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The film Leave The World Behind (LTWB) has been talked about exhaustively over the last week. One of the most successful films ever to be released on Netflix, LTWB has struck a chord with the collective, and many people have very different takes on what the film may be trying to show us.
I watched this film about 11 days ago and thought it was well made, well acted, and had an interesting theme. The film certainly gets you thinking how we live life in our modern world and how fragile things can be.
The next day I went to social media and saw post after post of people in fear or feeling uneasy after watching this film.
“Something really weirded me out about this film.”
”It’s a great film but I feel like this is what’s coming and they are warning us.”
”Why are the Obama’s behind a film like this? What is it trying to say? This really made me feel afraid.”
Beyond general feelings of fear and worry, people were also pointing out the apparent predictive programming of the film, as well as occult symbolism.
I’ve been fascinated by occult symbolism for a long time, and the financial elite of our world have a fond relationship with the occult. That said, I don’t intend to dive into the occult in this piece.
A Quick Summary of The Film
The film is based on a book released in 2020 called Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam.
SPOILER ALERT: this next bit will give away some of the film if you have not seen it. If you’ve already seen the film, skip to the next section called “Is It Predictive Programming?”
The plot is something like: a family takes a vacation to a luxurious rental home in Long Island. A blackout occurs and two strangers show up at the door claiming to own the house. As they navigate the odd situation, strange occurrences begin happening around them as society seemingly begins to collapse. A cyberattack is the apparent culprit, and it’s leading to a civil war in the US. Who’s the culprit? The film’s characters and the audience struggle to understand what’s happening as it all unfolds.
Early on in the film, a high level money manager with powerful elite financial clients named GH (played by Mahershala Ali), explains to Clay (played by Ethan Hawke), that one of his clients seemed to know this attack was coming.
A day before the strange events, his client began moving a lot of money around and explained to him that some imminent apocalyptic attack was unfolding soon.
Turns out, it was.
GH goes on to explain that his client said an attack like this would happen in stages.
1. Isolation - This requires a complete shutdown of a nation's communication and transportation methods. No one can talk to each other and no one can leave. People are essentially stuck in their geolocation feeling isolated, hopeless and confused.
2. Synchronized chaos - This involved the spread of misinformation and a mysterious noise that caused pain and disorientation, signalling something major was happening. In the film, misinformation was spread via red pamphlets falling from planes with conflicting messages about who was behind the attack.
3. Natural Civil War - With no clear enemy, citizens naturally turn on one another as fear and panic take over. Whoever caused the cyber attack got what they wanted, a destabilized country destroying itself.
In some ways, there is an eery resemblance to aspects of COVID where people were isolated, confused as to what was true, pushed to their limits of financial struggle, and eventually turned on their neighbors in fear of a virus that didn’t live up to government hype.
Is it Predictive Programming?
Many have been concerned about The Obama’s being executive producers on the film, going as far as to say they made the film. While they were certainly involved, usually executive producers have little to do with script and creative direction on projects, and more to do with money and funding. Could they have steered the film? Sure. But keep in mind, this was a book first. More on this soon.
Predictive programming is a curious idea.
The idea was first described and proposed by researcher Alan Watts who defines Predictive programming as:
“a subtle form of psychological conditioning provided by the media to acquaint the public with planned societal changes to be implemented by our leaders. If and when these changes are put through, the public will already be familiarized with them and will accept them as natural progressions, thus lessening possible public resistance and commotion.”
You can see in this definition that predictive programming is meant to slowly change the conversation of the masses, opening them up to and becoming more comfortable with an idea. Far-fetched ideas can become accepted and eventually reality by reintroducing them to people via movies and film.
That said, I do not believe this film is predictive programming in the sense that global power is warning people of an impending attack they are about to commit, making them more comfortable with it. I know this idea is popular among many. The nature of the attack in the film doesn’t require the public to have to be “warmed up” to the idea of it… it just happens.
Instead, if ‘they’ have had anything to do with the book/film, you could argue they might be trying to scare people so they can bring in pre-emptive security measures that might take away our rights in preparation for an attack. If we think from a sinister agenda point of view, one could argue the Obama’s played their financial role in this film to further push this book into collective consciousness via a popular film.
World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab has of course said:
"We all know, but still pay insufficient attention, to the frightening scenario of a comprehensive cyber attack that could bring a complete halt to the power supply, transportation, hospital services, and our society as a whole. The COVID-19 crisis would be seen in this respect as a small disturbance in comparison to a major cyberattack.”
Powerful people who benefit from these crises might choose to plan how they would coordinate an event like this, whether it came from an enemy or they created it themselves.
Before COVID, major institutions including the World Economic Forum, Johns Hopkins, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation held a war games exercise called Event 201. It was a near carbon copy of what happened with COVID.
It’s only natural to think anyone with a bit of common sense would run preparation exercises for a potential major global event. But it’s become clear that the ‘powers that be’ don’t really care for the general public. They have their own agendas and often use a collective crisis to achieve them. So it’s not out of bounds to imagine the COVID era was a planned event in some way.
Enter The World Economic Forum’s cyberattack simulation called Cyber Polygon that took place on July 9, 2021. A war game exercise with Sberbank that explores how global powers would respond to a major cyberattack. Unlike Event 201, videos of this simulation are no longer available.
Given the existence of Cyber Polygon, people have become suspicious that a major cyberattack is on its way.
Granting legitimacy to the predictive programming view, “building cyber resilience” may be a fancy way of saying “We’re going to take your rights and privacy to protect against cyberattacks like the one in Leave The World Behind.”
Another cyber attack simulation also took place on December 9th, 2021 in Israel. It was about a major cyber security attack on global financial systems. The simulation took place with 9 other countries, the World Bank, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem.
The exercise simulated several scenarios, including sensitive data surfacing on the dark web alongside fake news, leading to global financial chaos.
All this aside, Leave The World Behind could also just be a book/film that shares an idea and thought many of us have had for well over a decade. We picture WWIII as nukes and bombs, when in reality an entire country could be destabilized but cutting out its internet. Sometimes movies and books are just movies and books.
A Different Angle
We can sit and speculate about the agenda of the film, but instead, here’s what else I find a bit more interesting.
The film is a mirror about how vulnerable and disconnected we've become, and how easily people will turn on each other should such a collapse take place. Hating our neighbours has become normal.
The film illustrates how dependent we are on devices, apps, movies and technology. People struggle to do basic things without technology or the government doing it for us.
People can palatably sense the possibility of a major cyberattack, know they can’t trust governments, and feel the world is heavily polarized.
Instead of predictive programming, couldn’t this all be a mirror for how some humans think we might respond to this situation? After all, it came from the mind of an author.
I’ll briefly touch on each.
1. Fear of each other. Whether it be the turning on each other we saw with COVID, the turning on each other we see with racial tensions, gender tensions and political tensions, we seem to be quick to want to ‘other’ each other. As our society breaks down via a meta and meaning crisis, we seem to be blaming each other for what’s happening.
Divided, we are conquered.
In the early stages of the film, Julia Roberts looks down the camera lens and says she hates people. Later in the film one character tells her father that in crisis we can’t trust people, especially white people. This is a big theme in our world today as we have become so disconnected from one another and believe a path of ‘everyone for themselves’ is better than working together. That mindset comes from fear and trauma.
We avoid each other as we often think everyone else is the problem, yet oddly they think that way about us too. Are people not worth trusting? Do we feel uncomfortable as a baseline experience, and thus everyone outside of us feels untrustworthy, or are people truly not worthy of our trust??
For those convinced that ‘everyone for themselves’ is best, keep in mind our human social engagement system (ventral vagus nerve) evolved in such a way because our survival was best guaranteed via collaboration, communication, and connection - not war and hyper-individualism.
This movie forces the characters to confront their deepest fears as the events unfold and challenges them to maintain their humanity in the face of worldly collapse.
We must have the courage to sense our nature in this way, even when it feels difficult to do so. I saw that during COVID many communities not struck by fear came together and supported each other. The same could happen in the case of a cyberattack. If we can manage our fear and not lose sight of our humanity, we can come together in meaningful ways during times of chaos.
2. Technology Reliance. Everyone in the film is so heavily reliant on technology with the exception of Kevin Bacon’s character, who had prepared for this in some way. That said, he was still caught up in fear.
We see many instances where characters can’t manage without phone distractions or movies. They can’t find their way around roads without maps telling us what to do.
The way we orient to our environment has become warped. Our attention is sucked into devices and our external world has become rather foreign to us. We’ve lost touch with our inner compass and our ability to navigate the natural environment. Basic tasks we could once do without devices, like even sitting calmly on a couch, have become a challenge.
Can we solve problems without tech? Can we navigate a crisis without government? Yes, we live in a technologically connected world that helps us immensely, but have we exchanged it for our ability to be self governing?
We’ve designed our societies around a heavy reliance on technology while simultaneously not advancing our consciousness to steward it responsibly. Further, our culture continues to create conflict amongst countries and maintain ignorance of the agendas of global powers, leaving us in a vulnerable juxtaposition where we rely so heavily on something so fragile.
3. We Know What’s Coming. I think the fascination people have with Leave The World Behind is found in the fact that people can palatably see how easily a cyberattack can happen and create chaos at any point.
We’ve reached a stage where our entire lives and societal functions can be shut down via something like this. Water, food, energy, communication - gone. Deep down, I think many people in the US know how many enemies have been created around the world via the US’ world policing and attempts to destabilize and control other countries. Are these other countries ready to bite back?
Further, there is a huge level of mistrust in societal institutions amongst the public. They sense and feel that their own government, and the hidden powers that control them, would create a crisis like this to gain even more control or justify further surveillance. After all, this has happened before.
It’s one thing to obsess over “what ifs,” but when the world is in heavy conflict and crises are rolling one after another, I think our collective spidey sense is indeed going off for good reason.
What are we doing to navigate the inevitability of a crisis like this, and would we be able to identify its actual cause? Would we be able to respond with resilience in that moment? Or react in fear?
4. A Mirror - Like it or not, we are all responsible in our way for the state of our current human condition. It’s easy to sit and obsess over how the bad guys have created the world to be this way and how it’s everyone’s fault but our own, yet each of us is an integral part of our world - like it or not.
The author of the book Rumaan Amal wrote this book based on inspiration from other books and his creative mind as he considered the reality of our current human condition.
It’s not hard to imagine some countries have enemies that would attack them in this way. It’s not hard to imagine powerful people would destabilize their own countries for more power and control. It’s not hard to imagine people would respond by turning on each other, while some helping one another. It’s not hard to imagine that the reality of this film is around the corner given how we currently live.
Could it not just all be a mirror for our current moment? If so, what can we do about it?
Bonus: Misinformation
I wanted to focus on this as this was a theme in the film and something so prominent during COVID.
When we are in times of crisis and trust goes out the window, we can easily become prey to misinformation. Of course, that misinformation can come from the powers that be as much as it can from the minds of people who think everything is a conspiracy.
During COVID, some thought the virus was the weapon, some thought it was the vaccine, some thought it was lockdowns and masks, some didn’t believe the virus existed, and of course, some thought everything was happening by chance and that humanity was responding to a real crisis as best they could.
The point is, we were heavily divided. There is no way everyone was correct at once. So who had the truth and who believed misinformation?
We are experiencing a sensemaking crisis created by our inability to be curious about the scene unfolding before our eyes. It was how SURE so many people were about their COVID theory, without being able to know what was true, that was fascinating to watch.
Even today people say things like “We know for a fact there aren’t aliens or that the world is flat or that COVID doesn’t exist.”
No one knows any of those things for a fact, but they can certainly have a belief or theory about them if they like. It’s the certainty that is troubling, and the certainty that blinds us from further inquiry, and ultimately coming together.
Perhaps one of the biggest barriers to sensemaking is the lack of critical thinking and curiosity. These faults are disguised by the idea that ‘to believe an alternative theory is to critically think.’
Moving Forward
When the world turns on its head, everything changes. I believe we are going through that right now in a way.
Sure, we can see the old world still, but in my mind, we’ve stepped onto the raft on a river of the unknown, moving down it day by day. It’s better to look forward and adjust than it is to resist and hold onto the past.
I don’t like leaving people with difficult ideas yet no semblance of hope and inspiration. Where can we find unfoldment or empowerment here?
Yes, your hands are not necessarily on the levers that control bombs, surveillance, digital IDs, cyberattacks or things of this nature. But your ability to hold space for something different, change the conversation, and not buy into these futures is available. Further, we also play an important role in how our minds and hearts impact our shared quantum reality.
We often feel we don’t matter, that we can’t make a difference in the world that is happening to us, but each of us has a meaningful sphere of influence. You’ve maybe heard me say “Sometimes, changing the conversation is everything.” Being able to bring a compassionate, grounded and hopeful view of our world and future to conversations around us can help you influence those around you in a big way. That spreads in more ways than we realize.
That said, checking in on the common nihilistic patterns that are emerging in so many of us and seeing if they are present in you is useful.
Do we want to be nihilistic and feel that there is no hope and nothing can be done? What benefit does that give us in all this? How does this promote life? Would we rather feed nihilism or hope?
Even if we don’t know what our future holds or what the exact solution needs to be, what we do know is being hopeless, down and out, and nihilistic creates massive inefficiency in our ability to be creative, connect, imagine and collaborate.
It might be useful to explore questions like:
Intuitively, what gives us a greater chance of solving our world problems:
a) being angry, resentful and nihilistic, not trusting anyone and only fending for ourselves.
b) finding presence, and processing what we do feel about our world, to find wellness and opportunities to collaborate.
I’m simplifying this discussion for this piece. But my general question is an invitation to check where our ability to solve our challenges truly comes from. Contraction and disconnection, or expansion and connectedness?
Another way to look at it is, have we been solving much using our old ways of fear, panic, withdrawn attitudes or paranoia? Can we commit to the inner change needed to open up to new ways? Can we trust that solutions will emerge from us taking the road of presencing ourselves into a new way of being? One that can respond to crisis from a place of flow and being centered?
Let me know what you think. Just another film about the apocalypse and the end of the world? Or was it done purposefully?
I did feel uneasy watching this movie. I went on Google after and noticed many 1 star reviews because people were mad the Obamas were involved. Funny how polarizing this film has been. But I guess that's the point right? Get people talking? It's a filmmakers dream I bet.
A very hard-hitting thought:
"We’ve designed our societies around a heavy reliance on technology while simultaneously not advancing our consciousness to steward it responsibly. Further, our culture continues to create conflict amongst countries and maintain ignorance of the agendas of global powers, leaving us in a vulnerable juxtaposition where we rely so heavily on something so fragile."
This may be what people are tuning into when it comes to that uneasy feeling. Thanks for your thoughts on this film. Well laid out.
There is one other take. That by viewing films like this and putting these scenarios in our mind, we are essentially helping to create them. We create with our thoughts! We need to be making and viewing films about a future we want.