The "White Bear" episode of Black Mirror was very twisted and complex, making me mad, confused, and disgusted. In the episode, a woman wakes up not remembering anything about herself and is thrust into a terrifying world where some people are hunting her while others watch her misery. She teams up with another victim of the hunt to destroy the White Bear tower and hopefully stop the signal that is turning good citizens into unhelpful bystanders. However once the woman gets to White Bear, she realizes it all was a hoax used to haunt her because of her evil past. Her memory is wiped clean every evening to ensure that the fear and confusion she feels every day is similar to how her victim felt when she was kidnapped and murdered.
As I saw her memory cleaned that evening and her day begin in the same way the next day following the actors rather than the woman, I became disturbed and disgusted by the entire scenario. Knowing her past made me feel betrayed because in the beginning I was rooting for the woman to be safe. But now I do not really know what to think. I guess I wanted her to be punished but is that really a punishment worthy of a human? The memory wipe to me made the woman not her anymore. She was not the same person who stood by and let the little girl be burned. She was just a woman who was scared and was dealt the wrong hand. Day after day she was forced into this weird punishment limbo and it made me wonder if this punishment would ever be ethical/suitable to me. Maybe the length of punishment makes a difference. Maybe if she was only punished this way once, just to feel a taste of what she did to the child, I would feel better about it. It would be fair and justice would be served. This way of repetition however, turns the good citizens into monsters like her because they allow the punishment to go on for too long and they take joy out of her continual ignorance and misery. That is just sick. Also the fact that the prison is privatized like that allows the prison to make lots of money from her suffering and the cruelty of the onlookers. How is that not a crime worthy of jail in itself?
2 comments:
I agree with basically everything you said! I would like to mention something along the line of why it's not just. They are not punishing the same person who committed the crime not only once, but day after day. Also, you said it was very sick and I agree it is sick because they are not offering help. They are "punishing" this criminal, which should happen, but not like this.
If they want to make her feel this way maybe one time, let her keep her memory afterwards, then spend time in jail and pay for what she did while getting help then fine. But I agree the constant mind wipe is not doing anything. I am not so sure everyone involved isn't just as guilty.
I really like your point about feeling betrayed because you were rooting for her in the beginning. I also felt that way, but I could not figure out why. I was just mad that they made me like her and then told me she was a criminal, but either way the consensus is for one reason or the other her punishment is not morally justified.
Therefore we still end up rooting for her? So does it really matter if we know or not who and what she is.
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