Balance (1989)

Director: Christoph Lauenstein
Producer: Wolfgang Lauenstein
Genre: Animation / Short
Country: Germany
Language: English / German / None

A meditation on human interdependence.

Directed by German brothers Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein, Balance is a remarkable piece of animation. A platform floats in a neutral space. Strange men, identical except for the numbers on their back, appearing as though out of some dystopian future, must work in concert to prevent the platform from tipping and cause them all to fall. This reasonably harmonious understanding is lost when one man pulls up a heavy box. In the ensuing struggle, balance is lost in more than one sense.

Like a story out of Game Theory, if the men were to cooperate they could all enjoy the box together, but it is selfishness that dooms them. The ironic ending of Balance, who is at fault? The men that fail to do what is best for them? Or the system that fails to acknowledge this human quality?

It has won many international prizes, including an “Academy Award” for Best Animated Short.

~ Complex-Simplicity-Degree ~

??? Who-What-When-Where-Why-How ???
Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries.
~ Mark Twain ~

~ Yin and Yang ~

Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same;
opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree;
extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths;
all paradoxes may be reconciled.
~ Kybalion ~

~ Art of Polarization ~

Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine
Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.

Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.

Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right, is the measure of the swing to the left;
rhythm compensates.

Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths;
all paradoxes may be reconciled.

Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.

As above, so below; as below, so above.

While All is in THE ALL, it is equally true that THE ALL is in All. To him who truly understands this truth hath come great knowledge.

And because of this they have called me Hermes Tristmegistus since I have the three parts of the wisdom and Philosophy of the whole Universe.