Philosophy, The Matrix, Plato’s Cave, and Genocide in District 9

Pre-Crime

Stop crimes before they happen by apprehending pre-criminals

Pre-Criminals

People who have done nothing wrong, but we "know" they will do so.

Consequentialism

Moral theory that locates the value of an action in its likely or real consequences. Emphasizes results and outcomes at the expense of rights and liberties, so long as the ends justify the means.

Who created utilitarianism?

John Stuart Mill

Utilitarianism

Moral theory where one should always take action in order to maximize utility. Outcomes are deemed right or wrong based on whether they resulted in the greatest amount of good for the most people.

Example of Consequentialism/Utilitarianism in film:

Violation of civil rights of pre-criminals; violations of civil rights of pre-cogs; haloes and hero narratives.

Deontology

Moral theory that locates the value of an action in its contribution to the performance of one's duty, *regardless of outcome, independent of consequences*. Right is prior to the good.

Who coined deontology?

Immanuel Kant

What are maxims?

Intentions

Maxims

Should be universalizable, and never propose to treat others as (disposable) means to an end - regardless of the value of the end - but as ends in themselves.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

If you treat people in a way that reflects your uninformed beliefs about them, they are likely to behave in the such as way as to conform to your beliefs.

What sets up failure as a preordained default outcome?

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

What is a Minority Report?

A report filed by a minority of the members of a group, or a report filed by someone who is identified with a minority segment of the population?

What is the philosophical paradox of the Matrix?

What, if anything should be done in the case of contented slaves? If the Matrix is the reality most of us know-- why would we forsake it?

What is Plato's cave allegory?

Prisoners are shackled in a cave where their only reality exists in the shadows being casted on the caves wall ahead of them. When one of them escapes and is exposed to the real world and sunlight, he rushes back to enlighten the rest of his fellow prisoners, only to be mocked, rejected, and threatened.

What is the Matrix?

A neural interactive simulacrum, i.e., a dream or hallucination from which we are not likely to awaken. It inures us to a simulated reality that we cannot distinguish or recognize as such.

Metaphysics

The branch or subfield of philosophy that is concerned with the distinction between reality and appearance.

Realism (objectivism) vs. Relativism (subjectivism)

"The unexamined life is not worth living" vs. "ignorance is bliss"

What is the unique third term the Matrix introduces?

Virtuality

What do reality, appearance, or virtuality mean?

Truth, illusion/lie, stable/sustainable illusion or lie.

What is the most influential argument in favor of reality and against appearance?

The latter is unstable or fragile, living a lit requires one to be in full control of the lies one has told and continues to tell.

Morpheus

The God of dreams/ the person who gives Neo the option between the blue pill and the red pill.

What is the Matrix suggesting about the truth?

Our preference for the truth is really a preference for the "something more". It will make us more happy or whole.

Intrinsic

Good in itself

Extrinsic

Good for what truth brings/produces

Categorical

Unconditional

Situational

Conditional

Noble Lies

Lies or illusions propagated, supposedly, un the service of those for whom they are intended.

Avatar

Manifestation or incarnation of a deity in earthly form, often a teacher or guide. Contemporary usage: Digital representation of a game player or computer; a virtual identity or alter ego.

What is the world of being?

Outside the cave

What is the world of becoming?

The cave

Karmic transmigration of the soul

The immortal soul is stripped of its knowledge each time it becomes incarnated.

Metaphysical Dualist

Being vs. Becoming

Epistemological Dualist

Knowledge vs. Belief or Opinion

Recollection (anamnesis)

How knowledge is acquired.

Forms

The perfect, immutable essences that reside in the world of being.

What do becoming, recollection, and form display?

Form of Beauty

Genocide

Coined by Raphael Lemkin, any acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.

Crimes Against Humanity

Encompasses crimes such as murder, extermination, rape, persecution, and all other inhumane acts of similar character, committed as "part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack."

How the unthinkable becomes possible.

Unthinkable -> Possible -> Tolerable -> Necessary and / or unavoidable

What is the apparatus of the normalization of genocide?

The complex of social, political, and legal processes through which a nation, populace, or citizenry is groomed to accept incremental measures that pave the way to genocide.

What is the process of the normalization of genocide?

Unfamiliar others are subjected to escalating degrees of suspicion, fear, disgust, intolerance, emotional/psychological trauma, abjection, and hatred. As such, they are understood to represent the vulnerable minority populations that currently face the gathering threats posed by genocide itself.

Multi National United (MNU)

Private military contractor; second largest arms manufacturer in the world; tasked with relocation the Prawns from District 9 to District 10.

What is the MNU's ulterior motive?

Covert bio-weapons research program utilizing alien biometric technology.

What are Prawns?

Derogatory term for the aliens "rescued" from spacecraft stalled in the skies above Johannesburg.

What is District 9?

A heavily militarized, overcrowded slum to which the Prawns are confined.

What is District 10?

Essentially, a concentration camp.

What is Blomkamp's Innovation?

Mise en Abyme i.e., a film within a film.

How is the mise en abyme used in District 9?

Excerpts from MNU's documentary account of the relocation of the Prawns. A piece of propaganda, designed ot accustom the populace to the idea of relocation the Prawns to district 10.

Who is Wikus?

Mid-level manager and bureaucrat, oversees relocation of Prawns; valued by MNU for his simplicity, he accidentally ingests alien genetic material, becomes human-alien hybrid, and helps the Christopher Johnson repair the disabled module.

Hostis Generis Humani

Coined by Hannah Arendt, a "new type of criminal" devoid of criminal intent. Re-defines crimes against humanity as crimes against human diversity, assaults on plurality.

The Banality of Evil

1. Pertains only to motives and intentions, and not to consequences and effects.

2. What BoE is not; Shakespearean villainy.

3. Product. expression of thoughtlessness.

4. Failure to launch oneself into the perspective or standpoint of moral relevant others.

5. Attributed to agents (or "agents") who are unusually audience- and context-dependent.

A "new type of criminal": criteria

1. Thoughtlessness: the inability to achieve (or attempt) sympathetic identification with one's possible and likely victims.

2. Normality: no features or attributes that would elicit obvious reproach or remonstrance from other members of one's community.

3. No criminal intent (i.e., mens rea): motives are banal.

4. Enemy of the human condition, i.e., perpetrator of "crimes against humanity." Arendt interprets this criterion to specify assault on the plurality of our shared world.