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humans fail. The thing he doesn't realize is that you got this human who is
really a predator and I think that's what's at stake in the demonstration of the
dawn of man episode is that we are predators that is the major characteristic
that overlays our sub-strata as human beings. And so basically Dave tells him
that he?s going to use the explosive bolts of the pod that he's in to blow his
way in to the airlock and come in there and the thing that he didn?t realize is
that, notice he forgot his space helmet and so Hal say "without your helmet
you'll find that very difficult Dave". But you know what. what he doesn't
realize is that we're dealing with predators, do not *** off humans. *** off
humans bad enough and they will kill you. And basically without his space helmet
he blows the doors and gets into the airlock. And I actually did research on
this because I was very interested in the possibility. You can actually survive
for several seconds in outer space before the vacuum sucks all your blood and
your soft tissues out of you. For about 7 seconds. And I timed the scene and it
takes something like 3 1/2 second for him to blow into the airlock and then find
the hatch lever throw it down and get back into where he can breathe, goes and
gets his space helmet and disconnects HAL. Beautiful stuff, but very
characteristic of human beings. The story goes on I mean they, there's an
incredible psychedelic scene, almost an encounter with God and dealing with all
the existential realities from birth to death but it is a great film. Science
fiction in many ways is kind of our alternate theology it's a speculation and
imagination about, about the nature of the human condition and what is ultimate
reality. Star Trek was a pretty big box office hit it embodies some religious
themes as well. I think it basically extrapolates the sum of the human condition
so on one hand you have the Kirk character who is exemplifies gut level
intuition and passion and then you have the Spock character who is like logic and
intellect. And what's interesting that the two are at first rivals and almost
you would have to say enemies of sorts or kind of hostile towards one another until
the third component is a very evil person, evil incarnate becomes the nemesis
and then this, a common sub-structure that basically two rivals will unite in a
common cause against a third terrible, diabolical evil. I don't know if anybody
watched the miniseries "V" when it was on last year but basically its about
these people coming from outer space and they offered all these positive things.
But the thing that you don't realize, humans don?t realize is that they are
actually serpents underneath this and they want to eat the humans and take over
them and use them for their own purposes. This was an original mini series I
think from the 80's here's the character from that and really beauty is only
skin deep because actually at the core these beautiful visitors are actually
very much beautiful but also serpents because reptiles want to rule the world.
And so basically this is a typical theme you see in a lot of movies it's
demonizing the other. And so that often times in war you have to otherize them
and then you demonize the other so that they're not truly human this is a
strategy, a long standing strategy. Wars are used to this all the time. And how
about "Lost" and "Lost" fans out there? Yeah Lost is kind of interesting.
Because really, there's what it says about this: destiny calls. I mean it was
replete with religious symbols, so I mean I think this was crucial, I think when
I discovered this in season 4 or 5 that Jacob and his nemesis known as the man
in black, basically this is kind of like a primeval bet between God and the
Devil and it's so full of religious symbols and imagery but here's this, notice
this little wager this conversation between them so basically there?s a bet
going between them and the fact is that here it comes down to where the nemesis
says "do you have any idea, right here, do you have any idea how badly I want to
kill you?" and Jacob says "yes", and then the nemesis says one of these days
sooner or later I'm going to find a loophole my friend. See these things operate
by rules there are rules there, cosmic agreements that are in the background of
this show it was full of ancient symbols, the all seeing eye, -- symbols,
Egyptian symbols, taro at the Egyptian goddess of birth and re-birth of the
northern sky was a statue on the island. Here's a little Greek first
[Greek words] and what does that mean? May the Gods grant you happiness. And
that's an ancient Greek blessing. Well what about vampires, has anybody ever
taken an interest into the current vampire phenomenon. I mean its quite
interesting to see, what is that all about, vampires are everywhere. And at any
rate, there's all kinds of stuff that are going on in True Blood that has
religious significance. Pools of mythological characters like Maenads who are
devotees of Dionysius. There's the Dionysian will to power that's a big theme in
the second where Marianne is the Maenad and she basically has setup all kinds of
rituals to try to catapult herself into an expanded form of ecstasy. Well there
is all kinds of stuff like the queen's characterization that life is a dream.
And its basically down here she says that she's looking for immortality and she
has been able to create a strategy that allows her to think of herself as this
immortal being, therefore she is. Anyways, there was a character, Godrick, who's
looking for salvation. He's been a vampire 2000 years and he, I like this, he
goes "I'm actually older than your Jesus, I wish I could have known him, but I
missed him". Well and then Suki the theologian points out that Gods not going to
punish him, god only forgives. So there are all kinds of things that are replete
with religious significance in popular culture so that's what I want from the
Environmental Scan. I usually run the Environmental Scan exercise several times
and it's really an interesting thing to do with contemporary TV shows and things
like that how they mirror society and religion. At any rate, I am going to call
it for a day. This is the last of the mandatory sessions. I'll probably have
some more sessions, I'll alert you to, that you can attend as an option. Anyways
I'm going to sign off now. Have a good weekend. Adios.