Reality, a vision from the movie Black Mirror
The interactive film Black Mirror created by Charlie Brooker and directed by David Slade, for its high levels of complexity presents a great opportunity to perform a philosophical analysis, since the proposed dynamics allow the viewer to make decisions in relation to the main avatar, and according to What we choose will lead the plot that the character will live. This interaction allows us to generate questions such as: What is reality?, Is there free will?, o Are our decision -making is controlled by beings superior to us who in one way or another have previously scheduled us?, Do we have a destiny or our life takes a direction as we act on it?; The purpose of this essay is not to answer the questions raised or convince about an idea or position, rather it is proposed to generate a deep reflection on relevant topics applicable in practice based on the aforementioned film and a variety of authors.
Our starting point will be to try to define what reality is. In a broader way it can be conceptualized as everything that we can perceive, giving importance to the subject as the being that interacts in an active way with the outside world and what lives in it. Augusto Comte from his positivist philosophy, would tell us that reality are all those phenomena, facts that can be observed, everything that is given by our perception (Narváez, 2017). Based on this concept, a non -seident person, how can he build his reality if he cannot see the phenomena of the outside world?, This subject will have to build his own reality according to what he listens, touches or smells but he can never see the blue of the sky, the green of the trees, the yellow of certain birds; He will be like the subjects of the myth of Plato’s cavern where his reality were the shadows they saw, because they could not know anything beyond that since they were somehow blinded. But who told us that the sky is blue and the green trees, that the roses are red and the yellow sun? What is good and what is evil?, All these conceptions that have been given to us throughout history do not represent superior innate ideas as Plato mentioned: ideas are not thought of by man, but are real entities that exist in heaven without the need for a person Think or see it (Narváez, 2017); They are conceptions that have been built within everyday life through the interaction of people with nature.
"Everyday life is presented as a reality interpreted by men and that for them has the subjective meaning of a coherent world" (Berger and Luckmann, 2003). Sociologists again express the importance of the subject in the interpretation of the outside world, to explain this use the phenomenological method created by Husserl, “the phenomenon or object given to consciousness, through experience, has an essence. The capture of that essence takes place through the essential intuition that exceeds the level of the senses to discover with the eyes of intelligence ”(Narváez, 2017, p. 254), by the eyes of intelligence it refers to consciousness that is what helps us understand what we apprehend from abroad. Constructivists argue that knowledge is given by the ordering and organization of information that we capture from phenomena from our previous experience (Watzlawick, et al., 1994).
After reviewing the multiple philosophical positions about reality, we can ask ourselves: were the protagonists (Colin Ritman and Stefan Butler) living reality or a distortion of this? Are the senses totally reliable to attribute to these an aspect like reality? How do multiple realities forcing decisions for the characters for? Is the mental representation of an individual the reality or only what is objectively shared with society?
Within the film, we find a speech where Colín explains to Stefan a certain conception of the world to help him understand, in the apparent innocence of him, in which system he is getting into; In doing so, both are under the influence of drugs. “What we do on a route affects what we do in the others. Time is a construction. People believe you can’t change things again, but you can. Those are flashbacks. They are invitations to go back and make a different decision. When you make a decision you think it is you who takes it, but it is not so. It is the spirit that is connected to our world that decides what we do. We just have to get into the car. The Government monitors us. Pay people to get through your family, put drugs to your food and record you. There are messages in all games. As in Pacman. Do you know what PAC means? PAC: program and control (program and control). Is the man who program and controls. Everything is a metaphor. The Pacman believes that he has his own will, but is caught in a maze, in a system. All he can do is eat (consume). They chase him demons that probably only exist in his mind, and even if he manages to escape on one side of the maze, what happens? That he returns to the other side. People think it is a cheerful game, but it is not. It is a world nightmare whore and the worst thing is that we are real and we live in it ”(Fragment obtained from the movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch).
Being the character in an altered state of consciousness we could say that what he expresses is completely away from reality, but he really is? The ideas presented by Colin seem to be the result of a delirium, rather than externalized conscious reflections at the time. We cannot separate the external world from the internal, what is individually conceived as reality is the result of interaction with the world and the previous learning of the individual, and in the same way it is believed that it is the individuals who modify what is known as reality. The more the psychic reality resembles physical reality, we can ensure that we are approaching "reality".
In the background of the film, the notion of free will intermingles with the philosophical determinism supported by Democritus, a position that admits that things do not happen casually, each action has been determined, everything is the result of causality (Narváez, 2017). It is difficult to think that things are given because. Watzlawick, et al. (1994) mentions that:
“We continue to see as if the effect followed by the cause, and in the life of every day we find uninterruptedly evidence that the fact A when manifesting is the cause of fact B, that B is therefore the effect of A, of a, of that without A would not occur B, that B when demonstrating becomes in turn into C, and so on. 57). The paradigm presented above, does not allow us to visualize whether certain decisions or outcomes (both of the film and of everyday life) can be controlled, neither by the system, nor by ourselves, or if they are the product of our actions. There are moments inside the film where if the viewer does not choose an option, the system does so. But this happens in real life?
We return to the same labyrinth, because Bandersnatch not only tests the idea of reality but also of freedom and control. "The world in which we live influences us because we are immersed in it … education, fashions and today’s thinking also influence and give us glasses with which we see the world" (Chinchilla and Moragas, 2018, p. 23). We believe that the reality in which we are (democracy) allows us act and see others. The false feeling of choice or the illusion of power that the character of the film believes to have, is nothing more than a reflection of the social reality where media and technology generate dominant ideologies that control the behavior of the masses. As Marxist philosophy raises: "The dominant ideology is imbricated in all aspects of social life, from birth to death, to the point of being indiscernible to everyday experience" (Narváez, 2017, p. 2. 3. 4).
The idea of control on the other hand, evaporates at the end of the film when Stefan kills his father. At this point the character realizes that he is being dominated and falls into the idea that he has no dominance over himself, and for not being worse, the Netflix user becomes the murderer. If we disassemble this paradox outside the “show” in which it is presented, we return to a series of questions once again. Is then the system in which we live guilty of the actions we take? Crimes such as murders or violations are the result of the will of man or should we attribute it to those who dominate ideologies?
“People and societies would succumb to anarchy without the presence of the State, which is constituted as the last resort to arbitrate the conflicts of human beings with each other. The State is an instrument at the service of societies, and, through them, at the service of people ”(Narváez, 2017, p. 277). According to this thought of Mounier, all systems and the State are necessary, all laws and constitutions are necessary so that society does not fall into chaos or complete disorganization, citizens of a country have duties before the State that governs them, And the State also has a responsibility for the well -being and good living of citizens.
Finally, we cannot leave the ethical dimension of being analyzed within the exposed context. To what extent does the human being need to transfer their social responsibilities? It is not correct to blame destiny or system for our mistakes and deficiencies. It is only man of volition, free will and consciousness capabilities. As Jean Paul Sartre exposes in his ‘existentialist manifesto’: "Everyone is responsible for himself and all others: what we are depends on what we wanted to be, not on a divine destiny" (Narváez, 2017), Perhaps that is why the same author explains that the inherent freedom of the human being can cause anguish, helplessness and despair. It is not always easy to choose the path we know will bring well -being, peace and tranquility; Many times this path is difficult to travel and even more in a world where a thought of fun at all costs and immediate satisfaction predominates (coming from the dominant media and ideologies as it has been exposed before).
There is no doubt that the film Black Mirror has been subject to reflection for us, an interactive film that allows you that they do not always have an objective response; When talking about what is real or not, about the existence and destiny of each of us enters us in a field that can be to some extent, subjective.
Thanks to all the points treated in this essay, we can visualize that there is a reality that is built by each of us (psychic reality), through the interaction we have with everyday life, with the outside world and with the phenomena that We perceive; Being rational beings we can organize all these experiences we have with nature. In the same way, being within a social group, forces us to also share this reality with the other people around me and I also learn from them. Society implants us models of life, customs, beliefs, knowledge and ideas with which we will go out to the world; Our actions in the daily life and even our decisions will be carried out by all these conceptions that are implemented from us to be born until we die, without forgetting that an action leads to its effect. On the other hand, we cannot deny the existence of a physical reality, which is free from human perception; As Locke mentions when talking about the material substance: "The substance is a material substrate outside the change, but we can never know it" (Narváez, 2017, P. 138). We certainly have the opportunity to choose on ours. It is very difficult to think that we have an established destiny, since as we participate in the world, our life and our identity are structured, it is taking a course as we put goals; In this way we are in that continuous becoming: building and deconstructing reality.
References
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