February 3, 2021
Being There—a middle-aged, simple-minded fellow named Chance lives in the townhouse of his wealthy benefactor in Washington, DC. The benefactor could even be his father! Having never left the property, Chance has spent his whole life either in the brownstone’s backyard garden or inside watching TV.
When his benefactor dies, Chance naively tells the estate’s lawyers that he has no claim against his possible father’s property. Therefore, as the law dictates, he is evicted from the only home he has ever known and put out on the street.
Chance wanders about aimlessly, discovering the outside world for the first time. He is shocked to discover that the real world doesn’t respond to the click of a TV remote—or does it?
As Chance stumbles and fumbles along, he falls into the street and is immediately hit by a car driven by the chauffeur of a very insulated and spoiled politician’s wife, who is sitting in the back seat. To protect her husband’s reputation, she takes Chance home.
When Ben Rand, the wife’s elderly Senator husband and an advisor to the President, arrives home that evening, he is introduced by his wife as “Chauncey Gardiner”. Rand assumes, based on Chauncey old-fashioned and courtly manners, that Chance is an upper-class, highly educated businessman who has fallen on hard times.
The President takes “Chauncey’s” absurd media-fueled delusions seriously and even quotes him, shaping American culture and politics. “Chauncey” now rises to national prominence, attends important dinners, and even develops a close relationship with the Soviet Ambassador as he spouts the wisdom he learned while attending his first benefactor’s backyard garden.
Alas, “Chauncey” loses his second benefactor. While the President delivers a speech at Rand’s funeral, the pallbearers hold a whispered discussion over potential replacements for the President when his term expires—they unanimously agree that the logical choice is “Chauncey Gardiner”.
Oblivious and in his own world, “Chauncey” wanders off. He pauses at the edge of a smooth clear lake and, dips his umbrella deep into the water. Then, like Jesus or Buddha, he effortlessly walks across the surface of the lake as the President is heard quoting Rand: “Life is a state of mind.”
Kosinski unquestionably had much first-hand experience with irony and its power at the bloody hands of totalitarian fascism. Being There demonstrates how ingrained these insidious perspectives against human rights that our society needs to be very worried about. Destructive propaganda tactics pose a subtle but real threat to our way of life and our Republic.
Unfortunately, there is much evidence that we already live in the oligarchical society that Kosinski warned us about in his satirical novel fifty-one years ago. Being There shows us that a mantra of lies that is repeated over and over throughout a culture is eventually believed to be true.
The classical notions of what defines us as humans present challenges for shaping and maintaining a culture and society. We the people, must protect our freedoms of speech and religion. We need to create a social order based on compassion. Our culture is being obliterated by socialist propaganda and we now have riots that destroy personal property and even kill innocents with no consequence for the perpetrators. A situation no different from Nazi Germany’s and the Bolsheviks’ infiltration of Europe.
Part of the sad and prophetic truth of Being There is that few people these days will read Kosinski’s fable or watch the movie. Like the novel, much of the film lends itself to what seems to be a straightforward critique of how television news encourages mindless conformity—and how social media creates followers, not creators.
Social and TV Media are now part and parcel to American life. The points of view of the carriers are accepted as truth. However, the devastating psychological, social, and political effects of social media and TV that leak into our homes steal our freedoms and make us all spectators.
A life of passive watching leaves us not only disconnected and undeveloped as human beings, it also makes us vulnerable to sociopathic individuals and governments who disregard human lives and eagerly take advantage of our ignorance—making us a commodity to be sold in the marketplace.
I believe Being There is a warning against electronic media controlling our culture and destroying America as we know it. It is deeply worrisome that the new tech giants control our data, deciding who is to be heard and who is to be censored in our society.
Going forward, we must be very discerning, respectful and open-minded—as well as principled and wary when we see people passing judgment on other American Citizens. Otherwise, I fear we are lost and have already relinquished our Republic. It’s time for us all to walk on water!