Black Mirror “The National Anthem” review

Chin Tan

                                      Black Mirror “The National Anthem” review

            Black Mirror is a series made up of many disconnected single episodes in which it brilliantly captures the society’s relationship with technologies, and some reoccurring morality issues in these societies. “The National Anthem” is one of the episodes in Black Mirror.  In this episode, the plot is simple: A royal member is held hostage, and the prime minister must have sexual intercourse with a pig on live television in exchange for the princess’s freedom. The episode revolves around the prime minister and his team’s attempt to outsmart the terrorist but are constantly interrupted by the media.

            This episode criticized certain practices that can potentially be a dystopian practice such as the freedom of the news reporters. The freedom of press can potentially turn against society when censorship is needed. In this instance, during one of the secret operation in extracting the princess from the terrorist, a news reporter obtains information of the location operation. She then went to the scene and reported live on the operation which ultimately exposing the operation. It turns out that the terrorist knew about the operation and was able to escape with the hostage. The terrorist then cut off supposedly the princess finger and delivered it to the prime minister demanding, the prime minister’s “performance” on live television. It is understandable that the news report has the right to provide a sense of the transparency to the public, but somehow neglected the severity of the situation, which resulted in severe consequences. In the current society, the news stations are very competitive of one another, which often led to news reporters going through extremes just to obtain the news before any other news reporters. In this episode, the producer showed that in extreme cases, new reporters would eventually failed to reason, and consider the severity of the situation before trying to act upon it.

            Another thing that particular dystopian that was discussed was the use of social media such as twitter, Facebook, and etc. In the prime minister’s last attempt to outsmart the terrorist, the plan was posted online by one of the cameraman that was on the set. Many users then quickly reposted this post and soon it was all over the Internet. The terrorist saw this and was outraged. He then threatens the prime minister again. Running out of option, the prime minister agrees to the terrorist’s request. This is scene was also very similar to people neglecting the severity of the situation, which exposed the plan and resulted in severe consequences. It is unsettling to see that people are not considering consequences before posting something online. The society is transparent in a negative way. This reminds me of the book 1984 in which everything is so transparent, and no one can be fully trusted. There are eyes everywhere and news can be spread rapidly. One can’t never tell, if another before is their comrade or conspiring with the enemies.

            Lastly, the producer tries to criticize the progression of art, and the definition of art. The terrorist refers this event as his last work of art, his ultimate art piece. In this, it can be seen that the producer is trying to criticize how certain artist will go through extreme to produce their best piece of art. Although the princess was unharmed and was release moments before the prime minister’s performance, damage was done to the society. The definition of art is always changing and whatever one refers as art can be defined as art. In this case, terrorist making the prime minister having sexual intercourse with an animal is art to him; therefore he went to the extreme to finish his last piece. Overall, art can take in any forms. And when one expresses their creativity to the extreme, it can cause chaos to the society that we live in.

            In this episode of Black Mirror, we can see that the abusive use of social media can bring chaos to the society. If social media were use responsibility, we can avoid many conflicts, but when one fail to recognize the importance of not sharing certain information to the public conflicts can occur. Also it is very hard to regulate the social media since it spreads too fast and uncontrollably. One creativity, may also bring disruption to the society, if express to the extreme, it can break certain moral values that we holds.

Invisible Child Response

Invisible Child Response

The “Invisible Child” is a New York Times article that follows the daily life of a homeless girl name Dasani and her struggle living in the shelter while trying to achieve her goals. The article discusses how the New York City shelter system is corrupted and broken and it brought a huge impact to the life of children like Dasani.

Dasani, who was eleven years old, is rather mature for her age. She does not try to compare herself with other children; she learned how to read the situation and can often socialize with children that are very different from her. She is very independent and often helps her mother take care of her siblings. Dasani lives in a compact room with her parents and six other siblings in the homeless shelter. The homeless shelter’s living condition is inhumane. There were infestation, residents of the homeless shelter are not safe due to the constant sexual assault, and residents were not treated as a human. Even after the residence filed a complaint, their complaints were completely ignored.

As I was reading this part of the article, it puzzled me. How are the people who are in charge getting away with these hideous crimes? How are the police not taking any action to take care of the situation? Then I realized how this system in New York City exhibits qualities of a dystopian society. One hand, the mayor promises safe housing and proper living for the homeless, and yet, on the other hand, these facilities are terribly run. Nobody was aware of the living conditions in these shelters and how the resident’s voices are not being heard. Also—something that angered me—the police enforcement, which is supposed to provide a sense of security for the citizen, is powerless in situations like this.

Despite poor living conditions, Dasani is also under the influence of her parents, which inhibits her to strive. Because of her parents’ drug addiction, Dasani often find herself in a position where she has to the adult in the family. Dasani is aware that her mother is struggling and tries to help her mother in everyway possible.  The security in the building is so terribly manage that her mother cannot trust anyone to take care of her baby, which often became Dasani’s responsibility to do so. This is particularly dystopian due to the fact that while shelter was promised, security is not. This ultimately inhibits a child’s development. This type of family should receive some sort of aid, maybe a possible day care or social workers to help the family cope with the problems that they are facing. Unfortunately, Dasani is one of the victims of the loophole in this system.

Another dystopian qualities that were showcase in this article is that whenever there is a problem, we tend to immediately think of medication. When a child shows symptoms of mental disability like ADHD, we immediately think of medicating the child. Same happened in the article, in which Dasani’s parent were treated with methadone which is suppose to suppress the urge to take drugs but ironically addictive.

Although Dasani’s mom, Chanel, tried to get clean, because of stress, she went back and caved to drug taking. This has a negative influence on Dasani because she has to be strong, to protect herself and her siblings. At one point, her mother has encouraged her to fight, which resulted her being suspended from school. School was Dasani only escape and it was taken from her, she fell into early stages of depression for a period of time. I believe that Dasani has so much potential, she was a smart girl, and she could had done more with her life if she had proper support. Although social worker come over and tries to help the family, the se have so many cases in hand that they cannot help much. This is also something that I did not realize about the society we live in. People are not getting the help they needed, and the local government has less to none regulations over situation like this.

This article enlightens me in how unaware I am of the surrounding I live in. I see people struggling, and just assume that they are taken care of by the government. Those who are homeless, that lives in the street just did not get a chance to be enrolled in the shelter, and that people who live in the shelter are provided with proper living. I never thought, there are more issues even within the shelter.

Response to Fifteen Million Merit

Response to Fifteen Million Merit

The episode “Fifteen Million Merits “ portrays the possibility of a future society with the advance of technology. In this society, first-class citizens are obligated to cycle to power their surrounding and by doing so earn merit points as a form currency. Second class citizens are either cleaners or abused in a game show. Each citizen lives in a cell, where it is surrounded by television screen that displays entertainment shows. Their everyday activities are interrupted by advertisement, either by a show name hot shot which promotes citizen to go for a better lives (similar to American idol), and pornography. Attempt to skip these advertisements will be penalized by deduction of merit points. Bing is a citizen of this society in which he struggles find a purpose in this system, and later strip off the only thing that felt real to him. Out of desperation, he cycled for months audition on the show hot shot so he can rant about the injustice of the corrupted system only to be appreciate for his “act” rather than putting his words into considerations.

This episode depicted a possibility of the future dystopian society with the advance of technologies, in which it shows that every individuals were presented by icons, minimal actual human interactions, and interactions with nature. Everything in the society is computerized, which human are presented in a cartoonish characters and the closest thing to being outdoor is a computerized track while cycling. Everything in the cell, is dull, no bright colors beside the screen and citizens wears grey, while the obese citizen wear a bright yellow just so the two classes can be separated. We as a society are getting closer to its reality. With the over dependency of cell-phones and text-messaging, physical interaction between people are minimized. Many rather have a conversation through text messaging rather talking in person, even when dining outside with their friends. This phenomenon can be observed anywhere today. 

It also depicted how, majority of the people are not properly appreciated for their talents simply because there are too many. Unless one is extremely talented, their talent won’t be recognized. There was a lack of sympathy in the society, where everything is seen as an act. This is very common among college graduates. Since an education is more accessible to many American, more and more people hold a college degree. Consequently the standards for jobs are increasingly higher. Majority of jobs are given to the top students, while those intermediate and lower students struggles to find one.

This episode also criticized how television business will eventually be the most successful and most emphasized in media than other professions. People in the future will eventually work hard only to be on television so they can escape the slave life rather actually working hard towards other things. Also Celebrities get more attention than anything else in the media than actual important events. Celebrities are living the “ideal life”, which motivates many to strive to become actors and actresses. Actors and actresses are earning much more than those work just as hard as them. Strikingly, famous actors or actresses earn 100 times more than the highest paying job. A physician which have an annual income of approximately a hundred eighty thousand are working just as hard as the actors or the actresses who has an annual income of about thirty million dollars. This gap between the incomes may discourage many and might be tempted to strive in show business rather than working long hours.

In the show, we can also see that majority of the work are being replaced by machines. Foods were dispensed by vending machines instead of having actual chief cooking. In one of the conversation, it mentioned how everything is made from a petri dish. It is very common to see vending machine in today’s world. It is in malls, in school, and sometime in a lobby of an office or out in the street. The machines ranges from beverages, desserts and snacks, some also has lunch box dispenser. In close future, we may have machines that can dispense dinner, fruits and others.

The episode also portrays how one’s tragedies became a business ploy. This can be seen through how obese citizen are abuse in a game show, and this was some sort of comedy for the first class citizen. Even after Bing truthful speech, and even threatening to kill himself with a glass shard if they remove him from the stage, none of the judges took in his words. Instead his glass shard became an object that is purchasable in the market for his followers and the judges gave him his own show. The closest examples to this are reality television shows. The reality television showcases the unfortunate or celebrities struggle in their everyday life. Often, viewer may sympathize with the victim and root for them. Eventually they will become the reality television star and gain some fame.

The events discussed above are very much parallel to the current society that we live in. People now a day are trying their hardest to strive in the society, but it seems that being on the media yields the best outcome. With the advance of technological advance, less and less physical interactions are observed, and the lack of sympathy for other’s misfortune, which are not as severe as the show depicted.

Book Review

Suhua Yu

                                           Book Review - Ayn Rand’s ‘Anthem’

            The book reviewed for the purpose of this work in writing is that of Ayn Rand entitled “Anthem”. Anthem is about a society in which man has attempted to create a utopian existence but the result is a dystopian existence. In this society there are many sins that the individual may commit and these sins include anything that is not adjudged by the World Council to be acceptable in this society.

This is a society in which there are no free-thinkers, no allowance of creativity, no educational aspirations or possibilies, no chance of love much less marriage, and no chance or possibility to dream or to aspire to anything in the lives of the individuals because the individuals are appointed to their life’s calling with no consideration of what they may want or where their passions may lie. In fact, there is no allowance of passions or pursuits of any kind other than what is allotted to the individuals in this society. There is no research or exploration because the World Council has declared that all knowledge is already held by none other than the World Council which rules over all men.

In this strange and dystopic world individuals are not allowed to read or write because this is forbidden to them and constitutes a grave transgression for which they will receive punishment. This is a society where children are not raised by their parents but by the governing council’s appointment. Individuals in this society do not form male-female relationships because it is forbidden and the only way that procreation takes place is at the command of the World Council once per year where individuals are mated like livestock and the children born of these unions are taken from the mother and assigned a number and it is by this number that they are known for all of their living days.

The individuals in this society are not allowed to venture outside of the designated territory or they are punished harshly. After the children are old enough they are sent to the World Council who assigns their work duties and these work duties are not assigned according to the child’s abilities or talents as no one is deemed to have any talents in this society because all individuals are equal and the work assigned to them will constitute the daily activities of their life until the day they are no longer able to work. When the elderly are no longer able to work they are delegated to the ‘Home of the Useless’ where they spend their time until the day that they die. In this attempt at creating utopia, this society has created a dull world in which there is no variation and difference in individuals because it is not allowed. This is a colorless society in which there is no sadness, no happiness, no joy.

Music is not allowed in this society and to sing is to have committed a serious transgression. Ayn Rand has illustrated the uselessness of man attempting to create utopia clearly demonstrating that such an attempt is sure to result in a very contorted existence with there still remaining a ruling class who ultimately retain the privilege as in the manner of a dictatorship. In ‘Anthem’ one of the characters, the character who narrates the story does go on his own to explore and discovers many things including electricity and realizes that the World Council either does not know everything or that the World Council is in effect hiding knowledge and knowledge of such a type that would make life much better for the society.

The narrator of the work ‘Anthem’ comes to realize that he is able to feel sadness and happiness and even joy and he greatly questions the world in which he lives. Ayn Rand uses this story effectively in relating that the creation of utopia is just another man-made society and as such, since men are not able to create such a place, can only become dystopic rather than the paradise that they ultimately had sought to create.

The factor of control over the masses in Rand’s work illustrates clearly that man’s attempt to control society to a degree such as in ‘Anthem’ can only result in a terrible existence for the masses and that the utter control of the masses is to remove the individuality that makes life so rich. The narrator in this study relates that he did things forbidden by the World Council and goes on to relate that he ran away to the forbidden forest. The people in this society were told that the forbidden forest was a place of danger and that for this reason people never returned from it. The truth however, is that the forbidden forest was a place where there were beautiful old houses filled with delights that the man narrating had never seen and ultimately a door into a life unknown in the terrible society of Anthem and it was for this reason that no one ever returned.

                                                        References

Dargis, M. (2008) Horror Through a Child’s Eyes. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/movies/07paja.html?_r=0

Rand, A. (2012) Anthem. Start Publishing LLC.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. (2008) Netflix.

Non-Book Review

Suhua Yu

Non-Book Review - Fifteen Million Merits Review

            The objective of this work in writing is to review a dystopian film series entitled ‘Fifteen Million Merits’. Specifically reviewed will be the episode of Fifteen Million Merits entitled “Black Mirror”.

I.                   Fifteen Million Merits – ‘Black Mirror’

            Black Mirror, an episode of ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ is based on a script that Charlie Brooker and Kanak Huq wrote. The central character of this episode is Bing. Bing has to ride a bicycle all day to earn merits and while riding the bicycle watches an animation of what is stated to be his ‘double’ which in actuality is an avatar that cycles down the road. Other characters in this episode watch porn or gameshows. There is also a show that is similar to X-Factor that is called ‘Hot Shots’ that three judges host and it is this show that is the only method that individuals can use to get out of riding the bicycles to earn merits. Hot Shots is produced in a manner that appears as if the audience is freely receiving information. Bing lives in a tiny box-like apartment and all the walls have screens that constantly barrage Bing with information and if he wants to skip ads and in one shot he is shown trying to skip a porn ad, then he must use his merits to do so. Black mirrors are all around in this society watching everything that people in the society do monitoring them closely. This is reminiscent of our own society today in which there are cameras everywhere watching the activities of the population whether it be in department stores, banks, restaurants, courthouses and even on the streets, the population today is always being monitored. In this episode Bing falls in love with a woman named Abi and he gives her his 15 million merits he received from his brother who died. Abi is drugged and rather than acting becomes a star in the porn industry. Abi becomes trapped in the porn industry and Bing, having given her all his merits is broke and then forced to watched Abi’s porn scenes because he has no merits by which the skip the porn shots. Bing however, gets set on revenge and earned himself a shot on the show Hot Shots and takes a piece of glass and rants during his shot. What happens next is that Bing wins and is given two rant times a week on the show with the episode ending by Bing living in style and no longer having to ride a bike.

II.                Analysis

            Fifteen Million Merits episode ‘Black Mirror’ is a powerful dystopia however, the power that lies in this dystopian production is the similarity that it has to our own present day world. In today’s world the television is used to barrage the mind of the individual with sexuality and with informing them of what they need to eat, what they should be wearing, the type of car that they need to be driving. As well, the individual in today’s world is constantly provided with disinformation in the mainstream news media that uses sensationalism to avoid the real issues and topics that are relevant in today’s world. Just as in the episode ‘Black Mirror’ today’s entertainment shows are filled with irrelevant information and so-called reality shows serve to entertain the masses with unusable information and ultimately works in dumbing-down the minds of the watchers as they become embroiled in the various reality shows that cover anything from survival to personal life issues that are used for entertainment.

Summary and Conclusion

            Fifteen Million Merits episode ‘Black Mirror’ highlights the manner in which today’s monitoring of the public through public cameras and the barrage of television ads and off color entertainment work to change society without society even noticing it. Just as in the case of ‘Black Mirror’ and the audience watching the ‘Hot Shots’ shows, today’s media does not force the information onto the audience but instead the audience simply sails along watching the information without thinking that it is detrimental to them and the society as a whole.

            Fifteen Million Merits episode ‘Black Mirror’ clearly shows that the ruling elite are able to wield powerful input into the lives of the population without the population having the freedom or even conceiving of what they might to do change things as they become so dumbed down and passive that the elite are able to render their plans for the population in effect without the population even struggling against it.

Works Cited

Sims, D. Black Mirror: ‘Fifteen Million Merits’. 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/fifteen-million-merits-105765