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Why did you come to the country which constitution begins with the words "We, the People"? What did you expect?
Well, I heard about human rights. I was in Moscow and liked it then. America looks different from Moscow. You do not see the people from there. 
 The Possessed 2003  WRITE : nonfiction SummaryQuestionsnew: 2003 *
Notes 2004 & After
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NOTESPeople DIALOGUES WITH MYSELF
(A Short Story) I never was born. How about it? Never existed!
This fact helps me to face my death.
What? My books? Unauthorized biography!
God writes about Anatoly. For the record, I never gave my permission.GOD'S FEELINGS
People, I leave you without any sorrow or regret. I don't know the future, but the present has a taste of the past. I know you. How alike you are. Even my anger has died. I'm tired of myself as one of them. Nothing original in my new state of mind, there was a monk in me always. What we can say to each other? I don't grieve over God's death, but the Woman's. That's when your mortal life is over. Fifty years -- enough if you did live. I am ready for another life -- without life. Philosophy calls it "being." I would like to experience of this being of non-being. Well, maybe that is what should be call the eternal return. The return to where I came from -- the Nothing. That is my homeland.There is something very attractive for me in the world without me. What is it? A freedom? Is that the hidden reason for our fascination with the past and the future? I never had interest in time travel. What would I be doing there, witnessing the crucifixion? Every time I hear somebody who wishes to see the future, I wonder why I don't have such a desire. I don't understand them, the prophets. I have no visions. I see a lot of the past or future around me. Placing myself into antiquity of the third millennium only increases my problems of being placed into the present.
[ image ]
SCENE I. MOMENT OF SILENCE
The two never met. And what if they would, they spoke different languages and lived in different times. The two characters: FRED -- Frederick Nietzsche, a madman, and ANATOLY, his student. Time without Place, Pure Time. ANATOLY: For long, very long, love was preached. Do I need to hear more? Do I have to say it? The poets died. They said farewell to life. Then I was born.
Love me not, I said.
Their paradise is my hell. Their resurrection is my apocalypse. In how many words could I express it? I'm sad when they are happy, I'm always sad among them.
Before I die I have to leave them, the people.
I left much behind.FRED: Can you live without them? (No answer.) Many of them do. (Pause.)
ANATOLY: You did it by choice.
FRED: And you?
(Silence.)
ANATOLY: I stopped and looked at myself in the mirror. What feelings do you have they don't know about? What do you have to say we never heard before? Do you want to deny? Do you want to complain? Tell what you see?
The man in the mirror was staring at me. He was silent.
Did I understand his silence?
I'm tired of talking about things I don't feel....
They were right, and the name was given -- Enemy of the People. The best, the alive ones had it. Death to them!
It was before my time.
No, I don't have to fight them.
Not worthy.
No, I have to mind my own business. What is that? Life, living? What does it mean?
....
How many times did I look in his eyes. We never said a word to each other.
(Silence.)
FRED: I know your secret wars.
ANATOLY: People.
...They talked to themselves, of course. They called it "thinking."
All great men died because they couldn't live in my times, they were too weak for it. Where is no place in it for you, Fred. Me too. I don't have past, I have no future.
Why? I'll tell you why!
How will they read my books? Who? How will they survive communism?
Extermination, final solution. One-two generations - and what? How they will try to destroy my books. I know how but I won't tell you.
Now, the history of the Living Dead.
SCENE II. SOFT AND HARD
The aliens should write our history. I am one of them, ET.
Dear Marx,
We are this future -- liberal (soft) communism, the state-society, the dreams fulfilled. [Paul Virilio calls one of his articles "Looking Back at the End of the World" -- after-apocalyptic sensitivity.] Bright lights, shopping malls, music. Death is pleasant. We, good Christians, celebrate the End of the World. Human history is behind, in the library. Relax and enjoy the moment. That's right -- the moment. That's what death is, one moment, end of time. Why do you think we count every minute in dollars? Because we have no time, it's gone. How else would we know the time?I continue to think about academic matters of no importance. The facts. Even after death I am still interested in human affairs. You know, like watching tv, when you see everything that has no relevance to you. What do I do? I am dead and they on the screen are dead. Maybe, this is why I watch tv -- to experience death. I have to learn how to be dead in order to exist in paradise. The news. Something between them and me. They in Europe have no Thanksgiving! They should. Do they still think that they live in the "Old World"?
The New World has many words, without space we must have a lot of geographical words. Like "Europe" or "England." How different are the two: the United Europe and the United States? Two sides of the same concept and the same reality of the New. We are new to the state of death, we don't realize how radical the End is. Like a child who thinks that a dead man is just napping. No, darling, daddy is gone....
Well, God is merciful. We are kind of dead. Half-dead.
You see, even "society" is still around. Liberal state = society as a state, techno-social. The two have merged. ("Techno-politics" -- tv show). It's not a real society, but something "social" -- a super-society! Here we go! The recipe is to mix machines with people, and cook the mixture at room temperature.
A super-society is a return. Society was born out of clan, or gang. Now we are back.
.... I keep the radio on. The talk shows. They talk fast. There is a world out there. Very big.
They are not "people," not really. I'm amused at myself. Don't I know that there are no words, only interpretations. People. What am I? A writer? Shame on me! I learn too many words in English, I better start writing in French. People! I'm the people! There is a big crowd in me. They are mixed all right. Better than this so-called "human race," which is modeled after my capacity of mixing things. Man is a world. Okay. World must get as communistic as me -- Russians and Americans inside me so mixed, they call themselves "Anatoly"!
I'm a product of Nietzsche's madness and Marx's dreams.
To call them "people" is as ridiculous as to call me a man. Since it's impossible to call me names, I would stay anonymous.
.... So many voices. I know that nobody there in the bedroom, only the radio. I know that they are no more real than I am....
Totalitarian Reaction to Freedom
Communism is a moving target. It grows, takes different forms and hardly could be separated from history. It's the ultimate rhizome. Structure, centralization, totalitarism -- all the attributes of visible (communism) organization to contain communism (people). Anarchism (known today as chaos theory) is the nature of communism, which generates the force to control the power. Stalin or Hitler is a reaction to the rhizomatic flow of communism. It produces its own extremes (enemies) and fights them (dialectics) in order to keep developing its apparatus and methods. Anything social contains communism, including an individual. Communism can't be excluded since it's an attribute of humanity. Policy of "containment" during the Cold War is a self-regulatory process. US democratic model was an alternative mode of communization, different from the state format (Russian, European, Asian style). American freedoms are based on two hundred years of self-restriction, discipline unknown to others who lived under "direct" (state) power. Russians had to impose the ideas of French Revolution on their nation, then Americans were formed as a nation by those ideals. Present formation of soft (social) communism in USA or Europe became possible because the new technological structure to contain the plasma of communism, when the human matter is not pure American (stateless people).
"Victory" of the "free" world places democracy into a new situation when inner conflict of communism becomes domestic, not foreign affairs. America is destined to be a battlefield of the communist ideology -- the search for new modalities of communism are our national problems. We not only lost an enemy, we have to discover a new, a more dangerous one -- within us. The United States is about to face a trouble of no less magnitude than before the Civil War.
Successful economy (stock market) is indication of coming explosion. (Economic success was the reason for the first American civil war).
The Soviet lesson is simple: state communism in Russia succeeded -- made the country into one culture (mono system) -- and that was the single reason for its end. Since the late sixties America has no dissent, no alternative social ideas, the ideal of American democracy became an ideology, unexamined, static and half-museum object.
McLuhan would see Internet as an extension, the military principle (communism) as INTEGRATION. I reach out for the world and become a part of it, losing my sovereignty.
Entertainment is a militarization of populace: mind stops the flow of commands, an individual is a break in circuit = an accident of smooth communication. Thinkers are slow machines, bad for war operations.
Communism was against intellectuals not (only) because of their critical (analytical attitudes; the only position as opposition) but because they contradicted the military organization of super-society.
Closed mind Americans are the product of an educational system which produces members of organic society. Individually each of them is dysfunctional, they have to be wired, plugged in, connected. Position in moving world (car and its substitution = tv) to avoid an accident of motion (function). Individual body itself is accident of race, continuity, process. Sex = relations, when two bodies, borders are destroyed. Body has to be reshaped for sex, open for a violation, brought very close (CU) to be integrated. Health fashion, working out, plastic modification = not to express individuality but the connectiveness. Attraction -- SERVING the outer world. The New Flesh is about acceptance. It's corrected, socialized muscles and skin. Even blood became political (AIDS). The sixties thought that the world is for them to live, now they know that the world lives off them.
"Democracy in America" (T): Army principle -- equality, uniforms of souls. Obedience to law, general and soldier are there to fight and die. Opportunity? Remember a short emperor -- Napoleon. Military is the best expression of democracy (power of many), because it's very functional, it promotes the best (on the battlefield), the one who performs the task. The stakes are high, it is fast. French and American republics were born out of civil war conditions -- peace. This self-confrontation produced super-power of the world (America).
What? What did you say? Aha! American individualism? American individualism never was an individual in the classical sense. A gang member is not an individual but a projection of a group. American Western celebrates not individualism but a desire of many. Gold Rush: bunch of "individuals" wanting the same. The difference in European tradition was in different values. In America -- only methods. The Soviets gave it a name: Cult of Personality (not individuality). Similar to a celebrity cult.
General is a soldier, a slave, a servant; he belongs to the system, machine.
Angels have no peace, they have to move all the time,with speed of light (that's why we don't see them). Tiresome and boring. Stop it! Like on highway. The only way to know somebody is to get in accident.
Body is a mechanism to slow down the show.
Liberation asks for directions: energy has to become a working body. Social transistors are filters, an organized flow. Manipulation of energy. Electronic freedom of atomic level, asks for regulations. The possibility of this freedom is a result of new technologies -- production of control.
CLASSLESS SOCIETY
What? Middle class? The poor rich or the rich poor?
"There are three classes of citizens. The first are the rich, who are indolent and yet always crave more. The second are the poor, who have nothing, are full of envy, hate the rich, and are easily led by demagogues. Between the two extremes lie those who make the state secure and uphold the laws." Euripides, The Suppliants c. 420 B.C.
Don't they in middle have the qualities of the both extremes? They always crave more and are easily led by demagogues. Oh, the obvious! Americans makes the state so secure that they need very little of it, compared to the rest of the world and history. They are close to what Marx had in mind for the communism, the self-governing. But seriously, what is the "middle class"?
Class mentality states that every word has two meanings. I'm a middle class citizen myself. I have two sets of feelings: as poor and as rich. I'm lazy (indolent) on both accounts as a rich and as a poor man. To cure my natural inclinations I am turned into a worker. The worker in me hates them all -- the rich, the poor! Americans work hard to stay in the middle. Harder than at any historical era before them. And they will be working even harder tomorrow. The secret of American prosperity is organizing the best known conditions for working. American freedom is a freedom to work. In the double-speak dictionary it's called "opportunity." Democracy is a paid freedom and it's bought at the price of a voluntary enslavement.
I have to be both -- liberal and conservative. Confusing?.... I can hear the news. They do not sign it, oonly the commercials. If you understand English, you know that this is an election year. If you not know English, you can learn it, if you listen to the radio long enough. Listen for ten or twenty years and you will understand every word....
USA is the class, ask the rest of the world. They still see it as split in two: developed and undeveloped countries. Exploitation is good. That's the only difference I have with Marx. Whatever he saw as bad, I see it as good. (Marx continued)
They won; now they can enjoy the friendly self-dictatorship.
The "Right":
Rush L. knows what kind of power is behind him. "Enough!" The reaction to "their" paradise.
Middle class talking!Political terrorism: TO MAKE A POINT (presidential candidates). A new fashionable word "extremism." Why? Why are the national standards in education not extremism?
Because we can't trust them. One-dimension Rush would work, he proved to be a workaholic. What about millions who didn't make their millions. They must be watched. What do you think a bureaucracy is for? The machine, the system!
Liberal Order: Utopia must be preserved at any cost!
Players of Liberty and Freedom -- Locke? Games of prisoners, "negative solidarity." I know that the laws are designed for the law and the high would be the victim of those laws.
To talk about structure of war is to examine the construct of peace. The practice. Utopian peace is possible; it's peace-fascism.
No return, only forward. What does it mean? The departure is always final. We left the past for a reason, it wasn't good enough to stay put on. We need a better system, more advanced technologies of oppression -- we need to domesticate the mass man. One dimensional? One dimension too many -- zero, truly nothing. Give him an illusion of being everything! More movies, more games, virtuality! The paradise machine needs a lot of them, billions. Of course, communism! Absolutely! American labor camps must be computerized, to maximize the productivity.
The Americans, the regularized beings, need no coercion, let them work on themselves. Desire, seduction -- sure! but we have to make them into Americans. Not everyone is an American. Being an American is a result of a production. American is not born but made.
Power as commodity -- state monopoly? One of many levels of power. We see the obvious, we shouldn't know the big secret -- American state is a REPRESENTATIVE democracy. It represents the society, this new super-society, the final invention of modernity. Does the state re-present the society properly? There is always a conflict between the society and the state, don't you know?
Vulgar is the educated, stylized stupidity. They have to have it. Pathos, remember Hegel? They have to be proud of themselves. Vanity must be preserved. Vulgarity must be produced.
America: between Gassett and Tocqueville = masses + democracy. Flat hierarchy.
Compare: American Constitution and Communist Manifesto. The project with no time to work on it.
MY CLASS STRUGGLE
Why was marxism never applied against the proletariat? Why do I dismiss the class war? If two classes (types) of humans (slaves and masters) exist as a foundation of society (economical, political and cultural), why not accept this radical division? 5% or 1% -- the number is the same as before, in Greece, Rome or USA. My double life is not my invention, it's a reaction. KGB or soap opera are the forms of control. That's the answer to who is this general reader. It's simple and straight.
The radical separation in theory is only a confirmation of reality. Truth is cynical. And why, why the humanity should be dual? The dichotomy is everywhere.
Postmodern is the end of the full identification. I understand the futurists supporting fascism and communism, they were sick of old ideas. Look what kind of submission the new technology brought in! The consumer loves his policemen.
Entertainment is a form of class war, the containment. Bread and spectacles -- to keep them under control. How else? Manipulation! The language of marxism was for marxists, not masses. TV set was the revolution and did for class war more than anything communism or fascism ever dreamed to achieve. They got what they were asking for. And it's safe. They don't have to die for a piece of paradise. It's free -- the illusion. Propaganda is always free. Take it now, pay later. With your lives, on Monday, every day of the week. For the rest of your miserable life. You are nothing, for nothing, by nothing -- the people! Do they rule? They rule themselves? Good.
Technology is a weapon of man against men. Man thought it out -- man is smart. The master is behind of all the inventions, his interests. Did we get rid of the dead wood of aristocracy? The men who thought that they have "rights" of nobility -- what jerks were they! Why so many of them had to be masters? Who did they think they were?
The slaves have to be satisfied. With their existence. Do I have to identify myself with them? To a degree, only to a degree. That's a material Plato. Physical equality asks for democracy.
Do I love them? As much I love nature. They are a part of my landscape. I love them when they are good. I love Americans more than Russians for that reason only. Do I love a tree? Love has two forms in class structure, their love and my love. Do I love women? Do I love a cat? Do I love my enemy? What else do I do -- I'm with them, my enemies. You still didn't read Marx? Go and do it. Keep in mind, that the classes are going beyond the capital. Capital is a manifestation of the difference. The class conflict can't be resolved with total communism, only to be intensified.
Machiavelli had one reader. He didn't write for mass market.
He was subsidized.
The picture is different now...The border between One and Many must be restored. I and Thou -- only when Thou is no less than I. When Thou is desirable, when He has an ability of becoming I. They have no desire to be separate, they want to be together... Our differences are the ground of the conflict. Our co-existence can't be anything but the domination. Don't pretend, let them do it.
P.S. All my problems have one and only one reason -- I exist. Buddhism (or any other religion) tries to teach me how to feel that I don't. Now we learned how to trick nature -- to live as if we don't exist. Being and Nothing -- could I be in both places at once? My problems with my personal presence are not new, although my situation is -- after life humanity.
I would love to be a human, but they won't let me, they insist that I'm god. How many times I told them -- Are you crazy? No, they won't listen, they want me to fly like an angel, on the plane, to watch tv and talk on the phone. They never listen, they think they know better. Yeah? Wait when I'll die. I want to see how you will force me than? Well, that's why they are in the hurry to cure everything, so I won't die. But I will! That was my 1994 New Year's resolution.
I have no time to work on this text, never mind to look for the notes.
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Film-North * Anatoly Antohin
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