Ultron, what is your pursuit!
The False Christ of Ultron: From the Geometry of Faith to the Passion of Walking a Tightrope
——The philosophical side of "Avengers 2" (2)
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At the beginning of Ultron's explanation of his plans to his audience, he used the term "the geometry of faith". The elders set up the church in the center of the city in order to keep the residents at an equal distance from God. In fact, in theology or mythology, people are always happy to be invented at the center of the world, thus maintaining a special relationship with God, around this center whether creation or destruction. Referring to the human passion for self-centeredness, Ultron will center on this church to carry out his plan to transform the world. The catastrophe that Ultron creates for life, like the grace of God, spreads from one center. Ultron, like the new Christ, planned this grace to sublimate the new man from the old man.
Regardless of the good and the bad, there will be a plausible basis. The basis of the Ultron plan is the Ultron idea, which mainly comes from three sources. Its scientific source is the theory of biological evolution, where environmental pressures "promote biological evolution", and organisms become more complex and more capable of responding to changes in the environment. Ultron pointed out that in the process of life evolution (purification), there have been too many events of extinction or substitution of species, otherwise, creatures would not have evolved to what they are now. Ultron did not specifically talk about human beings, and the situation of human beings is similar. Human beings are constantly improving in the confrontation with environmental pressure, and the "non-progressive" race is eliminated. According to the Avengers' program, "defending the peace" through superpowers external to ordinary humans is "obviously" against nature. The Avengers are evolutionary rebels, unnatural. Ultron's plan is basically planned according to the theory of dinosaur extinction, creating something similar to meteorites to hit the earth. However, the city that Ultron raised according to the "geometry of faith" does not seem to be large enough in terms of volume, and its hardness may not be strong enough to cause a global catastrophe at the level of dinosaur extinction. But that might not be the point. The point is that Ultron's "geometry of belief" can be grounded in the natural sciences and put into practice.
The role of superheroes is to protect the "weak", not to let the strong eliminate the weak. Iron Man originally created Ultron according to such a creed, but this creed is unreasonable for Ultron. The philosophical source of Ultron's thought - transhumanism, expresses the idea that people want to survive in harsh environments, defeat invaders, and achieve peace, but not let people evolve from "weak" to "strong", is unreasonable. Quicksilver asked Ultron, who would distinguish the strong from the weak. Ultron's answer to this is that the strength is determined by life, and there is no room for the weak in nature. Obviously, this is a "struggle for survival, survival of the fittest" statement, except that the fittest has been replaced by the "strong". Superheroes protect the weak. This creed is regarded by transhumanism as "morality of the weak" or "morality of slaves". The result is naturally that the weak cannot control their destiny, and can only wait to be rescued when a major crisis comes, not self-rescue.
Nietzsche's philosophical project is to reassess value and replace "slave morality" with "master morality". Ultron did not address Nietzsche directly by name in the movie. When quoting Nietzsche, Ultron just referred to Nietzsche as the man: "As that man said, if he didn't kill me, let me More powerful". This sentence of Nietzsche has half a sentence before it: from the school of life's struggle. It seems that Nietzsche is borrowing the slogan of biological evolution here, and the result of the struggle of life is either stronger or perished. This sentence has been written in popular songs, and it seems to be very inspirational. Captain America seems to be an inspirational character, and Ultron used a similar meaning to satirize Captain America, saying that he, the "righteous man of God", pretended to survive without war. Without the war, Rogers is just a tough-minded underdog. However, the irony is that when Ultron quoted this sentence, it was precisely when he was not killed, but was weakened to the point of breaking a jar - the Mind Stone was snatched away, and Vision became a superhero After that, Ultron had to give up "saving mankind" and fail without admitting failure. That is to say, Nietzsche's maxims seem uplifting, but like Ultron's plan, there is no necessary commitment. In fact, what didn't kill you probably just made you wait to die.
As for death, slave morality—Christian thought associates happiness after death with obedience in the living. Believers must strive to submit to the order of the world and the domination of the church's thinking while they are alive, to be sinful at birth, and to constantly repent of their sins, in order to obtain happiness after death. Nietzsche believes that Christian thought is trying to suppress the passion of life, and regards the passion of life as sin (such as the seven deadly sins), so the practice of the Christian church is hostile to life, and Christian morality is anti-natural morality. Ultron is the embodiment of the passion of life. As Iron Man's technical artifact, he inherited the dark side of Iron Man's passion for life. Ultron behaves in the movie like Tony Stark in the arms dealer's time, believing in strength - power, and the strong eat the weak. He said that the strength is determined by "life", and it seems that he and life stand on the same position to resist the position of suppressing passion. It stands to reason that Ultron should mock the Christian canon, but, in fact, Ultron cites some New Testament passages in the film to add a footnote to his plan to change the world. Not surprisingly, the Bible is actually full of contradictions. You can use different passages from the Bible as evidence for opposing ideas. Ultron chose a suitable paragraph from it.
Ultron claims to be here to save the world, that he is the savior, the new Christ. When Ultron took the vibranium, he said, "On this rock, I will build my own church." Ultron here borrows what Jesus said in the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew. When the Mind Stone was snatched by the Avengers and Ultron captured Black Widow to talk about loneliness, he would pretend to be tough, "The world is destroyed, and then let the new man (new man) to rebuild it. I am destined to update. Oneself, destined to be beautiful. . . The world will look to the sky and see hope and mercy.” The new man here is related to the saying in the New Testament 2 Corinthians: “If anyone is in Christ, he is the new man The old things have passed away, and they have become new.” It can be seen from these two lines that Ultron compares himself to Christ and the new man. Ultron originally wanted to renew himself through spiritual gems and vibrating gold, and make himself a "Christ"-like existence. The meteorite he created through the "geometry of faith", just like the great flood created by God, used the great disaster to make human beings reflect on their depravity and renew themselves. In God's Great Flood, the morally weak were eliminated, and in Ultron's meteorite disaster, the strength of the weak was eliminated. If Christians can see God's mercy from "Noah's Ark", then there seems to be no reason not to see another kind of God-like mercy from Ultron's meteorite.
The several sides of Ultron's thinking have one thing in common, that is, they all believe in the idea of progress, at least according to the widely circulated view. The theory of biological evolution believes in the progress of natural life, and regards human beings as the higher life; transhumanism believes in the progress of natural life, but regards human beings as the lower life; Christian theology believes in the progress of moral life, or that people realize moral progress by believing in God, among which Humans are both superior and inferior. Of course, the progress of life in these three aspects is not necessarily coordinated, but Ultron synthesizes them in bizarre ways. Christians should not identify with a Christ like Ultron. Although the Son of God, Jesus, who may have existed in history, was believed to be able to create miracles, he only occasionally played tricks and appeared to be outstanding, and he never wanted to make the believers of the Savior stronger in power. Secular powers may be evil, but they leave believers with nothing but obedience in anticipation of the happiness of heaven. Followers of Christ are only taught to deal with the calamities of life with the strength of their faith, maintaining a balance between the strength of eccentric morals and the weakness of the false world.
If Ultron is a fake savior, then Vision is the spokesperson for the true savior. Vision is the "new man" in the true sense of "Avengers 2", the "new man" in line with the spirit of Christ. When Vision first appeared and people doubted his identity, Vision said he was neither Ultron nor Jarvis, but "I am." The vision here is borrowed from God's self-description. In the "Old Testament Exodus", God said to Moses, "I am what I am" (the expression in the Chinese version of the Old Testament is: I am what I am. ). Regarding the difference between Ultron and Vision, Vision said that he stood on the stand of life, while Ultron was not. Vision says this, and does not prove itself to be credible. In the film, his act of picking up Thor's hammer simply proves his morality. He appears to be "humbly, meek, patient . . . striving to keep the unity of the Spirit" (spoken from the New Testament Ephesians).
In the last dialogue between Ultron and Vision, the difference between the true and false savior is presented. Ultron once claimed that he stood on the stand of life, and let life determine the strength; Vision also claimed that he stood on the stand of life, while Ultron did not stand on the stand of life. As for who is right and who is wrong, the ending of the film seems to be clear. Ultron was so sad that he almost became his new vision and stood in the position of a superhero. The dying Ultron satirized that Vision was not a savior, but a slave—Ultron meant that Vision was not a savior in the transhumanist sense, but a guardian of the slave morality of Christianity. However, at this time, Ultron has become weak in terms of strength and weird morality. Vision says humorously about this, it looks like we've both been a disappointment. Vision then refutes Ultron's position. Vision says, "Humans are really weird. They see order and chaos as opposites, and to control the uncontrollable. But there is grace in their failures, and you ignore that." Here, the first half of the vision is roughly the idea of a democratic society, while the second half comes from Christian thought. Grace probably means that God doesn't save people because of their original sin or failure. Ultron ignored grace and misunderstood the meaning of "salvation". What can Ultron say about this, anyway, he failed, and he no longer has the strength to extract favorable passages from the Bible to defend himself.
Vision stands on the standpoint of the calmness of life, while Ultron stands on the standpoint of the passion of life. "All passions have a phase when they're just catastrophic..." He fell into the abyss while walking a tightrope on the cliff of passion. Austrian creation as a technological creation, also represents the passion of science and technology. Ultron has become another figure wary of the dangers of technology. Therefore, "Avengers: Age of Ultron" criticizes formalized scientism from an idealized human standpoint. In the film, Iron Man believes that improving technology can deal with possible crises, representing scientism; Captain America represents a humanistic standpoint to prevent Iron Man from creating visions, just like Christian elders make people wary of passion. Nietzsche saw that the Christian Church had opposed reason in order to foster "spiritual poverty." Those who are mentally poor can go to heaven instead. Captain America thinks that Iron Man's sanity is not enough to realize what monsters he will create, but in fact Rogers himself doesn't know what Iron Man is creating. Technical ignorance instead becomes Captain America's reason for insisting that he is right. What can Iron Man say about this? Look forward to God's grace.
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