21 Movie - Philosophical and Psychological Views

Black Jack, numbers, Deception, lies, Games, Las Vegas, stupidity and Kevin Spacy, that's the dish for this "21" movie. But behind the scenes there is more then meet the eyes! What would philosophy has to say about the entire thing? The numbers, games vs. life, cheating and more...

Numbers
Numbers in a philosophical view aren't real. What is one or two? what is three? only our perception hooks into those numbers, in fact, those numbers doesn't mean anything. Numbers are masks for unreal materialistic view that we have in life. People can’t go off without counting, numbers have become the main course of the day. From reading the time to money. But all of those doesn’t make any sense, it seems like we invented everything so we could have something to be interested in, or in one word, ENTERTAINMENT.

Imagine a Universe without numbers, you can immediately see how boring it is. People need money, time and numbers to make their life interesting.

Many thinkers believe that numbers were invented only because of money. And now, we all sometimes pay by numbers no real money. Money is numbers those days, credit card, debt cards and whatever cards. So do numbers control our life that much? Yes. We can’t live with it, can’t imagine a life with no numbers. Even Our computer systems work on Numbers 1 or 0.

Games and numbers - life as a game
Games are most of the time gambling. Each and every game you play you gamble, whether it's life, you money or your dignity. If you are playing catch you are gambling over your one skin. Being the guy who actually is the catcher might be very humiliating experience. People, your friends might tease you, call you names until you catch one of them.

When you play Basketball, you gamble. For some, beside putting money on the table is macho to be a winner. The loser goes home as... the Loser until next time. And next time the winner gambles on his own reputation.

More and more we understand that each and every moment in life is a gamble. Would you go to work today? Would you read until the end of the article or you have some work? Gamble.

Many philosophers present life as a one big game. Woody Allen believes that life is like going to a Las Vegas Casino, you come with money play and lose it in the end, but doesn't mean you didn't have fun...

Why Las Vegas is
Las Vegas is the place where dreams come true. But is it? The relation between Vegas and our life is very simple - Money. People see Vegas as an alienated place. A place of games, joy and relaxation. But in fact it’s the opposite! In Vegas must of the people come escape from something. But by escaping they might get things even worse.

The concept of Easy Money
Is there easy money? Yes, but the main thing is that people can’t except it, that is why people who win the lottery lose all their money quicker then they got it! People believe being rich in one day is too good to be true and prove it they make so damn decisions and lose all their money.

In “21" it’s the same, being rich, winning has its own consequences. But where does it comes from? The cheaters subconscious was the one who made him be caught. As he started winning big time, his thoughts jumped to levels of this small paranoia. Paranoia of getting caught, he visualized himself getting caught. So he did, in some subconscious level his mind wanted to – that he was right, he will get cough since there is no easy money. This is a tough one to understand. But if you do get it, you might find yourself getting rich and being ready for it. The main character in “21" wasn’t ready so he got cough. You can cheat everyone but yourself.