In the Black Mirror episode "White Bear" a young woman, because of her crimes against a little girl, is forced to relive the same day over and over with no memories of the day before. They erase not only the memories of the day before but they erase her entire identity. She has no memory of who she is or anything about her past, but she is being punished for crimes she no longer remembers. She spends her days in a "justice camp" that should be more appropriately named "justice park" because the wardens sell tickets to participate and watch the show.
Victoria, at the end of every day, is told that she filmed the torture and murder of a little girl she kidnapped with her boyfriend. As a punishment, she is convinced some people have been hypnotized into filming her constantly while others hunt her down to torture and kill her for the sake of those hypnotized. They justify this with an "eye for an eye" mentality but the fact that one person committed a crime does not make it right for another person to do the same thing in return. The people that are going to this camp pretend they are partaking in justice for the little girl but they are committing a variation of what she is being punished for. The saying goes, "Let the punishment fit the crime," but what does this form of punishment do to those who carry out the punishment.
This short film also raises the question of who is being punished. Is the memory-less Victoria the same person that committed the crime? Her identity has been completely erased leaving her almost a blank canvas. She has glimpses into her past but she puts them together differently than the way they do at the end of everyday. She believed Gemima was her daughter, the video she filmed was a home video, and her run from the cops was her family running after everyone was hypnotized. They wipe her memory every night so they can convince her the world is in some sort of technological apocalypse and reveal her true self at the end of the day. However, throughout the day she has almost recreated a new self that is nothing like the one they show her. Also, even though this is all her punishment they erase it every day. She can never learn from her punishment. The argument could be made that she is an example so that no one else will do what she did out of fear of the punishment, but people show up every day to the camp to be entertained by her suffering. No one fears the suffering, they revel in the spectacle.
1 comment:
I believe that the memory-less Victoria is not the same person as the Victoria who committed the crime with her boyfriend. Her punishment creates a repeated cycle that does not allow her to remember who she is. She wakes up with no memory and is forced into an act that seeks to create shame and fear for the enjoyment of the visitors. The punishment fails to impact her in the long run and only reminds her of her actions temporarily. She serves as a piece for the park seeking to make a profit by punishing her solely on the excuse that she committed a terrible crime. I agree that this form of justice does not allow her to grow and learn from her terrible mistake.
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