisper)
Why me?
JENSEN
Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.
– Howard Beale/Arthur Jensen: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
Subjugated by the “Power that Is,” Beale no longer speaks from his “inner voice.” He now just delivers the commands directly given to him by a “tangible God.” He is no longer a prophet; he is now simply a messenger.
Howard slowly rises from the blackness of his seat so that he is lit only by the ethereal diffusion of light shooting out from the rear of the room. He stares at Jensen spotted on the podium, transfixed.
HOWARD
I have seen the face of God!
Jensen considers this curious statement for a moment.
JENSEN
You just might be right, Mr. Beale.
NARRATOR
That evening, Howard Beale went on the air to preach the corporate cosmology of Arthur Jensen.
– Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
Although Beale continues to “preach the message,” it is no longer a message he believes in, or from a God who inspires him. He has given up the devotion to his “unseen inner voice” for the certainty of a tangible voice, with a tangible face. God is now real, and he is now simply following and implementing what He commands.
Beale has accepted the new sad truth and is void of any hope. The joy and rapture of enlightenment is gone; replaced by an empty acceptance of what is. The prophet has lost his soul. He, like his “individual” followers, can no longer make a difference.
Howard Beale stands in his stained-glass-filtered spotlight, but, rather than his old enraged self, he seems sad, resigned, weary –
HOWARD (ON MONITOR)
“Last night, I got up here and asked you people to stand up and fight for your heritage, and you did and it was beautiful. Six million telegrams were received at the White House. The Arab takeover of C.C. and A. has been stopped. The people spoke, the people won. It was a radiant eruption of democracy. But I think that was it, fellers. That sort of thing isn't likely to happen again.
Because, in the bottom of all our terrified souls, we all know that democracy is a dying giant, a sick, sick dying, decaying political concept, writhing in its final pain.
I don't mean the United States is finished as a world power. The United States is the most powerful, the richest, the most advanced country in the world, light-years ahead of any other country. And I don't mean the Communists are going to take over the world. The Communists are deader than we are.
What's finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It's the individual that's finished. It's the single, solitary human being who's finished. It's every single one of you out there who's finished. Because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals.
This is a nation of two hundred odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as piston rods –”
NARRATOR
It was a perfectly admissible argument that Howard Beale advanced in the days that followed; it was, however, also a very tedious and depressing one. By the end of the first week in June – the Howard Beale show had dropped one point in the ratings, and its trend of shares dipped under forty-eight for the first time since last November –
– Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
POSTSCRIPT
The “powers that be” were at odds with the “Power that Is,” because the “powers that be” were only concerned with ratings, and the “Power that Is” was focused on the “big picture” related to the entire system. Therefore, the “Power that Is” commanded the “powers that be” to keep Beale on the air no matter how far his ratings dropped.
However, as ratings plummeted and the “powers that be” realized they could not change the mind of the “Power that Is;” they plotted to implement their own agenda.
AMUNDSEN
“And you would describe Mr. Jensen's position on Beale as inflexible?
HACKETT
Intractable and adamantine.
CHANEY
So what're we going to do about this Beale...?
A sad silence settles over the top management of UBS-TV as they lounge about the enormous room.
HACKET (sighs)
I suppose we'll have to kill him. (Another long contemplative silence.) I don't suppose you have any ideas on that, Diana.
DIANA
Well, what would you fellows say to an assassination? I think I can get the Mao Tse Tung people to kill Beale for us. As one of their programs. In fact, it'll make a hell of a kick-off show for the season... The whole thing would be done right on camera in the studio. We ought to get a fantastic looking audience with the assassination of Howard Beale as our opening show –”
– Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
Inevitably, the “powers that be” determine that the prophet should be “martyred” for the sake of ratings; without the knowledge of the “Power that Is,” of course.
…as the HOUSE LIGHTS go to BLACK. The curtain slowly rises. The bare stage, the stained glass window, the celestial SHAFT of light. Howard Beale, in his black suit and tie, strides on from the wings, stands basking in the SPOTLIGHT. APPLAUSE UP.
INT. HACKETT'S OFFICE
The meeting is still going on.
HACKETT
Well, the issue is: shall we kill Howard Beale or not. I'd like to hear some more opinions on that --
DIANA
I don't see we have any option, Frank…
INT. THE BEALE STUDIO
The APPLAUSE for Howard Beale has died. HUSH – suddenly, the HUSH is shattered by a HORRENDOUS ENFILADE of GUNFIRE. An embroidery of red bullet holes perforate Howard’s shirt and jacket, and we might even see the impact of a head wound as he pitches backwards dead.
NARRATOR (OVER)
This was the story of Howard Beale who was the network news anchorman on UBS-TV, the first known instance of a man being killed because he had lousy ratings.”
– Howard Beale: Network 1976 – Paddy Chayefsky (Text emphasis and highlights are mine)
In the end, we all have an “inner voice.” We all must deal with the “powers that be” and the “Power that Is” in the empirical world. The question becomes, “How much do I, and my inner voice, matter?”
A “true” prophet amplifies the inner voice within you, allowing you to hear more clearly what it is saying. That inner voice is seldom the voice of the “powers that be” or the “Power that Is.” A prophet turns down the volume of the empirical world, allowing you to hear your own inner voice. Sometimes they just shout over it!
Was Beale a prophet, or just another lost soul? Is getting mad really the first step in making real change? Is Jensen right, about the new corporate reality? Is it “true” that the individual is no longer necessary or important?
What does your inner voice tell you?
Next week we begin to consider the actual prophets from the Old Testament, starting with Abraham, the patriarch of Judaism…
Expand the Conversation by Upgrading to “Reality by a Thread!”
Excerpt from Tomorrow’s Untangling the Knots of Reality – Podcast #47: "Untangling Adam Smith & Capitalism" (Part 4– The Results of Capitalism)
This Week on “The Thread”…
•Untangling the Knots of Reality Podcast: #47 "Untangling Adam Smith & Capitalism" Part 4 – The Results of Capitalism (“We have formulated our country and society based on our freedom to make decisions and choices that we feel will increase our happiness: the founders called this Liberty. That is why Liberty and Capitalism are natural companions: Liberty without choice is the ultimate irony. If we are unhappy with the condition of our present life or society, perhaps we should question our choices – not the freedom to make them…” )
•Reality by a Thread Discussion Thread: “The Quantum Paradox: Part 3 – Superposition & Quantum Entanglement” (“Superposition means that, given a choice of two paths, the photon will take “both” paths at the “same time” at the quantum level of reality. The very instant that a physical “detector” is used to “locate” the photon, the photon “must decide” which path to take in “empirical reality,” which “then” becomes “verifiable” in the empirical world...”)
•FREE PDF Download of Book IV: “The Cosmic Symphony – Overtones of String Theory” plus other Free Books, Discounts and Benefits.
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ENTANGLEMENTS 1-14 (The First 14 Podcasts)
These books are not designed to tell you what the truth about Reality is, only to help you consider and explore the long evolution of thought that has brought us to our present awareness. To elevate the conversation about the big picture in a thoughtful, reasonable, and respectful manner. Something not often encountered on today’s social media platforms. In a nutshell, I wrote these books to help us understand each other better, in addition to our individual and collective responsibility in creating the Reality that we now experience. And the Reality we want to experience in the future.
If you find yourself growing tired of the same old meaningless fluff, this may be the Podcast you’ve been looking for!
Podcast #1 – A Lot of Explaining
Podcast #2 – Untangling Mathematics & Metaphors
Podcast #3 – Untangling the Garden of Eden
Podcast #4 – Untangling The Physical World
Podcast #5 – Untangling the Five Senses
Podcast #6 – Untangling Eastern & Western Dualism
Podcast #7 – Untangling Zen & the Shaolin Temple
Podcast #8 – Untangling the Mystery of Taoism
Podcast #9 – Untangling The Noble Eightfold Path
Podcast #10 – Untangling Plato's Realm of Forms
Podcast #11 – Untangling Aristotle's Metaphysics
Podcast #12 – Untangling Happiness & Virtues
Podcast #13 – Untangling Self-Evident Truths
Podcast #14 – Untangling The Cosmic Symphony
“Untangling the Knots of Reality – Be A Part of the Conversation!”