Humanity’s Lens: “Being There” - Discussion

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Hugh, please tell me the bear rug has nothing to do with russia and Eve is not master baiting.

Try looking at 'Being There' as being about Nazi assets like Klaus Barbie and NATO politics instead of Masons.
Look at all the NAMES.

Chance might be the Nazi figure but conveniently changed into the ultimate innocent, a perfect meme-reversal.
Dr. Allenby who KNOWS about Chance? (CIA director Allen Dulles)
Franklin? (FDR)
Rand? (Rand Corporation)
Bobby? (Bobby Kennedy)
The movie poster is a copy of a picture of Charles de Gaulle in 1946.

So Russia, yes. And Eve with her sexuality linked to Russia?
Know about the Profumo Affair in the UK 1963?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profumo_affair

The use of Nazi assets by the big NATO countries was everyone's dirty secret which threatened to pop out into public view periodically.

And the use of sex honeypots to spy for the Soviet Union.

The political subtext doesn't have to make linear parallel sense like the overt narrative, just evoke subliminal themes and attitudes in scattered vignettes.

I think turning Peter Sellers into the ultimate innocent advising power is meant to take the edge off finding out that Nazi assets influenced and even led NATO powers after WWII.
In 'Being There' the CIA has nooo idea who that guy is! Gosh! So the CIA is innocent of this guy's background, aren't they?

Look at the author's background. Do you smell CIA? I do.

And the death of Charles de Gaulle on November 9, 1970 created an imbalance in hidden agreements that threatened to have operators like Klaus Barbie get exposed to the public.
The day de Gaulle died the president of West Germany called attention to Dr. Mengele in Paraguay, perhaps a safer diversion on the dangerous old Nazi topic.

Oh, did I mention that the Life Magazine Photo of the Week of Charles de Gaulle that the movie poster copies was captioned..."Sullen Savior"?
Link that to the last scene in the movie that recreates this photo but makes Chance a possible Jesus figure instead of Nazi asset.

Meme-reversal accomplished.

[brainpanhandler]

Hugh,

Typically your analysis revolves around the pole star of the nexus of Nazis/project paperclip/mockingbird/US intelligence agencies. That's fine and I am more than willing to entertain the idea that the populations of the west at least are being systematically brainwashed with various advanced techniques that derive their origins from project paperclip. Mind control techniques and advanced psyops are no doubt being used on various populations and there are almost certainly techniques used in cinema that derive from the research conducted by the cia in programs such as MK-Ultra. I am even willing to allow the notion that psyops cannot be judged on their literal conscious meaning, but rather psyops have to be evaluated in terms of how the subconscious perceives and interprets reality, which is nonlinear and nonrational. This opens a manatees box and allows statements like:

The political subtext doesn't have to make linear parallel sense like the overt narrative, just evoke subliminal themes and attitudes in scattered vignettes.

Hell, I'll even go so far as to allow you to say that a psyops technique need not actually be successful or well designed in order to be evidence that a psyops technique/KWH is present (although this needs to be the rare exception to the rule. It seems to me that you need to invoke this argument too often, whether you do or not). Fine and dandy, although the devil is in the details.

To engage in an exchange where we argue that the other is stretching the evidence too much in an attempt to make it fit the hypothesis would be absurd. I am already sorely tempted to do so nonetheless, but I will resist, mostly, for the moment. I'm not sure I have a working hypothesis yet anyway. I will at least say that Rand's-pyramid-with-the-all-seeing-eye-of-horus-crypt suggests the film ought to considered on at least one level as an allegory and commetary on the nature of power and wealth in the american republic and the role that occult societies play in controlling society and the levers of power behind the scenes. This much is unmistakable and therein lies the distinction between what you are doing and what I am doing. Whether this layer of meaning is a cover for or a diversion from the true intent of the film is probably endlessly debatable.

Answer one question for me...

On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being certainty, how certain are you that your analysis is correct?

[orz]

He's turned it up to 11.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

bph, your summary of what you think I'm suggesting was really good. Well re-said.

I partly agree with your own summary and bolded where your interpretation and mine overlap.

.....
I will at least say that Rand's-pyramid-with-the-all-seeing-eye-of-horus-crypt suggests the film ought to considered on at least one level as an allegory and commetary on the nature of power and wealth in the american republic and the role that occult societies play in controlling society and the levers of power behind the scenes. This much is unmistakable and therein lies the distinction between what you are doing and what I am doing. Whether this layer of meaning is a cover for or a diversion from the true intent of the film is probably endlessly debatable.

Secret societies. Oh yeah. But which ones?

I see lots of see lots of clues about Cold War military- intelligence agency secret societies and think that the not-subtle images of the pyramid and eye scream this theme loud enough to register it but without spelling out "CIA-MI6-Mossad-Gehlen Org."

This movies is about civilians for a while and then government comes in strong.

What do you think of my linking in that article about the prison camp in Scotland for high-level Nazis with these components-
>made to watch movies to be 'de-Nazified'
>one escaped and did landscape gardening
>one became a CIA propagandist
...?

If I could find that Life Magazine (CIA) photo of Charles de Gaulle with the caption "Sullen Savior" that the movie poster copies that also links to the movie's last scene where maybe Chance walks on water...you'd be immediately convinced I was right.

Answer one question for me...

On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being certainty, how certain are you that your analysis is correct?

10. Shut up, orz. Thanks.
All the themes and keywords line up perfectly plus the Charles de Gaulle photo.
Even the real world history when the book was written (1971) and then the movie was made (1979).

I looked into it even to the point of digging out Gerald Posner's (yech) book, 'Mengele,' with the citations of when publicity and legislation over old Nazis occurred during the late 1960s-late 1970s.

The CIA was putting out decoy entertainment to dilute their old Nazi vulnerability ever since Mossad snatched up Eichmann 5/2/60.

'Hogan's Heroes' started in September 1965 because of an American professor with a very similar name putting out Nazi Holocaust denial stuff and making an international flap from 1963-1965. This American professor was even hooked up with the W. German Nazis with a newspaper which tied into Charles Willoughby, General Edwin Walker, and the murder of JFK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hoggan

So the death of Charles de Gaulle and the CHANCE of "Nixon's Nazis," that is, Nazis and fascists imported from Europe and brought into the Republican Heritage Groups Council, coming to light, as actually happened in one of Jack Anderson's 1972 columns, was worth a book and, later, when Klaus Barbie was getting eyed in Bolivia, a movie.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Republican_Heritage_Groups_Council

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Levine_%28DEA%29

on edit: My electricity went out just as I was getting to a historical kicker-

Old Nazi in the Pentagon, Fritz Kraemer, Pentagon Plans Officer from 1950 to 1985, and his disciple,
Henry Kissinger who was key advisor to the President when Jerzy Kosinsky wrote 'Being There.'

from John Judge in 1983-
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/GoodAmericans.html

Good Americans

Henry Kissinger -- Worked with General Lucius Clay at Oberammergau, and then with key stateside Army Intelligence and CIA units responsible for bringing in the Nazi spies.[45] Kissinger, who came from Germany to join U.S. Army Intelligence during World War II, had as his "mentor" the mysterious Fritz Kraemer.[46] Kraemer's 30-year silent career in the Pentagon plans division includes the prepping of Alexander Haig.[47] It may also conceal his real identity -- prisoner #33 in the dockets at Dachau, the special Lieutenant to Hitler, Fritz Kraemer.[48] Mr. Kissinger still relies on his advice, and did so while Secretary of State.

Fritz Kraemer, Kissinger, and Haig. whew.
Now this is much closer to the movie, close advisors to the President.

But let's not leave out Governor ('67-'75) Ronald Reagan's Nazi ties.
more from John Judge's 'Good Americans'-

Helene von Damm -- Personal White House appointment secretary long-time personal secretary to Ronald Reagan, she stands to be appointed Ambassador to Vienna, and controls all cabinet level appointments in the Reagan administration.[64] She came to the United States in the 1950s in the company of Albrecht Otto von Bolschwing, and worked for him as a translator.[65] Von Bolschwing gave the direct orders to Adolph Eichmann in the dread Eisenstatz, group, the SS killers.[66] Helene's husband, Christian von Damm, ran the Bank of America in La Paz, Bolivia, which defaulted on a huge U.S. loan.[67]

Nazis and Republicans, old old dance partners. But we get to love Peter Sellers instead.

[IanEye]

“Old Manatee look at my Life
I’m a lot like Hugh were….”
_ _ _

Try looking at 'Being There' as being about Nazi assets like Klaus Barbie and NATO politics instead of Masons.

‘Being There’ is a rich enough film that one can easily incorporate Freemasonry and NATO into its viewpoint. For instance, look at this Life magazine table of contents:


notice the page number that the picture of DeGaulle appears on. See? Freemasonry and NATO, nice huh?

_ _ _



[url=http://www.univie.ac.at/cga/art/Chair2001.JPG] I’ve been first and last
Look at how the time goes past.
But I’m all alone at last.
Rolling home to you.[/url]

_ _ _

Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody's havin' them dreams.
Everybody sees hisself walkin' around with no one else.
Half the people can be part right all of the time, an'
Some of the people can be all right part of the time,
But all the people can't be all right all of the time.
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.

"I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours."
Eye said that.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

“Old Manatee look at my Life
I’m a lot like Hugh were….”

‘Being There’ is a rich enough film that one can easily incorporate Freemasonry and NATO into its viewpoint. For instance, look at this Life magazine table of contents:
.....
notice the page number that the picture of DeGaulle appears on. See? Freemasonry and NATO, nice huh?

Very cool. Thanks for finding the imagery of the 'memetic overlap.' Great find, IanEye.

Check out what I added to my post above when my electricity came back on regarding
Fritz Kraemer, Kissinger, Haig, and Reagan.

[brainpanhandler]

Let's approach this from another angle. VHS was released to the American market in 1976. This means that by December of 1979, when Being there was released, the number of American homes that owned VHS players was still relatively small. Movies had to make more of there revenue in actual movie theaters. So, the question of how not only to get people to pay to see the movie but also how to get people to see the movie more than once was a consideration to a director or a producer interested in making money.

It is probably safe to say that many people responded to the film upon the first viewing in much the same as Sunny when she asks, "WTF is the meaning of the ending??!?" That was my response when I first saw the film.

There is certainly, I think, lots of other more subtle evidence for the masonic/illuminati subtext in the film, but it is the spectacular funeral scene which grabs your attention and the walking on water bit that leaves you scratching your head and wondering "what was that all about". You wanna see it again and/or maybe you want to buy the book or in other words you want to spend more money.

Maybe Ashby and Kosinski and the financial backers of the film were simply attempting to maximize their ROI (stories that the studio wanted another ending than Ashby's aside). Even if this is true, and it seems likely to me that it is, it does not diminish the value of the artistic expression.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

HAW! Just found something that supports my thesis about Kissinger's buddy, Fritz Kraemer. A keyword hijacking of large proportions.

http://www.filmsite.org/bein.html

The film had two Academy Awards nominations, including Best Actor for Sellers (his second and last unsuccessful bid - he lost to Dustin Hoffman in
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)...

This poster pictogram tells us the protagonist is practically a...flower child.
So added to the cover-up of Nazis advising the President/NATO is...
the additional mileage off the meme-reversal of Nazis into a naive TV-watching flower child of the 60s:
"How absurd, the idea that these people should influence the President."



Note on this poster the pyramid with eye at the lower left corner. Telegraphing.

I think this is a red herring, no pun intended, in the same way that the Coen brothers thin allusion to 'Ulysses' in 'Oh, Brother Where Art Thou' covered for other embedded counterpropaganda subtexts, not coincidentally, also related to CIA dirty laundry and the keyword "McGill."

I've found psy-ops movies to be designed the same way a covert-op is:
1)There's the obvious entertaining cover story most people see, some even call it 'art.'
*Here it's TV nation and the superficiality of politics in the swirls of fate or Chance.

2)Then there's the not-too-hard-to-find cover subtext for those who look a little deeper.
*Here it's the Masonic imagery of secret influences.

3) Then there's the subliminal attitude steering using themes and keywords related to political context missed by the conscious mind because the other two levels take up the brain's processing bandwith.
*Here it's cloaking the Nazi assets of the USG/ NATO plus discrediting anti-war youth and women.

[orz]

HAW! indeed.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/8200/being.txt

19 INT. CHANCE'S ROOM - AFTERNOON

Chance turns on the TV as Hayes and Franklin inspect the
room.

CHANCE
I used to listen to the radio,
then the Old Man started giving
me television sets...

Will Hayes and Franklin D. Roosevelt? Radio and then TV? That's USG propaganda progression and timeline from the 1930s to 1940s.

We get a facefull of hostile aggressive African Americans when Chance approaches the street gang. But the closing line of the scene mentions a name.

26 EXT. GHETTO STREET - WASHINGTON, D.C. - AFTERNOON
.....
CHANCE
Yes. I understand. If I see
Raphael, I will tell him.
(as he leaves)
Good day.

Abbaz, Lolo and the gang watch him go, then begin to buzz
with excitement: "Who the fuck died?" "Why'd he pull that
changer on us, man?" "The Old Man died, must be Papa Joe!"
"He's some weird honkie, man!"

"Papa Joe." Joseph Stalin? Joe McCarthy? Joe Kennedy? Hmm...

29 EXT. - WASHINGTON, D.C. - LATE AFTERNOON

Chance seems stumped on which way to walk. He looks one
way, then the other, turns and looks behind him and sees a
large statue of Benito Juarez pointing. Chance smiles and
goes off in the direction that Benito points.

"The way Bonito points." Ah, but perhaps not even Bonito Juarez. Perhaps Mussolini.
That's certainly what happened in post-WWII USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Ju%C3%A1rez

Benito Mussolini was named after Benito Juarez.

The historical timeline continues.

30 EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. - LATE AFTERNOON

Chance walks down the center meridian of a divided street.
He seems oblivious to the automobiles passing on either
side. In the background can be seen the Capitol Building.

"down the center"..."divided"..."the Capitol Building"...clearly political language.
If this is a timeline, this could be the Eisenhower years.

31 EXT. REAR OF THE WHITE HOUSE - DUSK

Chance is across the street from the White House, inspecting
the branches of a potted tree. He moves to a POLICEMAN
standing nearby.

CHANCE
Excuse me...
(points to tree)
...That tree is very sick. It
should be cared for.

The Policeman looks at the tree, then at Chance, figures a
man dressed that well must be important.

POLICEMAN
Yes sir. I'll report it right
away.

CHANCE
Yes. That would be a good
thing to do. Good day.

POLICEMAN
Good day.

The Policeman takes out his walkie-talkie as Chance leaves.

"White House"..."the branches"..."very sick"...obviously the Executive Branch of the USG is "sick." But the policeman is on it and deploys his tools.
Chronologically, this might be the assassination of JFK.

32 EXT. BUSINESS DISTRICT - EVENING

A fashionable area. Expensive shops, well-kept streets
and sidewalks. Chance stands by the display window of a
TV store, looks in at a dozen or so color TVs, all turned
on, playing various channels. A video camera points outward
and is focused on the sidewalk to allow passersby to see
themselves live on TV. Chance is intrigued by his own image.
He poses, then steps back off the curb, frowns as his like-
ness disappears from the frame. Standing between two parked cars,
Chance takes out his remote control, clicks it at the store.
Four or five other sets in the window change channels, but
he does not reappear on the giant screen. As he does this,
the car to his left, a large, American-made limousine, backs
up. The limo bumps Chance, pins him against the car to his
right. Chance cries out in pain, drops his suitcase, his
umbrella, his changer, and bangs his hand on the trunk of the
limo. The chauffer, DAVID, and the liveryman, JEFFREY,
immediately jump from the car, run back to Chance.

DAVID
I'm very sorry, sir... I...

David and Jeffrey reach out to help, but Chance is wedged
solidly between the two cars.

CHANCE
(in pain)
...I can't move... My leg...

Now we come up to what might be the turmoil and quagmire of the 1960s.
The protesting public sees its own image but doesn't see any response in government.
The government find itself caught painfully between the Left and Right and can't move.

DAVID
I'm terribly sorry, Mrs. Rand,
I never saw the man.

EVE
Oh, I don't think it was anyone's
fault, David.

DAVID
Thank you, ma'am.

Jeffrey holds the door open but Chance is hesitant about
getting in the car.

CHANCE
I've never ridden in an auto-
mobile.

JEFFREY
(a beat)
I assure you, sir, David is a
very careful driver.

CHANCE
(looks at the car,
then decides)
...Yes. You can take me.

JEFFREY
(as Chance gets in)
Very good.

Jeffrey closes the door, goes back to pick up Chance's
suitcase and umbrella but does not notice the remote
control. As Jeffrey puts Chance's bag into the trunk, we
see the personalized license plate "Rand 1."

Finally we are in the hands of "Rand," the name of the Air Force's think tank advising the Pentagon.
And we've heard the exoneration from Eve that "it wasn't anyone's fault." Vietnam?

etc.

[orz]

"Papa Joe." Joseph Stalin? Joe McCarthy? Joe Kennedy? Hmm...

Take your pick.... OF ANY USE OF THE NAME "JOE" YOU FEEL LIKE>

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

'Being There,' written in 1971, includes a reference to President Nixon's 8/15/71 announcement of a wage and price freeze.

Only the movie president rejects this economic move due to Chance the Gardener.

67 INT. RAND'S ROOM - DAY

Rand is in bed, looking bad. Eve, Chance and Allenby are
seated around him, the two nurses stand to one side. They
all watch the President's address to the Financial Institute
on TV.

PRESIDENT'S VOICE
...I know that many of you believe
that we are on the brink of the
worst financial crisis in this
nation's history. And there are
some of you who would like to see
us put mandatory freezes on prices
and wages, and then call it a
temporary measure. Well, that's
exactly what I was going to do
until this moment. But I have
decided there are no temporary
stop gaps. So I am going to re-
think my position and find
another solution. And, you'll be
very pleased to know that your
founder and chairman-of-the-board,
Mr. Benjamin Turnbull Rand, agrees
with me on this...
(a beat)
...for once.

There is applause and laughter from the audience.

Nixon's move-

http://www.econreview.com/events/wageprice1971b.htm

President Nixon Imposes Wage and Price Controls

August 15, 1971. In a move widely applauded by the public and a fair number of (but by no means all) economists, President Nixon imposed wage and price controls. The 90 day freeze was unprecedented in peacetime, but such drastic measures were thought necessary. Inflation had been raging, exceeding 6% briefly in 1970 and persisting above 4% in 1971. By the prevailing historical standards, such inflation rates were thought to be completely intolerable.

The 90 day freeze turned into nearly 1,000 days of measures known as Phases One, Two, Three, and Four. The initial attempt to dampen inflation by calming inflationary expectations was a monumental failure.

In 1971, the U.S. was also in the process of leaving the gold standard, which was intended to allow the value of the U.S. dollar to fall. Compounding the situation were such events as Fed Chairman Arthur Burns and the Committee on Interest and Dividends (part of the controls apparatus) strenuously opposing banks attempting to raise the U.S. prime rate from 6% to 6.25% in February 1973. Inflation rates were below 4% at the start of 1973, but reached 9% by the start of 1974, which would have made the real prime rate a negative 3%. At the same time, interest rates were going up in foreign countries, putting enormous pressure on the dollar.

The wage and price controls were mostly dismantled by April, 1974. By that time, the U.S. inflation rate had reached double digits.

While there were skeptics in August, 1971, there were a great many who thought "temporary" wage and price controls could cure inflation. By 1974, this notion was thoroughly discredited, and attention gradually turned toward a monetary approach to inflation. In a complete reversal, the policy to curb inflation in now thought to be an increase in interest rates rather than an attempt to hold them down.

[brainpanhandler]

Hugh,

Your arguments are unassailable because they are insular, circular, not falsifiable. You understand that don't you? Trying to convince you that you are wrong would be like trying to talk a paranoid psychotic out of their delusions, a fairly ingenius paranoid psychotic at that. No matter what objection someone might offer you will have a rejoinder. I don't think I have ever seen you admit that an analysis of yours was wrong, ever. What's more you are on record as saying you are 100% certain your take on Being There is correct. 100%! certain.

As I've said, I'm willing to ENTERTAIN your thoughts.

Arguing with you about your interpretation would be pointless. Now that you have sunk your teeth into this film, trying to alter your interpretation would be like trying to pull a steak out of a pitbulls jaws. Nonetheless...

I've found psy-ops movies to be designed the same way a covert-op is:
1)There's the obvious entertaining cover story most people see, some even call it 'art.'
*Here it's TV nation and the superficiality of politics in the swirls of fate or Chance.

Actually, I think your take on the "entertaining cover story" is itself superficial, ironically. I think that Chance's journey, the way people respond to him, the way people respond to each other's responses to Chance, has more to do with the way modern humen beings take in and assimilate experience. Chance embodies both ends of the spectrum of human experience....The zen like art of gardening (and also in the form of his cycles of nature metaphors and the agrarian origins of civilization) and then also a modern, isolated tv viewing human being cut off from direct experience of life and social interaction.
It's a little more complex than your shallow analysis.

Maybe you would like to offer your definition of "art". In fact, I think you are obligated to offer your definition of art.

2)Then there's the not-too-hard-to-find cover subtext for those who look a little deeper.
*Here it's the Masonic imagery of secret influences.

I'm not really very convinced of this. If you ignore the funeral scene and the illumanti pyramid, what else is there? I was hoping others more well versed in masonry could help me out there. The details I offered are a stretch (I'd put their probability of being placed there by design at slightly more likely than not.) I was hoping someone might be able to link Ben Rand's philosophy as espoused in the dining scene and also Chance's metaphors with masonic teachings. I found the following excerpt from the Golden Bough about the ritual of osiris interesting relative to Chance's articulation of his gardening metaphors/masonry http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Golde ... _of_Osiris

BTW... a search for the etymology of the name Ben Jamin reveals some interesting and perhaps pertinent results.

The true etymology of the name Benjamin is a matter of dispute, though most agree that it is composed of two parts - ben and jamin - the former meaning son of. The literal translation of Benjamin is son of right (as opposed to left), generally interpreted as meaning son of my right hand, though sometimes interpreted as son of the right [hand] side; being associated with the right hand side was traditionally a reference to strength and virtue (cf sinister, which derives from the latin for left).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin

3) Then there's the subliminal attitude steering using themes and keywords related to political context missed by the conscious mind because the other two levels take up the brain's processing bandwith.
*Here it's cloaking the Nazi assets of the USG/ NATO plus discrediting anti-war youth and women.

Yup, fine and not inconceivable, but not very likely. Certainly not falsifiable... not even if we could interview the principals, because of course they would be lying if they did not agree. Totally useless to argue with you about it. Useless.

Here's some more grist for your psyops mill:

From the wiki article on the year 1979.

July 9 - A car bomb destroys a Renault owned by "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld at their home in France. A note purportedly from ODESSA claims responsibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Hugh,

Your arguments are unassailable because they are insular, circular, not falsifiable. You understand that don't you?

No more than anyone else's. I show context, themes, keywords.

Trying to convince you that you are wrong would be like trying to talk a paranoid psychotic out of their delusions, a fairly ingenius paranoid psychotic at that. No matter what objection someone might offer you will have a rejoinder.

Now you're suggesting I'm fabricating out of nothingness and that's not true.
Context, themes, keywords.
Oh, and having analyzed and found psy-ops in many many movies and TV shows so I know what the cover-ups are and the devices used.

Like attaching innocence to a criminal role or vice-versa.
In 'Being There' the innocence of Chance the Gardener is being attached to Nazi assets to the USG.

I don't think I have ever seen you admit that an analysis of yours was wrong, ever. What's more you are on record as saying you are 100% certain your take on Being There is correct. 100%! certain.

Yes, I am 100% certain about 'Being There.' I haven't even finished putting up the script evidence.
No, I have not often been wrong about psy-ops because I've really really studied it and thus have not often needed to admit being wrong.
Some find this offputting but knowing things and certainty have been discredited as signs of zealotry and subjective blindness. Not always. Some people know things really well.
I know psy-ops really well. Better than I have so far verbalized.

As I've said, I'm willing to ENTERTAIN your thoughts.

And I, yours.

Arguing with you about your interpretation would be pointless. Now that you have sunk your teeth into this film, trying to alter your interpretation would be like trying to pull a steak out of a pitbulls jaws. Nonetheless...

Hey, I did the work. And it wasn't hard since I knew where to dig from recognizing Cold War clues.

What did you think of it? How about 'Kraemer vs. Kraemer?'

That surprised me out of the blue and confirmed that the advisor to the president really needing to be friendlied-up in 1970-71 is Kissinger due to his mentor, Fritz Kraemer, and thus the whole post-WWII Nazi scene
.
I was also surprised by the de Gaulle photo.
I had already sussed the Nazi-NATO theme before finding both of those items which just nails this to the wall for me.

I've found psy-ops movies to be designed the same way a covert-op is:
1)There's the obvious entertaining cover story most people see, some even call it 'art.'
*Here it's TV nation and the superficiality of politics in the swirls of fate or Chance.

Actually, I think your take on the "entertaining cover story" is itself superficial, ironically. I think that Chance's journey, the way people respond to him, the way people respond to each other's responses to Chance, has more to do with the way modern humen beings take in and assimilate experience. Chance embodies both ends of the spectrum of human experience....The zen like art of gardening (and also in the form of his cycles of nature metaphors and the agrarian origins of civilization) and then also a modern, isolated tv viewing human being cut off from direct experience of life and social interaction.
It's a little more complex than your shallow analysis.

I agree with you that the gardening/seasonal motif is significant but for a different reason.
Note that Nixon's wage and price freeze was used in the script. And in the movie the analogy of inevitable cycles "so don't worry" is repeated and central to the plot.

This is because at the time of the book the US was going off the gold standard and the supposedly fine-tuned and predictable US economy was messed up despite the august experts who were supposed to know how to keep this social machine purring.
The unpaid for (and lost) Vietnam War was wreaking havoc finally and the nation was angst-ridden over many things.

Authority and Experts seem to be able to put a man on the moon BUT etc.
Hence the president's illness and impotence refreshed with Chance's mantra, "this too shall pass" which also placates the masses.

So the power of contagious MORALE is illustrated.

However, even though the device of showing how people project their assumptions onto celebrity is notable, there's nothing realistic about the way people react to Chance. Nothing.
It's totally a plot device to propel his innocence up to the levels of power.

This same innocence device was used in 'Forrest Gump,' a book written by a military man as military recruiting psy-ops in 1985. Many reviews of Gump mentioned 'Being There' because of this.

Only the black maid voices realistically what Chance is. An empty shell. Mindless.
Oh, but Dr. "Allenby" (Allen Dulles) has a clue about Chance's real abilities since Chance is an innocent stand-in for Nazi advisor, Fritz Kraemer and his ilk.

The movie title, 'Being There,' is very abstract, another way to diffuse clarity and guilt.
Kind of philosophical. Like existentialism.
Hey, here's some GERMAN existentialism ALL ABOUT "BEING THERE" edited by a Mr. Kaufman, same name as one of the presidential advisors in the movie. Hang on-
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/heidegg2.htm

Martin Heidegger (1949)

Existence and Being

Source: Existence and Being from Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre edited by Walter Kaufman published in full.
.....
To characterise with a single term both the involvement of Being in human nature and the essential relation of man to the openness ("there") of Being as such, the name of "being there [Dasein]" was chosen for that sphere of being in which man stands as man. This term was employed, even though in metaphysics it is used interchangeably with existentia, actuality, reality, and objectivity, and although this metaphysical usage is further supported by the common [German] expression "menschliches Dasein." Any attempt, therefore, to re-think Being and Time is thwarted as long as one is satisfied with the observation that, in this study, the term "being there" is used in place of "consciousness." As if this were simply a matter of using different words! As if it were not the one and only thing at stake here: namely, to get men to think about the involvement of Being in human nature and thus, from our point of view, to present first of all an experience of human nature which may prove sufficient to direct our inquiry. The term "being there" neither takes the place of the term "consciousness" nor does the "object" designated as "being there" take the place of what we think of when we speak of "consciousness." "Being there" names that which should first of all be experienced, and subsequently thought of, as a place namely, the location of the truth of Being.

What the term "being there" means throughout the treatise on Being and Time is indicated immediately (page 42) by its introductory key sentence: "The 'essence' of being there lies in its existence." [Das "Wesen" des Daseins liegt in seiner Existenz.]

To be sure, in the language of metaphysics the word "existence" is a synonym of "being there": both refer to the reality of anything at all that is real, from God to a grain of sand. As long, therefore, as the quoted sentence is understood only superficially, the difficulty is merely transferred from one word to another, from "being there" to "existence."

Maybe you would like to offer your definition of "art". In fact, I think you are obligated to offer your definition of art.

Art: packaged intent.

[quote=hmw]2)Then there's the not-too-hard-to-find cover subtext for those who look a little deeper.
*Here it's the Masonic imagery of secret influences.[/quote]

[quote=brainpanhandler]I'm not really very convinced of this. If you ignore the funeral scene and the illumanti pyramid, what else is there? I was hoping others more well versed in masonry could help me out there.[/quote]

A mason is mentioned very early in the script. More telegraphing of the cover subtext.
I should've put it in above. Here-

17 EXT. GARDEN - AFTERNOON

Chance talks to Franklin as Hayes quickly checks through
some paperwork.
.....
HAYES
(looking up
from papers)
There is no mention of a gardener.
In fact, according to our inven-
tories, there hasn't been a man
employed here since 1933...except
for a Mr. Joe Saracini, a brick
mason, who did some repairs to a
wall. He was here for two-and-a-
half days in 1952.

CHANCE
Yes, I remember Joe. He was very
fat and had short hair and showed
me pictures from a funny little
book.

There's your mason early in the movie.
I'm not sure what to make of the dates 1933 and 1952.
Those would be the FDR-Truman years.
"Joe" could be Stalin (died 3/53) and used as a generic commie since the rest of his description sounds like Mao and his famous Little Red Book.

The details I offered are a stretch (I'd put their probability of being placed there by design at slightly more likely than not.) I was hoping someone might be able to link Ben Rand's philosophy as espoused in the dining scene and also Chance's metaphors with masonic teachings. I found the following excerpt from the Golden Bough about the ritual of osiris interesting relative to Chance's articulation of his gardening metaphors/masonry http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Golde ... _of_Osiris

BTW... a search for the etymology of the name Ben Jamin reveals some interesting and perhaps pertinent results.

The true etymology of the name Benjamin is a matter of dispute, though most agree that it is composed of two parts - ben and jamin - the former meaning son of. The literal translation of Benjamin is son of right (as opposed to left), generally interpreted as meaning son of my right hand, though sometimes interpreted as son of the right [hand] side; being associated with the right hand side was traditionally a reference to strength and virtue (cf sinister, which derives from the latin for left).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin

Ben Rand's philosophy is boilerplate Republican laissez faire capitalism.
And he's the president's main advisor. Ouch. That's accurate, unfortunately.

Good work looking into the name, 'Benjamin.' But I think the hidden reference comes as part of the whole name's three parts.

The man's full name is "Benjamin Turnbull Rand" and I think refers to three nationalities and thus their intelligence services-
Benjamin - Israel/Mossad (Benjamin Disraeli)
Turnbull - Britain/MI6 (John Bull)
Rand - USA/CIA (Rand Corporation)

You remember these three. They run "al-Queda" and other fun and games.

3) Then there's the subliminal attitude steering using themes and keywords related to political context missed by the conscious mind because the other two levels take up the brain's processing bandwith.
*Here it's cloaking the Nazi assets of the USG/ NATO plus discrediting anti-war youth and women.

Yup, fine and not inconceivable, but not very likely. Certainly not falsifiable... not even if we could interview the principals, because of course they would be lying if they did not agree. Totally useless to argue with you about it. Useless.

Not very likely? Sure it is. Politics of the times.
And Kozinski looks to be CIA via Congress for Cultural Freedom, just like Tom Stoppard. Both of 'em on Ford Foundation grants etc.

Here's some more grist for your psyops mill:

From the wiki article on the year 1979.

July 9 - A car bomb destroys a Renault owned by "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld at their home in France. A note purportedly from ODESSA claims responsibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979

Excellent find. Even if it is "unlikely."
1979 - Kraemer vs. Kraemer. sheesh.

[brainpanhandler]

HAYES
(looking up
from papers)
There is no mention of a gardener.
In fact, according to our inven-
tories, there hasn't been a man
employed here since 1933...except
for a Mr. Joe Saracini, a brick
mason, who did some repairs to a
wall. He was here for two-and-a-
half days in 1952.

CHANCE
Yes, I remember Joe. He was very
fat and had short hair and showed
me pictures from a funny little
book.

HAYES
...Some pictures?

CHANCE
Yes. Of men and women.

HAYES
...Oh.

This is an odd little exchange, perhaps indicative of nothing except that Joe might have conversed with Chance, discovered that he had no notion of women or sex and took it upon himself to educate Chance. It seems the blue collar workers are better at figuring out that Chance is clueless than any of the upper crust he meets later in the film, loisie and Joe the mason being two examples. He is a brick mason though.