Johannes Reiner: “Branko Šmon ‘continues’ Goethe’s fairy tale and, in addition to Goethe’s four kings, creates a fifth king – the Telecommunications King. Why the Telecommunications King?”

The Telecommunications King is, on the one hand, the king of telecommunications – immediately bringing to mind figures like Berlusconi, Trump, and many others who seek to ‘violate us through television.’

However, the Telecommunications King is also the one who rules over what is imprinted upon us from the outside in the digital age. To be the king of our inner images, to know what is within us, and to govern it: this is a necessity in our digital era, in the state of digital totalitarianism. 

To be the master of one’s own world of images, including one’s self-image and worldview: this is a crucial step in self-formation or, in other words, self-constitution.” [1]

[1] Imre Kertész, from the speech at the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002

Inspired by Goethe’s fairy tale *The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily* from 1795, Johannes Dr. Reiner, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, 

>>Seven Steps to Self-Realization<< “In this sense, fairy tales are expressions of our inner soul world. The events in Goethe’s fairy tale apply universally, but also individually to each of us. The healing process, perhaps even the future evolution of humanity towards true humanness, can be summarized as follows:

When you fall to the ground, when you break under the weight of your past efforts, when you fail:

Then you must find peace, regain your composure. Your surroundings must break free from stagnation and be nurtured. The light must not go out—you need someone to keep your life’s flame and your spirit’s light alive, to carry it forward, to prevent it from fading. Then you must cross a bridge or be guided across it. From this bridge, from this path, new life emerges, given to you through love. This leads to a transformation of your mind—your previous way of thinking must dissolve, and a bridge to your inner self must form through reason. The next step is to gain clarity and control over your thinking, feeling, and willing. But becoming a true human requires more than that—it requires love for humanity, love of the heart. Your inner core must rise from blind will in the twilight and reach the center of life’s flow—the heart.”