This is a rare American drama with a certain degree of social thinking in it, not to mention how deep it has been in this direction. This kind of work appears in the commodity column of the highly developed commercial society in the United States. rare.
On the surface, this drama is about an anti-social personality criminal who has had too many violent and terrorist activities, and the story of the FBI profile of the agent fighting wits and courage and finally being brought to justice. In fact, it is a bit deeper, and it is about an anarchic primitive. The story of the activist confronting society and ultimately failing. If you want to dig into this, you must first understand a concept-alienation.
The concept of alienation was first proposed in Hegel's philosophical works, and later in Marx's works, the concept of labor alienation was put forward, and gradually formed a more specific explanation of alienation. Alienation refers to nature, society, and people. The relationship between changes and distortions of human nature. It is a social phenomenon in which people's material and spiritual production and their products become alien forces, which in turn dominate people. A simple example is that people produce cars and drive cars, but as cars become more developed, people no longer even control cars, people gradually lose control of them, and the situation in which people drive cars has essentially become Now, the car driver. This phenomenon is alienation, and there is a straightforward description in the play:
In the first meeting between Ted and Fitz in the second episode, as well as the opening narration of the first episode, the bomber expounded his ideas, including a criticism of the alienation part of today's social system:
And Fitz confided to him that he recalled the humiliation and powerlessness brought by his objectification and dehumanization when he faced the red light, in order to express his resonance with Ted:
If you only look at this part of Ted’s interpretation of his own ideas, it is still full of humanistic care. In fact, the critical reflection of rational positivism with science and technology as the main body has also been concerned and studied by many philosophers and sociologists since the middle and late 20th century. The famous topics include Marcuse’s “One-dimensional Man” (a critique of advanced industrial society), Guy Debord’s “Landscape Society” (a critique of alienated society), etc., among which the latter ultimately Desperately resisted by suicide. Back to Ted, if his ideas are really humanistic, how can he explain his anti-social indifference to human behavior? In fact, the reason is that Ted and Ted are not only opposed to Alienation is also opposed to society, anti-community, anti-collectivization, and yearning for primitive society. This is not shown in the play, but these propositions can be seen in his manifesto (the original link of the manifesto: On industrial society and its In the future ), in the manifesto, he is more expressing his yearning for primitive society, criticizing science, and the oppression and harm of the power society supported by science and technology, and his vigilance against leftists' excessive socialization. The length of criticism and even attack on him is not small, so he is not so much a xxist who only opposes alienation, he is essentially an anarchist primitivism, and his proposition is to overthrow everything in general and return to primitive society. , Back to the simplest (doubtful) situation of the relationship between people.
Any of the above symptoms may occur in any society, but they exist on a particularly large scale in modern industrial society. We are not the first to mention that the world today seems to be going crazy. Such things are abnormal for human society. There are good reasons to believe that compared with modern people, primitive people suffer less pressure and frustration and are more satisfied with their own way of life. Indeed, life in primitive society is not full of ease and sweetness. Aboriginal Australians often abuse women, and sexual cross-dressing is also quite common among some Indian tribes in the United States. But in general, the various problems we listed in the previous paragraphs are far less common to primitive peoples than in modern society. - "On Industrial Society and Its Future"
Therefore, Ted’s ideas partly overlap with Western Marx’s criticism of labor alienation, and existentialism’s doubts and reflections on rational positivism, and they are distinguished from these doctrines, or Ted’s ideas are "wrong". What's wrong is its rude denial of society, and it has moved towards extremism. However, whether it is leftist or existentialism, it is the alienated part of the alienated society that resists, not the whole society. Ted’s problem is that it is hopeless to fight against alienation. Turning to the extreme, the intention to overthrow the entire society is completely anti-humane in terms of its means and results. Although from the tragic experience of his childhood, he yearns for a simple and authentic relationship with people , But the solution he proposed is too cruel and costly, and it is destined to be unsuccessful. The task of today’s philosophers and sociologists should be to use more feasible methods to eliminate the alienated part of this society, but after thinking has withdrawn In the public sphere of society, people are dominated by smartphones in today's society. Philosophy itself, including this part of philosophical thoughts, has been no one cares about. And this is probably an inevitable result in an alienated society.
After analyzing Ted’s ideas above, let’s talk about the male protagonist Fitz. For Fitz, the contradiction that has always existed in him after being exposed to the bombing is that his heart is rooted in his recognition of the bomber’s thoughts. (Partially) The contradiction between the desire to rebel against the alienated society and the desire to integrate oneself into the system as a member of the system. When the FBI went to find Fitz in the forest in 1997, Fitz was rebellious. His inner contradiction is still unresolved. His partial identification with Ted’s ideas made him feel guilty and painful, so he finally chose to return to the Ted case with the FBI, not so much to help the FBI as it is to find An answer, an answer that can resolve the above contradictions, for which he needs to be close to Ted.
The following plot is that Fitz, out of the inertia of the social people, under the influence of social responsibility, started a game with Ted, although in Ted’s eyes he was just being used by the system as a pawn. Fitz’s inner struggling scene Mainly on the line of Fitz-female linguists, with the end of the final game with Ted, and with the last conversation between Fitz and female linguists, Fitz critically inherited Ted’s indirection of social alienation. The fact of annihilating humanity denies the inhuman and anti-human side of Ted’s extreme actions, and as a result, he obtained psychological self-salvation.
And Ted, the rebellion, as Ted was eventually swallowed by the system, and turned into a plaything of the system, just like the final outcome of the male protagonist in Camus's "The Outsider". This is probably the most important thing against people who are determined to resist the entire social system. Cruel execution.
"Leaving me out of the way, I can't bother about any progress. They arranged my destiny, but they didn't ask for my opinion." - "The Outsider"
In the final episode, the director ends with Fitz’s "Red Light Fear" scene, which shows that for those who realize that they are in an alienated society, he will be haunted by this alienation for the rest of his life, and there is nowhere to escape. In addition, the director hopes to use this to alert the world, those who hesitate from time to time in the face of the red lantern, those who are exhausted in the center of alienated society and seek psychological treatment, those who are in such a developed society today, still have to survive in order to survive. People whose lives are consumed in meaningless repetitive tasks, those who walk in the crowd but don't feel any connection with others, alert people, put their smartphones aside when they are free, and think about all this is It's not that something is wrong.
But maybe it's just in vain.
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