I [heart] philosophy: Huckabees' Blanket vs. God
One of the most interesting mental exercises from I [heart] huckabees is the blanket theory. In brief, Dustin Hoffman's character holds up a blanket saying that the blanket represents the entire universe and every particle in that universe. He then holds up a hand under the blanket and says it represents "you", another hand represents "me", still other spot represents the Eiffel Tower, a rock, trees, a car, and so on. The point: everything in the universe is different, but the same. Everything in connected. If you're nerdy, does this argument sound like something? Yeah, the movie even makes a joke about 'the force,' as a French existentialist in the movie talks about how this connection makes one strong (it sounds like the French word for strong, "fort"). Okay, so Star Wars has some very existential philosophy in it... so we should all understand how this blanket theory works. So, as I was walking to a movie Sunday afternoon, I was thinking about this theory and the blanket and what I thought about it. Here's the problem I have with it: God. Let's try to wrap our mind around this, shall we? When asked, in the movie, what lies outside of the blanket, Hoffman's character says "more blanket"... and they agree to understand the blanket as 'everything that could possibly exist.' Now think of this... does it logically follow that for the blanket to exist, the blanket must have been made by someone/something? We understand this creator to be God. But if their is nothing outside the blanket, then God must exist within the blanket. And, if God exists within the blanket, then God must be the 'connected' or 'the same' as everything else in the blanket. This goes against everything that we know about what/who we call God. God is supposed to be a perfect entity... and not flawed like we are. I feel like this is where existentialism gets muddy. Let's list some possibilities: God exists and is the perfect combination of matter in the universe, which means God exists in a solid form somewhere within the universe; The blanket was not created, it has just always has been... There is no God or creator, there is just a connection between everything in the universe (this might be a possibility for a chemist to mention the finite amount of atomic particles in the universe, etc); we are NOT connected in any way, shape, or form, and the existence of God is irrelevant [I call this theory the "really really positive theory"]; we are all connected, there is a God, and His perfection lies outside the blanket that is our universe... this theory refutes the belief that the universe is all that exists, which is a possibility, given all the dimensions that may very well exist--why must we believe that a universe in the third dimension is all that there is? Well... this is the kind of bullshit that goes through my head when I walk down the street. Awesome, huh? No... no it's not. That's why I like things that numb my mind like football, video games, and violent horror movies. Speaking of movies...

As I was saying, I was thinking about all that loot above while on my way Sunday afternoon to see Team America. It had some great songs and was a pretty funny movie overall. I love that Trey and Matt will let anyone in Hollywood (or the world) have it. I could see how someone might say they go too far, but they balance it. Not even Michael Moore was safe... heehee.
After the movie, even though I was tired, I was somehow persuaded to go over to Adam's. We were just going to sit around and work on writing new scripts--Adam's already looking to put together another show--but we ended up just playing X-Men Legends. It is supposedly an X-Men RPG... although I kind of find that hard to believe. It's more of a hack 'n slash than an RPG... but you do have to level you X-Men up. This is what bothered Adam about the game initially... your favorite X-Men start off pretty weak, and they can't do everything that they should be able to do (for example, you have to level up to fly for some characters). Once the characters are leveled up, it might be a pretty fun game. But one of those games that is fun only if you're playing with someone else... like Brute Force. Yeah... I wasn't going to play long, but I got to Adam's a little after 4 PM... we ordered pizza, we watched Star Trek: Nemesis on one of their other TVs (they've got three), and then watched Adult Swim not once, but twice... and I ended up leaving around 3 in the morning. We were playing that stupid game for about 11 hours. It probably would've been shorter, but they have save points only sporadically. And it IS the only game to truly show me the joy of destroying a wall only to find another wall behind it. Double walls are the future, people... trust me.