On the wide screen of the plasma TV, pictures of the Soviet film replaced each other. The kings, sitting at the table, slowly ate the remains of the evening meal and conducted a quiet conversation:
- Gentlemen, - said Alex Gotman - the king of the gaming industry, - and what are we all this "naphthalene" watching every time? Is there really nothing interesting from modern films?
- You, Alex, are young and therefore it would be better for you to think several times before speaking. Almost 90% of modern films are literally stuffed with malicious mental programs that we sew into the heads of viewers. Well, about the same as viruses in a computer, I think you understand this metaphor? - answered Ivan Ivanovich - the king of television.
- Yes, yes, something like that … there is a general similarity, I think … - Alex said thoughtfully.
- Exactly! - Petr Petrovich, the head of the sex industry, gave a voice, - it was through films that we once planted the sexual revolution and all this debauchery. In a word - a typical "Overton Window", and all thanks to our esteemed Ivan Ivanovich, - Pyotr Petrovich turned to Ivan Ivanovich and bowed his head in demonstrative bow.
- Yes, gentlemen, in essence, there are only two main levers for manipulating the human psyche. You just need to be able to press these two buttons correctly. Well, guess what? - Ivan Ivanovich said mysteriously with the air of a conspirator.
- Well-oo-oo-oo …. - Alex spoke uncertainly.
- The instinct of reproduction, I suppose, - Pyotr Petrovich blurted out with the zeal of an excellent student.
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- Right! Well, okay, I won't torment you. So, there are two levers - the reproductive instinct and the self-preservation instinct. By themselves, they do not carry anything bad, but if you constantly press only on these buttons, then these two motivations become prevailing for a person and displace everything else from consciousness. Pyotr Petrovich is responsible for the first motivation, and your humble servant for the second, - Ivan Ivanovich explained.
How does television instill fears? - Uncle Misha was surprised - the king of the food industry.
- Just as your McDonald's instills people with a suicidal type of food - mean, cynical and at first glance harmless, - Ivan Ivanovich laughed.
- It is very interesting. And that means that Soviet films do not carry such a message? Alex asked, puzzled.
- Oh, young people. Sure. Soviet films are for the most part aimed at creation, they show people what is reasonable, kind, eternal, and root their faith in a bright future. Therefore, such films are pleasant to watch even after 50 years and many times. And those films that we are now releasing - for the most part only carry dirt in themselves, after watching them it feels like, sorry, gentlemen, it will not be said to the table - as if you have eaten shit.
- That's for sure, - said Vasily Vasilyevich, - I once watched a horror movie about The Queen of Spades. I wanted to see Soviet classics, but here this novelty came out, and curiosity got the better of it. The muck is just incredible. For two days I walked as if nailed.
- Well, who will call you smart? How many times do I tell you - what we feed these hamsters - whether it is information, food, or anything else - is poison that we cannot touch ourselves. With you, Vasily Vasilyevich, something has been wrong lately. Either you offered us some brandy to drink, now look at any slag. You need to rest, - Ivan Ivanovich answered sympathetically.
“So tell me about horror movies,” Alex said impatiently.
- And what to tell, - Ivan Ivanovich, lounging in an armchair, began, - firstly, we frighten the audience not only with horror films. Take at least the news releases, I honestly have never even watched them completely, but at my behest they are composed so that they are 90 percent of the negative - murders, robberies, rapes, all kinds of maniacs, disasters, diseases, plus to this - right after the news we launch some other talk show with themes like “I killed and ate my mother”. And people hawala, I'll tell you. Here's the thing - more young people get hooked on horror films. And we need to methodically intimidate everyone - both pensioners (so that they do not stay out of retirement) and middle-aged people - so that they are more cowardly and obedient.
“Why do we need them to be cowardly,” Alex said thoughtfully.
- Yes, everything is simple, my friend, - Ivan Ivanovich said condescendingly, - it's easier to manage cowardly people. Fear is such a thing that pervades all areas of life. A person whom we intimidated, it would seem, with some kind of monsters, witches and viruses - begins to be afraid of quite real things - he is afraid of being fired, afraid to change something in his life, afraid to speak out against injustice, afraid of crises, and so on. And here we are working on two fronts - with this kind of horror content we support the general feeling of anxiety in a person, and with news releases with constant negativity, we direct this anxiety and anxiety in a specific direction.
- Competently and competently … - Alex said thoughtfully.
- What's this, - said Pyotr Petrovich, - our dear Ivan Ivanovich is modest - apart from just intimidation in such films, everything is generally calculated to the smallest detail, and every scene there is aimed at stitching a certain destructive attitude into the human mind. In any case, it is the horror films that we owe to the process of destruction of family values. Have you noticed that most of the plot of these films revolves around the family? For example, such a plot is often played up - the child becomes obsessed and "wets" his family first of all. And the institute went to the subconscious: "Well, them in the bath of these children, so at night your blood will get up and you will be solved with an ax." A person does not realize this, but when in horror films the image of the main monster is tried on something bright and inviolably holy - the image of a mother, father, brother,sisters - this, at the subconscious level, cripples a person's perception of family relationships in general. And it is partly thanks to such stories that family values are now being destroyed. Well, then my tools are used and it remains only to inspire people that the most important thing in life is animal instincts.
- Think deeply, Pyotr Petrovich, - Ivan Ivanovich jokingly shook his finger, - yes, everything is exactly that. All plots in horror films are far from random and are aimed at several goals. The main one, of course, is an increase in the general level of anxiety and anxiety. It is easier for a frightened person to knock the earth out from under his feet. Any "game" launched in a news release will force a person through a sense of fear to commit all sorts of stupid things. If a person is already “on the nerves”, we can say in the news that the buckwheat crops were destroyed by an alien invasion and therefore there will be no more buckwheat in stores. Or that there is a dangerous virus everywhere, and you can only leave the house twice a week. And if a person's psyche is already shattered by the constant watching of horror films, he, like an obedient lamb, will follow our instructions and will not even think of studying alternative information on the Internet. This is the first moment, and the second, as Pyotr Petrovich correctly noted, - not a single plot move in horror movies is accidental, for example, most horror films are accompanied by the death of many innocent people, thus we broadcast the message to the audience: “life is unfair”. And some films even end with the victory of evil, and this instills in a person such a model of behavior as learned helplessness …"life is not fair". And some films even end with the victory of evil, and this instills in a person such a model of behavior as learned helplessness …"life is not fair". And some films even end with the victory of evil, and this instills in a person such a model of behavior as learned helplessness …
- Yes, yes, I heard something - Vasily Vasilyevich responded, - this is when a person, based on past negative experience, refuses even to make attempts to correct something.
- Yes, on the whole, everything is correct, but here the scheme is somewhat different. An experiment was conducted - the dog was put in a box, they put on a collar that shocks with an electric current, and as soon as it tried to get out of the box, it was shocked. After several dozen attempts, the dog simply lay down on the bottom of the box and no longer made any efforts to escape. But the most interesting thing further - the collar was removed, and the dog could easily get out of the box, but she did not even try to do it, because past negative experience told her that this was impossible. So our horror films - the same electric shock for our wards ….
- To sit in their boxes and not stick out their nose, - Alex laughed.
- Quite right, my friend, - Ivan Ivanovich smiled, - any plot move in a horror film shows that an attempt to help a person in trouble ends with the limbs of the brave man then being scattered throughout the forest. The message is this: do not interfere with anything, save your life, do not try to help anyone - you will turn out sideways. And in general - run away from any difficulties, then you can still live. For young people, such films act simply as a zombie - we are literally raising an army of intimidated egoists who, apart from salvation, as they say in American films, have no other priorities in their lives. And then all this moral, more precisely immoral, - here Ivan Ivanovich laughed again, - we, so to speak, "polish" the paradigm with a general negative news background, so that people gradually get the impression,that the real world is not particularly different from the world of horror, and here everything is not much better.
- Yes, the system works perfectly … And all this anxiety, anxiety and dissatisfaction are then filled with alcohol and other drugs, - Vasily Vasilyevich summed up and added, - Thank you Ivan Ivanovich for your work. If it were not for your television, the business of each of those present here would have received much less profit, if it existed at all.
- Well, okay, - Ivan Ivanovich smiled coquettishly, - only thanks to well-coordinated work we cut these hamsters, here you won't be full of television either.
- Well said! Hamsters! Some are sitting in my shooting games, others are watching TV, others are drinking vodka. Everyone is in their own cage. The main thing is not to forget to add some water and feed them, - Alex laughed.
- Not some water, but vodka! - corrected Vasily Vasilyevich, and the Kings laughed together.
The night passed after midnight, the moon was already sinking behind the distant mountain landscapes, and pictures of the Soviet film flashed on a wide plasma screen, calling to a beautiful far away - a bright future, without Kings and subjects. And the Kings, meanwhile, plunged into reflections on the further construction of their own version of the future - also bright, but only for themselves.
Author: Slava Wind