Arestovich on dissidents

A wanted man in both Ukraine and Russia, Alexei Arestovich, who was last seen traveling from Texas through New Mexico and Arizona, posted the following on his Arestovich/Official Telegram account on March 28, 2024:

I came across another eulogy to the “heroes of the resistance” in my feed.

Someone once in the USSR disagreed, fought, dissented, overcame, and today either has died or has an anniversary.

The background of war and the pathos of dissidence/anti-colonial struggle creates a dangerous psychological substitution.

And the more invisible it is, the more dangerous it is.

This is the danger of substituting “struggle” for fate, and, most importantly, passing off such a substitution as a norm and/or example.

From a psychological point of view, dissidence of any kind is a profound abnormality.

There are such people, and, apparently, there will always be, but they cannot be considered either the norm or a model.

Every person disagrees with his time in some way, but deep fundamental disagreement with the basic trends, forms and concepts existing in the collective unconscious of his time/people, and even the desire to resist them in word and deed, presupposes a completely special type of fate, closer to tragic or at least dramatic.

For this type of mission, a person is given the appropriate psychological equipment – for example, the ability to feel large sources and currents that form the oceans and seas of collective consciousness – feelings that are unfamiliar to a person with a “normal” destiny (normal is taken here in quotation marks, because in matters of purpose there is nothing There is no such thing as normative, all sides are personal, and alignment with the “norm” in such matters is nothing more than spiritual corruption).

But the psyche works like a swing: – if one quality is raised high, look for and work on its opposite, otherwise the support will go unstable.

Today, due to the trauma of war, the lid has long been askew.

Therefore, as an outstanding dissident of my time and people, I want to sing today a eulogy for anti-dissidence: the ability to live harmoniously in one’s time and among one’s people, without entering into fundamental conflict with them.

This is the theme of “Flying in dreams and in reality.” [Flights in Dreams and Reality is a 1983 Soviet drama film starring Oleg Yankovsky, directed by Roman Balayan, dealing with the subject matter of midlife crisis. – Ed.] The problem with Yankovsky’s hero is not that his life is boring and unfulfilling. His problem is that he cannot find himself in his “small” life.

Meanwhile, the value of so-called “ordinary” life is enormous.

I generally consider the ability to live an “ordinary” life to be one of the highest religious practices.

At a time when the masses are captivated by altered states of consciousness, anguish, pathos, and are confused in curses and blessings, the ability to live their quiet life: yes, yes, TV, Olivier, books, walks with the dog, leisurely drinking tea, and conversations in the kitchen – and there is our asceticism.

A little psychological note: – while many are chasing revelations after a glass of ayahuasca or the hormones of “shocking” videos, the most mysterious and unsolved is the so-called “everyday state of consciousness.” No one still knows how it arises and is maintained.

The highest manifestations of the human spirit have many forms, and trouble arises when they try to supplant one with another (as today).

But to feel the Divine beginning of the world in a sip of tea in your small kitchen, and to see the world’s secret in birds,crossed out the sky in the span of their old window, in the dog that stomped out of the room and put up its ear to scratch – a feat no less than the first landing on the moon.

In Eastern parables there is a systematic plot: – great masters, having achieved incredible results, ask the deities about who is the best yogi, magician, to achieve?..

And they are shown ordinary people doing the most ordinary things, but – if you show a little – With a little attention, it becomes clear that they do these ordinary things with extraordinary love.

This ability – to love your old carpet with deer, the cup from which your grandmother drank, to extract wisdom from old films, and to truly enjoy a new computer game, to root for football, and sit with friends – is one of the highest spiritual feats of an “ordinary” and indeed any person.

Even a dissident trying to change his time needs to be able to sit lovingly in the kitchen, slowly stirring the tea.

The trauma of war occurs where there is too much stress.

IMPROVE GLOBAL WARMING

The most serious problem with global warming is that it benefits Russia.

Vast regions of Siberia transformed from frozen tundra into amber fields of grain; a permafrost area equal to the 48 States changed into a mild, temperate, yet scarcely populated region ready for colonization; Russia’s population and GDP, if present climate trends continue, can be expected to triple within 100 years, exceeding the United States in agricultural and industrial production.

At the same time, cold regions of the U. S., especially New England and the northern Midwest, are stuck in the same old cycle of cold, heating bills, salt-rusted automobiles and more affluent residents fleeing to the South – not to mention the crushing effect of Winter darkness on our Mental Health. How, using our advanced technology, can the United States turn global warming to its advantage, an engine for economic growth and happiness, without increasing carbon emissions and thus benefitting Russia? The people need warmth and light – not rising sea levels and mass extinctions. Here are three proposals well within the reach of current technology.

1. Wrap the Moon in aluminum foil.

Instead of its current status as a dim, hardly noticeable obect the main effects of which are on ocean tides, menstruation and insanity, the Moon can be transformed into a beacon of light and warmth, a true benefit to Mankind. Of the Moon’s surface area of 38 trillion square meters, only about one quarter, the portion directly facing Earth, needs to be aluminized. To economize, aluminum foil as thin as .003 mm (a third the thickness of the kitchen product) can be used without excessive tearing on lunar mountains, cliffs, etc. , as it is gently deposited from above by a constellation of satellites similar in scale to Elon Musk’s Starlink, but orbiting the Moon.

A total weight of 74 million metric tons of aluminum foil, rolled out from Lunar satellites, will do the job.

Imagine the benefits: a full Moon will become a blazing, radiant object; no headlights needed; Solar flux increased by as much as 1% with a corresponding reduction in heating bills; a trip to the beach in the middle of the night; reduced law enforcement costs as criminals are no longer able to slink into the shadows.

There is at least one disadvantage: the cooperation of Elon Musk will be required. Only his rocket has the capacity to transport 100 tons of aluminum foil to lunar orbit. Seven hundred thousand flights will be necessary.

2. Nuclear Radiant Warmth. Use America’s nuclear arsenal for radiant heat.

Besides warming the cold, decaying Northeast, the expenditure of nuclear weapons over New York and New England will have the additional benefit of reducing the number of nuclear weapons and thus the risk of nuclear war.

No resident of this area will have to experience the numbing drudgery of snow removal and the associated risk of heart attack. Text messages will be broadcast. Sirens will sound. When everybody is indoors, a sudden brilliant light and wave of heat will pervade a region about 100 km in diameter, melting snow and warming houses and the hearts of people, without burning a single gram of carbon.

The altitude of the nuclear explosions must be very carefully calibrated – too low, and blast and radiation effects will become noticeable. Too high, and the effects of Electromagnetic Pulse can affect a wide area, damaging electric power transmission and other electrical technology. But there is a Goldilocks Zone about 50 km up where these negative side effects are minimized and a wave of radiant light and warmth will flood down to benefit everyone.

An additional benefit of using the existing nuclear weapons stock is that the paricipation of Elon Musk is not required. The United States Air Force will have a new mission (it needs some kind of mission, after all) and no new expenditures will be necessary. The concept of Nuclear Winter will take on a whole new meaning.

It is unfortunately probably wise to exclude Montana and North Dakota from the zone of Nuclear Radiant Warmth. The presence of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile bases in these States is a complicating factor. There is a possibility that a Nuclear Radiant Warmth explosion occurring over Fargo might be mistaken for an enemy attack, or even as one of our own missiles gone awry, encouraging the enemy to launch his own. We certainly don’t need that.

3. Dig a Tunnel Through the Center of the Earth

Although Northern Montana is probably best exempted from Nuclear Radiant Warmth, the area has a little known natural resource which has the potential to generate enormous heat without the combustion of any fossil or nuclear fuel: the northern part of Liberty County, Montana, especially the communities of Goldstone, Fox Crossing and Sage Creek Colony, as well as parts of Canada across the border to the North, are antipodal to the Kerguelen Islands, a French territory in the remote Southern Indian Ocean.

A tunnel between two antipodal points passes, by definition, through the center of the earth.

For decades transportation engineers have been studying the concept of evacuated, long distance, straight transportation tunnels for transportation. A straight tunnel between Boston and Washington D. C., for example, passes 7.9 km beneath the surface at its mid-point under the East River. In a vacuum, and magnetically levitated there is no friction. A rail car at one end of such a tunnel needs only a small push in Boston to begin rolling “downhill”. Coasting downward, the maximum speed reached at the mid-point under New York City is 1420 km/hr. From there, the “uphill” coast begins, and the rail car gradually loses speed until it gently arrives at its destination in Washington in about half an hour. The passengers feel no acceleration or other sense of movement. They have to bring their own air with them, of course.

Similar considerations to the above apply to a tunnel bored through the center of the earth. Such a tunnel requires no rails, as an object falling inside it falls straight down, reaching a very high speed at the center of the earth (not as high as might be expected, as the acceleration of gravity decreases to zero as one approaches the center of the earth), and then continues gradually upward until it coasts gently to the top of its trajectory at either Kerguelen or Montana. The cycle then repeats , with perhaps a small push necessary to overcome residual friction, with the object re-appearing at its origin every 14 minutes or so.

The center of the earth is very hot, about 5,200 degrees C., near that at the surface of the Sun, at 5,700 degrees. We have the potential of sending an object, equivalently, to the surface of the Sun and getting it back every 14 minutes, very, very hot. What do do with this heated object is a matter of concern for the engineers, but it can be assumed that the residents of Liberty County, Montana and neighboring desolate parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan will appreciate the warmth. What the French are going to do with all that heat in Kerguelen is up to them. Perhaps Kerguelen can be transformed into another Tahiti.

Again, Elon Musk will have to be involved, since his Boring Company is the only potential source of the technology necessary to tunnel to the incredibly hot, high-pressure, center of the Earth.

Sunday Morning

Scene: Sunday Morning. Interior, Manhattan apartment. Bedroom.

A. ESSIE, 24, head, from behind in bed, sleeping, covered by sheet, close up, large box of generic condoms in foreground out of focus to right. The words “Latex Condoms” are clearly visible, out of focus, on the box. Elastic strap of face mask visible on the back of Essie’s head.

CARL, 55, voice: “Essie! Sleeping beauty! Time to get up!”

Dissolve to same scene and camera position

B. Essie sleeping on back, head seen in profile wearing black mask over eyes.

Carl: “Come on, Essie, her mother’s going to drop her off in fifteen minutes.”

Dissolve to same scene and camera position

C. Essie sleeping. Now we see her face, masked, partly hidden by the out of focus box of condoms. The hand of Carl picks up the box of condoms. Now we see all of Essie’s masked face and her thick, black hair.

Carl: “You’ve got to leave, now.”

Essie, removing her mask. “Ok. Ok.”

We see Carl from behind, in shorts. No top. His trim figure, slightly sagging in buttocks and upper arms; the prominent wrinkles around the back of his neck and elbows.

Cut to

D. From inside the top of the bedroom closet. In the background Essie is hurriedly getting dressed. In the foreground, the hand and arm of Carl, hiding the box of condoms on the top shelf of the closet. [1]

E. Close up of hands and arms of Carl making the bed. The lower part of Essie is visible as she moves around getting dressed. Carl turns over the pillows, and when he finds a long, black hair, carefully picks it up with his right hand and moves it between thumb and forefinger of his left hand, holding the hairs there while he continues to search and straighten the bed, using his right, and the remaining fingers of his left, hands.

Essie: “Can I see you on Saturday?”

Carl (exasperated): “No, I can’t. That day’s for Sis. But we have a date for Thursday – remember. She’s going to the movies. Are you ready?”

Essie: “I just have to go to the bathroom.”

Sitting on the Toilet

Scene: Sitting on the Toilet. Interior. Manhattan apartment, bathroom.

From above. Very slow zoom or (preferably) travel in.

Essie is writing on a small piece of paper as she sits. Some of the writing is visible: “…I just wanted you to know that I’m not a whore, that I’m your Dad’s girlfriend…”

She pulls a box of Kleenex from the shelf, lifts up some Kleenexes, inserts the note, and puts the box back.

Goodbyes

Scene: Goodbyes. Manhattan apartment. Living room.

Colors are muted, a few pastels but mostly gray and off-white. Essie is wearing a black raincoat. Her very dark hair hangs about her pale, made-up face. All these colors are chosen to contrast with the vivid red lipstick Essie puts on.

A. Essie stands by the coffee table. She is ready to go, in raincoat. She is applying lipstick, looking at herself in a small mirror. She finishes, looks left and right, lifts a magazine (with black-and-white cover) from the coffee table and hides the lipstick under it.

Carl enters. As he is significantly taller than Essie we do not see his head. He opens the front door for her. There are hurried goodbyes. As they talk they draw closer and touch. There is a quick caress, and a promise to meet on Thursday when Sis is at the movies. Essie leaves.

Cut to

B. Close up of coffee table. Carl’s hand and arm turns over each object until he finds the lipstick, and pockets it.

Surveillance

Scene: Surveillance. Manhattan apartment building, from across the street.

A. Essie emerges and crosses the street. She conceals herself behind a pole, mailbox or other object. She plays with her phone.

Dissolve to same scene and camera position

B. A taxi or uber pulls up across the street. The door opens.

Cut to telephoto, same camera position

C. SIS, 14, blonde, athletic gets out of the taxi and unhurriedly retrieves her key as she enters her home.

Cut to closeup

Essie, in shadows, talking to Siri: “Edit Note Letter to Sis. (pause) 10:52, Sunday period. Twenty minutes late period. Did you see me, Sis question mark?” [2]

I’m Watching You

Scene: I’m Watching You, Manhattan locations. Montage, interspersed with Sis’s Instagram posts.

Telephoto, a little shaky and grainy

A. Sis and two other girls, in pleated skirt uniforms, are coming out of the front of a school, holding books to their chests and talking inaudibly. Street noise and:

Essie (Narration): “I saw you and your friends. I don’t think you saw me… I had friends, but I was never the prettiest, like you…you look older than your age … older than me.” [3]

“So who am I, anyway, Sis? Let’s just call me … “Kicked-out Chinese-American Slut of the Upper East Side”. Sounds like a horror movie, huh,Sis? Well it is. A fucking horror.

I am a professional slut, you know, My profession is real estate – commercial real estate. Acquisitions, management. I make more money than your dad. A lot more, actually, not that he knows that. It offends him when I pay for something. So I just let him pay.”

Instagrams of Sis and her friends.

B. Sis by herself, still in uniform holding books, further away down the street, harder to see. She stops and talks inaudibly to a YOUNG MAN, 19 standing, leaning on a car. They touch each other.

Essie (Narration): “Who is that boy? Does your dad know about him? Do you know about me? I know you are not supposed to know about me or be like me, but you are a good student, like me…and you like men, like me.

That kid is cute. I would know what to do with him. Want some tips? Not that you need any. I don’t see your friends chasing boys – I guess you are more like me than like them.”

Cut to closeup

C. Sis and the Young Man. Sis raises her forefinger and taps the boy in the chest as she speaks: “Thursday, 6:30, my house. Don’t be late.”

Instagrams of Sis and the boy.

D. Sis on the street, shopping, in jeans, with her MOTHER, 48, frayed but stylishly dressed in post-hippie long skirt.

Essie (Narration): “Your dad tells me your mom is crazy. And my lawyer says that she probably is crazy, because your dad got custody. But my lawyer also says that your mother will say that your dad is crazy. So who’s crazy, Sis? Am I crazy to be doing this? I am right down the street, Sis. You can see me.

I kind of like your mom, although she is pretty psycho. The last time she freaked out on your dad, in court, remember, when she went to the hospital? I was hoping so much she would kill herself.

My lawyer told me to stay away from you and her.”

E. Sis and her Mother sitting outside at a table for tea. They have just had their nails done. They extend their fingers, admiring the manicure. Tea is served.

A YOUNG COUPLE, American man and Asian woman, are seated at a nearby table.

Cut to medium close of Sis and Mother

Sis: “Why do these good looking guys guys always go with Chinese girls?”

Mom: “They want subservience. The woman walks two steps behind and doesn’t ask questions.”

Sis: “Did Dad dump you for a Chinese girl?”

Mom (stubbing out cigarette): “Or maybe she wants his money – none of your business – besides, I dumped him, remember?”

The waiter brings the Young Couple the check. The Young Couple glance at each other and the woman takes out her credit card to pay.

Mother begins compulsively biting her fingers, ruining the manicure.

Sis: “Mom, did you take your meds this morning?”

Cut to Essie surveilling Mother and Sis, telephoto, a little shaky and grainy

Essie (Narration). “I saw that, Sis. She ruins everything, doesn’t she?. Can you see me, Sis? I’m right here, so close. I could just walk up and sit right down with you guys.”

Instagrams of Sis and her mother.

Closeup, face of

F. Essie dictating to Siri.

Essie: “ When am I going to met you, Sis question mark? Your dad says that if your mom finds out about me she will take him back to Family Court… I am never going to meet you, Sis. Never. Maybe in eight years, when you are out of college. And I am out of jail for having stabbed somebody – you, or him, or your mom.”

Cut to Essie, walking, still dictating, from behind

G. Essie (Narration):. “And I get that, I really do; I talked to my lawyer about it. Do you know that your dad was in court with your mom for five years? Do you remember your dad’s last girlfriend? Xiaohong? She was Asian, too. Your dad spent three days in court explaining why he should have a girlfriend. Then he got rid of her…for your benefit, Sis…for the good of the child. I hope you have benefited, Sis. ”

Instagram (shopped) of Young Carl, Mother and baby Sis together.

H. Sis and her same two friends, in jeans, passing a drug fiend BUM, 30, on the sidewalk, holding a cardboard sign. The girls pass him then Sis stops, digs in her bag, gets money, turns back and hands it to the bum.
Essie (Narration): “You are a really nice kid, Sis. I would like to be your friend. Can I be your friend? Do you know who I am? Did you find the things I left for you? Or any of my hair?…. I’m going to do it, Sis. I’m going to meet you soon.“

Ice Cream Parlor

Scene: Ice Cream Parlor. Interior..

Sis is next in line to get ice cream. As she waits, Essie, wearing dark glasses, gets in line behind her.

Essie: “Hi, Sis.”

Sis (startled, turning around): “Oh, hi – uh – who are you?”

Essie (pushing dark glasses up on her forehead): “Don’t you recognize me?”

Sis: “Uh, no.”

Essie: “I’m surprised – are you sure you don’t recognize me?”

Sis: “Yeah, I’m sure. Who are you, anyway?”

Essie: “My name is Esther. I’m a friend of your mom’s. I thought you would remember me. “

Sis: “No, I don’t remember you at all.”

Essie: “Do you want to sit down and have ice cream?”

Young Man is outside the Ice Cream Parlor window, looking in.

Sis. “No, I really gotta go. Sorry. I’ll tell my mom I saw you, Esther.”

Thursday Night

Scene: Thursday Night. Same Manhattan apartment.

A. Bathroom. Sis is applying makeup, perfume and doing her hair, pulling out Kleenex to touch up her makeup.

Sis: “Dad, can I get money from your wallet?”

Carl (from another room): “What do you mean? What do you want money for?”

Sis: “Don’t you remember? I told you. It’s Thursday. Hildy and I are going to the movies. I got all my homework done.” [4]

Carl: “OK, I guess, but just remember, be back at eleven o’clock. And that doesn’t mean five minutes after eleven, it means eleven. Are you going to Hildy’s first?”

Sis: “No, I’m supposed to meet her downtown at the Panoramion. Can I have money, please?”

Carl: “All right, all right.”

Sis, pulling out Kleenex, finds the note. There is a pause while she reads the note. She laughs, crumples and throws away the note and returns to touching up her makeup.

Cut to

B. Bedroom. From inside the top of the bedroom closet, as in Sunday Morning.

Sis is pulling twenty dollar bills from her father’s wallet.

Sis (loudly): “I met this creepy woman when I was getting ice cream. Or maybe she was a girl.”

Carl (from another room): “What do you mean, creepy?”

Sis: “I don’t know – she was just like, weird. She said she knew my mom, and she wanted to talk to me, but I just left.”

Sissy approaches the closet and reaches up for the box of condoms. She pulls out one condom, clutches it, hesitates, pulls out another one, and puts the box back.

Carl: “Did she follow you?”

Sis: “No, at least I don’t think so.”