So much Psycho-Pass....

S1:E13

"Today, the world has realized a stable prosperity and achieved the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people... Planning one's life...Obtaining what one desires...When people make choices, no matter what they are, they ask for Sibyl's judgment rather than agonize over it."

"No mistakes are allowed with Sibyl. That's the ideal... If the system is perfect it shouldn't even require humans to operate it."

Is this their version of a utopia? Or at least what they are aiming to achieve. Is an entirely computer-operated society even a utopia at all? Should the humans be involved in the functionality of their society or does that not matter if they don't have to worry about anything (in theory)...

Crime Prevention

“Being a detective isn't about bringing someone down; rather, it should be about protecting someone.” Enforcer Shinya Kogami, Ep2

In the first episode, Akane’s instinct was to protect the victim, and she even knew how to manipulate the Sibyl System so the woman would get paralyzed rather than injured or killed, but she had to explain her choices. Is the Sibyl System of Psycho-Pass a more or less effective system of crime prevention than the Precrime of Minority Report? Additionally, what does the concept of stopping crimes before they happen say about human nature?

Invalidation or Ignorance?

"Eugene suffered under a different burden - the burden of perfection."

Vincent, narrating

While watching Gattaca I thought that it was interesting to consider the concept of ‘invalidation’ in a Utopia where the citizens are taught that they are ‘less than’ because of genetics throughout their lives. This is in a stark contrast to the citizens of Brave New World who are conditionedthat they are ‘less than’ from the beginning. Is one better than the other? Is it better to be ignorant in a caste system where you are conditioned to a caste system than to be constantly reminded of ‘less than’?

PS I hate the term ‘less than’ but I wasn’t sure what a better use of the term.

A simple question

I thought about an analysis post about how Gattaca is an anology for racism and class disparity, but it felt obvious and a bit redundant.

I appreciate how beneath the guise of a fantastic sci-fi film, lay a very simple story about people who set out to accomplish more then was expected of them.

I wanted to post a very simple significant question: is the world of Gattaca a good place to live or a bad place to live? And is it better then the world we live in today? Is a world without disease and birth defects worth the cost of a genetically predetermined class system?

Degenerates, Validity, and the Stars

After viewing Gattaca, I found myself thinking on these two lines/passages in particular:

"They have got you looking so hard for any flaw that after a while that's all that you see. For whatever it's worth, I'm here to tell you it's possible. It is possible."

"You wanna know how I did it...I never saved anything for the swim back."

These two quotes interplay on the film's themes of genetic engineering vs. human potential and its undaunted spirit, but I also wonder how they reflect this created world/society and its Utopic vision for perfection, or more. Vincent defies his "real resume," but he will never be able to viably or safely live in his world - in Gattaca. What quotes stuck out to you all for the message of this Utopia? Any thoughts on these quotes?

https://mocah.org/thumbs/4592458-silhouette-space-stars.jpg

April II: Return of the Alex

God is neither good

nor evil,

neither loving

nor hating.

God is Power.

God is Change.

We must find the rest of what we need within ourselves,

in one another,

in our Destiny

p.245

You guys know I'm a week behind in class discussions, so pardon me if this calls for redundant conversation.

I was trying to find a quote that really summarized the book or at least a major theme, and this is the closest I came. Not only is this quotation something pretty close to how I view the world (putting a lot of importance on human autonomy), but it also seems to set out some of the rules that a utopia needs to exist.

With that in mind, what is the utopia in this book/the reason for us reading it in this class? Is it Acorn? Is it all in Lauren's head and on the pages of her journal? Is it the decaying United States and the de facto rules governing society?

The Purpose of Hyperempathy

There is a lot of killing, a lot of death, in Parable of the Sower. Lauren isn't a evil person; she only kills in self-defense. But I can't help to think that even self-defense must hurt, even for people without empathy. She kills because it's her or them. But they're people, too, with families, goals, aspirations. It's hard for me to not have empathy for those who are murdered, and I think the hyperempathy has us thinking about how the strangers who die and who Lauren feels die are more than just numbers for the body count.

So yeah, the quote:
"Take my word for it. Bad, bad idea. Self-defense shouldn't have to be an agony or killing or both. I can be crippled by the pain of a wounded person. I'm a very good shot because I've never felt that I could afford to just wound someone... The worst of it is, if you got hurt, I might not be able to help you. I might as crippled by your injury---by your pain, I mean---as you are" (278).

The Long Defeat

"'Well, the group of us here doesn't have to sink any lower,' I said... 'I wish I believed that,' he said. Perhaps it was his grief talking. 'I don't think we have a hope in hell of succeeding here.'" (328)

I feel like this final interaction in the story is expressed perfectly by Thrice's song, "The Long Defeat." The title of the song comes from a Tolkien novel and  is "essentially about believing that there’s meaning to the good that you try to do and that you see in the world even when a lot of things would conspire to make you not believe that" (Dustin Kensrue). The whole song is basically about that belief. In the passage above it is clear that Lauren believes in fighting and surviving against the long defeat but Bankole doesn't. 

Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid

Lauren says, “This world would be a better place if people lived according to Earthseed. But then, this world would be better if people lived according to the teachings of almost any religion.” Bankole asks, “Why do you think they’ll live according to the teaching of yours?” Lauren doesn’t answer this question (247).

Belief systems seem to have the ability to either divide or unite during times of unrest. Lauren is completely convinced that her Earthseed is some sort of “answer” to the problems she’s run away from and wants everyone she meets to agree with her. Yet she has no reason for why people should agree with her, and doesn’t seem to care when there are people who question her.

Lauren

I actually had something to mention from the conversation we had on Tuesday. We talked about how we view Lauren as a character herself. And I found a passage in the beginning of the novel to really speak to her personality and character a lot. It is on page 7, where she talks about her fathers God and how it is different from her God. For one, I thought it was interesting the amount of God and religion is mentioned in this novel. Knowing that Lauren believes in a God, but not the same one her father did, confused and intrigued me. I can relate to this on some level due to my upbringing and religion, but I won’t get too much into that, other than the fact that I can understand not believing in the same things your parents/family do. Aside from that, this paragraph at the beinning of chapter two shows who Lauren is and a big part of her personality. This shows her individuality, her need to separate herself from others, her curiosity, and her reblousness. On another note though, this passage shows how she is scared to rebel as well. She does not believe in the same thing as her father and yet continues to pretend and act like she does, therefore showing how she is still hesitant and in fear of the outside and everything else she does not know. All of these things are then built upon through out the book but I noticed them all within this paragraph alone.

Shakespeare & Brave New World

Apparently I live and breathe Shakespeare at this point in my college education, and more specifically I live and breathe Hamlet. So that is fun. Anyway, in chapter 8, specifically page 123, of Brave New World, John is given a book. Popé gives him The Complete Works of Shakespeare and John opens it to a random page and reads the following lines, "Nay, but to live / In the rank sweat of an endeared bed, / Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love / Over the nasty sty..." This is from Act 3 scene 4 of Hamlet. This is where Hamlet is talking to his mother, Queen Gertrude, about her love life with his uncle, Claudius, and why it should stop. I have talked and thought about Hamlet more in the last month of my life than anyone ever should. But anyway, the way this is incorporated into the novel is interesting. Since the World State has done everything they can to destroy anything art related in order to maintain stability, Shakespeare represents going against that. Fighting the attempt to destroy literature and art over all. John also seems to have a connection to the words he reads. Even the few lines he randomly opened to say that they "rolled through his mind; rumbled, like the drums at the summer dances" (Huxley 123). It also goes on to mention that it is like the words are speaking to him, though only half understood, it is a connection he has not felt before. On page 124 John goes on to explain that he hates Popé, and that he wants to kill him. Ironically, in Hamlet, Hamlet wants to kill his uncle. This is more of a revenge situation, so it is a little different than Johns situation, but still relatable. John reads the lines, “When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage / Or in the in estrous pleasure of his bed...” These are the lines where Hamlet is talking about when to kill Claudius. John believes that the words are magic, talking to him, and telling him that killing Popé is a good idea. This shows the power of words, specifically Shakespeares words, but also literature in general. I found this to be very intriguing and so I wanted to write about it. And since Shakespeare and Hamlet have been my life for the last month or so, why not write more about them? Also here is a Shakespeare/Hamlet related meme for you all. :) 

Mustapha Mond

"'Suffer little children,' said the Controller" (Huxley 56). This quote seemed like foreshadowing to me because the people who are created in the cultures are on the same level, mentally, as children so one of the highest ranking people in this society saying "suffer" seemed ominous (56). It's also strange because isn't the whole point to get rid of suffering altogether, which is why they selectively breed people, then condition them, and then also give them drugs that dull their negative emotions.

Stability Stability

“That is the secret of happiness and virtue—liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny” (16).

Seems like a different answer to the discussion on who/what creates utopia, the rules of society or the people who live in it. If the people are conditioned to live this way, is it really utopia?

A Different Species?!

From the beginning of Chapter 10:
"It took me a long time, as a man, a foreigner, and a species of Christian--I was that as much as anything--to get any clear understanding of the religion of Herland."

This speaks to the many flawed facets of the viewpoints of the three boys, as I feel like it culturally does distort our lens a little bit. In a smaller context, patriarchal Christianity would seem totally unfit to the form and function of Herland. The women are disturbed at the seemingly-undeserving eternal punishment damning babies for eternity following the Fall of Man, and rightly so. On a greater scale, the "species" of Christianity has me wondering if the women seem mystical or alien enough to feel entirely inhuman or if there is a closer connection than we think and the factors of man and Christianity would aim to distort actualization of those similarities.

Utopia: If it is Reached, Can it Be Sustained?

I was fascinated to read about the Diggers and their principles. They faced a great deal of strife as they attempted to pursue their ideals, which were wonderfully outlined in both True Levellers and The Law of Freedom. I admire their love and respect for the earth and humanity's inescapable connection to it, as evidenced in the quote:

"True freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment and preservation, and that is in the use of the earth. For as man is compounded of the four materials of the creation, fire, water, earth, and air; so is he preserved by the compounded bodies of these four, which are the fruits of the earth; and he cannot live without them. For take away the free use of these and the body languishes, the spirit is brought into bondage and at length departs, and ceaseth his motional action in the body" (Winstanley, chp 1).

Conversely, in True Levellers, I was interested by the quote: "O thou Powers of England, though thou hast promised to make this People a Free People, yet thou hast so handled the matter, through thy self-seeking humour, That thou has wrapped us up more in bondage, and oppression lies heavier upon us; not only bringing thy fellow Creatures, the Commoners, to a morsel of Bread, but by confounding all sorts of people by thy Government, of doing and undoing." England, as mentioned in More's Utopia, appears as a once-possible hope of a Utopia in these texts. But its has fallen in the eyes of Winstanley and his followers.

I chose these two quotes as they prompted me to think of questions like: Do you believe that a Utopia requires an acknowledgement of or connection to the earth to be equal and fair (as the Diggers believe we are made of it and rely on it)? For all of the Diggers' Utopic vision and practice, it failed. Would it continue to be sustainable if it didn't face opposition from the rich? After all, as the Wiki page mentioned, a significant amount of people were either sympathetic or practically unbothered by the Diggers. What do you guys think?

https://wigandiggersfestival.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/diggers1.jpg