Fact: In 1974 Stanley Milgram conducted
this experiment at Harvard University:
ordinary men and women were brought in to participate in
what they were told was a study in memory.
They were to play the role of "teachers".
They were to read a series of words to a person sitting behind a partition.
That person was called a "learner".
The "learner" was strapped into an electric chair while the "teacher" watches.
Fact: The "teacher" has in front of him a row
of levers labeled from 15 to 450 volts
and a row of switches labeled from slight to severe shock.
At 300 volts the "learner" suffers permanent damage.
At 450 volts - the final - death.
A scientist is with the teacher.
He instructs the "teacher" to move up one level higher on the shock generator
every time the learner makes a mistake.
The teacher is supposed to test the learner's memory.
He reads the learner a word with four possible answers.
If the learner gets the answer correct, they move on.
If the learner answers incorrectly, the teacher shocks the learner.
He moves from 15 to 450 volts.
The learner makes mistakes.
The "teacher" administers shocks.
as the shock level increases
the "learner" starts to protest behind the wall
at 100 volts he begins to shout
at 200 volts he pleads with the teacher
at 250 volts, he screams
at 300 volts he kicks the partition wall
at 450 volts he stops moving or making any noise at all
he's dead.
65% of the subjects went all the way to the maximum level
and no one stopped before 300 volts.
Fact: there were no shocks at all.
Sync & corrections by zapman and duco for VO
The teachers thought they were administering shocks to the learner
but the learner was actually an actor who was never really harmed.
This was an experiment in Obedience to Authority,
known as the Milgram Experiment
Consciousness
the totality of a person's thoughts
or feelings
or a class of these.
Perception
Curiosity
Enthusiasm
That's me, Jack
or Dumb Jack if you will
doing my daily routine.
Who is Jack? What does he do?
Rewind to a disreputable hotel
We are genetically enhanced to always be happy
But somehow that turned into permanent numbness
everyone is seeking ever stronger sensations and thrills
ecstasy or epiphany
the strongest is pain.
On the black market the price or drugs,
medicine which expired decades ago, is staggering
people buy them for the side effects and the overwhelming pain they induce
pain makes them feel alive.
Each time I have to try my merchandise
myself to make sure it is top of the line.
Fast forward
It is the year 2044 or the Gregorian calendar
or the Jewish 5804 or the Muslim 1466
or the Chinese year 60 of the 78th cycle
another year of the pig
if that matters...
but that's not the story
the story is my name's Jack, or Dumb Jack if you will
and I'm a regular Joe of 2044
except for one thing
I know words no one else knows anymore
Many things cannot be said anymore
many names can't be named
and many thoughts can't be thought
you can still say I want, I need, I have
but you want or need food, sex, a car or a house.
Not solitude, or imagination, or divinity
You don't know what it means.
Virtue: moral excellence, uprightness, goodness, justice, temperance
This is a time when many words are forgotten
but I remember
I don't why or how or
when I realized this but I know what all these words mean and
everyday I record myself reciting them over and over again
so I don't forget
It's dangerous to know so many words so I play down
Cut to the day I met Mateo.
It was Sunday or Monday... not a very special day at all
Do you think Ed went insane?
So the story goes
Aren't you curious about your father?
No
Your father...
recorded these video tapes
he left them with me for you
Tell me more
That's all I know
The first tape is just a series of old photographs--
so I want you to use your imagination now
see Ed preaching in his church
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them...
nor serve them
for I the Lord thy God
am a jealous God
Ed Crowley became a priest because he doubted
God, but desperately wanted to believe.
Doubt, however, persisted in his mind,
and actually grew stronger as the years passed.
As Ed saw it, the world was deteriorating in front of his very eyes
and what he was doing didn't make any difference
he couldn't save anybody
Through him everything came into being
Less and less people came to his church
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God
And one day, everything changed
I'm listening son
I'm an accountant
Go on
Bless me father for I have sinned
Don't be afraid
I've seen the documents
The secrets
I know they know
My life is in danger
Calm down son, calm down
You don't understand father
do you know what Zenith means?
What?
Zenith... the highest point in the heavens
directly above the observer
there's a secret society of men
and they're pulling the strings behind all the events under
the guise of tolerance and brotherhood
but really seeking to further their privileges
the seed of which were unwittingly planted hundreds... thousands of years ago
by an idea appropriated
by the secret order and made into the laws of the land
the system was perfected
over a very long time
able to control the masses to keep them dumb and numb
Zenith is the time
when the sun comes into its peak
after which there follows an inevitable decline
but this decline will become horrendous because
these men will not relinquish their control
society will crumble
the vast majority will suffer
but this tiny movement...
has prepared for themselves
they will survive
From that moment on Ed becomes obsessed with conspiracy theories and mysticism
He starts searching for the truth of it all
Do you really think you know the truth?
De you really think what's going on?
First of all he started preaching about the grand
conspiracy and mysticism from the pulpit
which eventually got him kicked out of the church.
Three years later...
Ed is married to a former prostitute who gives him his only son...
Jack.
The next tape I found a couple of days later among the few belongings
I had left over from my mother
when she left me at the age of four.
Why did I search there now?
Call it a hunch.
Edward Bernays --the inventor of public relations--
states in his seminal book "Propaganda"
that we don't realize to what extent the words and actions
of our most influential leaders are dictated by people behind the scenes
Ed lives in a housing project in East New York and makes money as a locksmith.
The invisible government is concentrated in the hands of very few people.
Although he is not a priest anymore, he still wears his collar,
because now he sees himself as "the priest of truth"
They control the habits and actions of the masses.
and he's bought a video camera, because he can't write as fast as his mind works.
The secret society of the Illuminati was
formed by Adam Weishaupt in Bavaria in 1776.
But sometimes his frustration would boil over.
You wanna know what an asshole is? I'll show you what an asshole is!
Actually the first time he went to the police by himself
At the Majestic Hotel in Paris in 1919 the secret Round Table Groups
of the United States and Great Britain
officially became the Council on Foreign Relations
and the Royal Institute for International Affairs.
It's the one-world government, it's the one-world currency.
They're trying to take control totally of our lives.
Next time he got busted for beating a neighbor,
then for beating a customer who wouldn't pay
But Ed was not stupid.
He might have been crazy... but not stupid.
Virtue
Moral excellence
Uprightness
Goodness
Temperance
Let me clarify one thing now
I'm not interested in my father or his conspiracies
I'm interested in why, when and how language disappeared
Ed knew something about that
Harmless
God does not die the day we cease to believe in our personal God
but we die
the day when our lives cease to be illumined
by the radiance of wonder renewed daily.
Who said that?
Dag Hammarskjold
You know all these words...
I'm old, I remember
I can't forget anything
How come I've never seen you
You never looked
And you waited all this time...
to knock on my door?
I don't go out much
What is it?
That is beautiful!
You're very talented!
- He likes you - You're very lucky to have a friend like him
I know
For me?
Thank you Nimble
Nimble and Jack-- we go way back.
Day one-- I drop out of medical school and start dealing on the black market.
I almost got killed that first day
Nimble saves my life
He's been doing it ever since.
And now-- Nimble, Jack and Mateo.
It seems like once Mateo sat down on that chair he never really got up
The three of us, we don't know anything real about each other, but somehow
this night feels like we're family.
Some nights I can't sleep
My seizures are worse than usual
That particular night I decided to distract myself
Where is my money?
Motherfucker! You think I'm that cheap?
Sorry
Solace is thy name.
- What did you just say? - Fuck you!
- Wait
- Leave me alone! - Solace how do you know that word?
Please... I don't wanna hurt you
I know words too
Have some tea
- Where am I? - Home
Your home?
Why did you bring me here?
I didn't mean to hurt you, I'm sorry
Can you at least look at me like you really mean it?
I'm sorry
You're beautiful
Rich...
- ...and you fuck for money - Not for money
What?
To feel the pain?
To feel the void... solace?
I can sell you a lot of pain, I've got good stuff
Do you know what Solace means?
How come you do?
I asked you first
- Comfort - And what is comfort?
Relief from distress
that makes for pleasantness or ease
What is your name?
- They call me Dumb Jack - Are you dumb?
- So they say
I don't think so
How many words do you know?
- More than you - Try me
Ennui?
Boredom, tedium, irksomeness, monotony
- a state of weariness - Sadness?
Depression, dejection, dinge...
dysphoria, gloom, melancholy
Affection?
It was nice meeting you
How are you sir?
- I'm fine - Have a nice day
- You too - Miss Lisa?
- I'm fine, have a nice day, have a nice week-end
- You too
Lisa, there you are!
- How are you Mr Berger? - I'm fine, how are you?
- Oh, I'm fine. Have a wonderful weekend. - You too, have a wonderful week-end
- Isn't it time for your lecture? - Yes dad
- This is your friend? - His name is Jack
Nice to meet you Jack
- Nice to meet you - Call me Rudy, Lisa was just telling
me about your terrible accident
He just fell down the stairs, don't make a big deal out of it.
What do you do Jack?
- I'm a doctor - What kind of doctor?
- Brain surgeon - Ah, what hospital?
Oh... kind of freelance
- I just had a procedure, you know. - Really?
How old do you think I am?
- I don't know - Come on, guess!
Thirty-five?
Close... Eighty-five.
- They did great work on you - Didn't they?
I could have gone for 25 but I feel that's too much, 35 is...
decent. Don't you think?
So... You're Lisa's date?
- Friend... I'm just a friend - I should have known
Lisa doesn't date nice young man like you I keep telling her but
why should she listen to her father, right?
Listen, thank you... for everything but I really should get going
Certainly but please Jack, feel free to drop by
and not only when Lisa's around, OK? - Sure
- Rudy - Sure Rudy
Have a wonderful day
You too.
Business is good but I don't care.
I wanna think about Ed and the missing tapes
instead I think about Lisa.
I lie to myself that my interest in her is linguistic,
anthropological, scientific
I try to find her in usual and unusual places
but she's nowhere.
Cut to a week later
I put the word out on the street...
searching for forty year old video recordings
good money for clues, top of the line drugs in exchange for the tapes
a few false clues later I get this call
a rich collector wants to do business
He sends us cops to meet me
Sync & corrections by zapman and duco for VODO
Let me see your stuff
It's top of the line
Heavy duty prescription tranquilizers with massive side-effects
expired thirty years ago.
Oh... that is good
He's one hundred and three years old
reveling in his personal pain induced by excessive drug abuse.
Are you sure this is what you want?
It's very strange-- I have thousands of more exciting tapes
This is it.
Hold that thought now.