Preface to the English edition
Glaring effulgence of Donald Trump from the political Olymp does not change the fact that Vladimir Putin and his propaganda-machine today is now the main threat to the all civilized world. The duty of every intelligent man now is to speak out against this machine, to beat her to death. This is the first theme of the entire series.
But if this is a war, if we face a war machine – how can we oppose it? We can counter it with the latest and strongest methods of data analysis – of information emitted, transmitted, distributed, perceived, understood.
At the beginning of the second book, I have used this image: the broadcast runs at a certain frequency, and the receiver should tune to that frequency.
Human communication always runs at certain frequencies – levels. Only in the human communication has precisely 8 available levels, numbered from 1 to 8. The first book describes it as a theoretical model. Next books gave examples of movies on all levels and with various combinations of levels.
The second leading motif of the series is as follows.
Russian speaking intelligent-and-educated Homo sapiens had not found yet a place where they could unite all good people – and keep out idiots and crooks.
The problem is not technical; it is about meanings and values. I would really like to create such a platform – with books – and with a discussion of these books.
Just as cities are usually built near the water, and industrial enterprises – near cheap sources of energy, platforms for serious discussion of serious issues should be located – where? Next to the new global producers of meanings.
Today, the world’s best producers of a global sense are the American moviemakers. Analyzing the conflicts and problems embodied in the American cinema over the past 30 years, I launch new discussions.
This sets the semantic nature of the place – speaking in the language of my previous books – the sixth and the eighth level of communication and thinking. Sixth – to know how to articulate their thoughts and justify them. Eighth – to know how to take into account the interests and opinions of as many potential interlocutors, opponents.
Philosophy – from the time of Socrates – more often pretends to be an environment of free dialogue than it truly is. I assume that Socrates himself was fond of free discussion, but Socrates of Plato’s dialogues acts as a skilled manipulator. Manipulation and free dialogue are incompatible.
By the way, low culture of dialogue has led the Western world to the two shocking discoveries about itself: neither Trump nor Brexit have been predicted by sociologists. Why? Because one half of society were persistently ignoring the other half – and only now the first half realizes that the other half exists too.
So two goals – the resistance to evil and uniting the forces of good in the civilized (6—8) dialog – converge – and that makes me move on, publishing one book after another.