{"id":1446443,"date":"2023-12-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1446443"},"modified":"2023-12-29T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T12:00:00","slug":"must-we-leave-the-world-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/must-we-leave-the-world-behind\/1446443\/","title":{"rendered":"Must We ‘Leave The World Behind’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Must We ‘Leave The World Behind’?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Bert Olivier via The Brownstone Institute,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The recent movie,\u00a0Leave the World Behind<\/em><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Sam Esmail, Dir; 2023; Netflix), based on the novel by Rumaan\u00a0Alam<\/a>\u00a0(2020) is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0what it seems<\/strong>, to wit, a disturbing narrative of a family\u2019s holiday weekend gone awry when an unfolding cyberattack paralyses their electronic devices and gradually wreaks havoc in the air, in cities and on roads, as perceptible in some scenes.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Debbie Lerman\u2019s perceptive\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0highlighted a number of relevant aspects of this significant movie \u2013 not \u2018significant\u2019 because of any outstanding cinematic features, but because of its symptomatic importance, as I shall try to show \u2013 but I would like to focus on another side to it. Although compatible with Lerman\u2019s piece \u2013 I particularly found myself agreeing with the title of her essay \u2013 this interpretation aims to concentrate on several scene-sequences in the film, as well as other related considerations, in an attempt to uncover some of the probable intentions behind its production.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But is this not a matter of reading something into the movie that is not there?<\/strong> In a certain sense, yes, namely that \u2013 on the face of \u2013 it is a disaster movie of sorts. \u2018Of sorts,\u2019 because the \u2018real disaster\u2019 which the narrative hints at in an open-ended manner is only just beginning to play out where the movie ends, with Rosie starting to watch what seems like the last episode of her favourite television series,\u00a0Friends<\/em>, in a neighbour\u2019s underground bunker stocked with \u2018prepper\u2019 supplies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is itself a significant scene:<\/strong> Rosie, the young daughter of the white couple (the Sandfords), escapes into a sitcom fantasy (which \u2018makes her happy\u2019) at the very moment when it appears that everyone is completely helpless in the face of an unfolding series of events too vast to grasp adequately, let alone address by effective intervention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hence, ostensibly it is a disaster film,\u00a0but<\/em>\u00a0several things \u2013 both intra-cinematically and extra-cinematically \u2013 strongly suggest that it is much more than that. <\/strong>The first concerns the unsightly Klaus Schwab, real-world counterpart of the \u2018Emperor<\/a>\u00a0Palpatine,\u2019<\/a>\u00a0or Darth Sidious, in George Lucas\u2019s\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>, although his oft-melodramatic outfits suggest that he rather fancies himself as the ominous\u00a0Darth Vader<\/a>. Not long ago Darth Schwab\u2019s organisation, the World Economic Forum, issued a stark\u00a0cyberattack<\/a>\u00a0warning, comparing the rate at which its effects would spread to that of the \u2018novel coronavirus\u2019 that caused Covid-19. Schwab himself has weighed in on this possibility, too, as seen in\u00a0this video<\/a>, where\u00a0The People\u2019s Voice<\/em>\u00a0presenter somewhat bluntly claims that Barack Obama used the film to \u2018order governments to prepare [the] public for [an] imminent depopulation event.\u2019 Presumably this is because the Obamas\u2019 company, presumptuously titled Higher Ground Productions, produced the movie, while the couple also acted as executive producers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

While his statement is ingenuous, the presenter in this\u00a0The People\u2019s Voice<\/em>\u00a0video (linked above) is nevertheless on the right track. However, by producing a cinematic narrative that is easily recognisable as belonging to a specific genre \u2013 that of disaster films, related to action and thriller movies \u2013 Obama can rely on what is nowadays known as \u2018plausible deniability\u2019 (particularly on the part of those responsible for \u2018sudden deaths\u2019 among individuals who received the Covid \u2018vaccines\u2019).<\/p>\n

One of the elements of the film that cleverly provides such deniability is the references (through a conversation with Danny) to the probability that the cyberattack was launched by China, or North Korea, or Iran. Yet, one cannot avoid wondering in what way, as executive producer, Obama was able to tweak Esmail\u2019s direction, and perhaps did so, given the apparent frequency with which he communicated with the latter\u00a0about this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Alam\u2019s critically-acclaimed novel was on former President Obama\u2019s 2021 summer reading list, and Esmail shared that as the film was adapted into a suspenseful screenplay, the American politician offered useful feedback.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the original drafts of the script, I definitely pushed things a lot farther than they were in the film, and President Obama, having the experience he does have, was able to ground me a little bit on how things might unfold in reality,\u201d <\/strong>Esmail says to Vanity Fair.<\/em><\/p>\n

The filmmaker also talks about his fear of working with the former president and receiving his critiques.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a lot [of] notes about the characters and the empathy we would have for them,\u201d <\/strong>Esmail says. <\/em><\/p>\n

He continues, \u201cI have to say he is a big movie lover, and he wasn\u2019t just giving notes about things that were from his background. He was giving notes as a fan of the book, and he wanted to see a really good film.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It does seem like an extraordinary degree of involvement in the scriptwriting and directing of a movie by an executive producer, and reading between the lines of Esmail\u2019s account of Obama\u2019s \u2018interest,\u2019 one discerns inklings of more than just a movie fan\u2019s eagerness to have a hand in a film he is producing (as opposed to directing). Take this, for example: \u2018\u2026I definitely pushed things a lot farther than they were in the film\u2019, \u2018\u2026how things might unfold in reality\u2019, or \u2018\u2026his fear of working with the former president and receiving his critiques.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Esmail, who earlier directed the television series\u00a0Mr Robot<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(a nihilistic critique of techno-capitalism) to critical acclaim, to be intimidated by Obama is significantly improbable, recalling that, the similarly apocalyptic tenor of the earlier series notwithstanding, it contrasted noticeably with the recent movie in terms of images of resistance to totalitarian control in the guise of vigilantism. Furthermore, Obama\u2019s interest in shifting\u00a0Leave the World Behind<\/em>\u00a0in a more realistic direction should be seen in light of the intended audiences of the film, which are global, given Netflix\u2019s reach. Why would the former president of the US want to dish up something with a taste of reality (to come) to audiences?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A preliminary clue about the answer to this question is found in the film\u2019s dialogue, where GH says to Clay, sitting next to him in his car, referring to a three-stage, destabilising \u2018program\u2019 that terrified a client of his<\/strong> (after finally persuading Danny to part with some of his medical supplies for treating Archie\u2019s strange, tooth-shedding condition):\u00a0<\/p>\n

This program was considered the most cost-effective way to destabilize a country because if the target nation was dysfunctional enough it would do the work for you. Whoever started this, wants us to finish it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The last sentence is the symptomatic giveaway.<\/p>\n

It is a classic example of what is known as \u2018predictive programming<\/a>\u00a0(or coding)\u2019 \u2013 the subtle preparation of audiences for future events by inserting references to them into movies, television programmes, or newspapers.<\/strong> (In\u00a0The People\u2019s Voice\u00a0<\/em>video, linked above, several other such recent examples of predictive coding are discussed, as well as philosopher Alan Watts\u2019s revealing comment on it.) The whistleblower, Karen Kingston, did not waste any time to draw this conclusion in the December 15 edition of her\u00a0Substack<\/a>, where she asks pointedly: \u201cAre the Obamas Showing Us Their\u00a0Exact<\/em>\u00a0Plan for America?\u201d This question is prompted by her observation that:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also [a] disturbingly prophetic scene in the film where two of the female characters are staring at New York City from afar, watching massive explosions combust along the 5-mile Manhattan island. Coincidentally, the Con Edison Plant in New York City\u00a0exploded at 5 minutes to midnight last night, leaving millions in darkness<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Needless to stress, the news about the explosion at the power facility seemed to Kingston to adumbrate worse to come. Commenting on the last sentence in HG\u2019s remark in the film, quoted above \u2013Whoever started this, wants us to finish it<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 she writes:<\/p>\n

The enemies of America who are fueling our internal wars\u00a0want us\u00a0<\/em>to finish what they started. I say we take them up on their offer in finishing what they started, but not according to their agenda. We reunite and emerge from their deployed chaos in accordance with God\u2019s laws \u2013 with repentance, respect, forgiveness, justice, and unity, while maintaining our liberties and constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

It is superfluous to say that I fully endorse this sentiment. But the precise nature of this elaborate piece of cinematic deception has not been demonstrated yet, and I use the term \u2018deception\u2019 advisedly, because that is precisely what it is, although far more sophisticated than meets the eye. <\/strong>It has to do with what psychoanalytic theorist, Jacques Lacan, calls the \u2018lure,\u2019 which first makes its appearance when the child engages \u2018in the dialectic of the lure\u2019 as he puts it in his\u00a04th\u00a0Seminar,\u00a0The Object-Relation<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(p. 186).<\/p>\n

What happens here is that the child makes \u2018himself a deceptive object\u2019 or \u2018turns himself into an object meant to trick\u2019 the mother (p.187). Lacan emphasises that \u2018This is not merely a sort of immediate lure, as can be produced in the animal kingdom where the one that is decked out in all the colours of display has to establish the whole situation by parading around.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

At stake is the child\u2019s attempt to be the mother\u2019s \u2018fulfilment\u2019\u2013 because she or he senses the mother\u2019s desire for this \u2013 to be \u2018everything\u2019 for her, which is, of course, impossible. Hence the child has to resort to deception, or the lure. In other words, there is a kind of double lure at play here \u2013 the child does not simply desire the mother\u2019s attention and hence, tries to lure her into giving it; because the mother\u2019s unfulfillable desire is sensed by the child, the latter has to hide this realisation, and pretend to be what she desires, by deceiving or tricking her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By contrast, when birds engage in mating behaviour, for instance, the lure, or deception, is biologically direct, but with human beings it is evidently more complicated, as Dylan Evans explains in\u00a0An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(p. 107):<\/p>\n

Whereas animal lures are straightforward, the human being is unique in being capable of a special kind of lure which involves a \u2018double deception.\u2019 This is a kind of lure which involves deceiving by pretending to deceive (i.e. telling a truth that one expects to be taken for a lie)…<\/em><\/p>\n

The classic example of the properly human lure is the joke quoted by Freud (and often cited by Lacan) about the two Polish Jews: \u2018Why do you tell me you are going to Cracow so I\u2019ll believe you are going to Lvov, when you are really going to Cracow?\u2019\u2026Other animals are incapable of this special kind of lure owing to the fact that they do not possess language.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This little theoretical detour affords one the means to explain the sense in which\u00a0Leave the World Behind<\/em>\u00a0is a lure, a \u2018double deception.\u2019 Its double structure, analogous to the Polish joke alluded to by Evans, above, is this: through the film, \u2018those behind it\u2019 warn us that there is going to be a cyberattack, so that we will think there won\u2019t be one (because \u2018no one would say so openly,\u2019 would they?), but in fact, they\u00a0are\u00a0planning a cyberattack.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The deception is therefore more sophisticated than it seems at first sight. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The only problem is, unlike the Freudian story about the two Polish Jews, it is no joke.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 12\/29\/2023 – 02:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/must-we-leave-world-behind<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Must We ‘Leave The World Behind’? Authored by Bert Olivier via The Brownstone Institute, The recent movie,\u00a0Leave the World Behind\u00a0(Sam Esmail, Dir; 2023; Netflix), based…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1446443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1446443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1446443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1446443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1446443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}